| Author | Message | ||
     Iamike |
Utah ‘09 June ’09- I hadn’t really made any ride plans for a trip yet this year. March Badness didn’t work out and with a busy work project schedule I wasn’t sure if any was going to happen. After last September’s ride to the Southeast and 2 years ago Idaho & Glacier Park I was up in the air as what to do next. Colorado was looming in my mind and reading the ride reports on ADVRider.com really stoked my urge to get back to the mountains. A lot of the ADV ride reports entail off pavement excursions and some that intrigued me were in Utah. I have been kicking around picking up a Ulysess to try some of this but I have yet to buy one. The fuel capacity is my biggest concern. Many of the ADVers carry extra fuel with them. Well Eric (from the Idaho trip) solved my problem when he called and asked if I wanted to go to Utah in July. Problem solved. THE RIDERS- Eric will be on his Triumph ST Sprint. He rode the Tiger to Idaho but that was for a Tiger rally. I will ride the ST1300 (since I haven’t pulled the trigger on a Uly). Eric has a coworker going on a Goldwing and another on a BMW. I also asked a buddy of mine, Mike, whose wife recently passed away from cancer. I rode with Mike on my ’99 S3 (he was on a Vulcan) to Pennsylvania and the Northeast several years ago. He will be on a BMW R1150RS. next - The Route | ||
| Iamike |
THE ROUTE- I’m not sure what route Eric has in mind but I’ve been reading a lot of stories about the Moab area, Valley of the Gods, Monument Valley and the Natural Bridges areas. I will be lobbying hard for S.E. Utah. Some of the good roads are gravel but I have heard Harleys and Goldwings do them so I will see how the big ST1300 does as an offroader. When we were near Lolo Springs, ID, the Tiger group did a 100mi. dirt road called the Lolo Motorway. I was tempted but didn’t want to hoist that 740# beast up off the ground too many times. The Goldwing rider wants to blast out there on I80 but we are thinking about doing US20 across Nebraska into Wyoming. We rode US2 across North Dakota and Montana and really enjoyed the ride. Much better than interstate. Most likely we will come back through Colorado so that we can hit some of those roads. It’s been awhile since I’ve done Trailridge Pass & Big Thompson Canyon. THE PREPARATION- Since we will be camping that means we will be travelling heavy. I prefer camp travelling because the evenings are really enjoyable to sit around and shoot the bull with other riders. I’ve done it for many years and have finally acquired most of the equipment needed to do it comfortably. The last purchase was a better sleeping pad. My old 1” model just wasn’t enough padding for my old bones. It is forecast to be around 100degF. and no rain but the rain gear will still come. I like to eat oatmeal for breakfast and then lunch at a local diner. Dinners may be at a restaurant or canned soup or stew depending on how tired, hungry or how far away from a town we are. Last Sept. we rode 2,500mi., camped and only spent about $250 ea. for the trip. I’m trying the Michelin Pilot Road 2 tires since I wasn’t too thrilled with the Bridgestones that I had on earlier. I put the Pilot Roads on my VFR and was real happy with them in Arkansas a couple of weeks ago. I’d run through a couple sets of Dunlop 660s and was reasonably happy with them. Mike is trying the Dunlop Roadsmarts on his Beemer. One thing that I always laugh about are the guys that have all the electronic gadgets on their bikes. I have been using a small hand-held Magellan for a few years and really like that since you don’t have to try and read a map while riding. Then this spring my kids gave me an Ipod Touch for my birthday so I had to hook that into the bikes power. Well sure enough as I was digging through some of my travelling box I found my old radar detector. I hadn’t used it for about 10 years but I have had so many close calls with the police already this year I figured it may save a ticket. Now I had to figure out how to have 3 lighter sockets hidden on the bike. Of course a trooper friend of mine calls them ATDs (automatic ticket device) but I can hide it pretty quick if I see one turning around. THE GETAWAY- We are planning on leaving at first light this Saturday but Eric called tonight and said that they may have to work Friday night. A couple of them work at John Deere building tractors and they wanted to have 200 built this week (of the model on their line). I made my son ride 250mi. a couple of weeks ago after a 12 hour shift so these guys should be able to do it too. We’ll be meeting the other Beemer over at Boondocks truck stop on I35. I won’t have a pc with me (other than the Ipod) so the full writeup and pics will have to wait until we get back. | ||
| F_skinner |
