Day 4: August 25^th, 2011.

Sipapu Bridge – Natural Bridges National Monument

I woke up early in the morning, feeling rested and refreshed after finally being able to take a good shower. I packed up all the gear, hopped on the bike and headed out for the Natural Bridges National Monument. Natural Bridges is a somewhat secluded area in the south central part of Utah, directly south of Canyonlands National Park and about 40 miles west of Blanding, UT. The monument contains three naturally formed bridges in which water from the winding streams slowly cut through the canyon walls. The monument includes a 9 mile loop which provides scenic views of each of the three natural bridges, “Kachina,” “Owachomo” and “Sipapu”. The bridges were named in honor of the Native Americans that inhabited the area.

I arrived at the park and made a quick stop at the visitor center to collect my pin and passport stamp to prove that I had been there. I filled as many water bottles as I could find and head out on the loop. There were several scenic pullouts that provided good views of the bridges, but it was clear that if I wanted to get a truly spectacular view, I would have to hike down into the canyons. I was not prepared to do much hiking, even though the weather was a lot cooler than the previous day, so I snapped as many photos as I could and headed back out.

As I was heading down the freshly chip-sealed road back towards Utah Highway 95, my Garmin GPS unit decided that it was going to try to commit suicide. I had been using the suction cup mount attached to my windshield, and although I had been having a few problems with it popping loose, the power cord, which securely fastens to the unit, had always acted as a tether. This time the stars aligned just right and when the bracket hit the frame, it released the GPS unit from the mount, causing it to tumble down onto the road and get run over by my bike. I swung around, rode back and picked up the unit, fearing the worst. Fortunately it still worked, although the case was severely chipped, scuffed and beat up. The two halves of the case were separating, exposing the circuit boards inside. A couple of quick snaps, however, and it was all back together. The power switch did not go together quite right, and it was difficult to turn on, but I was very grateful when it powered back up and began barking directions at me! Read the rest of this entry »

Day 3: August 24^th, 2011.

Arches National Park

The third day of this trip through the canyons of Utah started out just like the others. The weather was perfect, although a little bit warm. I got up early and packed up my campsite so that I could hit Arches National Park early, before the weather got too hot. Since there were really no trees in the campground I stayed at, I had to break out the tent.  Packing up a dome tent and mattress takes a little bit more work than taking down the hammock, but as I get farther south I am finding that there are fewer and fewer trees to hang from. I had gassed the bike up the night before and wasn’t really hungry, so once I got things packed up and hit the road, I headed straight north out of Moab and to the park entrance.

Once I entered the park, I made a quick stop at the visitor center to get my stamp, collector pin and some water before heading into the park.  I started up the winding pass and over the scenic route and was almost immediately greeted with some of the most incredible geologic formations I had ever seen.  I pulled off at the first turnout and broke out the camera so that I could get as many pictures of this amazing place as possible.  I stopped at several turnouts before finally reaching Balancing Rock, one of the most famous attractions in Arches National Park. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 2: August 23^rd, 2011.

Day 2 started off beautiful. Who could ask for better weather! I got up early and cleaned up my campsite. As it turns out I was the only camper in the campground that night, so getting ready to go was quick and easy.

After packing up my hammock and loading up the bike, I set out for Price, UT, my previous day’s intended destination. The ride was nice, but I did run into a small bit of road construction. Once the pilot car arrived to shuttle us across the construction zone, things went pretty quickly and I was in Price before I knew it.

I pushed on past Price towards Moab and Canyonlands. One stop on my destination was a gas station at the intersection of I-70 and US 191 (the road to Moab). I figured I should stop and get gas as I was getting low, so I pulled in. It was the only business in the area which should have tipped me off that something wasn’t right about the place. First off there was painted replica of the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine, except it was blue instead of green. The place looked like an old rundown junkyard with gas pumps out front. I could swear I had seen this gas station in at least 1 horror flick in my time. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 1: August 22^nd, 2011.

I had intended to get up bright and early and hit the road, but of course there’s always something that gets in the way of that plan (namely my snooze button). I did however still manage to get up pretty early and finish up my packing.  Toothbrush: Check.  Deodorant: Check,  Spare batteries and chargers: Che… err… crap,  I left them sitting in the garage…  Oh well, I guess I will just have to pay the touristy price for my AA batteries.

