Wandering the Cowboy Country of the Western U.S. - Chapter 2: Big Skies.

Continuation of the story from Chapter 1. 

It had been fun riding with Brian the past couple of days. I have been thinking of making this an annual tradition, find a trip or a rally to ride together every year if possible, Brian has been my riding mentor and even though we don't stop for pictures as much, when we ride together, we still have a good time. Pictures can always wait for when we stop for the evening. :)

Our ride together on this trip, was coming to an end. We were parting ways in Salt Lake City. Brian was heading out at O'dark thirty for a blast on I-80 across Nevada to return home and tend to Kudlow - the little prince doggie of Fernley. I had other plans, I already had the time off, so I was going to make a quick swipe across some beautiful country, before dropping back home.

The Monday after the rally, I was heading to Big Sky, MT to see my good friends Bob & Sylvie. I was taking the scenic route there, riding the very pretty Hwy 89 across a major pass to Bear Lake. A very pretty lake and the water really does appear a turquoise blue from a distance. 

Wandering the Cowboy Country of the Western U.S. - Chapter 1: Wrangling The Final Utah 1088.

Preamble to the 2013 Utah 1088.

One of my longest, if not the longest ever series of entries in my motorcycle ride journal, of a little over a week spent in the saddle wandering the Cowboy Country of the Western United States. So please, by all means grab a seat, top off that beverage and/or light up that cigar and settle in for a read and I promise to try and keep it stimulating.

It would seem there is no purpose to riding all half day across an endless desert, but that's how the journey started. The supposedly loneliest highway isn't so lonely, if you know where to stop for some refection. Like almost an year ago to this date, an used up Honda and it's rough and tumble rider (and self proclaimed people person) had joined me, but unlike last year it was only for part of the journey. 

We had a leisurely start, just because we were riding to an endurance rally event didn't mean we needed an endurance ride to get there. After all, who wants to run a half marathon to get to a half marathon? Also, I like to eat good while I am on vacation, so I had already planned our food stops for the ride to Utah. The first one being a brunch stop at the Middlegate Station on Hwy 50 in Nevada. The owner's wife is a phenomenal cook and the breakfasts and lunches here have certainly been worth the mention. We were looking for breakfast, but unfortunately we had miscalculated and brunch was lunch menu only. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. The Western Bacon BBQ Cheeseburgers here are to die for. Lunch it was to be! 

Middlegate station used to be an overland stage station that was used by the Pony Express in the 1800's. There is a lot of history associated with this place and it maintains an old west charm, rustic but not entirely run down. I walked around for a few minutes, glad for some time to scour for photo opportunities, as we were the first customers to drop in for lunch and had to wait a bit for our cook to appear. 

I found plenty to photograph, including an attractive, young cowgirl in tight jeans and cowgirl boots and a button down tie top, a fellow shutterbug who was on her own road trip (albeit with her guitar strumming boyfriend). I know what you are thinking (pictures or it didn't happen), but we don't always get what we want, so here are some other photographs of that stop. 

The cow may have jumped over the moon, but I loved how this horse jumped over our rides! 

The Dashboards of IBR 2013.

I was working the IBR (Iron Butt Rally) 2013 Checkpoint 2 in Sacramento all day Sunday, so I have no pictures to post from the checkpoint itself, but early on Monday morning - I walked the parking lot full of IBR bikes while the riders were in the riders' meeting. I didn't have my camera with me, but I did the best I could for some quick pictures of the dashboards of some of the IBR bikes with my cell phone camera.

Hope you find these interesting to see how much electronic stuff is jammed onto the rally bikes for these extremely competitive events! The IBR being a show like no other. 11 days, 11,000 + miles. The world's most farkled motorcycles rode by the world's toughest riders!

A Weekend To Celebrate.

A story told in reverse chronological order. The pictures were taken on my return journey. I had come home safely from a celebration weekend under the gaze of an imposing mountain. Getting home safe from a motorcycle adventure is always worth a toast. We don't like surprise endings in motorcycle stories, the cliche and boring "Home safe and sound" ending never gets old in our world. 

