Grand Canyon Loop: Ulterior Motives

Great ride report. Awesome motorcycle country! Thanks to you and the guys.

Close-up on the "Ho-Made Pies" -- make time for a slice the next time your coming through . . .

Reid,
I have SOME pics in this collection....but didn't start taking any for a day or two....too busy riding and keeping up with these youngsters....hell-bent on seeing as much of the country as possible. It was a good pace....plus, I had initially thought I wanted to focus on the RIDE more than pics.....and wasn't going to do a RR on this trip....until they tied me up and tortured me with the thought of disappointing them....

Geez, that girl can distract a guy from that Donkey Dong Bud growing in front of her...

It felt like forever sitting in that line for the tunnel at Zion. I was debating whether or not to shut my bike off....I did NOT want to kick start it again. After several minutes i shut off the bike and got the kick starter into position to start. Shortly after i shut off the bike the park ranger signals us to proceed forward. Thankfully my bike started with one kick and we entered the tunnel which had NO lighting at all. Not good when your headlight is already dim and covered with dirt.... but i had a plan to stay close to Roc so i could see with his light. sounds good until he starts pulling a wheelie and my light is gone. :eek1 He finally sat it down and and we rode out. While i was dealing with my light problem Bobz had his own issues at the beginning of the tunnel..

I forgot about all that...And the Herc drove into the tunnel one hand on the bike, one hand on camera and his headlight off

How much shit can go wrong in one little tunnel?

Great write-up Ged.
I need to get out there and do some riding. Sooner the better.

dont forget the sunglasses Herc had on too
oh yeah I preped the bike and didnt think he NEEDED a headlight

BobZ,
Here's your chance to let us know what gremlins were hatching in your 690....I only became aware of the situation once we left the east side of Zion (sounds biblical )....and we were looking for a campsite with shade and a picnic table for your mechanistic project...

I know that the motorhome guy gave bad directions so his weekend patch of gravel-heaven wouldn't be invaded by noisy, smelly dirtbikers....I know that Kevin's second choice was the shadeless gravel u-turn....and I know that someone (Travis Two ?) eventually realized that the verdant pasture with flowing water, shade, picnic tables and a lush setting for fireside pizza and beer would be preferable... (we had to initially ignore this area in order to consider the first two....).

So this band of brothers unsaddled and watered their horses.....one cowboy had to attend to a stubborn mare....

ill try and get to it tonight

This is an excellent report

Nice trip...how about sharing some GPS tracks of the adventure?

Thanks.

Dan

These tracks were 80% made by the guys Bob rode with last time (more Canadians). I would like Bob to consult with them before sharing.

I read this RR during lunch today.

I really enjoyed my lunch

Ged - this following quote by one of your riding mates really brought a smile. I also enjoy the way you tell your tale.

I think the dynamic of the group was great. Age's ranged across the board, everyone seems to have gotten along like a family or a bunch of ball bustin brothers. Can't ask for much more



I want to hear about this pic. Awesome.

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Grin,

That quote is from my riding partner on my Baja ride a year ago when I broke my leg in a silt bed crash...he has a dry sense of humour..... that story is here: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=666961

This ride's group is a tight bunch of guys who get along quite well....

I did not take that horse pic, but for a few days when we were mostly riding on Navajo land, we would frequently come across small herds of horses. They would invariably take off at a fast pace....sometimes parallel to us and sometimes in all sorts of directions....one time south of Cameron, AZ. a few followed up the trail towards us. I personally think they were playing, curious, and just plain showing off with their cavorting.

BUT, there is no doubt that their air of freedom and majestic grace moved all of us in some meaningful way.

"A cowboy doesn't cry....he just gets dust in his eye.....".

I think a few of us had a spec or two of dust blowing into our goggles when seeing the horses in this way.

That pic was likely taken somewhere southwest of Page, AZ. on the eastern side of the GC.


Ulterior Motive #4....

Develop a motorcycle trip with a group of friends, take a risk of allowing an outsider in, and just see how a guy's heart can open up....with experiences such as these horses....

"Spirituality is our sense of connectedness to other..."

.........................................................

I took that picture while riding on day 6 northwest of Cameron. It was one of those point the camera towards the target and start pushing buttons.

Like Ged mentioned, we had been seeing a lot of horses in the area. I live in Nevada and we have plenty of mustangs and horses, but they are much different. Most NV horses (near population centers) are so acclimated to people that it is hard to get them off the trail. The horses we saw doing this trip were much more excited to see us, so they put on a much better show. Can't say they appeared to be very good at escaping though, most times they ended up running parallel with the trail. Just after i took this picture they cut across and I stopped, Bobby kept going with the GoPro rolling and got some good video. I thought he was going to jump off the bike onto the horse and ride the bitch out...but he pussed out.

The color in that picture is not that good. The desert was very green and the overcast ski seemed to accentuate it. It was a very memorable day of riding for me...the fresh smell of rain in the desert, dodging horses and thunderstorms, and getting our first views of the canyon.

that photo of those horses, just makes my skin tingle! very cool! I count 8 in that group? Keep it up boys, very nice RR!

A quick touch up with Photoshop would really bring out the best in it.

"So this band of brothers unsaddled and watered their horses.....one cowboy had to attend to a stubborn mare...."

We had made it to the east side of Zion Park around 4:00 ish....the site we ended up with was WAY better than parked beside some behemoth motorhome with screaming kids, adults wishing they were doing what we were doing, and the rest of the excess displayed by such souls...

We unsaddled our mounts and set up camp...






We were situated beside a fancy vertical stream that provided cool fresh spring water from which we could replenish our canteens and freshen up...



Travis Two scavenged firewood...



and he stood back and thoroughly enjoyed the fruits of his labour...





Comfort for some was shelter from the storm...with their mount close by, nibbling on tender shoots of cool grass...



While others found comfort in starting to do a major fuel and electrical system rebuild....perhaps just to show off his vast knowledge of the 690's internal workings...

BobZ and Kevin set to the task (these two cowpokes are key contributors to the 690 thread on all things that ail this beast...so I got to learn a bunch of things.....that I will let mechanics attend to when needed, as I am a bit of a Luddite)...

(Smugmug is presently having a conniption fit so you will have to wait until their seizures settle down...)

Awesome pics, I am heading down that way next month... looking even more forward to it now!