Starting The Season Right! 1.4

March 24, 2014

We had encountered a few cold moments up to this point. The day before was especially cold when we passed through Flagstaff. The seven thousand-foot elevation and time of year was the culprit. After freezing for a while we pulled off at a gas station and layered on PJs under our jeans and chaps to help stave off the cold. The morning of our last day topped them all, though.

Our first leg was a 75 mile trip from Paige, Arizona to Kanab, Utah. During the hour and twenty minutes we froze. Our hands were especially cold. I remember steering one-handed in the middle of my handlebars where the fairing covered wind chill, with my other hand close to my core for warmth. It didn't matter too much, though. By the time we arrived at the gas station in Kanab we were all extremely cold.

 

A customer overheard us discussing our planned route while we warmed up inside. He approached us and told us the highway leaving town was closed for a few hours. With no reason to kill time in Kanab, we looked for an alternate route. We discovered that if we backtracked eight miles we could take a dirt road that connected with the highway. After mapping it out we discovered the dirt road was fourteen miles. All we knew was it would be quicker than waiting for the main highway to reopen.

 

We backtracked and made it to the dirt road detour. By this time we were off road pros. At one point we pulled over and Aric suggested we separate by a few hundred yards to avoid riding in each others' dust clouds. I snapped a few pictures of our remote location since I forgot to on our first dirt road.

  

 

 

We successfully reconnected with the highway and followed it North. Every hour or so we would signal each other for a break to rest our back and stretch our legs. This continued until we were only fifty miles from home. We separated one by one off the freeway, each taking our exit to go home. I arrived home in the middle of the afternoon, completely satisfied with the trip, exactly 1,700 miles in its entirety.

 

 

In a little over two months I will be returning to Gilbert with the SL,UT Riders. This time each of us will have a passenger. The route is to be determined, but I imagine we'll be stopping in Las Vegas and at the Grand Canyon again.

Starting The Season Right! 1.3

March 23, 2014

The next morning we packed our things and said our goodbyes. Ten minutes later we were gassing up and eating gas station food before our first long leg of the day. On our return trip we would be visiting the Grand Canyon and staying in Paige, Arizona for the night.

 

I had never been to the Grand Canyon before this, and I wasn't disappointed. The three of us peered over the edge at the tiny river below and took in the sight before us. It was incredible. I thought of an early Nitro Circus episode where they rode motorcycles off jumps into the Grand Canyon and then pulled parachutes. I also couldn't help but think of Joe Dirt.

 

 

Before leaving the park we spent a good twenty minutes browsing through the gift shop. Eventually, we came across a taxidermized mountain lion on display that Brad immediately observed to have Down Syndrome. Judge for yourself.

 

 

Afterwards, we rode straight to Paige. We arrived just as the sun was setting and decided to stay the night rather than ride in the dark and cold. A few hours later we were in our motel rooms asleep, recharging for our the fifth and final day.

Starting The Season Right! 1.2

March 22, 2014

It was good to catch up with my brother and his family. Despite the long second day, I stayed up after 2 AM talking with Andy and then fell asleep watching a Bill Burr special on Netflix.

By day three, it all caught up with me. I had four hours of sleep the first night before being on the road for thirteen hours, and here I was with about the same amount of sleep on night two. This time I couldn't shrug it off very well. We were all pretty drained actually, and we figured breakfast would be a good pick-me-up.

We spent the early afternoon washing our bikes, lounging around, and catching up on sleep. A little while later we went on a short ride with Andy around Gilbert. His wife, Kim, and their kids followed us in the car. We waved and made faces at the kids as we passed them on the road. Before long we were all getting hungry, so we rode to a ghost town for dinner.

Later that night we visited Tempe and spent hours walking the streets. Even though we all felt tired and sluggish from the previous day, we were satisfied that we saw everything Arizona had to offer in the short time we were there. Andy and Kim were awesome hosts and we look forward to seeing them again this Spring.

