Day 24

Day 24 was another beautiful day with some more heat on the agenda.  We left Escalante with a plan in question as our planned route was to head up Route 12 on our way towards I-70 before heading South again through Moab and on to Monticello.  The question was brought up by our waiter last night who felt the trip North was a waste of 80+ miles and felt we wouldn't see much by passing by Moab.  He felt we would be better served saving the 80 miles and heading south on Route 95 to 191.

Route 12 East of Escalante is a motorcyclists dream with non stop scenery and not a straight section of road in sight.

The view from the road side lookout right before the Kiva Koffehouse which sits on the edge of a cliff.  45 seconds after taking this photo we were passing through on the road below, it's a quick descent.

While Route 12 is a dream to ride you have to be cautious as it's also open range country and the cattle is pretty ignorant about who has the right of way at times.

Right after this was taken he started eyeballing us and came up onto the shoulder.  I think he had sights on Char's red jacket, either way I was back on the throttle pretty quick.

These guys were more interested in retreating than coming forward, they broke into a run and a couple of bounds later were out of sight.

It's too bad the camera picked up so much of the cloud cover, the view from this turnout was incredible, nothing amazing just an endless landscape.

I believe this formation was called Chimney Rock.

This is the Historic one room schoolhouse in the town of Fruita in Capital Reef N.P.

Coming out the east side of Capital Reef the landscapes start to change with less color in the rock formations and an almost sand look to the hills.

When we stopped for gas in Hanksville we met a nice couple who started asking questions about the Nomad.  During the conversation we learned they had spent extensive time around Moab.  When asked about our route they shared the opinion of last nights waiter so our decision was made.  Instead of heading North on 24 from Hanksville we went South on 95.  This brought us to some fantastic scenery around Lake Powell.

Another view as we approach Lake Powell.

I don't know who Jacob is, but that's his chair on top of that Mesa.

As we approached our destination of Monticello, UT it looked like some weather was approaching on the horizon.

Mileage covered today was 422.1 km bringing our trip total to 6894.1 km.

Day 23

In my last report I mentioned having clutch problems, well those problems turned our planned 3 day, 2 night stay in Las Vegas into a 6 day, 5 night stay.  Clearly there is worse places to get stranded with mechanical problems so I'll count ourselves fortunate even though the lost days will affect our planned route from here.

After getting the bike back from the Ridenow dealership on Boulder highway late Friday night we were more than ready to hit the road Saturday morning.  We opted for an early departure to try to get out from under some of the forecasted 111 degree high.

With our final night in Vegas behind us we left the lights of the strip behind us.

And headed for the open road. Not sure there is a better feeling than a clear sky and open highway in front of you.

Heading North out of Vegas on I-15 we briefly passed through Arizona before entering Utah.  It felt like we were trying to make up for lost time as the flow on I-15 was a steady 80mph.

I might have expected this in Vegas but Utah?

Once off I-15 the scenery started to ramp up, this was near Hurricane Utah on the way to Zion National Park.

Waiting at a roadside stop while some large RV's came through a tunnel in Zion.

I had considered upgrading our camera after the Eagles photo earlier in the trip and this one pretty much confirms I'm shopping for a longer zoom point and shoot when we get home.  There was at least seven mountain goats sitting up on the ledge.

Some of the scenery between Zion N.P. and Bryce Canyon.

Things start to get seriously cool looking as you approach Bryce canyon.

Running out of captions so I'll just include some more scenery.

Some Bryce Canyon wildlife.

Char at the far end of Bryce Canyon at the Rainbow Point lookout.

A view from Rainbow Point.

This was called the Natural Bridge, oddly enough found at the Natural Bridge lookout.

This one was taken at the Bryce Point lookout.

Char and I at the Bryce Point lookout.

One more from Bryce Point.

After being completely blown away by the scenery at Bryce Canyon it was off to our hotel in Escalante Utah.

Mileage covered today was 565.7 km, combined with 44 km of local riding in Vegas brings our trip total to 6472 km.

Day 18

Day 18 got off to an early start after a restless night.  Not sure why I was so restless as we stayed in a quaint, quiet little Inn that likely had the most comfortable bed and pillows we've seen this trip.  About the only thing I can think of is I had a lot on my mind after the previous days clutch issue.  I can't say I wasn't somewhat concerned about trekking across the isolated desert with a questionable clutch in my bike.

