Steve & Marv, the trip home

Rather than taking the quick route home with the others on Friday, we elected to continue the ride and pick up additional roads on the way home.  Ninety percent of the roads home were just plain awesome and we kept the slabbing to a minimum.  There were a few challenges thrown in though.

Friday morning we looked at the map and found what appeared to be an interesting road – 233 in Wyoming.  After a few miles, the paved road ended and, since the road ahead didn’t appear to be THAT bad, we elected to continue.  BIG MISTAKE!!!  The further we went, the more remote the area became, and the poorer the road became.  We eventually came across someone who was camping, and asked them how far it was to civilization to which he replied, “Don’t know for certain, but my brother is camping just beyond the Ranger Station which is a few miles up the road”.  What great news!  Well, when we made it to the “Ranger Station”, found it to be an abandoned log cabin ranger station from the past that had a stove and a pile of wood in it, and nothing else.  Steve had the foresight to take the accompanying photo in the event someone was to find our remains, (and his camera).  Unfortunately, the crank telephone on the front of the cabin is just for looks!  By that time, we figured we were at the point of no return, so elected to continue and take our chances. 

 

We came to a fork in the road and didn’t know whether to continue on to Alice Lake, or try the other fork that was heading in the direction we wanted to go.  We elected to take the “other” fork, which headed downhill.  Figured that, since it was downhill, we’d eventually make it out.  By this time, we had covered approximately 30 miles of gravel road.  Yes, the road headed downhill, so much in fact, that if we’d have had to turn around and retrace our path, we weren’t certain we could have made it back up the hill.  We eventually made it back to civilization after traversing some 40 miles of gravel road, complete with water, ruts, and rocks.  We were fortunate that we had plenty of fuel; otherwise, we’d have been in a world of hurt!

After getting back on the road and just passing through as short stretch of road construction, Steve found his bike to be handling poorly and pulled off to the shoulder to investigate.  He had picked up a nail in his rear tire.  Fortunately, both of us had tire-plugging kits and compressors, so we plugged the tire quickly and continued on.  The plug held the rest of the day, but the next morning, we found the tire pressure to be down a bit, so we pumped it back up.  Eventually, the plug failed in Lowman, Idaho and we plugged it again and we were back in business.  As we were plugging it another rider recommended a motorcycle dealer in Boise so we decided to head south and replace the tire, which was down to the wear bars. In addition the road from Lowman to Boise was one of the best of the day.  By the time we got there at 3:00, there was no mechanic on duty.  Steve perused the yellow pages and found a Cycle Gear shop so we headed there.  Yep, they had tires, but no tools to remove the wheel, and Steve’s tool kit didn’t include the appropriate socket.  Fortunately, the Yamaha dealership next door had the proper socket and breaker-bar Steve borrowed to remove his wheel.  We pulled the wheel off, took it to the Cycle Gear shop, and Steve had a new tire and we were quickly back on the road again!

Dodged a couple of bullets in Oregon with that 55 mph speed limit, the sheriff laid wait for us outside of Prairie City and zapped us with his radar as we sped around a corner.  Quick reflexes to the detector thwarted his reading.  He escorted us the 5 miles into town to just to show his disapproval, but the lights never came on.  The next day we were doing 65-70 mph when a gal in a little white sedan passed us like we were standing still.  Yippee, a rabbit!  We upped the pace to ~90 mph and were doing fine, until an oncoming rider gave us the slow down warning.  Came over the brow of a hill and there was the gal pulled over with a LEO in attendance!  We were most fortunate again!!! 

Covered some great new roads through Idaho and Oregon.  Spent Friday night in Arco, Idaho and Saturday night in John Day, Oregon, arriving home late Sunday evening with no incidents, just exhausted from way too much fun.

Day 9 – Arriving Home

After being gone for nearly 9 days I pull into the driveway at home this afternoon and out bounds my lovely wife dressed in her grungy gardening attire and says to me “Hi Honey, the cat’s in the hospital again, I need $500. When you finish unpacking can you empty the ten bags of mulch from the back of the truck and drag them into the yard so you can help me spread them in the beds?”.  What can I say, but yes dear.

It’s good to be home, I’m glad we decided to bolt home via the freeways yesterday and today. We made very good time and got home as it was really heating up. Going the Snoqualmie Pass was a brief relief as the air up there is quite cooler than in the lower elevations. 428 miles today, that’s 1000 in two days. Vernal, UT to Ontario, OR yesterday and Ontario, OR to Sammamish, WA today.  I don’t know how the iron butt guys do this, my hips are jut aching.

