TO- Col - Utah - ARZ - SD - Jack FL - Dragon - Home

[NightShadow]

This is the route of what we were doing on this trip. I won't bore you with a lot of writing.
Just a few comments and Pics. We did approx 8,000 Miles in 14 days.

2 days to Colorado so no real pics. Next day is Mtn Evans at close to 15,000 feet.
The Highest paved road in North America.

This is a small ways up the Mtn

Just having some fun.

Mtn Evans Parking lot

Took us forever to climb up here to the very top.

Always have to have a Girl's pic

When you come out of Mtn Evans and go further down the road - there is a couple of Nasty @$$ roads
and are fabulous to ride. We Zigzaged all the way down to Pikes Peak. We entered the road up and
saw this first. We had to stop and ask the Main man if a new bike was in my future.

 

[NightShadow]

This is at 10,000 feet.

From this point we left Pikes Peak and headed to the middle of Colorado and went through
Aspen and the Independence Pass. These roads were just a zigzag almost all the way.
We don't have many pics in Aspen as we did a lot of video. Same with most other
places we did.

 

[NightShadow]

From this point we zigzaged to very close to Grand Junction and the National Monument.
Had to hit Hwy for about 40 miles.

At this point we had to hit Hwy for 70 miles to a small Twisty road that takes you
into Moab and the Arches

 

[NightShadow]

From here we headed to Hwy and did 100 mile ride to some twisty road and headed
down Bryson Canyon. We were on a lot of Fabulous roads and road Caynon roads
for 2 days. Scenery was Spectacular.

We stopped here for something and it was a very old info place and very cool inside.

In this part of the country - everything is wide open and we found this little guy
in the ditch by himself.

We came around one corner and was a bunch of these all over the road.
was 2 guys trying to get them off the road.

Some of the Caynon Roads and the first one is Nasty. 2 S turns with no room at the
side of the road for mistakes. If you go off road then it is a 5 or 6000 foot drop.

From here we are heading into Bryson Caynon

 

[NightShadow]

From this point we Zigzaged over to Zion.So far all the riding has been Fabulous.
Zion was so amazing.

A couple of Ladies from the South of France over enjoying their holiday. They
were heading to where we had just come from and we were heading to there last
spot. They were very friendly and we had to speak very slow for them to
understand us. They wanted their pic taken on bikes.

If you have never been to Zion - they have this tunnel that is very long
that you have to travel through and only 1 lane of traffic at a time.
Us just waiting to get through.

Just outside the other side of this tunnel we just went through.

After we left here

 

[NightShadow]

We started to head to the Grand Caynon

When we stopped for a late breakfast we ran into these guys with their wives.
They were on a tour in most places we visited. There was 12 cars in all and
were Pre 1930's. All orginal. I talked to this one below. Very cool cars.

And now the Big One

I have never been to the Grand Caynon but my bud has. While riding
in this is the first thing I saw. Had to just stand and take it
all in.

This seemed so out of place as we walked around.

 

[NightShadow]

A little closer to the edge and it was one long Drop

From here it was out to San Diego for a few days rest.
A few rain small rain Storms.

San Diego Beach Area. 3/4's of the women had surf boards.

Now someone decided to go for a swim & it wasn't me. LOL
Temps were above 95F. Way to hot for me.

Now comes our Iron @$$ Ride from the beach in San Diego to the
Beach in Jacksonville Florida. A coast to coast ride that has
to be done in 50 hours or less. Sorry no pics but I will make
it brief. (Just a note that I like weather no more then 75F to
80F otherwise I melt away)

Left San Diego beach at 6am and riding temp was 77f and got
through the mountains Ok. But when we hit the desert it shot
up to a riding temp of 95F within a minute. After some time
we were melting away. The stops were a bit longer to get some
cool off in store and lots of water in us.
When we got to Arizona and New Mexico and first part of Texas
it rained cats and dogs on us for just over 500 miles. This was
really draining us of energy. We stopped around noon the next
day at some rest stop and had a rest. Darek slept on his bike
(layed out ) and I just found a picnic table and put my head
and fell asleep. Hour and half later he wakes me up and says
I was snoring like crazy. Oh well. So we continued on with
very high temps in Texas and no more rain that god. We thought
we were never going to get across. Somewhere around 2 in the
morning we stopped for gas in Pensacola in the middle of no
where and just 2 cars way down the road from us. We pulled out
past the stop sign and all of a sudden I see all these blinking
lights. Oh ^^$^$^$^^ - The officer says to me ( bud is 100 feet
up in front of me ) You guys don't like stop signs. I said that I
almost stopped and rolled through very slowly. Asks for Lic and
show him. He says on vacation - yup - Ok I am not going to ticket
you but u are in the system now. He and his buddies walk away and
we continue on. Close call. My buddy gets away with out even a
talking to. We hit the beach in Jacksonville FL around 8 or 9 in
the morning. The last few miles we were so wiped out we almost
don't remember the roads we took. Thank god it was over.
So coast to coast is done and the 2000 in 48 got covered on
this ride. It took us 46 hours and a few mins.

Spent almost the next 24 hours sleeping. Next day headed
to one of our favourite spots - the Smoky Mountain area.
We wanted to check out a new road in the area.

I have video below with a small clip of what it is like.
It is more technical then the dragon. It is 11 miles and the
last mile is hard graveland stone. (only bad part of the road )
Take a look at how many cars and Motorcycles use this road.
What a treat.


http://youtu.be/cGgNae3SkKE


I have to thank my riding partner as he keeps things light. When we
hit all that rain he Kept me going and laughing through it all.
We have traveled many thousands of miles together on different
trips and just enjoy each others company and riding together.
So when is the next big Adventure???????
Thanks buddy.

 

[MacDoc]

That's over 900 km a day!!!! _ Yikes - you guys boogied.

oh I see

Now comes our Iron @$$ Ride from the beach in San Diego to the
Beach in Jacksonville Florida. A coast to coast ride that has
to be done in 50 hours or less.

Did you have comms?

Rain really gets to you if it lasts.

Rain and cold ......yuck.

Good stuff. I just came back from the Smokies - won't be my last time there. Great area to wander...next time in warmer weather
and longer daylight. Noticed you ran to the same "sort of wet" patches that seem a feature of the roads there.

[video=youtube_share;cGgNae3SkKE]http://youtu.be/cGgNae3SkKE[/video]

One thing I liked about Virginia over PA is far less road signs and corner speed signs ( tho when it said 15 mph good idea to take it easy! )

Think I just inspired my kid to do 3 weeks next June at not quite the same pace.

We did Grand Canyon, Zion and Bryce and Arches last November by cage and really enjoyed it.

good trip good pics

 

[NightShadow]

Did you have comms? - Yes but we hardly use them. More for the night riding. I have mine for my music.
We only had the 2 big rides really - Tor to Col and San Diego to Jacksonville FL.
Other then that from start of Colorado it was a bit slower doing twisty roads all day.
Just did Mtn Evans and zigzagged to Pikes Peak. That would take us all day.

 

[cbr19]

Awesome thanks for sharing

 

[Paul1000RR]

Now thats a ride!