No Thru Traffic

From Fountain, CO we headed southwest towards Mesa Verde National Park in hopes to have a cheap place to sleep and some cool cave dwellings to see in the morning.

The ride along 50 then south on 550 was probably one of our better rides yet. It snaked us through the Rockies and revealed some really cool little towns along the way. The weather was up and down pretty much all day – going from pretty warm, to rain, to very cold, and back again.

We went through two 10,000+ foot high passes so my bike ran like it had no power for most of the day. Approaching and then passing Red Mountain was something else. The river that flowed from the mountain was a reddish yellow and the ground was bright red. Apparently it used to be a pretty big mining spot that has since turned into a four-wheelin’ destination.

Mesa Verde National Park has a massive campground. It’s 425+ spots rarely fill up so a lot of them are starting to be reclaimed by the land. It’s a stark contrast to the amount of openings we are used to seeing. It was a perfect temperature for sleeping and in the morning we headed out to see some of the cliff dwellings the park is known for.

Some of them are a couple thousand years old yet still seem like you could live in them today. It was eerie and impressive to walk through the dwelling.

After leaving Chipotle Mecca, which is apparently known by some as Denver, we headed south to Colorado Springs. Working on some hot leads by our local pal, Jack, we wanted to check out a few things around this awesome part of the state.

Following some more freeway slogging, we made a quick stop at the Air Force Academy and toured the campus. I immediately had a cold sweat as I kept it under the posted limit and crept past the security checkpoint. I thought that I was breaking some law and anticipated a swarm of Military to cut off my path and throw me in jail for interrorgation at any second. But it never happened, and we ninja-ed on to the visitor center where we were almost convinced to join the Air Force and try our hands as cadets.

From there it was on to the Garden of the Gods to see more rocks. Rocks are big in Colorado. And these rocks were some of the coolest.

Being avid Gran Turismo champions and amateur motorsports fans, we have heard of Pike’s Peak for it’s famed international hill climb long before we heard that it’s view was inspiration for “America the Beautiful”. So we wanted to climb the peak to see if we could make the 19 mile accent faster than the record holder from Japan. It turns out 14,000 feet is a long ways up. My carbureted bike sputtered, lost almost all power and limped along at full-throttle. Old Blue made it though, all the way to the top.

Ryan wasn’t so fortunate – a stop for road construction meant he just couldn’t get going afterwards and fell short just a few switchbacks.

When I arrived at the summit, I was greeted with low-40 degree weather, spectacular views, and a strong sense of accomplishment. The road was packed gravel and dirt for a few miles and the bike’s low power had me wondering if I would ever see the summit. But the road and the ride was awesome. One of the best ever.

When it started to hail and snow, I got the hell out of there. A few thousand feet below and it turned to rain for the rest of the harrowing ride down.

Soon after we  attempted to infiltrate NORAD via the Cheyenne Mountain State Park only to find all of their tent sites filled. So we went south to our always sure bet, a KOA. We arrived moments before the biggest storm yet. It was literally dumping buckets of rain, thunder filled our ears and lightning blurred our vision. I witnessed the tent of a Harley rider succumbing to the weather and rushed over to try and help him save all his stuff from the flood. I did little to help, but we made a new friend that night and enjoyed listening to the 49 year-old Missourian’s stories of his youth – including how much hard time he has done, how he and his buddies inspired the movie Cheech and Chong, and how he has now been straight for several years.

In the morning he took to us so much that he proceeded to model his many new Harley shirts he has aquired during his journey and then demonstrated the perfect way to tie a bandana.

For him, as he reminded us every couple minutes, it was all about the wind in his face and the sun on his back. Really cool guy.

The beard is getting thicker...

Up until we reached Denver we had always camped. Sometimes we were in State or National Parks, others we were in RV parks mingling with the lifetime wanderers. But we never had a bed.

Well after we left the largest swarm of mosquitos yet, we headed straight for Denver. I had received on unsolicited email from a friend, Jack Jensen, who gave us some great tips and suggestions while traveling though his home state of Colorado. He also said that if we wanted a place to stay then we could crash at his place just outside of Denver. But he wasn’t home.

With some great hesitation, we took him up on his offer and arrived at his parents’ house in Littleton. I’ve met the Jensens only once, but they took us into their home with open arms and the type of hospitality and generosity that you very rarely see. It felt great to take a nice shower, watch some TV, chat with kind folk, eat a home-cooked meal, and sleep in a nice comfortable bed.