Well, got to run, I need to go pick my other bike from DucSea so I have it to ride tomorrow and Monday.

Lates everyone.

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Update:

So let’s rewind to this morning. We spent the night in Ontario,OR at the same Roadway Inn we stayed in on night 2. Most of us gassed up last night and preloaded for an early departure. I was actually first to be packed for the only time on the trip. Anxious to get home after 8 days away I guess. We were seated and eating at the restaurant next door minutes after it opened at 6:00 (mountain time) and we were riding by 7am. We all said goodbye to Greg at the roadway as he took off on his own for Chelan for a family gathering. Jim, Mark, Bong and I rode together all to way to Yakima with only two stops. After the second stop Mark and Jim spun off onto RT12 and Bong and I continued on to I-90 and west towards home. We traveled through the pass, whose cool air felt refreshing for the few minutes we were there then spend down the west side of the hill towards home. Bong got off just east of North Bend for gas while I waved goodbye and continued on home. Getting off at the Highlands exit I was greeted by mid day stop and go traffic and drivers who how just couldn’t or wouldn’t drive over 25mph. After spending a week driving at 80+ this had to be the most frustrating 7 or 8 miles of the ride.

As you may have read in yesterday’s comments, Marv and Steve took off on their own. Steve wanted to explore some previously unridden rides, So it turns out one of the roads was gravel for 40 miles! And Steve, who seems to be cursed on this ride, ended up getting a flat to boot.  Poor guy, this trip just wasn’t meant to be for him. More details will have to wait until they return Monday.

No pics today, we just rode. I think Bong may have a picture or two from today he might want to post. I’ve learned to describe the legs of our rides in several ways. There are feature rides, there are premium rides, there are bonus rides and there are transit rides. There are also roads you encounter along the way where you make a note to never go over again, ever.

Feature rides are known really good rides, like Canyon Road between Yakima and Selah.

Premium rides and rides you pay a premium for – either in distance, cost or both and the experience exceeds features rides by (many) miles. The rides across the Hogsback on Rt 12 and and through the brilliant red canyons in Colorado are premium rides and well earned at that.

Bonus rides are unexpected really good rides, unplanned, unknown roads. Kind of a roll of the dice. Could be excellent could be the worst mistake of the day. Our ride over Rt 143 into Bryce Canyon was a bonus ride. It was absolutely an excellent ride through a small ski area in the early summer. Little to no traffic, absolutely gorgeous scenery, wildlife, excellent condition asphalt, twisties, sweepers, elevation changes, steep grades, … just a brilliant ride that you could enjoy time and again.

Transit rides are rides you just have to do. They have a purpose, to get you to the next ride described in the previous bullets above. Our last two days were major transit rides, a 1000 miles in two days, 100% freeway. It got us to where we wanted to be with little to no fanfare. I now know why its called droning. Good thing I had XM or I would still be talking to myself.

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Updated update:

I lied, there is one picture worth posting -

 

today’s GPS track (for me) 441 miles

Day 8 – The Beginning of the End

last day we all stayed together. after breakfast we split up into two groups including one free radical. We ate at Sill’s in Gateway for breakfast (just like bada bing from the soprano’s) which was very good, our waitress was formerly with the Devil’s Disciples biker gang in the 70’s, she was very proud of that of course. after breakfast bong, mark, jim and I rode of together. greg followed our course but rode on his own the whole day and marv and steve took off for the craters of moon.

again more coming later. time for a shower and dinner.

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we rolled out of Carry’s house at 6:20am. She had made us fresh coffee an hour earlier which was delicious. Again, we can’t thank her enough for her generosity and hospitality. We rode through Flaming Gorge en route to breakfast and it was just spectacular. Beautiful rock formations, a lake and scenic vistas. On the other side of Flaming Gorge we rode into Manila and took a few bonus shots of the town sign with Bong and Jim. While taking pictures of the sign, I was amused watching Marv herding horses on his motorcycle. Who knew Marv was so talented!

After breakfast we gassed up and split off as described above. Once we got on the freeway, it was high speed transit time. We took I80 to I84 just north of SLC. ugh, SLC again, we already spent too much time there. We stayed on I84 all the way to Oregon. We left Utah, flew through Idaho and landed in Ontario, OR. It got hotter as the day wore on and the heat was taking it’s toll on us. Jim broke out his cooling vest first, and I put mine on at the next gas stop. More frequent stops, lots of water and just sheer determination got us 600 miles to the Roadway Inn in Ontario, OR where we actually spent the second night at the beginning of the trip. Unfortunately during the transit Bong met when of Idaho’s finest for a brief meet and greet.  We almost made it out of dodge without and encounter. You could tell the heat was getting to mark because he was making some crazy suggestion about gassing up and going even further. Jim, Bong and I overruled and said 600 miles was enough for one day, the last day’s ride home will be a breeze from here.