Iamike, hopefully you will be able to post updates as you ride on your adventure. If you make it through Southern Colorado you will have to give me a shout. I will pm my phone number to you. Maybe I can ride a few miles with you. I am still working a lot of hours so I cannot promise anything during the week. Frank | ||
| Iamike |
Frank, We are already talking about coming back across either Wolf Creek Pass or 50 through Gunnison. If we do I'll definitely give you a heads-up. I'll try to do some updates at least with the Ipod, I've been finding wifi fairly easy with it. | ||
| Prior |
Mike, Have fun, tell Drew I said hey!!! Can't wait to see the pics- that's an area I want to return to. Alex | ||
| F_skinner |
Iamike, 50 is a nice road, it gets a little busy after Monarch pass coming East but where you will be it should be great. I need to get back out that way soon. I spent three days a few years back just riding around western Colorado. What fun! | ||
| Ebear |
Awwww...Wolf Creek Pass....Looks like Switzerland from that Viewpoint in the Snow! The Worlds loneliest Hiway....50 thru Nevada......Too many great roads to wonder about....Have fun and take pics!!! | ||
| Bob_thompson |
Picture of Wolf creek pass,(not open yet),Utah, if that is the one you're referring to Ebear, pictured below on May 1st this year but not if there is one in Colorado. Hanna cafe there for good burgers and very definetely yes on Rt. 50 through Nevada. Nothing but white faced cattle and dust devils. Check your gas supply often. Beautiful wide ranging country out here Iamike. Should be a great ride. Bob  | ||
| Iamike |
It looks like we are headed out in the morning. The Deere guys got their tractors built and the weather is looking good. I tried to meet up with Don C. in Boulder but he out galavanting around. Hopefully we come back across the south to meet up with you Frank. Bob - I'm hoping we don't run into any of that on this trip! | ||
| Brandon_m |
Wish I would have caught this post earlier. Would have bugged ya about tagging along on your way through UT. | ||
| Iamike |
Well I finally got a wifi that I could use. We have been in Moab the past two days riding, hiking and taking pictures. Tomorrow we head south towards Mexican Hat. So far three have dumped their bikes and we haven't even gone off the pavement yet. But you'll have to wait until the story gets posted for the details. | ||
| Iamike |
BTW I saw three Buells going over Trailridge Pass. An orange Uly, a lightning and a nice black S3. Any Badwebbers? | ||
| Iamike |
Oh, wow! | ||
| F_skinner |
Just to let everyone know Mike and his riding partners are in Salida Colorado. They ran out of time, the sun is setting and they, like me, do not like to ride at night. So I missed Dr Greg and now Iamike. Well at least Smoke was able to stop by if only to change a tire. I have to get packed and ready for my ride. Later, Frank | ||
| Iamike |
Thanks Frank, We made it home today but when I went to load all my picures it appears I had my camera in video mode and didn't realize it. I now have about 150 snippets of video. If I can't take snapshots of them I'll get the pictures from the other guys. Like I said earlier, wow, Utah and Colorado were fantastic. I had a couple on Buells and a suzuki pass me Thursday as I was riding down Red Mountain into Ouray. Anyone know a pettite gal that rides like the wind? I'll start working on the story for posting. | ||
| Iamike |
Brandon, I tried to answer your post but the wifi at the KOA in Moab wouldn't let me post to Badweb. go figure? Too bad we couldn't meet up. | ||
| Bluzm2 |
Mike, I'm jealous! When we going to do our next trip? Brad | ||
| Iamike |
Brad- This brought back all kinds of memories of our two Thunder in the Mountains rides. I'm ready to do this again next year. I really hated leaving Colorado this time. I just got the oil changed in the bike and cleaning stuff up. I'll start writing tonight. My mini-videos are kind of cool but I need pictures to post. When Mike gets home today I'll go over and get his. | ||
| Iamike |
THE RIDE: Saturday, July 11 – What a beautiful morning to start a ride. I got up at 5:15 so we could leave by 6. It was 64degF and since it rained the day before the air was crisp and clean. We met up with the other guys at the Boondocks at US20 & I35. Ken was on the Goldwing, Eric on the ST Sprint, Mike on the R1150RS and Perry on the R1100RT. After a good breakfast we headed out on 20. We chose 20 because we just didn’t want to deal with the traffic on I80 even thought we would have made better time. Most of Iowa was pretty uneventful just a cool 72degF with moderate sun and a light wind behind us. As we got close to the Missouri river we got into the hills of Iowa (yes, we have hills) that were lush with green this time of year. I was enjoying the music of my Ipod. With all the grief Iowa gets about being flat it really is a beautiful state. Once