Char and I had talked about getting on the road a bit early to beat some of the desert heat.  Well we accomplished that with the temperature being 5 degrees Celsius in Mammoth Lakes at 7:30 AM.  Kind of forgot to factor the 8,000 foot elevation into the equation.  By the time we were 40 miles down the road in Bishop, CA it was already closing in on 30 degrees.

As we headed east away from Mammoth Lakes we saw less and less snow covered peaks.

Lot's of this en route to Vegas, long stretches of isolated straight riding, kind of like Saskatchewan plus the desert, some hills and a lot less bugs.

Our route took us down I-395 to California 168 and the US-95 to Vegas.  The 82 miles of California 168 may be some of the coolest (as in fun not temperature) that I have ever ridden.  Some great scenery with a couple of 16 + mile serious twisty sections with large climbs and descents.  The length of the climbs worked out for me as I had pretty much zero clutch left by the top of each climb but it recovered on the descents enough to keep us rolling.

We stopped 40 miles out of Vegas to take a break and get out of the heat.  I'm not sure of a better way to state this so I'll go straight to the point. Riding across the desert in 42 degree Celsius temps was pretty much miserable in my opinion.  The last 40 mile push I figured would be no problem as it had no major climbs and was only 40 miles so I figured I'd won the battle of the clutch.  So much for that thought, by the time we hit I-15 I had no clutch play left again and we were rolling onto Las Vegas Blvd on our way to the Stratosphere.  It was a challenge trying to shift and pop the bike into neutral and I'm sure there was a few folks wondering if I'd ever ridden before as I stalled the bike at almost every stop but we limped into the parking lot and shut it down for the day.

I contacted both local kawi dealers and neither has any clutch parts in stock and based on the conversations it may be a challenge to get me back on the road by our planned Thursday AM departure.

This will be the last blog until we are on the road again as I'm sure you all don't need an update on my gambling losses.  If we get rolling Thursday there will be a blog Thursday night, if not I'll update what our repair status looks like at that point.

Mileage covered today was 517.1 km for a trip total of 5862.3 km.

Day 17

Day 17 had us departing from Merced, CA. for a tour of Yosemite National Park before heading for our rest spot for the night in Mammoth Lakes, CA.

Highway 140 heading East out of Merced is relatively flat and uneventful farm land for many miles.  I originally thought these were Orange Groves but found out they are Almond and Pistachio crops.  They go on for miles.

Much like the Alberta Foothills, as you head down 140 they start to roll and get higher and higher until you're into full blown canyons.

A nice family man with a heavy Eastern Bloc accent kindly snapped this photo for us at a riverside stop near Mariposa, CA.

As soon as you enter the park there is unreal scenery around every corner.  This was the first of many waterfalls we saw today.

We swapped picture duties with another couple traveling by bike at Glacier Point.  To reach here was a climb of several thousand feet, almost all of it droning along in second gear at about 30 mph.  As we climbed I noticed my clutch pull beginning to change in the rare spots I needed to shift.  By the time we reached the top I had no clutch left at all and basically came to a stop by stalling out the bike.  We sat for an bit longer than we would have normally at this viewpoint and the clutch slowly started coming back as it cooled down.

Since we were giving the clutch a rest, may as well snap a few more majestic views.

This was the order of the day, traffic moved faster in downtown San Fran during rush hour.

The photo can't do this justice.

Grumpy face on during our second clutch induced rest stop during the climb to over 10,000 feet heading out of the park through Tioga pass.

Almost got to witness an East Indian family get pasted onto the roadway while stopped to get this photo.  They seemed to have a hard time comprehending that the bridge they wanted to stand on to take better photo's was also a 50 mph road.

Tioga Pass Park exit on Highway 120 towards Interstate 395.

We stopped at Ellery Lake to give the backsides a break.  The scenery was incredible and I watched a fellow fish for a short while, unfortunately for him no luck with the fish.

Char snapped this one as we descended from Tioga Pass towards I-395.

Figured I was likely to take some grief from my friends with American Iron over my clutch issues so figured I'd better include this photo while pointing out I rode out of the park.

Tomorrows goal is Las Vegas where we have 3 nights booked at the Stratosphere for $27 a night (gotta love priceline).  Hopefully this will give me time to get my hands on a Barnett clutch spring and find a dealer capable of installing it before we move on.

