Less Talkin', More Rockin' 2012 LA to GC ADV Ride

Thanks DD. The only day we needed gas was the first one. Masquite to Bar10 to Toro Weap. Joel made the arrangements for it and we got 87 at $7/gallon. :eek1
My 990 got 2.8 gallons. Less then DR650. BTW, my mpg thorough out the trip was way over 40. I hardly get over 40mpg but on this trip I got 47, 49 and 49 mpg per tank. I keep track of it with an app.
Other than that I thing 120 miles per tank would be enough, unless you get lost. Joel will help you out on this one, on both.

duane, the biggest IF is having available gas at bar10. if none, it will be a 200 mile ride to the next gas station in fredonia.

i have a 3.8 gal tank on the 640 which did 30mpg, and when i filled up, i took 4 gal....:huh

120 is good if no messing around....getting lost, doing side trips and lots of tire spins, one will need at least 150 miles.....

after vermillion cliffs, it was a mixed of highway and dirt to get us to orderville ut for lunch



gassed up here



having flags of the different countries mean this is a friendly joint









is the food good enough?


yeah, loving it; great place in a small town. five star service and the food was home made.


time to move on


as we were getting to leave, a group of 5 or 6 italian riders on harleys came to us and started talking. happened to be friends of frank's cousin living in turin....small world

north bound on hw89



the big bikes are at home on this kind of road - that's paul on the SE



wide open



the back road to the campground



hoping to see sometime this year what's in buster's gopro...



the campground is in that forest



almost there



there are 4 camp grounds around navajo lake - this is one of them



view from our camp site (taken by rich)

Awesome Rr you guys. Not a single KLR in the group

Don't be disappointed Duy, Joel's bike did handle like a KLR, his luggage weighed as much as a KLR, and his wallet is as tight as KLR rider's, so it was almost like having 3 KLRs with us.

duy, last year was fun, not too late, more fun rides coming. you gotta stop getting rich and start riding.

bwahahaha.

you're funny timmy even without running butt naked out of the cold river.....

the last 2 days were good too, and you would have enjoyed it, no bikes to pick up.

Great ride. Very entertaining to follow along. Thanks for posting.

Since you are at Navajo Lake, a tribute pic of my bike near the "end" of the lake on the way down (via dirt) to Zion.



Thanks again. Great write-up and pics!

Thanks RRR. Navajo Lake was so beautiful. Camp host told us that it is 800 feet deep. :eek1

My one pic of the lake. As the sun was getting low the color of the water and sky just jumped out at you.

Off to the right here is Navajo Lake Resort. There are log cabins, a general store, and boat launch. This place is just beautiful. And Utah is very OHV friendly. The whole area is cross-crossed with trails open to motorcycles and ATV's. It's used but not abused. The trails and roads are dusty.




Once we got to Navajo Lake and found a suitable campsite, everybody got setup for the night. Half the group wanted to hang out, then go back to Ducks Creek for some relax time and dinner. Half wanted to ride up to Cedar Breaks to see it since we were so close. Highway 14 cuts across Dixie National Forest. As you climb from east to west you hit Duck Creek, a quaint little town and campground, then Navajo Lake, and if you keep going you turn and head north into Cedar Breaks.

Highway 14 has been closed since October 2011 due to a massive slide, about 8 miles from Cedar City. So currently the only way to get to the 15 freeway is to go north through Cedar Breaks.

Joel, Paul, Frank, and I, rode up and into the Monument. It's even prettier than Grand Canyon, just not as huge. But definitely large and very picturesque for sure. The colors are amazing.



Way off in the distance, in the valley below, is St. George Utah. Cedar Breaks is at ten thousand feel elevation. Yes, it's closed in the winter. In fact, the campground up there had not opened yet.

Since you mentioned HWY 14, I thought I would post this up for you... just in-case someone, like me, sees the Cedar Breaks NM and thinks "Hey that would be cool, perhaps I should go there this week." :)

Which I just may have to do now that you posted up these wonderful photos, it looks very charming.

Here is the link to their page, which is where I found the quote.

http://www.nps.gov/cebr/index.htm

Cheers

Yes this is so. Which leads me to my final segment, my ride home...

We found out hwy 14 was closed while we were doing our trip planning. So we planned to take a dirt route south from Navajo Lake along the eastern edge of Zion. Some of the group actually did go this way, watch for an upcoming report from them on this leg.

With the nps site we learned they had just opened the hiway for traffic into Cedar City on memorial weekend. They were also opening it overnight when the road crews were done, so from 7pm to 7am. Once we got to Navajo Lake it was the eve of my departure to head home on Wednesday. I made mention to the group that I really wanted to just hit the hiway and get back to Mesquite to the car and make the long trek back to the LA basin. But I would have to get up bloody early as the hiway closed back down at 7am. And Utah is an hour ahead, so 6am our time.

