ride report and pictures from may

[denver_whitest185]

I just realized that i never posted my ride report from my utah trip. I posted this on ADVrider, so its a copy from that. Now that the bike is running again, and even more goodies like a touring tank bag, I'm thinking im going to try my trip again mid august, picking up where i left off.

Day one-
Set out @ 3:45 am from fort collins to aurora colorado with my girlfriend driving behind me. she was going out to vermont for the week to visit one of her friends since she just graduated from CSU. i followed her on my bike and we dropped her car off at my grandma's. i finally left aurora after loading up my bike at 6:30 am, which was just early enough to beat rush hour. (i know, the way i loaded everything sucked. i did a much better job reloading it the next day)

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e344/tedehrlich80227/IMGP0954.jpg

I hit the utah border at 11 am with almost 400 miles on my trip odometer since leaving fort collins.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e344/tedehrlich80227/IMGP0957.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e344/tedehrlich80227/IMGP0959.jpg

I don't have many photos of the first day, but i got to the nevada border at around 4:30 pm.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e344/tedehrlich80227/IMGP0970.jpg

i ended up camping at the second campsite in at strawberry creek at great basin national park.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e344/tedehrlich80227/IMGP0972.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e344/tedehrlich80227/IMGP0975.jpg

Mileage from day 1
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e344/tedehrlich80227/IMGP0991.jpg

[denver_whitest185]

Day 2

I woke up early, repacked, and made breakfast. drove myself out of the strawberry creek site, and did the wheeler peak senic drive through great basin np. of course i had to do the "bike parked in the middle of hw-50" shot :cyber:

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e344/tedehrlich80227/IMGP0985.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e344/tedehrlich80227/IMGP0995-1.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e344/tedehrlich80227/IMGP1001.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e344/tedehrlich80227/IMGP1003.jpg

when the visitor center opened, i bought the federal land pass, which came with a 90 minute cave tour. the leman caves were awesome. ive been through a few big cave systems like carlsbad, jewel cave, and a few caves in colorado, and this one was very unique. you were literally inches away from the formations, and there were some very spectacular formations.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e344/tedehrlich80227/IMGP1007.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e344/tedehrlich80227/IMGP1051.jpg

when i was leaving, i met a guy on a harley named Tom. He had been touring north america since last june, and had been all over canada, up to prudehoe bay, all the way south through baja, and more. he had 183,000 miles on his harley, and was a very nice guy.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e344/tedehrlich80227/IMGP1064.jpg

Next on my route was brian's head and cedar breaks. then disaster struck. about 15 miles south of minersville on UT-130, the bike died. i had it towed to cedar city, where me an a mechanic spend an hour on it trying to see if it burt a valve or piston, couldn't find anything definitive. i ended up spending the night camping on ut-14 just outside of the city.

[denver_whitest185]

Day 3

I got back to the shop that the bike was at when it opened, and worked with the mechanic to check everything that he wanted. when we put the valve cover back on, put some new spark plugs in, and a fresh 2 quarts of synthetic, we fired her up and found cylinder 1 was knocking horribly. At that point, i knew the bike couldn't be fixed quickly, and my trip was over. I called up my friend wheeler to see if he was headed out this way, since i knew he was taking a trip out to California at some point. He ended up dropping everything, and said he would drive out that night, and be in cedar city sometime the next morning.

To make the best of things, and since my friend wouldn't be there for about 24 hours, i got a lift to the kolob section of zion just south of cedar city, and hiked about 5 miles in and stayed the night there.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e344/tedehrlich80227/IMGP1140.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e344/tedehrlich80227/IMGP1072.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e344/tedehrlich80227/IMGP1130.jpg

Day 4

I hiked my way back out of zion that morning. my friend came and picked me and the bike up, and we headed back to fort collins.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e344/tedehrlich80227/IMGP1141.jpg

[Keepitgreen]

Damn cool story.. bummer about the bike though..

[denver_whitest185]

the bike is up and running again now, so its not so bad after all. i swapped in a new engine off a 94 ninja with 12000 miles on it (less than my 06).

[stimacsays]

Thanks for telling your story. Its a great one.
I hope you have many more, with ending that have you RIDE it home. Good on ya.

[Cars-R-Coffins]

Good friend. Nice rescue vehicle.

[Zach929rr]

Nice rescue vehicle.

+1 I like the duallie tow vehicle. Great pics and I hope the road treats you a little kinder next time.