I honestly can’t get over how awesome the Jensens were in accepting us into their home – I never expected to receive such treatment. Jack’s mom, Anne, even took us around town and showed us a local park. Apparently we arrived in Denver just in time to catch the Intergalactic Volleyball Championship, as there were hundreds of nets set up all over the place. I guess volleyball is kind of big deal in Denver.

And so is rollerbladding and funny hats.

It’s too bad we don’t have more friends along our route. If they were just half as kind and welcoming as the Jensens who we just met, then this trip would be plush.

My new chain!

Maybe 10 people will be interested in this…

So as you may have gathered, I had a real shitty time dealing with my chain all the time. After the first long ride it had turned red, was bone dry, and needed a ton of tightening. After repeating this cycle and discovering new terribly tight and terribly loose sections everytime, it finally got to the point where it was either going to catastrophically fail, or it needed to be replaced.

I even had a shop in northern Utah claim that they had a chain for me, only to get all the way there and find out that they had a chain a few links too short. Instead of taking their advice of just adding a couple links of my old chain to the new one, which would have been terrible, I just had them take a few links out to give me some more adjustment. It was stretched, but still had some life left in it.

It always seemed like a smaller chain than it should have been, but I attributed it to my lack of knowledge on the subject. However when I finally found myself in Moab, UT with a chain that was skipping teeth and bright red I decided my life and motorcycle was worth getting a new one. Somehow a tiny and awesome shop in Moab had my chain – a rare find considering no one within 100 miles of northern Utah had one.

And when I had him put the new chain on for me, we all discovered why this one had been such a pain in the ass. It turns out that it wasn’t an O-ring chain – meaning that it would need constant lubrication in order to work properly. It’s so senseless to have my chain that I didn’t even consider it wasn’t a normal O-ring chain. No wonder it was so small. No wonder it needed constant lubrication. No wonder it was red hot. And no wonder it failed so quickly with so many constant miles.

Good thing the first shop didn’t add a couple of my old links to a new chain. Not even they noticed that it wasn’t an O-ring chain.

Anyway, now I should be all set. My sprockets seem to have at least 5,000 more miles on them so I should be able to get home.

I need a shaft-driven bike.

I cant help but relate our trip to the song by The Shangri-Las called Leader of The Pack. Mainly because its the only song that involves motorcycles, engine noises and candy stores. Since we have both been spending lots of our time at the candy shops drinking malts and talking about boys it only seems plausible that Leader of The Pack was written about us. You probably think I am crazy when I talk about how hard and edgy we are, how we ride all day through fire and shoot flames from our exhaust. You may think its all a joke and that we are just two nice young adults out on holiday. Well we were cute when we started but riding has changed us. When we are out all day on the highway burning up the asphalt we started to change. Our skin became thick with dirt and bugs. Our diets of raw cow and deer have increased out muscles. Somewhere along the way we lost our shirts so our skin has become leather and our eyes have started to become mean and dark from the sand and grime. Our bikes have turned into machines with minds of their own and our gear has become more intimidating. When we ride through town mothers rush out to lock up their daughters, men cry and dogs bark. We are road warriors now, our homes are on the highway. If you still dont believe me, this most recent photo of us will have you eating your words.

Alex and I on I-70 East towards Denver

Life on the road is no easy ride. We have to make good time and food is scarce so we end up eating at Subway a lot. I usually get a veggie footlong and Alex gets a combination of meats. We usually make it a meal and get the chips and drinks, but Alex usually saves the chips for tent time later. Earlier today shortly before the previous picture was taken Alex was riding ahead and his subway chip bag exploded all over the highway. I burned rubber and was able to follow close enough behind to catch the chips in my mouth as they glided through the air. Lucky for me they were Baked Lays which allowed them to stay adrift much longer. As Alex watched in his mirror he later compared it to a fish jumping out of a stream to catch bugs.

Yesterday we left Zion and headed to Bryce Canyon. We ate some microwave burritos and talked about how much room I had in my saddle bags for cosmetics. The Canyons were pretty amazing and we spent a lot of time taking photos and wandering around. After that we headed to Capitol Reef and had a gorgeous ride along a ridgeline where each side of us was sheer cliffs and then plains as far as you could see. We ended our day in a KOA in Hanksville where we hid in our tent from the spider that guarded the power outlet.

