"We Don't Rent Pigs"

You better fix that lever right, before those zip ties break and you're ten miles from pavement. Or just work on your motorcycle towing techniques. The best way to do it that I've seen is to run the tow cable from the footpegs.

Its truly a "UFO"

Another shot of the bird before he dipped down for a closer look:


And some more of Ophir Pass; wish I could have stayed there longer...



And two of our intrepid pilgrims, Flex:



And Bryan, aka rivertrash


What a day, and it was only beginning...

It's common practice to STOP dreaming when the alarm goes off, but I understand that potters have issues with reality, what with all the chemicals in the mud and glaze.

post some pics already, I know you're holding out on us...

Here's a shameless plug for Fletch's pottery business; the cat is a true artist, check out some of his work:




A pic of his wood fired kiln, built on the Japanese style; we encountered another pottery master in Taos, more on this later in the story.




PM him if you have any interest, awesome stuff.

This was to be our rest day. Just putter around Moab in no particular rush.
Our neighbors had their music on were drinking early. Needless to say we were ready to get out of there for a while.
We gear up and head to Burger King for a quick breakfast and discuss where we wanted to go.
Schaefer switchbacks and Canyonlands during the day then go ride Arches at sunset. Sounds like a plan
Flex said his forks were feeling funny so he decided to stay in town and have a shop look at them.
We head over to Canyonlands. We decided to go see the landmarks on the pavement to Upheaval Dome then on the way back hit Schaefer to Potash then end up in Moab.
The road to Upheaval Dome in Canyonlands is off the hook awesome I scraped toes a few times. Perfect curves.

We met a Japanese couple on our way to look at the Dome. We had our Camelbacks on and they asked if we had parachutes in our bags?
Nope just water wish I had something more interesting in there.
Bryan and I head back the bikes while Jaw walked with the Japanese couple asking them how to say certain words. Bryan and I joked by the time he got back he would fluent in Japanese.


We head over to Schaefer switchbacks and begin our descent. We pass by a brand spanking new KTM 1190 with a guy and a girl riding in shorts, T-shirts and no helmets. They wave us on and we motor on by.

We get to vista and the pull up. Were pretty friendly so we start talking.
Enter new characters: Tim and Marisa.
They're from Illinois and had trailered to South Dakota and were riding all up and down the Rockies. Tim actually proposed to Marisa in Yellowstone on this trip.

We take pictures and ask if they wanted to follow us down the switchbacks. They said YES we wanted to try some dirt. So here we go.

I stop at a point where I could view the switch backs. Bryan zooms by me and then Tim and Marisa next. No Jaw yet.
I snapped some pics of Bryan going down.




The first switchback Tim and Marisa got to Marisa freaked and wanted to turn around so we got them turned around. In their farewell they said "were camping in Arches if ya are in the area stop by our campsite and say hey!"
So they went on their way.


We get down to where Potash and White Rim split. Musselman Arch was just down the way a bit down White Rim so lets go ahead and hit it up.


Amazing really. Moab blows my mind.


Random nosebleed. Probably from picking my nose that dry climate dried me up.

Back down to Potash.
Okay. I've ridden my share of dirt. I live for it, riding dirt moves me. To me, its what separates the men from the lads and this road......
HOLY COW!!! My sweet mother of pearls absolutely off the hook!!! Good quality dirt with smooth rocks in the road acting as ramps catching air! Plowing through sand it was amazing!




Apparently I wasn't the only one who thought so.
Jaw was riding in front and over my motorcycle around a corner I hear "YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH" As I cross the corner I see Jaw on the road with the bike down and he's still hollering yeah? Talk about confused.
I approach him and he's as giddy as a school girl that got new knickers he was trying to hop on the bike and hadn't even inspected it.
In my 21 years of knowing Jaw, never have I seen him this jacked up about anything nevertheless crashing on a shale shelf.

We head on and I see a blue lake ahead. Okay when I say blue i mean like Turquoise blue. And bugs bunny pops in my mind when he says.
"its a mirageee" Surely that lake isnt that blue.
It was that blue. The only thing I can guess is it has to do with the Potash plant.



Dirt turns to pavement .

Indian petroglyphs. These were 20 ft. up on the canyon wall. Makes you wonder how they got there.



Back into town. Fletch was still waiting on his bike at the shop and had already eaten. So we began our search for lunch.

We found a little joint that served Coke out of a bottle and sat us right next to a window with no screen. Bad idea.

Jaw gets the idea to ask for refills from innocent people passing by. The looks on their faces were priceless.

Fletch got his bike back and it was about time to head to Arches. We load up and head that way.

Cool rock formations that Moab is full of.


Balanced rock where Jaw met Bryan a year ago and where our friendship began.

