Day 25

We had a productive evening to end day 24, taking advantage of the laundromat next to our hotel as well as the nearby car was to blow some of the road grime off the Nomad.

Day 25 had one of the top Motorcycle roads in the USA on the agenda, the Million Dollar Highway which is also known as the San Juan Skyway.  It has 242 turns over the 71 miles it covers and has three mountain passes that you climb to over 10,000 feet on the way over.

I'm impressed Char got this photo, it wasn't long after we hit the road on highway 491 and came up on us fast.  We stayed on 491 throught Cortez and onto Durango, CO

From Durango we headed North on Highway 550 or as previously mentioned the Million Dollar Highway.  Immediately the scenery starts to pick up as you start climbing.

We stopped at the Molas Summit which was over 10,900 feet elevation.  Spectacular views in every direction.

The view as we depart the Molas Summit rest stop.

It was hard to show it in this photo but the colors to this formation were incredible and against the greenery background it was something to see.

Char had the tough task of trying to show the twists of the road from the back of the bike.  In this series of switchbacks we are on one section with two more immediately below us just a 15 mph switchback away.

I liked this photo so it's in the blog.

The people of Ouray were lining the streets as we rolled through which I thought was a little over the top since we're just regular folk. Char seems to think they were out for something to do with the 4th of July and a parade, guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.

A little Nomad glam shot on the downside of McClure Pass on Highway 131.  Highway 131 between Hotchkiss and Carbondale may have moved to the top spot of my favorite roads to ride on this trip.  Lots of twisties but none of the 15 mph switchbacks that I find break up the fun and rhythm in a ride.

We got chased by weather the last 100 miles into our destination of Glenwood Springs, CO but other than a few drops we managed to arrive rain free.  It's raining as I prepare this blog entry but I'm hoping it will blow overs as we are looking forward to seeing some fireworks tonight for Independence day.

I'm not sure if it's the toll of 25 days on the road combined with hotels and restaurant food but it feels like the miles are getting tougher to get in each day.  We may back down the mileage a bit on the remaining days of this trip.  We are both sporting some pretty bizarre tan lines that we will have to address in short order at home as well.

Mileage covered today was 557.1 km bringing our trip total to 7451.2 km.

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.