It had been a great ride, astride my fire breathing monster of a steed. Fire breathing both literally as in it was a 100+ degrees outside and the heat from this 1298 cc engine between my knees was roasting my ... ahem ... nuts, and figuratively as in some scorching performance on the winding roads of the Sierra mountains.

It's not unlike the well muscled and sculpted steed of this Pony Express rider, whose statue stands (gallops?) in Old Sacramento, where I stopped for a few minutes on my way home, but the monster of an FJR doesn't need a whip to goad it to go where I point it to, and go there fast, it just needs a gentle roll of the right wrist..

A Weekend To Remember.

A weekend to remember. A Memorial day weekend spent enjoying some of the freedoms we are so accustomed to, the freedom to travel and to explore and make memories out on the open road. Some of our freedoms for which some gave all.

There are many ways to remember and thank those who sacrificed their lives, so we may continue to enjoy our liberties. My way was to go out and explore and enjoy the sights, the sounds and the beauty of the countryside and the love and company of my family and friends. Maybe those who gave their lives for us, would want us to honor their memories by living our lives doing what we love to do.

I had a very late start on Saturday morning, but for a very good reason. I had spent over a couple of hours on skype with my parents and my sister. We hadn't had a chance to sit down for a virtual visit for a few weeks, so it was great to 'see' them and catch up! After our talk I geared up and headed south towards Mokelumne Hill, where I was meeting my friend Tyler and her motorcycle group for lunch. 

On the way I stopped to take a picture of this barn next to the gnarly old Oak tree..

In Good Company in Creston.

This is probably my shortest blog post .. yet, of a long day in the saddle. It wasn't a stop to smell the flowers (almost none left here inland, just dried up golden stalks) type of ride. I had a lot of ground to cover this day approx. 500 miles a lot of it back road country. The only stop was in Creston to see my buddy Don and his better half for lunch. I had a great time visiting with both and it was good to see them both after what has been quite a long time. Both very good people!

The Loading Chute. Not the only game in town for a bar and a grill, well just one of the only two - but definitely the best ;-)

Scouting the Guardians of the Valley - Yosemite.

So, I bought an annual National Parks Pass. Good for entry to all National Parks for an entire year for up to two motorcycles! I want this to be a year of the National Parks - starting with this weekend trip to scout the 'Guardians of the Valley' in Yosemite. I have rode across Hwy 120 (Tioga Pass) a few times before, but I never ventured into the Valley floor. Something about madding crowds always puts me off and keeps me as far away as I can muster, but the desire to see the grandeur up close was too strong and I finally relented. 

The trick was to pick the right time of the year to visit - late enough in the Spring to have enough snow melt to give life to the waterfalls, and early enough in the Spring to avoid the stampede which ensues, especially when the kids get out of school.

This April has been warmer than any I remember in the recent past, dryer too - lots of melting snow and clear roads! All signs were pointing to the last weekend in April as the time to strike.

The goal as I hinted earlier, being to scout the various vista points and points of interests and best time of day to view and capture, for repeated forays into the park over the next year, except maybe the summer "it's a zoo" months.

On an early Saturday morning, I met my friend Mike, who had also expressed an interest in a stop to take pictures and let the view sink in kind of a riding weekend. We decided on an IHOP in Folsom (This one) for a quick and simple breakfast before we set off. The day was warm, bright and clear, the scouting incursion was a go ... little did we know as we rode south ... the guardians knew we were coming ... and we had been poisoned ... :(

We stayed off the heavily patrolled Hwy 49 and stuck to back roads, not that it did us much good. We counted 1 CHP, and about 4 Sherriff's vehicles along our route. Only CHP had his radar on. Luckily no one stopped us to sell tickets to the patrolman's ball.

It was already over an hour past noon. Ticket seller presence and lunch in Groveland had slowed us down. When we finally reached the valley floor, we headed straight for Bridal Veil Falls.

An easy, relatively flat hike led us towards the base of the falls. I stopped at a couple of points along the way to photograph the "Pohono" effect. When the wind picks up, it lifts up the falling water at the top of the falls and swirls it around in the air..