Bryce Canyon

Today was a long day. We went through our morning routine of complaining about who has more stuff to pack and sorting through our yardsale to figure out who’s sock was who’s. We hit the highway and headed to Arches National Park. It was roughly 190 degrees when we decided to blow that popsicle stand and head to somewhere colder. The Moab desert was not a good choice. If only life were like a Capri Sun commercial. We had a delicious Mexican lunch in town and then poured out into the heat once again. Alex wanted to see if he could take all of his stuff off his bike, so he did. Then he had to put it all back on and we headed to a local mechanic to get Alex a new chain. After the new chain was on we got back on the highway and aimed towards Denver. We made it all the way to halfway to Denver before it started to get dark. So tonight we slumber in an RV park right off i-70.

Easy Rider highway

-Ryan

Its been over 10 days now and some may be wondering what it is that we do all day,  what we find to eat while traveling or how we find time to write this blog.  Maybe you are questioning how we manage to stay so physically fit and beautiful in such harsh circumstances. Or how do we keep up on the latest T.V Guide listings or soap dramas. It seems only suitable that I put together a Q&A to answer all these questions.

What do you do when you wake up: Snooze the alarm for 30 to 60 minutes depending how hot and smelly it is in the tent.

Morning Routine: Groan in agony at how hot and smelly we are.

General Breakfast Food: Spoon Full Of Peanut Butter and warm water

How long does it take to pack up camp: Its no longer a camp after the first 10 minutes of being there. It becomes a yard sale. Our bikes become clotheslines and the table no longer is usable. It takes 40 to 60 minutes to sort through it all and pack.

How often do you shower: About every 3 to 4 days

How often do you wash clothes: Never

Favorite T.V Show: My Super Sweet Sixteen

General lunch food: Subway

Theme song for the Trip: The Weight by Smith

Most eXtreme moment: Watching a wheel fall off a truck going 30 mph. The wheel bounced and flew off and the truck ground its rotor along the ground and created a shower of sparks which we wheelied through while throwing up the “Rock On” hand sign. Pics to follow

What do you do upon arrival at the campsites: Complain about our disgusting appearance and filth. Talk about Chipotle then spoon peanut butter.

General Dinner food: Bag of pasta and the cheapest spaghetti sauce and Gatorade

Before Bed: We usually giggle and tell secrets

Evening Activities: Complain about the lack of backed chairs

-Ryan

I knew that this was going to be a pretty dirty trip – we probably wouldn’t be smelling or looking too nice. But I somehow thought that smelling and being dirty would be my choice, rather than it being forced upon me. That’s until I camped in national parks.

Despite their beauty and general awesomeness, none of the national parks we have camped in have had showers. How is this possible? I mean they get millions of visitors every year, and it’s not like it’s back country camping or anything – we are a couple miles from a town at the most.

Yet none of them have showers.

Just recently in Zion I tried very hard to bathe after a long hike. After all, I have wounds to tend to. But even after riding into town to the local RV Park I was turned away. I was there ready to pay the ridiculous price of $5 for a 6 minute shower yet they wouldn’t have me. Maybe they thought I would clog their drain with my filth. But they said that they were just too full. There wasn’t a single other place within 20 miles of the park that I could offer an arm and a leg in exchange for a shower.

And I wasn’t allowed to bathe at the faucet in camp either. Even when all I was doing was cleaning my wounds a park ranger rolled up on me in his cop car and made me stop.

Ridiculous.

Come on national parks, get with the program, I smell.

We awoke from our slumber at another awesome KOA in Fillmore really early to try and make it to Zion in time to get a first-come, first-served camping spot. But as is typical of my packing, it took me an hour to put the mountain of crap back onto my bike. After another terrible freeway bout, we made it to Zion before 11:00 and secured our spot regardless.

On the first day I made Ryan hike up Angel’s Landing with me – something that I wanted to do last time I was in Zion but never got around to it. I was reminded quickly just how incredible my physical condition is. Luckily I could blame my slow pace on my knee rather than my lung capacity. Ryan also has a bum knee from twisting it while hiking in Glacier – it still hasn’t gotten much better. On top of our pathetic ails, we chose to start the hike during the coolest part of the day – about 1:30. It was over 100 degrees and miserable.