This is a father and son from Washington riding their V-stroms through the US. Maxwell, the son, had graduated High School and College at the same time (with a name like Maxwell he was born to be smart) and this was his dad (a Washington St Trooper) gift to him. Paying for gas, lodging and food the whole trip. Cool guys even cooler speeding through Arches with a St Trooper


We arrive at the Devils Garden to climb around and see the sunset. Didn't see much of it but what we did see did not disappoint.





Its starting to get dusky now so we begin to load up, but then I hear a motorcycle. There's Tim and Marisa! They invite us to hang out at camp with them. Heck yes.
Our bikes looked like they got dragged through Potash and a fella passing by commented "ya sure are awfully dirty" To which Bryan pipes up

"Adventure aint clean"
The other guy didn't have to much to say to that.

Hanging out with Tim and Marisa was an absolute hoot. Tim should seriously go on a comedy tour. Talking about a chinese kid throwing a rock and hitting his KTM getting the first scratch on it. In his words "I wanted to go back and at least get a cup of rice from the kid" Had us all rolling.
The campsite across the way were a bunch of Hassidic Jew chanting in Yiddish very cool thing.
I tried to get a video of it but as soon as I did they stopped.

One of the Jews came over and asked if they could "purchase a propane lamp" which he did not have. Tim then pleaded for firewood which the Jews did not have and in Tims words
"Same boat different ship I guess"
We bid farewell to our new friends (congrats on the engagement guys!)
Its now night fall so it should be fun riding through Arches at night.

We arrive back in Moab around 11:30 every restaurant was closed so once again we ate at the gas station. Not bad food just generic. Stuff I could get in Arkansas.
Strict Campground rules?

Hans the hitchhiker from Bavaria

Shower up and time for bed next to the cat pee bush. Our neighbors were asleep but about 3:30 one of them tried to start their truck which made the awfullest clinking, clanging, sputtering. Just sounded terrible and woke everyone up. He motors out and back to sleep we go.

Just another day in Paradise my friends.

"there are somethings my vanity will not abide"

I haven't felt 100% on dirt since acquiring knee troubles, and consequently surgery last year, to the point that I was ready to quit dualsporting all together. The only reason i maintained the DR was because Zach would have killed me in my sleep if I had sold it, I just couldn't shake myself from the dirt doldrums; this malaise continued to plague me on this trip as well...

Until Potash...

Something clicked( psychiatrists describe a state of flow as when your task exactly matches your ability; if your ability exceeds your task, you have boredom, your task exceeds your ability you get anxiety, but there is a state if being where time stands still and, like a world class musician that plays licks that they didn't even know that they were capable of, you find yourself performing well beyond your ability. Usually the feeling vanishes as soon as I realize I'm feeling it, but this was not one of those times. I'm sure I looked like an idiot, hair on fire and a silent scream in my throat, everything in perfect focus and happening in perfect zen-like rhythm, the most incredible feeling I have ever felt on a motorcycle since chasing Supaflid down 341 in Arkansas, watching him skim his left hand on the pavement. We blasted past numerous jeeps until we encountered an off cambered slate shelf, the road went down and to the left, I foolishly decided I was bulletproof and went high and to the right, quickly found my self piled up under the bike in a cloud of dust and glory. Zach came up just in time to hear me howling, not in pain or anger at corkscrewing into the ground, but I was so pumped I wanted to get her off of the ground and proceed before I lost my mojo. What an experience, I'll never forget it.

Meeting Tim and Marissa at the Schaeffer switchbacks was another highlight; normally an ATGATT type, it cracked me up to see him on that big KTM wearing those Italian zip up boots :



If Kyle didn't already have a lock on the title, I would probably vote for Tim as the coolest guy on the planet.
Hanging out in the Devil's Garden with the newly engaged couple with Hassidic Jews singing and dancing in the next campsite was surreal to say the least. We meant to hang out in Moab that night and experience the wierdness first hand, but didn't get back until almost midnight, so gut bomb gas station fare was on the menu again.

Zach experienced first hand the lack of body embarrassment in the Japanese culture when he encountered a group of elderly samurai bobbing naked around the shower house, no pics available.

Gus McCrae: It's not dying I'm talking about, it's living!!!

Awesome report guys! I remember Moab well and it is always a great experience. Keep it com'n

Thanks for the complement and plug for my work. I'm a lucky guy, I get to do work that I love and have great motorcycle riding buddies. I also have to express my gratitude to my parents and girlfriend who are supportive of my endeavors. Both my parents and girlfriend are potters as well, the pottery photos above are of my parents pottery shop in Hot Springs Arkansas where I sell the majority of my work (Fox Pass Pottery). They have been making and selling pottery from that shop for over forty years.

super pictures and reports. Thanks for sharing. You guys always seem to find adventure and interesting folks along the way.

