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Ride Reports K.I.S.S. Adventure - Part 16
Ride Reports K.I.S.S. Adventure - Part 16
| K.I.S.S. Adventure - Part 16 |
| Thursday, 10 July 2008 00:00 |
The long roadHad a chance to finally figure out the total distance traveled. Just a little over 6,000 miles.
Sas did a total of 3,400 miles. I think she can finally take the noob off of her profile. We expected the trip to take 15 days and it ended up taking 18 days. Yellowstone got cut out from the initial trip plan. Sas had to give up part of New Mexico too. But we don't feel like we missed anything. Matter of fact Sas is still trying to absorb all that she saw. And we saw a lot of country. This was Sas's perfect type of trip. She likes to see everything. Here's a case in point ... We honeymooned on a small island in Lake Michigan called North Manitou. It's about 15 miles across, pretty secluded, with beautiful sandy beaches on the south end. I had a 60 lb. pack loaded with tent, camera and fishing gear. Sas carried the clothing and sleeping bags. I figured we would get to the south end of the island, a short hike, set up camp and ahhh relax.  Nope the first day she hiked my sorry little butt half way around the island. All in all we hiked about 18 miles in three days. Same thing this trip. We pushed hard all day seeing as much as possible. It was very rare for us to get in at night earlier than 8 p.m. Fifteen years later she is still doing the same thing to me. And yeah I kinda like it.  Here is the route:  Hazards of the road
Traveling 6,000 miles on a motorcycle you get to see some pretty strange things. Sas and I thought we would share some of the immediate threats that motorcyclists face on the road.
Road conditions ... Cattle grates. These are used out West to keep cattle from crossing a road. The grate is wide and can catch a tire if you are not careful. So cross them straight on never cut across them at an angle.  Potholes. Like the one that almost swallowed our front tire in Colorado. Falling rock. A very big deal in mountainous areas. And a lot of road damage can occur after the passes have been cleared. And a word to the wise — when they say BUMP they mean it. We hit one that took us right off of the R1100's seat.   Construction. Kinda used to this being from Michigan and all.  Road surface: About 20 miles of the Needles Highway was covered in chip seal. Talk about taking the fun out of corners.  Wildlife... Cows. There is a lot of open range out here.  Deer. Like the one standing next to a cliff that decides to book across the road in front of us since it can't make the climb.  Birds and bats. Like the dove we hit that shrapneled us with bird guts. Eewww! We had also talked to a lady in Winner whose brother-in-law was taken out by a pheasant while riding his cycle. Or the bat that flew down to grab some choice bugs at dusk over the highway and got lodged in a rider's open face helmet. That'll wake ya up. Roadkill. Lots of squished turtles in South Dakota. Pikas in the Rocky mountains. Deer and skunks also make for aromatic slippage. We even saw a dead bear in northern Arizona. Weather... Changes. The weather can switch from sunny to cold, from windy to rainy, from hail to scorching heat, especially in the mountains. Higher altitudes even warn of ice on the road, even in July.  Precipitation. Heavy rain. Snow. Sleet. You can watch the thunderheads build up all day. Getting caught in one of these out on the Great Plains is a great pain.  Wind. Being hit by a blowing tumbleweed can even mess up your radiator. A constriction barricade blowing across the road makes for a quick ABS application. And, in the middle of nothing and out of nowhere, whirlwinds will jostle your bike.  Everyone else... Left handers. Don't second guess that car in front of you. I'm to the point where I don't even trust them if they have a turn signal on. The age-challenged. Watch out for the blue hairs. There are a lot of elderly drivers out there. Drivers that are not expecting you to zoom by. Have patience, give them a little time and watch them closely. A couple of close calls were had were from elderly drivers.  Debris. People lose a lot of stuff.  The scenery ... The main reason we take these trips is to experience the views. Speeding through the curves and trying to look around is a recipe for disaster. Remember — where you look — is where you go.  Photos we missedThere are times we just didn't slow down enough or think quick enough to grab the camera. Coming into Phoenix was taxing and we were both tired when we went to pick up the KTM. Neither one of us grabbed the camera, so the iPhone was it.
