2007 NorthWest - The Run Her 'Til She Blows Tour!

[gaspipe]

PROLOGUE

A year ago, I had planned a ride up into Canada to explore Yellowknife and Inuvik as ultimate destinations, with some backwoods riding to traverse some of the ride north and south. As fast as plans are made, circumstances conspire to scrape away the foundations they're laid upon, and the plans crumble before you. A year later, once again a time allotment just wasn't there to do what I wanted to do, and the hazy concoction of Plan B began to coalesce. What materialized was rather etherial - being nothing more than a general area of the western United States and Canada, and a few weeks to do it - before the mind numbing responsibilities of life's toil came to bare once again.

In a departure from the usual rides I embarck upon, this one will be without a defined beginning or end. Lasvegasrider, BigDogAdventures and JumpingChollo were all in at some point. BigDog and I elected to meet up with 'chollo and LVR out in the west slopes of Colorado somewhere, and start some kind of plan from there.

In another departure from the norm for me, this ride will not be on my usual thumper. I decided to take my new-to-me 950 Adventure. A few weaknesses in the design are much touted in ADVRider. Will this bike prove to be durable enough to survive? Will I be durable enough?

We'll see.

[more tomorrow when I get some sleep]

[tvbh40a]

Glad to see you made it home. Very nice AND interesting visit in Boise. Can't wait to read the about the whole ride.
Mike
btw, I bought a 990.

[gaspipe]

Originally Posted by tvbh40a

Glad to see you made it home. Very nice AND interesting visit in Boise. Can't wait to read the about the whole ride.
Mike
btw, I bought the 990.

It was great to meet you and share some fun stories. Funny thing - I bought a 950 SE while I was there from IdahoJoe & Bob.

[wachs]

IdahoJoe? dang, was supposed to hook with him last weekend. Looking forward to the tale!

[DockingPilot]

[HeathersTrike]

Enough sleep Gaspipe.... more pics and stories please.

[Gadget Boy]

Sounds like a great adventure! We're ready

[BigDogAdventures.com]

Gaspipe somehow forgot to mention one of our riding partners on this trip. He was a hoot. An unbelievable rider who waited on no one. He kept us in stitches all the time---but his consumption of alcohol got him into many tight spots--and trouble.

I introduce
Little Dog

Me and Bruce have always ridden big singles on our rides-------this ride was to be very different. The 950's were chosen and in the end there were "NO" regrets. With 22,000 miles on my 950 I now consider myself a 950 rider--not just an owner. I took it where I thought I couldn't-----it was indestructible. We traveled almost totally on dirt thru mud, snow and rocks. We never hit one drop of rain---amazing.

So sit back and enjoy as we ride all the way to the bottom of the Snake river to Dugbar near the town of Imnaha, Washington in the Hells's canyon area. It was told on AdvRider to not to ride a big bike down to Dugbar-----that was all it took for us to try it.

This ride was inspired from many great stories from the Pacific Northwest such as Dockingpilots big trailie ride-------however we went our own way in the end and went to places I had never been or heard of.

[jmetteer]

Later,

[Yellow Pig]

Damn!

Here we go again. Can't wait to hear this ride report.

Thanks Dan

[gaspipe]

As we headed west to meet up with 'Chollo and LVR, we began to narrow down the 'meeting area'. 'Chollo just picked up a new-to-him '05 R1200GS, and LVR had just finished reworking his '95 R1100GS. LVR was figuring on traveling with us for a week or two while heading on a mission to Alaska. 'Chollo, Bigdog and I each had more or less the month of June off. We're all on big bikes, so the basic terrain compatibility is there.

As I mentioned, this ride is different than most other ones I've done before in that there was no real plan. No routes. No destinations. No itineraries. We'll figure that out as we go along. BigDog and I programmed most of the US/Canada Pac NW/Great Basin area into the GPS using City Select and Roads & Rec as a backup for most any eventuality.

We conjured up a point to assembled the ranks somewhere between Grand Junction, CO and Green River, UT to get started on wherever we were headed. It was that evening I got a message from LVR that he was out - focusing his energies on his Canada/Alaska run, and 'Chollo was a day behind getting out of work. I'm looking forward to hearing LVR's tale when he gets back.

Adjusting to these circumstances, Bigdog and I pulled the plug, and holed up in Montrose, CO - this is where the ride was now officially starting.



We got a good night of rest in Montrose, and set off at first light westward, climbing up into the vast wilderness of the Uncompahgre Plateau. Before we left, I sent one last message to 'Chollo, informing him to meet us in Green River, UT that night. Not sure he'd get the message, but that's where we figured we'd end up that night - although in a very circuitous manner.