Starting The Season Right! 1.1

March 21, 2014

The next morning was a rough one. I ended up only getting around four hours of sleep, and we had a long day ahead of us. Once we collected our things we left for Las Vegas.

...but not before stopping in Kayenta Village for breakfast. This place was a ghost town when we were here. We arrived just as the shops were opening and ate outside.

It was about 10 AM when we finally finished breakfast and got back on the road. We took SR-18 and met back up with I-15 in Arizona. From there it was a straightaway to Vegas. Originally, we were planning on passing through without stopping, but I had never been to the Harley-Davidson Cafe on the strip. We were glad we checked it out. It was something cool.

From there we traveled along Highway 95 for a couple of hours, passed through Boulder City, and then arrived at our next destination, the Hoover Dam.

It was amazing to see in person. I'm not normally afraid of heights, but this thing will give you the jitters. It reminded me of a video I had once seen of a tourist video that captured a suicide right where we were. The next day I found the video and it blew our minds (no pun intended for those who have seen it). On our way out we pulled off at the Lake Mead viewpoint and took this.

From there, we didn't have anymore sightseeing and it would be a straight shot to my brother's house in Gilbert, Arizona. Around the time we were ready to stretch our legs again we were near the Harley shop in Kingman, Arizona off Route 66. We spent an extra 10 minutes finding it, and then took a load off inside.

There are always a couple mistakes on road trips, and we made our first one here. We figured it was still early enough in the day to enjoy some leisure riding and maybe go out of our way a bit. None of us had ridden on Route 66 before and after talking it over we agreed to explore the historic road a little bit.

Our plan hinged on the road called Hackberry that cuts South from Route 66 and connects with I-40 and Highway 93. We left Kingman and followed Route 66 Northeast for about forty-five minutes before it curved Southeast. After another 10 minutes we flew by a dirt road with railroad tracks crossing it. None of us were sure if this was the road that was on the map and none of us wanted to take it. We decided it couldn't be the road and continued on. Just five minutes later we came to another dirt road, and unfortunately, it was marked as Hackberry.

We were all a little devastated, to be honest. We had ridden over an hour out of our way, only to arrive at a 20 mile-long dirt road. After considering our options, we decided it would be faster to take the dirt road than to backtrack and cut back over, which would probably take at least two more hours.

I've had experience riding dirt bikes off road, but riding a Harley in deep sand and dirt with mud spots and water puddles everywhere is a whole different story. At around fifteen miles per hour we made our way South, each with our legs out ready to try and save the bike if anything happened. At one point, our engines frightened a cow and it ran directly in front of Brad. From where I was it looked like he should have hit it, but somehow he didn't.

After riding for what seemed like an hour we stopped the engines and checked the map. We had only covered a little more than half of the distance of the dirt road. With no other choice, we continued on.

The only silver lining was the last third of the dirt road had patches of asphalt. We were able to increase our speeds at times, but just when we would get excited about it we would encounter another stretch of dirt road.

Finally, up ahead we could see the overpass for I-40. What we didn't realize was that I-40 passed over Hackberry and didn't connect at all. We wasted another 5 minutes investigating any possible entrances to the freeway, but there were none. That meant we had another 5 miles of fun ahead of us.

Later, we finally connected with Highway 93, and pulled off at the first gas station another thirty minutes down the road. We were glad we made it in one piece and that the dirt was behind us. As we refueled our bikes and bodies I called my brother, Andy, to let him know where we were. He informed me we still had at least another three hours of riding ahead of us.

The sun was going down, we were tired, and we had already been on the road for more than nine hours. It ended up taking us 13 hours to get from Kayenta, Utah to Gilbert, Arizona. I can honestly say that day two of this trip was a major adventure. It had ups and downs, but all in all, it was amazing.

Starting The Season Right! 1.0

March 20, 2014

As soon as I decided to buy a Harley, a road trip was implied. I began planning the destination, departure time, duration, as well as all the little things down to a detailed packing list. I set this trip in motion before I even had my new bike. A Facebook event for SL,UT Riders was created, and Brad and Aric had already agreed to go.