Well, 4:40am I woke up and checked the time and figured I had about an hour to pack up the tent and gear and hit the road. So I went to work. I hauled my gear down to the parking lot so as not to wake anyone at camp. I finally got everything loaded and rolling by 5:40. It was at least a 20 minute ride to the closure so I figured it would be really tight. Othwerwise I would have to go north through Cedar Breaks, out to the 15, and south, at least 50-60 miles extra.

By the time I was pulling out a few sleepy heads were starting to rise, said goodbye to riddler990 who thought he had food poisoning as he had been barfing all night. Rruugger and Buster714 shook hands and said goodbye.

I was flying, railing the corners, riding that ol' husky like a sportbike to get there before the closure. I got to the road closure right about 7am Utah time and rode around the barricade, kept going out the pass. Well gee, the closure isn't for another several miles. Finally I came to the construction closure and the guy had just padlocked the gate and was walking away. I rolled up and he looked back, then shook his head, like oh boy, what's this sorry sucker doing here. I stopped and shut down and said in my friendliest voice, "Pretty please?? I don't think I have enough fuel to make it all the way back up and around the detour." So he unlocked the padlock, opened the gate and let me through.

I kept going down the grade towards the contruction site. They have the roadbed rebuilt and were working on paving it. They already had the steamrollers out and were watering the gravel getting ready to lay down some pavement. I kept going, finally getting to the Cedar City end of the closure. I went by a row of contstruction trucks and I could see the guys looking to see what the hell a motorcycle was doing riding through there. I got to the other locked gate at the end and there wasn't a soul in sight. I stopped, got off, and thought someone would see me and come unlock the gate. Hmmm...I don't see anyone coming. Now what? So I looked out to the ends of the gates, one side was the embankment, not much clearance, the other side was a drop-off cliff at the end of a K-rail with just enough room to ride through. So away I went and made it to Cedar City for coffee by 6:20 Utah time.

The rest of the trek was uneventful. I made some calls as I had not had any cell service for at least a couple of days, and made it back to the car by 9am. A 7 hour freeway drive and I was back home.

This trip will be a forever memory of adventure, good times, commeraderie, and excitement. I am so ready to do it again!

ers, glad you and other took pics of the lake while we were out riding....

chris...those are nice!

cedar breaks is only @15 miles from the campground, easy to get to and fun highway.

me, paul and frank behind the visitor center



this reminds me of bryce canyon



after stopping at the first vista by the visitor center, we went and rode up to check out the views from the other overlooks



frank



from a different vantage point






on the north view overlook



without the PPs



you can tell the road to cedar has lots of curves



on our way back, stopped to see navajo lake from the hill above



our camp is just across the lake

I was a little lazy on the third day in the camera department, so I only took a few! I will post what I have! I was kind of dissappointed that our stay at "the Weap" was so short, there was lots of exploring that could have been done, but we had to move on to Indian Hollow.

This was a fast pace day with a lot of smooth dirt roads and a alot of slab! The beauty returned after lunch at Nedra's and a our fuel stop. The following roads were like riding on ball bearings and kept climbing to bring us to the higher elevation campground at Indian Hollow. This was a tiny little camp so we had to cram in due to the limited usable tent pads. We hiked down to the lookout which had some spectacular perspective and then went back to camp to kick back and end the chilly night with a nice campfire.

We woke up early the next day for the following segment Pt Sublime-N. Rim-Lee's Ferry.


Gas up!



Eat up!


Wait up!


Tim & Jon chillin

For me this was the most pleasurable day of ridding. We left Indian Hollow and headed for Pt Sublime. Riding through these forests was spectacular. I didn't have my GPS but good thing the others did, because its soo easy to take a wrong turn and get lost in these forests.

Getting to Pt Sublime took some time but the view is the best I've seen of the GC. At Pt. Sublime you are at the Nothern end of the GC and feels like your standing over it. The feeling is Sublime and neverending!! I could of stayed here for hours! We took a break and some pics and kept moving on.

Next we would enter the GC National Park via fire road at the North Rim. We stopped and had some lunch then moved on past the Vermillion Cliffs to Lee's Ferry.

This is what most of the roads looked like.


Pt. Sublime



ERSIN


TIM



Me!!


Day 4 to be continued.......But for now I gotta boggie!!

about time to see frank's version.




come by tomorrow, i have your stuff left in my truck.

Cool pix too.



EDIT: BTW fellas...9K views. Whoa.