We had a bunch of waypoints out in the Utah desert, and we figured on visiting a few of them as we meandered our way to Green River. I had less than 200 miles of local riding on my 950, and zero with it loaded with any gear or with TKC80's on it, so it and I still needed to get acquainted with one another, and hopefully we'd be compatible partners.

As we climbed 3,000 feet up the Uncompahgre, old highway 90 became the Divide Road, and we traversed some beautiful meadows as we rolled along at over 9,000 feet.

We toyed with the idea of continuing on north along the Divide road up to 141, some 50 miles away, but opted to head southwest and into Utah to do some exploring. Afterall, I used to live in Grand Junction, and had been up around here before, and we were looking for places we'd both never been. So we turned on CR25 and headed towards Nucla.

I had no idea what kind of fuel mileage or range I would get on this bike, nor how it would do on real offroad riding. Although the 950 and I were becoming friends, we still didn't know each other really well.

We got fuel in Naturita and headed south on 141 through Big Gypsum Valley until the intersection of old Route 666, where we passed through Dove Creek (the first time we intersected the Trans Am Trail) and then off into the beginning of Utah's Canyonlands on a lonely dirt road.



The first stop was Hovenweep National Monument - an area that was populated by Pueblo Indians in the 1200AD time. Hovenweep is a Paiute word meaning 'deserted valley', but it was obvious a good deal of indiginous folks had lived here in days long gone. As we decended into the lower desert, the first wave of heat blasted us.

We cut through the Navaho Indian Reservation on the old Aneth and some gas exploration roads, looking again for fuel.



[more in a bit]

[gaspipe]

As we decended again, the heat rose. It was getting hot - maybe about 95 degrees or so. We decided to try our luck at Moctezuma Creek to get a little fuel and maybe a snack of some sort. Even CitySelect v.7 has a lot of omissions in places to get fuel, and there are places waypointed in there where you can not.



We found gas, and topped off - the camelbacks, too. Utah and Nevada have always been the places I have found where gas can become a very precious commodity. If you're heading into no man's land out there, you'd better get gas everywhere you can find it, and keep as full as you can. You'll be very, very glad you did somewhere down the line.

An intriguing road popped into view a little way west, so we decided to explore it. We rode out to Bluff, UT, and just a little south of there into the foot of the Comb Hills. Comb Wash Road intersects Rt 163 here.



It must have been near 100 degrees here, but we decided to traverse the desert here - afterall, we'd come all this way, and it sure looked awesome.



A few miles up, the cooling fan whirring constantly on the 950, the road branches. We took the Snow Flat Road fork, leaving the relatively nice graded dirt of Comb Wash Road behind.

It was out here on Snow Flat Road where the 950 and I came to terms with each other. If I was to be a 950 rider, here's where I would cut my teeth. The road gets progressively more rough as we climb a ridgeWe climbed several ledges near the "Twist" and traversed some deep sand to cross this road before we reached the easy slickrock and the decent back to Rt 261.



The 950 is a big, heavy beast, but I was really quite impressed how well this monster could tractor it's way through relatively technical terrain.

We hammered it through some more sand, and over another ridge, and the road got progressively easier, although this section would be a mofo if it were raining at the time.



Looking out southwestward. Somewhere out over there is the Moki Dugway....



[more in a bit]

[gaspipe]

When we reached Rt 261, we decided to make a run north torwards Green River. The Colorado River is a major geographical hurdle to overcome in eastern Utah, with only a few places to cross it. We'd have to go to Moab if we wanted to cross the northern part, or Bullfrog Ferry to cross due west of here. This late in the day, either of those options would put us probably out of reach of even making it to Green River tonight, so we decided to cross at Hite's, which meant some highway miles.

We'd pretty much figured out that we wouldn't make Green River on the fuel we had left. There was a gas station in Hite's Crossing that *might* be open. At times in the past, the hours were somewhat sketchy. We might not make Green River anyway



[more in a bit]

[gaspipe]

Little Dog had thus far been a rather reclusive fellow, keeping his distance, and generally keeping somewhat out of sight.

I did spot him sizing up Hovenweep Nat'l Monument, but he was something of a ghost rider so far.

[StihlRigg]

Cool Gaspipe, I followed the buildup on your 950, Looks as if you are becomeing fast friends.(pun Intended) The west is the best on a 950.

Looking forward to seeing the rest.