 

today’s track – 600 miles.  Vernal, UT to Ontario, OR

Day 7 – Durango, CO to Vernal, UT

had no Internet last night. also had no hotel last night. good story coming after we have dinner. last good riding day from Durango to Vernal. check back later

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ok, I’ve finally got some time to tell the right tale about the adventures of Day 7, the last of our good riding days. The previous night in Durango was quite nice. We had a good dinner at The Ore House restaurant and had a good night’s rest at the Durango Lodge.

 

We were up bright and early and riding by 6:30am. A hundred miles later we rolled into Ouray and stopped for breakfast at the Silver Nugget. Both Durango and Ouray are very interesting little towns. I wish we had allowed more time to explore them, maybe next year we can allow for a half day in each to walk around and take in the local fare. Rt 550 was a really, really nice way to start the morning. Really cool rock tunnels, nice grades going up and over Red Mountain Pass and the highest elevation of the trip at 11,000ft. There were some very twisty turns and beautiful views of the mountains tagged the American Swiss Alps.

 

   

Leaving Ouray, we headed northwest towards Ridgeway, cut across 62 to Placerville then northwest again on 145 towards Naturita. From there we went north on 141 which is a great ride. Lots of fast sweepers, beautiful red canyon scenery and little to no traffic otherwise. Of course, with our luck we hit a line painting truck in the middle of freakin’ nowhere and being “in the rhythm of the ride” I couldn’t wait for an opening and decided to pass. Note to self, fresh yellow paint will stick to your bike and leave long trails behind you when you ride through a double yellow line just laid down.

 

 

We stopped at a dessert oasis in Gateway, got hydrated, ate some protein and continued on to Whitewater and Grand Junction in search of the local BMW dealer. At this point the good riding has ended. We rode through downtown traffic to a wrong GPS location for the dealer. Called him, got hand directed to the shop where Bong’s clutch was bled again. An hour later we were riding again through crappy roads, traffic, construction, no scenery and straight line boring heat. There were a few twisties going through a pass on 139, but mostly it was straight, hot and boring.

We were supposed to end up in Diamondville, but by 6pm we were exhausted and 150 miles short of the plan stopping in Vernal, UT. Who knew Vernal was also known as Dinosaur Land?  This area is filled with ancient fossils, has a huge dino museum and one of the biggest oil companies in the world – Halliburton – basically owns the town. Every room in every hotel was completely booked out by the oil workers. Not only were all hotels in Vernal completely booked, but every hotel in 30 miles were booked and there were no guarantees of any availability beyond that. We were not happy and planning looking for benches to crash on when comes out of a restaurant next to the hotel and exclaims “we’re set for lodging for the night!”  Apparently the restaurant owner rents out rooms in her house and Bong had convinced her we were a desperate group of riders and would settle for any place for the night. Our expectations we set low, expecting a flop house on a dirt lot which would have been fine considering how spent we were.  Much to our delight we pulled into a very new, upscale neighborhood of beautiful homes. We pulled into the driveway, met the owner’s friend and son and unpacked our gear.  The son Tyler, who I think was 10, was completely enthralled with our bikes and her friend wanted to go for a ride. After riding all day that was the last thing any of us wanted to do. We were tired and hungry and didn’t want to ride back into town to eat and started talking about getting pizza delivered. But since our hostess owns a restaurant she offered to bring us back meals from there. How much better is this going to get?! So to make it easy for her we ordered seven steaks. And a philly cheese for me. 45 minutes later she returns with huge tray of food and a twelve pack of beer. Holy Cow! This hardship has turned in the best lodging of the trip. Beautiful well appointed home, delicious dinner personally delivered, and really good night’s sleep.  Too bad we were back on the road again at 6:20am then next morning.

Huge thanks and bottomless gratitudes to Carry (or Kari?) from Twiliger’s Restaurant in Vernal, UT for her incredible hospitality towards us haggard two wheeled travelers. If you’re ever in Vernal, please be sure to stop into Twiligers for a bite and say hi to Carry the owner.

 

 

 

today’s track – 387 miles