I finally got on the road about 8:30.  The bike felt a little weird as this is the first time I have ridden it this year with all of the gear loaded up.  The new tires I put on 2 days ago probably didn’t help things either.  The bike was actually responsive now!  Imagine that.  After getting used to the scrunched forward position and much smoother ride courtesy of the new Dunlops, things were feeling pretty good. Read the rest of this entry »

So far this has to have been one of the worst winters I have seen since I started riding.  Living in Montana, it’s typically cold, and even in May, there are the occasional freak snowstorms.  Typically, however, there is also a pretty good balance of nice days to keep the mood up and let us riders go out and find our legs (or wheels, as it may be).  That has not been the case yet this year.  So far I cannot recall a day where the temperature has approached 70 degrees, and the warm and sunny days we do end up getting are sparsely scattered between long, drawn out rain storms or cold, windy days.  So needless to say, I have not gone on a lot of good rides yet this year.

In the absence of warmer, mileage inducing weather, I have been working on a few little projects to help make my motorcycle trips a little better.  The first is a piece of gear that I wrote about a little while back, the camping hammock.  I decided to give myself something to do besides endlessly clean my bike, so I began making my own camping hammock.  The basic concept is really simple: Take a piece of rip stop nylon, hem the edges so they don’t fray, tie the ends together and hang it from two trees.  So far this has worked out pretty good for me.  I have been doing a lot of experimenting with how the ends are gathered and tied, but after a little bit of trial and error, I think I have things set up where I want them.

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In this month’s edition of American Motorcyclist magazine, The American Motorcycle Association has finally released it’s list of the top 15 motorcycle roads in the United States, based on votes from AMA members.  Within the past year and a half, I have had the pleasure of riding on four of those roads, so I can personally attest that they are all extremely fun rides with amazing scenery!  If you ever get the chance to ride any of the roads in the list, I would not hesitate.

First off, let me present you the list:

1. Beartooth Highway (Between MT and WY)
2. Blue Ridge Parkway (NC)
3. U.S. Route 129 – The Tail of the Dragon (NC/TN Border)
4. U.S. Route 550 (Ouray to Durango, CO)
5. California Route 1 – Pacific Coast Highway (CA)
6. Going to the Sun Road, Glacier National Park (MT)
7. Cherohala Skyway (NC and TN)
8. California Route 36 (CA)
9. U.S. Route 12 – Lolo Pass (MT and ID)
10. Angeles Crest Highway – California Route 2 (CA)
11. Natchez Trace (Natchez, MS to Nashville, TN)
12. U.S. Route 33 (Harrisonburg, VA to Seneca Rocks, WV)
13. California Route 58  (McKittrick to Santa Margarita CA)
14. Ohio Route 170 (Calcutta to Poland, OH)
15. Washington Route 129 and Oregon Route 3 (Clarkston, WA to Enterprise, OR)

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Undoubtedly most of you have seen or heard about the devastation in northeastern Japan brought about by last week’s magnitude 9.0 megathrust earthquake and subsequent tsunami.  Images of cars, trucks, boats and even buildings tossed around like toys in a bathtub will haunt the memories of a lot of people, especially those who witnessed the devastation first hand.  Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes, and entire cities have been washed away.  Several nuclear power plants have been shut down or even worse, and power is scarce throughout the country.  With a large portion of Japan’s industrial sectors damaged by this quake and a pending nuclear disaster threatening to reduce power production for months to come, there will undoubtedly be a major impact on the motorcycle industry.   So far, three of the big four motorcycle manufactures have released information regarding the status of their operations:

• Honda:

  Honda has halted production in all six of it’s Japanese facilities, including their motorcycle factory in Kumamoto.  Honda’s plants in the Tochigi Prefecture, including an auto parts factory and an R&D facility, will be shut down until at least March 20th.  A 43 year old man was killed at the Honda R&D facility in Tochigi when a wall collapsed on him.  17 other employees were injured at that facility during the quake.  Honda has donated approximately 3.7 million dollars to the relief efforts as well as 1,000 generators and 5,000 fuel containers.  The official Honda news release can be found here.

• Yamaha:

  Yamaha reports that it’s manufacturing facilities have not sustained significant damage from the quake.  Rolling blackouts due to the resulting energy shortage may force Yamaha to halt production at some non motorcycle producing factories.  Some sales offices and retailers sustained damage in Sendai, and Yamaha has been unable to contact one employee working for a subsidiary company. Read the Effects of the Pacific Earthquake on Yamaha Corporation (Adobe Acrobat Reader required to read this document).