We were leaving March 20th and I wanted to have plenty of time to put 1,000 miles on the new bike for its first maintenance before we left. I ended up riding it home on January 7th in 20-30 degree weather, and by the end of the month I had only racked about 100 miles. By the beginning of March, though, I had well over 1,000 miles and had my maintenance done.

March 20th was a Thursday, and it was in the low 50s. Brad met me at my house around noon. We met up with Aric about 20 minutes later at a gas station in Pleasant Grove. The three of us filled up our tanks and set out for St. George. We were on the road for about 75 miles before we pulled off for a pit stop.

We were all excited to be on the road together. Aric had experience with this kind of thing before, but this was Brad's and my first road trip on motorcycles. I was nervous about going the distance, but thanks to Hercules I pressed on. More so, I was nervous about my ass and wind speed causing my neck to get sore. I knew I could make it to St. George with no problems, but I was more concerned with an accumulative effect over the course of five days. After a couple pics, we jumped back on our bikes and pressed on.

Not 10 minutes later the three of us were pulled over for doing 94 MPH. It was a depressing way to start our trip, but I think we were all so excited for the next few days that we didn't care. We decided to take this photo while the cop wrote us up. Luckily, he gave all three of us warnings.

Around 5:30 we arrived in Kayenta where we stayed in a desert bungalow that a friend of my family owns.

With plenty of daylight left we decided to go hiking in nearby Snow Canyon and then grab dinner after. Snow Canyon happens to be a childhood camping spot for Brad, which we didn't know, and by happenstance it was only about 10 minutes away from the bungalow. We unpacked our things, shed some layers, and then left with Brad leading the way.

He took us farther in and led us to a campground his family used to visit like 20 years ago. There, we climbed rock formations until our boyish instincts were satisfied. From above we took photos of our bikes parked below.

After our decent we went back to the bungalow and dressed up for our ride to dinner in the cold. We ate some good food, and then loitered the streets of St. George for a bit. There were jokes and stories and we ended the night watching Fletch back in Kayenta.

Winter Riding

January 4, 2015

Anyone who lives in Utah knows that there are only about six months of actual good riding weather throughout the year. A lot of riders take issue with this and stick it out through maybe eight or nine months despite the cold. It wasn't until last year that I started battling the weather. Brad and I rode through November of 2013, and then I bought my Harley in January.

This year has been one of the first times I've dreaded a winter season for the sole reason of not being able to ride my motorcycle for a few months. A few months ago Aric was at my house and he mentioned he was going to buy heated gear and ride through the Winter season. I have thought about heated gear, but always been deterred by the price tag. For some reason after I heard Aric say that, the price tag didn't seem so bad. I'm always good at rationalizing things for myself, and in this case I figured paying $500 to ride four more months out of the year was well worth it.

Utah has had a relatively mild Winter so far. We still haven't been on any Winter trips, but our short rides around the valley have continued. In October a bunch of us took a ride through Provo Canyon and came back through Parley's.

In November we took a short ride to Saratoga Springs. This was Brad's last ride on his Vulcan. We stopped to get coffee and warm up before heading home.

Brad bought his Harley just a few days before Christmas. Temperatures were in the 30s, but it still hadn't snowed. We rode to the Timpanogos Harley Shop in Lindon and ate at their cafe.

It wasn't until a week ago that the temperatures dropped into the 10s and 20s. Yesterday I put all my gear on and went out for a ride in 19 degrees. First I went to the Harley shop on State in SLC, then to my girlfriend's house in South Jordan. The sun was setting when I rode home. The trip was only about 30 miles, but when I got home I decided those temperatures are too cold.

Today got above freezing so Brad, Keshia, and I went for another ride. First we rode to a Burger King in Layton where we had lunch and de-numbed ourselves. Then we rode to a Best Buy in Ogden where we did likewise. Finally, we turned around and headed home. Here are a couple from today.

The Winter Solstice was two weeks ago, and every day we gain a couple minutes of warmth. I foresee many winter rides to come.