I stayed behind to work on my fairing at Clear Lake, and again missed the ride to Canyon Lands. At the time I was feeling pretty patient about staying behind to do repairs, it's all part of the trip after all. After seeing what I missed I find my patients turning to petulancy. Thanks guys, don't you think you could have keep the pictures to yourselves and told me what a bore the rides were?
Our camp was about a hundred yards from the road to Clear Lake. During that short ride I noticed something was badly wrong with my fairing, the frame was broke. Here's pictures of my work on the fairing/headlight mount:
before


temporary repair made using half a tent stake and some zip ties, while the others were making tracks toward an idyllic alpine lake where Zach would make new best friends with a wood chuck


the permanent fix (hopefully) I made after I got home. Welded on some extra bracing so as not to miss any more amazing ride opportunities.


In Gateway, on the ride to Moab, I had a sensation that every few second my engine was momentarily cutting in and out. Watching the tachometer I could see this wasn't the case. I later realized my fork seal had leaked enough oil to cause a suspension issue and the bumps in the road made the bike feel as if it were loosing power and starting up again. I decided I had better get it worked out before leaving Moab for the ride back across Colorado and New Mexico. There was talk of rebuilding the forks with a rock, two sticks and some zip ties on the picnic table, among the sand and cat piss in the campground. After contemplating the pros and cons I decided to pay the piper and take the bike to a shop. The pipers ended up being some great guys at Mad Bro Motorsports, (formally Moab Performance Center) I told them my sob story and they took pity, working me in that same afternoon and getting the forks fixed in time for me to ride out and see Arches National Park at sunset. I was a little bummed to miss the Canyon Lands earlier in the day but had the pleasure of spending the rest of the trip riding a well behaved bike that didn't spit fork oil over the left side of the engine as well as my boot and pant leg. In addition to Arches at sunset I also witnessed a new, budding bromance between Bret and our new friend Tim. I hear Tim and Marisa are now back in Illinois but I think Bret's flame has yet to fizzle. I have come to understand Bret is hatching a scheme concerning the crashing of Tim and Marisa’s wedding!

My belief is that the people you meet are the mortar that holds the blocks of the journey together... I saw this traveler sitting outside a c-stop in Montrose, thought I recognized him from last year's trip.., as I walked by, he said, "hey, you're that guy from Arkansas; you're brother got hit by a drunk driver" turns out he and his girlfriend were panhandling, hit us up for cash, talked them into donating 4.00 to Trevor's recovery fund, used it to send him postcards from Silverton. It's always a party, Woodrow.



Some more coming up, stay tuned:



Oh, and...

As we were there when they tried to take that beast of a KTM on street tires, with no gear, no water, and no clue, through the sandy switchbacks of Canyonlands, I think we should show up in our sweaty riding gear, you and Zach's legs covered in oil... And Marissa was quite the cutie; I sure hope she and Tim read this someday, great couple.

Ok, I'm always up for a ride.

Dude, that's kind of profound.

I think I'm going to market my own line of fortune cookies... It's amazing what you can come up with when you take a couple of Tylenol PM.

Great pics at Moab! Good seeing you for a bit last night. t

Hope you didn't through my leg away. I may wanna make a walkin' stick out of the bone.

Oh, I never noticed you having accidents with ugly girls!- Clara, to Gus

After the rattle trap truck woke up everyone in the camp belching smoke and retching gas at 3AM, we arose fairly early to bid adieux to paradise campground.



The availability of showers and incidental was offset by the idiotic rules(4.5 mph for motorcycles? You can't idle in first that slow, as I tried!) and crackhead construction workers, so it seemed only fitting to add our meager amount of trash to the sanitary landfill in camp 7 and skedaddle once again. Stopped for breakfast, met this cool guy,,,



We rolled hard for Durango, a long hot flat ride especially after the wonders we had experienced in the preceding days, the monotony was broken by a stop at Wilson's Arch, always have to climb up there, and it never gets old.





After wheezing and scrambling up to the arch, we saw a young woman and her old dog running like gazelles up the steep sandstone. I'm an absolute sucker for old dogs, or any dogs for that matter; as he approached I thought that he had a blue eye, turns out it was a cataract, and this was to be one if his last trips. His name was Dav, didn't catch hers, she is a social worker from Taos on her way up to Moab to do some climbing; another very classy couple.










Pulled into Durango, spied the traffic, pulled out of Durango, hightailed it for Pagosa Springs. Looking back, should have at least eaten something, as by the time we hit Pagosa everyone was hot, tired, and cranky, and some fireworks were the result... Can't have a multi day trip without having some personality issues, I guess, but they're never fun at the time.

It is what it is...