• Suzuki:

  Suzuki has suspended production at six of it’s factories, including plants in Takatsuka and Toyokawa.  The Takutsuka plant produces motorcycle engines and the Toyokawa plant is for motorcycle production and assembly.  Suzuki has announced that production in these plants will be halted until at least March 17th, at which point the company will assess the damage and evaluate whether it is possible to resume production.

• Kawasaki:

  At the time of this writing, Kawasaki has not released any announcements regarding it’s operational status.

Regardless of what bike you ride (or even if you ride), you have to appreciate what the Japanese motorcycle industry has brought to the world of motorcycling.  They helped to bring motorcycling to the mainstream, and without them we would undoubtedly not have the incredible machines and technology that we have available to us today.  So here’s to a speedy recovery for the Japanese motorcycle industry and the entire nation of Japan!

As a final note, I would like to express my sincerest sympathies and prayers to all of those who lost their life, loved ones, homes or property as a result of this horrific tragedy.  I also urge those who can to please make a donation to the Red Cross Japan Earthquake Relief Effort to help those affected by this disaster.

This winter has been a rough one. Since the first real snowstorm in November, we have had the white stuff on the ground non-stop. As a result, cabin fever is hitting me pretty hard. Since I do not really partake in any winter activities (I do not ski, snowmobile or really do anything else in the winter), I have had a lot of time to sit at the computer and plot, scheme and daydream about all the trips I would like to take this summer. While googling away on the web I ran across an interesting post on the Kawasaki Motorcycle Forums about a curious piece of camping gear: the hammock tent.

I was intrigued by the hammock tent as I never really realized there was such a thing. The thought of sleeping in a hammock strung between two trees sounds really comfortable: a lot more comfortable than sleeping on the hard ground with rocks and tree roots digging in to various body parts.  The impact of a hammock is low compared to some tent sites, and they are lightweight and really easy to set up.  The other thing that intrigued me is the fact that if you are caught in the rain, you are off the ground and don’t have to worry so much about water pooling under your tent.  Most good hammocks come with a tarp that acts as a rain cover to deflect the water away from the hammock.  Since the hammock is small, the tarp can easily cover the entire thing and keep rain completely out of the way of the slumbering camper.  If you get a large enough tarp, you may even be able to keep the bike covered as well. Read the rest of this entry »

Sunday, June 27th, 2010: Day three started out quite nice. I woke up at about 8 AM, having slept in for an extra couple hours after sunrise. The morning was perfect, the cool crisp mountain air made it difficult to get out of bed. Before the trip I purchased a Coleman queen air mattress, and this trip was the first time I had used it, and boy what a difference it made! I finally succumbed to the sunshine though and climbed out of my tent into the outside world.

I packed up camp and loaded the bike up as quickly as I could. I really wanted to head back by the visitor center and the Colter Bay Marina so that I could take some morning photos of the Tetons. Once I got there, I climbed off the bike and wandered down by the water to take some pictures of these beautiful mountains. This was not my first time here, but it is hard to not be awe inspired by the site of these behemoth, jagged peaks protruding from the crystal clear water of the other side of Jackson Lake. I got a few pictures and wandered up to the visitor center to collect my pin and a souvenir for my girlfriend back home. Once I found what I was looking for, I hopped back on the bike and headed for the nearest gas station.
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Saturday, June 26th, 2010: Saturday morning finally arrives and my alarm starts screeching. As I reach over to turn it off, I can’t help but notice the bright glow through the red curtains in the… let’s call it rustic… cabin where I spent the night in Ennis. I stumble out of bed and over to the window, pulling back the curtain to see a bright blue sky and sunshine peering over the mountains to the east. Today was shaping up to be a beautiful day! So what do I do now? Back to bed for me!

About an hour later, I get a phone call from my girlfriend. She wanted to know if I was awake yet and how the ride was going. I lied to her and told her I had been awake for a while and we talked about the ride. After talking to her for a few minutes, I finally got out of bed and started packing up all my gear. Most of my riding gear got wet the previous night so it was sprawled out all over the floor to dry. I gathered it all up and put it back in it’s rightful place, with the exception of my chaps and jacket which I would be wearing, of course. This sunshine was really starting to motivate me. I thought about having breakfast at the hotel restaurant, but thought otherwise as I walked inside to a huge crowd. I got on the bike, rode over to the closest gas station to gas up and hit the road.
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