in Nebraska it was just a haul until we hit some rain around the middle. It only lasted awhile and we came into a town that was having a rodeo and found a nice bar-b-que stand for lunch. I had a great brisket sandwich and baked beans. I hadn’t ever ridden with Perry and Ken before and I knew this was Ken’s first so I kept asking how they were doing. Both kept saying they were fine. The speed limit had finally reached 65 so we were running about 75-80. In western Nebraska Eric had kind of pulled away from us when I spotted a dark sedan on the right side of the road. Sure enough it was a State Trooper and he pulled Eric over. As we all pulled in he waived us on so we rode down to the next town to wait for Eric and to count our lucky stars that we weren’t getting a ticket too. When Eric finally pulled up the trooper told him that he slowed down too fast to get a reading so he only gave him a warning. The only other problem we encountered that day was that Perry realized that his front tire was getting a little thin on the tread. He had put on a new rear but the front was worn more than he expected. As we rode into the sand hills of western Nebraska they were quite scenic. Not as lush as Iowa but still quite green. Of course we passed many groups of black, white or brown cattle grazing in the tall grass. As the sun was getting lower in the sky it was time to look for a campground. We were riding through historic Fort Robinson and they had camping. Fort Robinson is an old compound from the western migration. There were quite a few old buildings and cabins that could be rented. We snarfed up a quick supper to get back to camp to ride out the severe thunderstorm that was bearing down on us. It rained and blew with a little hail but we sure got a good light show out of it. Nobody blew away so we made it through day 1. Miles today 650, time on the road 14 hours. Pictures to come: | ||
| Iamike |
I finally have some pictures: Our campsite at Ft. Robinson, Nebraska  The view to the West  The main building with a restaraunt, rooms, balconies, etc.  Another one of the buildings  Next - Day 2 : Colorado | ||
| Iamike |
Day 2, July 12, Sunday – After a hearty breakfast of oatmeal and making sure no one blew away in the storm we headed out for Wyoming. I am really surprised at how scenic northwest Nebraska is. The Sand Hills aren’t the Rockies but still much better than Iowa. My gps says we are at 4,500’ Even though we wanted to make time Hwy 85 looked a lot nicer than I25. It was hard not to crank the throttle on those wide open roads so I tried to keep it at 70. Ken had been complaining about 80 across Neb. And after our close call with one of their finest I tried to oblige him. I came across a group of Harleys riding in a bunch about 5 under the limit. I don’t know why they do that but I dispatched them in short order. A car would have had more trouble passing a group like that. You could tell that we were hitting the valley, the temp was already 85 and I was glad that I had the mesh gear on. Perry needed a new front tire bad but being Sunday we pressed on even after seeing a couple of shops in Loveland, CO. I had told the guys about Big Thompson Canyon and Trailridge Road. Since we came in late in the afternoon I was hoping the traffic going up would be less by then and I was right. There were the typical mountain showers going so I stopped to put the rain gear on. The last time I rode the pass I said “Oh, that’s just a passing shower” boy was I wrong. We had gotten soaked and then had to ride the pass very cold. This time it didn’t rain on us. We came across the regular traffic jams of people stopping right in the middle of the road to take pictures of the wildlife. Having the narrow bike was nice to be able to ride between them. Well we had first ( and I hope last) mishap. When we turned off into one of the parking areas at an overlook Kenny misjudged the space and slope and tagged the bumper of a van with his wing. He bounced off and smacked his head on the ground. Lucky for the helmet since he still ended up with some blood to clean up. The views along Trailridge just fantastic. You cross the treeline at 11,000’ and you can see the snow covered peaks all around. There was still a lot of snow fields left and the roads are lined with 10’ tall poles to show the snow plow drivers where road is. It had dropped to 52degF so I was glad that I put the rain gear on. At the top I had to head back down, the high altitude left me short of breath. It’s hard to believe that 20 years ago I rode my bicycle over that road twice. The ride down the west side was pretty uneventful except for the 10 miles of mostly wet greasy bumpy gravel that we had to negotiate. I passed quite a few Harleys riding about 10mph. We decided to go over through Kremling then take 134 over Gore Pass and then down 131 to I-70. Our group hadn’t done a very good job of sticking together on the road and I didn’t realize that they had stopped in Kremling. To make matters worse I missed the turn of to 134 and by the time I realized it I ended up behind them. Hwy 134 over Gore Pass was a fantastic road, lots of sharp curves. The only problem was that the sun was going downand right in my eyes at the wrong time, not to mention the antelope playing, the deer grazing in the middle of the road and the cattle lowing (whatever that means). 