Mileage covered today was 407.6 km giving us a 17 day total of 5345.2 km.

Day 16

Our original plan for today was to depart San Francisco and make it to the Lee Vining area.  After giving it some thought we decided to alter the plan as I didn't want to have to hurry through Yosemite National Park to make it to a hotel in Mammoth Lakes at a reasonable hour.

New plan was to add a day to our plans and stay somewhere close to Yosemite so we had more time to explore the park on Sunday.  After spending the better part of 5 hours searching every possibility of accommodations and coming up empty we had to hatch yet another plan.  We opted for a very short day today staying further back of Yosemite in the town of Merced, CA.  From here we will tour Yosemite and then stay in Mammoth Lakes, CA for the night before pushing on to Vegas on Monday Morning.

So as far as today goes there is really not much to share.  Pretty bland riding after what we've covered recently and mainly super slab riding for the entire day.  Interstate 580 could be renamed the Dublin-Tracy dragstrip with the way traffic flies along.  At one point I was cruising with the flow of traffic, looked down at my GPS to realize traffic was flowing three lanes wide at 140 KPH.

Figured this might be a good day to share some thoughts on the bike and the setup changes I made prior to the trip for those following along from the Kawanow Nomad forum.

Of all the mods we made prior to the trip (fairing, trunk, stereo, highway pegs, engine guard chaps, throttle lock) I can say without question the best money I spent was $95 on a Grasshopper Driver's backrest.

I do notice some handling traits I'm not thrilled about since adding the trunk but only riding 2 up at low speeds with both bags (one in and one on top) loaded.  The bike almost feels a tad front end light in those circumstances.  When we return home I'll look at moving the trunk forward slightly as I have it mounted as far back as possible on the Scootworks rack as that is where Char liked it setup prior to departure.

The Reckless fairing gave me exactly what I was after (better wind/weather protection) and the added bonus of having somewhere to add a stereo and speakers.

I've been pleasantly surprised with fuel economy so far this trip as I expected the added weight of the trunk and fairing as well as all the extra weight we are carrying in gear and luggage would kill the already less than spectacular mileage. 

Mileage covered today was 258.8 km bring the trip total to 4937.9.

Day 15

Day 15 was a planned off day as far as riding and we wanted to do the tourist thing in San Francisco.  It's an interesting time for my first trip to San Fran as this weekend is the largest public event they host each year, that's right it's the Pride parade! 

We hopped on the bike today and headed out from our hotel in South San Francisco and figured we'd start the day at Fisherman's Wharf.  We found a parking lot across from Pier 39 and $15 later we were on the way to enjoying our day.  Besides all the shopping at Pier 39 there is a bunch of Seals and Sea Lions that hang out on some old docks in the Marina.  We watched them for quite awhile as they are very entertaining as they fight for their spot on the dock.

Char and I debated which kind of tour we wanted to do and I was big on the Segway tour.  Char was concerned she wouldn't get the hang of riding one and I was a bit concerned about her having to be on her feet that long.

So instead of the Segway we opted for the open double decker bus tour.  It was a two hour tour that was worth every penny of the $20 per person.

Not sure what goes on here but I could possibly be convinced to check it out.

Apparently dryers and clotheslines are in short supply in Chinatown.

Pretty sure the dude in the shorts on the left is still frozen in place there since I was pretty much looking for warmer clothes at this point due to the ocean breeze.

Real estate is at a premium but a High School needs a football field even if it is artificial turf.

On the way back to the hotel we passed AT&T park and realized the Giants were at home, had I thought of it I likely would have considered taking in the game.

A few other notes;

I made reference to car chases and Divisadero street yesterday.  Our tour guide today mentioned that a bunch of the chase scenes in the classic Steve McQueen movie Bullit were filmed on Divisadero.

Char and I witnessed a tourist getting mugged today by a flock of seagulls.  The tourist had just bought lunch at one of the food stands on the pier and was walking towards a bench to eat.  A few seagulls started to buzz about his head and one went in for the goods and grabbed the basket of food, knocking it out of the tourists hand and onto the roadway.  from there it was a feeding frenzy while the guy stood there dumbfounded. I wish I could say I didn't laugh but It still makes me grin re-living it for this blog.

Mileage covered today was a modest 64.2 km of local riding bringing our total to 4699.1 km.