But the views and experience more than made up for it. After making it to Scout’s Lookout after traversing the terrible Walter’s Wiggles switchbacks, we were faced with the last half mile of the trek – the part of the hike that requires you cling to metal chains drilled into the cliff or face certain death. Alright, it wasn’t that bad, but there were times when you would have to hold on with both hands and traverse a 3-4 foot wide path with a 1,200 foot drop on one side, and a 900 foot drop on the other.

It was exhilarating.

After the hike we cooled our bums by sitting in the river and watching a nice fat english bull dog pee up stream of us. She looked like Winston Churchill.

Tired of noodles and sauce, we decided to literally spice things up a bit and but all the fixin’s for making mini burritos – tortillas, refried beans, sour cream, hot sauce, cheese, onion, green peppers. They were an awesome relief from the normal dinner, albeit a bit more expensive.

That night we were lucky to have a strong wind blow to cool us off in our tent. With lows of 72 degrees happening at 6:00am though, there was little relief from the heat. Even the water that came from the one community spicket was warm. I miss ice water, for sure.

Our second day was spent sleeping in and heading to the Narrows to hike up the Virgin River into one of the most spectacular parts of the park. Ryan found a pair of aqua socks while rummaging through the dumpster, and I was the sucker who paid money to rent the moon-boot esque shoes peddled by the local merchants. I ended up to be better equipped though as Ryan’s feet were pretty bruised by the end of the day.

The river was a nice relief from the heat and roughly 2 miles we hiked upstream then back out took most of the day.

We feasted on another mexican meal that night and missed the wind from the night before as it was nearly impossible to sleep in the heat.

In all, I think that Zion is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been. The two hikes we did were spectacular and a lot of fun. I just wish that the campsite had showers…

If I had to name three things I learned from popular music they would be, that you can’t always get what you want,  that all we are is dust in the wind and that Heaven is a halfpipe. If I had to name three things I learned from this trip so far, they would be, that Interstates are pure hell, the front brake of a motorcycle is the devils doing, and that KOA’s are a weary travelers Ritz Carlton.

Last night we spent our first night at a KOA Kampground near the Wyoming Utah boarder.  We both were hesitant about camping at a KOA because well…

We just did not plan on playing petting zoo and miniature golf this trip.  After a long day of traveling the last thing we wanted to do was pet a donkey or tee up a short 9. We wanted rugged camping, something that we believed the KOA had never heard of.

It turns out our perceptions of KOA were all wrong.  We had the best camping experience all trip. So tonight we are spending another night at a KOA in Fillmore Utah. We are the only tent campers yet again so its quiet and we have the whole side of the park to ourselves. Not to mention its nice to have electricity and running water.  Having a shower is well worth the extra few dollars, especially after spending all day in the heat.

Our day started with a nice ride into the town of Logan, Utah where Alex had an appointment to have a new chain installed. To make a long story short, it was the right chain, but it was not long enough. After much deliberation and no luck finding the right chain within 100 miles it was decided to take a few links out of the stretched out chain allowing for Alex to make it somewhere where he can replace the sprockets and chain at the same time. (Note to all Nighthawk riders, NO ONE caries the size chain you require, order a chain at your local dealer and carry it with you on long tours)  The dealer was incredibly helpful and called every shop within 200 miles to see if they had the right chain. They even let us change our own oil in their lot behind the service department.  Something most dealers would never allow. We hit the local K (short for K Mart) and picked up $8 dollars worth of pasta and $30 worth of bandaids. We always buy way more stuff then we have room for on our bikes so packing it always becomes a giggle fest.  There is a reason why people are hesitant to follow behind us.

Then we hit the interstate.

We had 4 hours of interstate riding ahead of us. Straight through Salt Lake City at rush hour.  There is a lot that goes on inside your helmet when you are all alone for 4 hours on the interstate with no one to talk to to and nothing really to do.  My favorite is trying to get my visor to fog all the way up by blowing hot air onto it. Or singing the same lyric over and over until it blends with another song I start singing to create an awesome hybrid song. Sometimes I try and come up with clever ways to start a blog post, like relating it to popular culture but then I never figure out how to bring it full circle.

Leaving Wyoming Yesterday

Tomorrow we get up at 6 and head to Zion. They wont take reservations this short in advance so we are hoping to get there earlier enough to get a spot for the weekend.

-Ryan