Evanston, Wyoming

January 4, 2015

Evanston is the closest city over state lines from Salt Lake. Because of this, many people will travel there for non-local beer or buy fireworks that are illegal in Utah. Brad and I have both been there prior to any trips on our bikes. We performed with our band at the Youth Opportunities Unlimited Center in Evanston more than once, so we were both familiar with the area and felt like it was in our backyard, more or less.

In June of 2013 Brad and Aric rode to Evanston specifically to buy Fat Tire by New Belgian, a beer that was unavailable in Utah at that time. Brad said he loaded his backpack completely for the return trip, which his back thanked him for later.

A month later I made the trip on my Vulcan to Phantom Fireworks in Evanston. At that point, it was the longest ride I had been on and about 200 miles round trip. On the way there I pulled over off an exit and took this photo.

In July of 2014 I decided to make it a tradition and took the trip again. I wasn't very satisfied with the fireworks I picked up the year earlier so I set out to find the good stuff. After riding the 95 miles to Phantom Fireworks I purchased 2 packs of Roman Candles, with 7 candles per pack. I also purchased a roll of 1,000 firecrackers and a pack of 144 bottle rockets, both of which are still sitting in my pantry.

 

Brother's Baptism

January 4, 2015

Growing up in West Valley in the 80s and 90s, I remember a motorcycle sitting at the side of our driveway, collecting rust. Once upon a time, my dad had a couple different motorcycles. After getting married he was less inclined to ride and eventually gave it up. If I remember right, the rotting bike at the side of our driveway was slowly dissected, piece by piece, until it was completely thrown away.

Riding a motorcycle has always been discouraged by my parents, especially by my mom. They always stated the obvious--motorcycles are more vulnerable than cars. That didn't stop me from buying a bunch, and it didn't stop one of my brothers from buying his first bike in March of 2013. Andy, my second oldest brother, bought a bike identical to the ones Brad and I purchased together in 2012, except his is two years newer--a 2011 Kawasaki Vulcan Custom 900.

A few months after Andy bought his bike, he and his family moved to Gilbert, Arizona. This is what prompted our trip in the Spring of 2013 when we saw Snow Canyon, the Harley-Davidson Cafe on the Las Vegas strip, the Hoover Dam, Route 66, and the Grand Canyon. This year we are making it an annual tradition and doing it again over spring break.

Emigration Canyon

January 3, 2015

I had never been to Emigration Canyon until Brad was the leader on a short ride we took through a canyon in October of 2013. It's a perfect ride on a warm day when you want to escape the city for a little while without being gone very long. The road that passes by the Utah Hogle Zoo turns into a little road that leads through the canyon with houses on each side, as if it were any other street. Eventually, the road opens up and there is a winding road incline to a summit.

The first time I went on this ride with Brad must have been a very good day for it because there were at least a dozen motorcycles at the summit viewpoint. After the descent the road passes a dam and connects with I-80 in Parley's Canyon.

Since then, I have been back to this view point in Emigration Canyon several times. I remember the second time in November of 2013 was one of the coldest rides we'd been on. Brad and I jumped off our bikes long enough to take a picture and then we hurried home to thaw. I can think of a few other cold moments I've had, but that one definitely ranks.

Soon after our November ride we put our bikes away for the Winter. We didn't head back out to Emigration again until May of 2014. This was just a few days before Brad left for his deployment to the Middle East for six months. Unfortunately, he would miss almost the entire 2014 riding season.

My next Emigration ride was in June and I was alone.

In August I went back to the summit with my girlfriend. It was her first time there and she enjoyed the ride and view.

The last Emigration ride of 2014 was in October with my girlfriend again.

The first Emigration ride of 2015 was Friday, February 6. Brad recently purchased a GoPro and was testing it out for our trip next month. Here is our ride sped up 1500x.

I'm always looking for scenic loops that won't take the whole day, as well as ones with a decent speed limit. Emigration Canyon is a perfect hidden gem that not many know about.