Great to be back at TMW. I just finished my big trip last night. Ten days and 3700 miles total. Last night I made a dash home from Trementon in northern Utah to Phoenix. 730 miles in 13.5 hrs. My butt still hurts from that one.
Overall, there were few problems, other than needing a new rear tire after the first thousand miles. Yesterday, the bike was making some clunking sounds when accelerating from a stop. I adjusted the chain, but it didn't go away. It didn't happen once I got up to speed, so I suspect I have a binding link in the chain (which has already seen 22K miles of use). That was one reason I decided on making a mad dash for home yesterday. I'll be checking it out more thoroughly in the next few days.
The only other problem was hitting a bird with my helmet about 10 min. out of Phoenix. It tore the visor mounting hardware off the left side of the helmet. At the next town, I came up with this solution that lasted the whole trip :
The trip started on 8/3 with a dash out of the desert heat (90 degrees at 6:00 AM) towards Southestern Colorado. The plan was to ride the the Million Dollar Highway through the Rockies from Durango, CO, through the old mining town of Silverton, and on down to Ouray and Montrose. This road has three passes that top 10K feet. This is one of them :
The scenery on this road is pretty impressive. Here's a pic near the summit of a pass near Ouray :
About then it started raining, so I put on my raingear and pulled out my bike's rain gear. Rather than waterproofing each piece, I'd saved the big plastic bag that came covering my 37" flatscreen TV. It was a huge sturdy bag and it worked perfectly :
Afterwards I headed up CO State Route 139 towards Utah. This is a beatifully empty and twisty road that follows a canyon up to an 8,400 ft pass, then back down the other side. Great ride!
My third day was wasted riding around Northern Utah, looking for a bike shop that would both sell me, and mount a tire. I visited every bike shop in Evanston, WY and Ogden, UT. They were either too busy to mount the tire, or didn't have the right size in stock (the Nighthawk has an oddball tire size). By chance, I happened to see a bike shop as I was headed down I-15 into Salt Lake. The service guys recognized that I was on a trip and were happy to help me out (even though they were very busy), unlike most of the shops I'd tried. If you're ever in the SLC area and need service, check out Donnie and the gang at Full Throttle Motorcycles. They are an honest class act.
After wasting a day hunting tires, I camped out in in the Cache National Forest that night and proceeded up the western edge of Wyoming to Grand Teton and Yellowstone parks. My ultimate destination was West Yellowstone, MT, where I had friends and was going to camp in the Pilots' Campground at the airport. Tourist traffic into the parks was insane when I hit Jackson, WY. I dediced on a quick detour west over the Teton range on Wyoming route 22. This was a fantastic bike road with a wild 10% grade on either side of the pass. Continueing on to West Yellowstone on the Idaho side of the Tetons was a great idea.
Eventually, I arrived at the West Yellowstone Airport for three days of local riding and hiking. Normally, you need an airplane to be allowed to camp there, but I was granted an exception since I've been going there for 18 yrs.:
One of my local rides was to Earthquake Lake. A relatively new lake that was formed when a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck in August 1959. The whole side of a mountain caved into a canyon dammed the Madison River, forming a new lake. Unfortunately, there were quite a few campers in the canyon and 28 were killed. 17 of them still rest under the 80 million tons of rock. The ride to the lake follows the Madison river into the narrow canyon, with lots of stops to see earthquake related features. It's a fun ride. Here's a pic of the slide from the lake side. After 49 yrs the slide area of the mountain is still mostly bare :
After visiting some friends in Central Idaho, it was on to motorcycle nirvana. U.S. Highway 12 from Lolo, MT (near Missoula) to Kooskia, ID. This road is a motorcycling religious experience. The run is about 110 miles, twisting through a rugged canyon in a mostly uninhabited part of Idaho. Unlike other scenic roads, this one has no towns, so there is very little traffic. Nothing but you, your bike and the twisty canyon road. Here's the famous sign :
Here are a few pics I took along the way :
On my way back down south, I picked up U.S 95 and rode it down along the Salmon River, through Hell's Canyon towards McCall, ID :
At Mcall, I switched over to Idaho State Route 55, which is a beatuiful run down the Cascade Valley, then turns into a narrow, twisty canyon to follow the Payette River down towards Boise. The Payette is one of the wildest rivers around. It's solid whitewater for a good part of it's length, before settling down to something rafters can enjoy :
After Boise, I decided it was time to make the run home. I hit the Interstate on Monday afternoon and rolled into my driveway on Tuesday night. I knew the interstate highway system was good for something
