Glen Canyon/Llewellyn Loop

[BikePilot]

Awsome trip.

[Red Stripe]

Nice! Have been down Cottonwood many times. One of my favorite rides. Wish I was there.

[DRxDR]

Great adventure. Thanks for sharing.
BTW, is it legal to ride cross-country in that area or is traffic limited to foot travel and horses? wayne

[Pantah]

Originally Posted by AlamedaK9

Great pics - I love this one!!

I have one just like it. We aparently stopped to marvel at practically the same spot:


I didn't hit mud until a little later. I can confirm that mud is so slimy you can hardly walk on it. I ended up paddling over to the edge which looked soft but had traction. Great trip and pics. Its just like the ones I took with my buddies 30 years ago...ran late, forgot everything, froze ourselves and had the time of our lives. -P

[rokklym]

This thread rocks!!!

This looks like my kinda adventure. Could you post some kinda map of your route? I'd like to hit some of those places.

[retsamnez]

Originally Posted by DRxDR

Great adventure. Thanks for sharing.
BTW, is it legal to ride cross-country in that area or is traffic limited to foot travel and horses? wayne

Hey Wayne,

According to the signs we passed, it is quite illegal to stray from any of the designated roads in the Glen Canyon area. Due to the delicacy of a lot of the sandstone in the area, I guess it makes sense...

[brecchi]

great pics. what type of camera are you using?

[retsamnez]

Originally Posted by Pantah

I have one just like it. We aparently stopped to marvel at practically the same spot:


I didn't hit mud until a little later. I can confirm that mud is so slimy you can hardly walk on it. I ended up paddling over to the edge which looked soft but had traction. Great trip and pics. Its just like the ones I took with my buddies 30 years ago...ran late, forgot everything, froze ourselves and had the time of our lives. -P

I love the view from this spot. The contrast between the red, green and white just plain kicks ass. The flow of the road is also, dare I say it, quite majestic. I completely agree with you about the challenging portions of this road. They suck when you're in them, but at the end of the day you realize that you had a damn good time... and after it's long over, they are the moments that stick with you.

[retsamnez]

Originally Posted by franmotott

Great ride, guys. I´m forced to inaction due to broken leg in bike tumble, I miss riding so much. Adv Rider reports keep me going.
I am amazed to see CJ´s XR500, it´s almost a museum piece ! How old is that bike ? Totally primitive when compared to the LC8, and yet it keeps on running. Just proves the reliability of XR's. And also proves that when you really want to ride, you don't need a top dollar state of the art piece of machinery. Great lesson for many of us.
In the end, it's always the rider, not the scoot, that really matters. Hang on, CJ !
Thanks for the great pictures
My best wishes from Lisbon, Portugal, SW Europe
Francisco

Francisco,

Glad to hear you enjoyed the report. CJ's XR500 hails from 1980... It did pretty damn well for a bike that's a quarter century old! While it certainly is not the ideal mount for long trips, (particularly highways...) it made it through it all veritably untouched, with the exception of the tail light and some oil seepage. Quite impressive. Sorry to hear about your accident, I know the difficulties of long recuperations all too well I’m afraid… Hang in there!

[retsamnez]

Originally Posted by brecchi

great pics. what type of camera are you using?

Canon Powershot A520

It's small, lightweight, takes great pics, and has plenty of functions. I've found that the auto-opening lens cover gets jammed up with random grit a little too easily though... Other than carrying a compressed air canister around with you, I don't know how to alleviate this problem… so I can’t really recommend it.

[retsamnez]

Originally Posted by rokklym

This thread rocks!!!

This looks like my kinda adventure. Could you post some kinda map of your route? I'd like to hit some of those places.

Here ya go...

[LavaBull]

It was well worth it to revisit this thread, Truly outstanding pics and adventure...

retsamnez, I noticed your location is Barstow, Ca. Have ever ridden in Rainbow Basin north of Barstow?... That's gonna be my next riding adventure... there are some incredible trails in that region that are rarely ridden! And the scenary is spectacular!

Here's a pics taken at Rainbow Basin that shows a trail with a single track next to it on the ridge:

[retsamnez]

Day 3 – The Conclusion

We got up early on Saturday, hoping to make it back to Flagstaff before dark.
Here CJ recoils from the great thumping kick it took to start the great thumping thumper.



Cruising down Hole in the Rock Road.



Back at the beginning of Hole in the Rock. We decided to skip Cottonwood this time, and go back the long way over 89A, for a chance at some twisties.





When we were gassing up in Escalante, an eccentric looking fellow roared up in a large pickup, asking if either of us needed a tire. I told him that no, we didn’t need a tire, but we did need to fix a tail light… “Oh, ok.” said he, “Cause a feller called in saying he blew a tire, and I’m trying to find him, I run the only bike shop in 200 miles. If you guys need to have your tail light fixed, I’m only a block down the road, you come on by!” He quickly handed me his card and roared off in a plume of diesel, presumably still in search of the fellow with the flat.

The card. We were pretty amused by the GPS coordinates.



Deciding that the less police interest in us the better, we decided to take The Desert Doctor up on his offer.
His shop. The bikes parked out front are for sale.



His place was quite well stocked. We could have fixed just about anything with the tools he had on hand. And indeed, the back of his shirt read “If I can’t fix it, it can’t be fixed”



The Desert Doctor. He didn’t mind the fact that we like working on our own bikes. He laid out all the tools CJ might need to use, brought us a couple cups of steaming fresh coffee, and regaled us with stories of his various motorcycle rescues and adventures. He rides too, that’s his Harley he’s leaning against. He explained that he’ll fix anything that comes through, dirt bikes, snowmobiles, whatever. We ended up paying him $20 for everything, not too much at all in this day and age. If you ever find yourself broke down in southern Utah, you could do a lot worse than giving this guy a call.



Glen Canyon Choppers?



On the road once more, I pulled over here to put on my cold weather gloves, but decided to get stuck instead.



CJ decided he’d rather snap photos than push, but with a little rocking and a lot of revs, I made it out.



On the 89A, at the top of the summit.



I was taking a picture from this overlook one minute, the next I was watching the KTM topple into a rock from an extra strong gust of wind. The right hand mirror mount got sheared from the master cylinder, destroying the mirror in the process, the left hand mirror mount cracked, and I got a nice deep scrape in my paint. After all the various falls in the mud and dirt, this was the first one since I’ve had the bike to actually do any real damage. Crap. Even with my helmet on, you can see I’m pissed off.



By the time we finally made it back to Flagstaff, CJ’s girlfriend had made us a kick ass thanksgiving style dinner, which was absolutely delicious.



After devouring this and downing a couple brews, I hit the sack early in preparation for the ride back to California the next morning.



All in all, this was a completely kick-butt trip. I put almost 2000 miles on the 950 in five days, which isn’t too shabby. Both CJ and I had blast, our only regret being that we didn’t have enough time to finish out Llewellyn Loop in its entirety. When its all said and done though, it was the risks we took that turned this good trip into a great one.

[shardzero]

Awesome ride, great mix of riding, camping and the rest of it. Are they KTM crash bars or aftermarket ones??

[Speaker]

Nice post man, a good trip. Before I had a bike I omited Cottonwood rd from my route to Park City. Now it will be a must ride!