131 wasn’t as nice as 134 but still fun. I didn’t catch the guys like I hoped so when I hit I-70 I blasted over to Eagle for gas. I had a message from them and they happened to be across the street eating at Wendys. It would have been a beautiful evening for a night ride but they were ready to call it a day at the Best Western. A soft bed and a beer sounded like the plan. Day miles – 440, time on the road 11hrs.  Bullwinkle having lunch  At the Kawasaki dealer waiting for the tire install  | ||
| Iamike |
Day 3 – July 13, Monday Another great day for a ride. A quick 120mi. blast down to Grand Junction to get Perry a tire. The canyon on I-70 heading into Glenwood Springs is quite scenic for an interstate. The BMW dealer was closed on Mondays so we stopped at All Terrain Motor Sports a Kawasaki & CanAm dealer. They said that they could fix him up right away. It is great the way some dealers will take care of travelers. Kudos to them for their service. A hop back on 70 and we are headed for Utah. For some reason the guys lagged behind again even though I was going just 5 over the speed limit. When I got to Hwy 128 down to Moab Eric pulled off behind me. The other three didn’t see us and motored right on by. We waited about 15 minutes in case they were turning around. We figured that they could find their way down there and moved on. The temp was reaching 100 but actually felt better off the bike at the overpass than riding. But like they say “It was a dry heat”. There is a sign at the start of 128 that warns about using vehicles longer than 35’ on this road, for a good reason. It follows the Colorado River down to Moab and at times has sheer cliffs over 200’ high with the wall on one side and the river on the other. Some of the outcroppings hang over the road. It was fun watching the rafters negotiating the rapids. I was thinking that it would be nice to take a dip too but the water looked like it was moving pretty fast. Eric & I stopped for smoothies in Moab and the other finally showed up. After finding a campsite at a KOA we headed up to Arches NP.        I wanted to jump in with them!  Talk about a bargain for the $5 entrance fee. The geography there is just amazing. Huge structures of solid rock, then spires and of course, a balanced rock. The main attraction were the arches. My thermometer indicated 106degF when we started. Needless to say I drank a lot of water this afternoon. Since the sun was setting it was time to leave but we may go back tomorrow morning for some more. Miles today 300, time on the road 8hrs. (Not counting the park)    | ||
| Iamike |
Day 4 – July 14, Tuesday The sunrise at Moab was just fantastic with the early rays poking up over the mountains to the east. There is a ridge of red rock that is part of the Moab Fault that lit up almost like fire with the morning sun on them. We felt that since we didn’t get to see all of the Arches we headed back up to the park. After lunch instead of heading for Mexican Hat we felt Canyonlands NP calling us so we headed up there. Canyonlands was well worth it! Right off the bat Perry showed us he wasn’t afraid of heights by walking out on a narrow outcropping with at least a 1,000’ drop. Below you could see the winding gravel road that dropped down into the valley below. We did get to play on the twistys a little in the park. I wasn’t feeling real well so I split off from the other guys and headed back to the visitor center. I think I may have been a little dehydrated even though I was drinking a lot of water, or maybe my daughter’s pending heart surgery was weighing on me. At the visitor center I got to talking to a husband/wife Ranger team from Rochestor, MN. It was fun to talk to all the European tourists. Many had 4x4s and were taking the off-road trails. One common topic was how hot it was out here. I was asking a couple from Switzerland, that were driving a convertible Mustang, why they didn't have the top down. He said that was part of the agreement with her since it was so hot. (She was too  ). We decided a motel was on order for tonight and found another Best Western. Miles today – 200 | ||
| Iamike |
