Day 1: August 22nd, 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.
The first leg of the trip was pretty uneventful. The route down Interstate 90 is one that I have ridden a dozen times and driven probably hundreds. It was all superslab, although Montana superslab has a few more twists and turns than a lot of other places. I stopped in Deerlodge, MT for a quick gas up and to get something to drink, then headed for Dillon, MT.
The morning weather started out nearly perfect, nice and cool in the morning and not a cloud in the sky. This would be the norm all the way to Idaho. Coming down the other side of Monida Pass would change things though. The nice, mellow day would start getting hot! Once you get into the Idaho side of the pass, things flatten out quite a bit and the weather tends to be a bit warmer and drier, at least in the summer.
I made my next pit stop in Idaho falls. Again, this leg of the trip was pretty uneventful. I was still on the superslab, only this time they were pretty much going in a straight line. The wind was kicking up a bit, but other than that things were still going smooth.
The real fun of the trip came when I got into Utah. I somehow managed to time it just right so that I would get there at rush hour. Now Salt Lake’s rush hour is really mellow compared to some places, but throw in the extremely crappy roads, the fact that almost every road is under some kind of construction, and most have either dig up ruts, grooved pavement or potholes all over, and things can get pretty fun pretty quick.. At one point, I was convinced that I was in some kind of twisted video game where I had to squeeze between renegade truckers, weave in and out of lanes staying away from the crazy SUV lady all the while dodging potholes and trenched out centerlines. I would complete the level, and the road would turn to concrete and traffic would mellow out for a few seconds until I entered the next zone of bad pavement.
At any rate, I must have won this game as I was permitted to reach my destination (well, close anyways). I ended the evening at a campground about 15 miles east of Spanish Fork, UT, about 40 miles short of my intended destination. I opted to call it quits here because I knew there was a campground here, and it was starting to get dark. I could have ridden on to Price, but I may not have found a place to set up camp there, and I was so close that it really didn’t bother me.
On the camping side of things, I finally got an excuse to use my hammock. I have it set up with the tarp covering it for the first time ever. As soon as I can convince my mind that it’s time to crash, I will see how well it sleeps. Hopefully I will have an update tomorrow.
So this day is officially in the bag. I put 644 miles on the odometer, and so far everything is going great! Tomorrow should be a really fun day as I will be heading into Aches National Park and Canyonlands. Expect to see a lot of pictures!
Boone