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Capital Reef/ Southern Utah 2003

The last tour before the 2003 Arctic Tour.  This was a trial run for the equipment and gear that will be used on the Arctic Tour.  From sleeping bags and  tie-down straps, to food rations, this was the final test.  The training tour took place in Southern Utah, traversing some of the most beautiful terrain in America.

The tour started Saturday afternoon in Salt Lake City.  The cold and rain was probably indicative of what is to be expected on the Arctic Tour, although in this case, it would only last the first 200 miles.  After arriving in Moab (the starting point of the actual ride), the weather changed to a balmy 90 degrees.  From Moab we headed south on HWY 191 to Blanding, Utah where the true riding began.

From Blanding, HWY 95 was taken 130 miles across Lake Powell to Harding, Utah.  This is an incredible highway, starting almost immediately with a myriad of descending chicane curves, interspersed with rolling straight-aways and the occasional hairpin.  The landscape was incredible as well; juniper forests among large rock formations and tall grasses lining the narrow roadway on either side.  We were able to admire the passing landscape on each straightaway, before downshifting and diving into the next chicane.  This was total bliss, and only a small sample of things to come.

Just prior to reaching Lake Powell and the Colorado River, the road changes to long (although sometimes tight) sweeping bends, following the contours of massive buttes in a sage desert.  We opened our machines up, ducking into the shadows of the buttes around each bend in the late afternoon sun.  Speeds dropped into the double digits only when even the most aggressive counter-steering couldn't hold  a course through the tighter bends.

The open desert landscape changed to a massive upheaval of rock and deep canyons in the vicinity of Lake Powell and the Colorado River.  After crossing the Colorado, the riding changed to narrow canyons with linked turns and steep grades.  Occasionally, after sweeping out of a turn, the canyon would widen, permitting a glimpse of Lake Powell or one of its tributaries.  The late afternoon sun was fading quickly, but we managed to make it out of the canyons and up onto the high desert plateau heading towards Harding, Utah.  Realizing we had yet to find a place to camp, we hastened our riding to make it to Harding.  In the evening dusk, I could make out the outlines of the buttes and canyons where we would be tomorrow, beyond the massive outlines of the 10,000 foot+ Henry Mountains which ran parallel to our current course, only a few  miles away.  At Harding, we stopped to get fuel and met a guy who was touring on a BMW from California.  He had just bought a six pack of Mike's Hard Lemonade, and luckily for us, didn't have enough room for the whole six pack-- so out of the kindness of our hearts, we offered to take a couple so he didn't have to throw them out.

About 20 miles past Harding, Utah, on HWY 24, we found a small campground.  It was about 10PM and completely dark.  After pulling up to a seemingly closed registration desk, a man on a four wheeler pulled up and asked us if we were lost.   After some small talk, and finding out that the Hawaiian bikini team wasn't staying at this campground, we decided to stay anyway and had the guy lead us to a campsite in the dark.  Little did we know that we would literally have to drive right through the middle of two other campsites to get to ours.  The guy on the four wheeler moved lawn chairs and coolers so we could get our bikes through.  I felt bad that the people in the tents (only ten feet away) had to listen to my Kerker exhaust as we drove through their campsite at 10PM... I guess at least it gave them a warning of what they were about to hear at 6:30AM the next morning.

After erecting the four season expedition tent, and realizing that it really sucked setting it up in the dark and that it would probably not make the cut for the Arctic tour, we proceeded to break out the nights dinner-- US Military issue MREs (Meal Ready to Eat) straight from Iraq via eBay.  More specifically we had meals number 3 and 5-- pasta and vegetables, and my current favorite, "Chunked and Formed Turkey with Potatoes".  As gross as these sound, they taste absolutely incredible, especially after 500 miles of hard riding.  The entrees were complimented by the Mike's Hard Lemonade (2003 vintage), provided by the guy back in Harding.

The next morning, after enlightening the entire campground to what a CBR1100xx Super Blackbird with race exhaust sounds like at 6:30 in morning, we continued riding west into the Escalante Grand Staircase.  The roads were unbelievable.  Sharp linked turns through rock formations and canyons that would blow your mind.  The engineer who designed these roads had to be a rider.  On some sections, the landscape drops hundreds of feet on one, and sometimes both sides of the road-- making your heart sink as you carve around a turn, realizing that the shoulder of the road is now 300 feet below you.

We stopped at a small cafe for a late morning breakfast and met a guy from Salt Lake who was riding a BMW RS1200.  Apparently he was on his way home from a BMW rally in Panquitch, Utah.  We ended up seeing several BMW riders on the road afterwards.  After a decent breakfast of eggs and toast, and having to listen to the yuppie family from the seventh layer of hell at the table next to us, we hit the road with a renewed appreciation of how cool motorcycle trips are as opposed to yuppie family outings.

The next stop on the tour was Marysvale, Utah.  This was a pretty town, however we quickly realized that this town was where they got the idea for the movie "Deliverance".  It all started when we pulled into a gas station and realized we where the only two people not on four wheelers.   We just figured there was a four wheeler ride that day or something like that, until my friend asked a guy playing a banjo on a bench in front of the gas station what was going on (ok, maybe he wasn't really playing a banjo, but I guarantee you he had just left it at home that day).  It turns out that  everyone in this town rides four wheelers as their primary form of transportation.  We believed him after two 90 year old grandmas pulled up on a pair of camouflage-colored four wheelers with gun racks.  Then there was the old guy who stood ten feet in front of us and stared at us as we got gas.   In fact, everyone there pretty much stared at us the entire time, including the banjo guy and the fat kid chewing straw sitting next to him.  I was just waiting to hear the words, "you got a mighty fine ass, boy" from one of them.  Needless to say we road out of Marysvale (just inside the limits of the twilight zone) pretty damn fast.

The terrain gradually gave way to a straight roads with sweeping bends through typical high desert forests, canyons, and plateaus.  Just prior to reaching I-70,  we were passing through a narrow river valley that appeared to have a lot of rocks on the asphalt-- that is until we realized that the rocks were hopping.  For about 4 miles we smashed and carved our way through herds, flocks (or whatever) of Mormon crickets.  These things are gross, especially when the guy in front of you runs them over at 80+ miles per hour.  At I-70 we bid our farewells and headed home.  The following are the tour statistics from Salt Lake City.

Total mileage: 850 miles (Starting and ending in Salt Lake City)

Total riding time: 12 hours

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