Here are a couple from our KOA in Moab:   Then a few more from our return trip to Arches NP:  This particular arch is called Landscape and a large chunk fell of the bottom on the right side in '91. People were under it and heard a bunch of noise and took off running. They were lucky to get out of there.      Then we went to Canyonlands NP:    Here Perry is testing the structural integrity of the precipice:    Would you drive on this road?   | ||
| Iamike |
Day 5 – July 15, Wednesday After heading out for Mexican Hat it was just another day in riding Utah. We stopped at the visitor center in Blanding and the lady there was a great help in planning the next day or two. She suggested a campground in Bluff called the Cadillac Ranch that turned out to be a great choice. We set up camp and headed for Mexican Hat and Monument Valley. I had heard that the Mexican Hat Lodge was a good place to eat but they didn’t open until 3 so we ate at a pizza place nearby.   Boy, lunch was tasty!    Goosenecks State Park - 1,000' down  We are going to ride up that?   We made it! 1,100' in 3 miles,w/10% grades  | ||
| Lars1974 |
cool pics... i would love to ride up these tracks! keep it up. thx Lars | ||
| Iamike |
It was also quite hot, hitting 100degF. by noon. Luckily it wasn’t windy which would have made the conditions much worse. We had been warning the other guys that there were a couple of gravel roads that we wanted to do. One was highway 261 that has a section called the Moki Dugway that is 3mi. of gravel with about 10 switchbacks, 11% grades and climbs 1,100’. Ken wasn’t real excited about trying it. At the Mexican Hat formation there was a sand road heading to it. I told the guys that this would be good practice for the Dugway and we all made that trial road without falling. We then headed down to Monument Valley. This is a national park maintained by the Navaho Indian Tribe. I was talking to 3 bicyclists from France that have ridden from San Francisco and were headed over to Taos, NM before riding back to S.F. We saw that there was a road that went down among the rock formations. The brochure said that it was paved, but that was maybe 50 years ago, it looked like it was gravel and sand to us. Eric, Mike & I decided to give it a try. We made it about 1/2mi. before we came across a steep sandy section. Eric rode on down and I made it about halfway before stopping and turning around. I was a little leery of wrestling the 740# pig up in 100+ degree heat. Mike came on by me but fell over right before reaching the bottom. Of course I had to take a picture of his predicament before helping him out. Some friend huh? We all turned back after that. Next up; The Goosenecks and Moki Dugway. The Goosenecks is a state park where the San Juan River has meandered to the point where it has cut a 1,000’ deep channel. There was no entrance fee here and we also had a Native American brother/sister team hawking some necklaces. Just a few miles past The Goosnecks on Hwy 261 is the start of The Moki Dugway. As we were riding up towards the wall I was wondering what the soldiers at the D-Day invasions were thinking when they saw the cliffs that they were going to have to climb with the enemy shooting at them. Ken and Perry thought better of riding up the road so they turned around and headed back to the campground. It was a pretty impressive ride up the road but we all survived and after a few pictures we headed the 32mi.off to the Natural Bridges NP before the sun was setting. Natural Bridges has a bunch of arches created by water erosion at the meanders instead of The Arches that were caused by wind erosion. It was getting dark so we just rode around the park to get a few pictures and didn’t take any of the hikes down to the stream. It wasn’t cooling down at all so the hour long ride back to the Cadillac Ranch in Bluff on Hwy 95 was somewhat spirited with some nice curves and scenery but we were also on the lookout for wildlife. It was a good thing that we didn’t push it too much since we came upon a sheriffs car with an auto pulled over on Hwy 191. We didn’t have any of the local wildlife try to give us a scare. It was a great night back at the ranch. The temp was still quite hot so we dispatched a 12-pack in short order. I woke up about 1AM with the almost full moon shining in the vent in the top of my tent since I didn’t need the rain fly. | ||
| Iamike |
A couple more from the top of the Dugway   Natural Bridges    At the Cadillac Ranch talking about the day's ride  | ||
| Prior |
Mike, Thanks for the pics and commentary! Heather's been asking about taking a trip out there, I'll have to plug her into this thread and see what she thinks. She wants to see the western national parks and have also mentioned heading to Newfie... Tough call there, and I doubt I can do it all in one shot! Keep it coming! | ||
| Iamike |
I see you posted your cross country ride on ADV. Find the Big Yellow Ride Touring the Southwest (I think that was the name, or something like it) to get some more commentary and pics of Utah. |