 Here are some other moments: The green gullies on 44 in South Dakota. There were two of them. The road cutting through straight, flat, farm fields dropped into these gullies that were perfect circles about a half mile in diameter. Mounds surrounded them and their interior was perfectly flat, with a creek running though and about 10°F warmer in them. Sas said they looked like buried alien ships had elevated from there. Ohno thinks she was watching the last Indiana Jones movie a little too closely. Sas is still kicking herself for not shooting pics of the vintage bikes we got mixed in with flying through the canyon, on the way back up to Rocky Mountain National Park. Better yet, they were pulling off at a fairground in Este Park, shoulda stopped! We pulled over to view a waterfall on 550 just south of Silverton, in Colorado. Two men in cowboy hats and young girl were walking toward a pickup. Sas jumps off the back of the bike, in awe of their spurred cowboy boots. "Thems some tall boots! They'd come up to my thighs!" she yells at a 7-foot cowboy who was a dead ringer for Woody from Toy Story. He blushed and moseyed on. "Man, that would have been a great pic standing next to him," she mused later. They really would have at least come up to her knees, as they were double the height of regular cowboy boots. On the way across northern Arizona on 160 (the Navajo Trail), there was an abandoned gas station and some other remnants of prosper set against some red cliffs. Way cool setting. Ohno just thought it would be a good place to pick up a nail in the tyre. But later on he had to admit it would have made a great spot for a photo shoot. The roadkill on 260 in the White Mountains. There was the typical deer and a shunk, but also an elk and a small black bear.  Pics of the pitted clay road that lead to the "improved" portion gravel in New Mexico. Sas stopped to shoot a pic and Ohno, worried about her, got mad because that was why she stopped. The decrepit, one-track road (503) hugging side of the mountain that lead out of a little village called Cundiyo, while making a wrong turn looking for Chimayó. Cundiyo itself was neat too. It reminded us of a Mexican version of the small towns in western Germany. A picture of the El Santuario de Chimayó. Believed to be built on sacred earth with miraculous healing powers, the church has people pilgrimage from all over to experience it's healing powers. Many claim to have been cured there of diseases, infirmities and unhappiness. The walls of the sacristy are hung with discarded crutches and before-and-after photographs as evidence of the healing. The church was closed and we were so disappointed that we didn't even shoot the outside. Kevin's ('Wing owner) face when Ohno pulled up next to him while riding into Winner. Couldn't ask for better timing. Time. We did so much in such a short amount of time. There are many things to go back for, but what's done is done and it's time to look forward to the next adventure.  Putting together two more posts, one about what we packed, what we needed and didn't need, and another one what worked and what didn't. Packing detailsRecap:
We packed for riding two-up on the Gold Wing. Everything had to fit into a tank bag, tank panniers, soft Eclipse saddle bags and a Marsee 44 liter tailbag. Since we couldn't carry everything on the 1100R that we were riding to MInneapolis we mailed our clothes, toiletries and the Marsee tail bag to Minneapolis. Once we decided that Sas would take the 1100R all the way to Arizona, due to the uncertainty of the Wing's durability, our luggage space increased because now we had her hard bags for our gear too. We actually had space to spare. (The kids might actually get some gifts.) So here is how it all broke down: For a one day pull from Michigan to Minneapolis on the R1100R we had:  • Rain gear • 15" MacBook computer • Cameras; Lumix point and shoot, D300 body with two lenses • Killer Tool Roll • Electronics chargers and cords • Sas's make-up kit (it's pretty small) • Cell phones • Ohno's night shield (Sas prefers a clear shield with sunglasses) • Sketter Camelback • Gorp • Package of beef jerky • Thermos Once we got to Minneapolis the repacking began  Here is the rest of our gear list: Sas's gear: • 3 pair wicking cotton underwear (Victoria's Secret) • 2 bras (Victoria's Secret) • Swimsuit (Victoria's Secret) • Cover-up skirt • Workout shorts cotton • 3 Long sleeve cotton shirts • 2 sleeveless cotton shirts • Pair of shorts • Pair of jeans • Pair of lightweight tech pants (Contourwear) • Slip-on shoes (Sketcher) • 2 pair gloves: summer and rainproof cold-weather gloves • 3 pair riding socks (Sokz) • Rain suit (2 piece Marsee) • Wind jacket (North Face) • Mesh Jacket (Roadgear) • Heated vest with sleeves (Aerostich) • Sunglasses • Flip-up helmet (Nolan 102n) • Hadd bandana • Long thermal wear pants • Cool max shirt What Sas wore riding: • Roadgear Mesh Jacket • Leather pants • Work out shorts* • Wind jacket • Long sleeve shirt** • Sleeveless shirt • Gloves • Riding socks • Underwear • Flip-up helmet (Nolan 102n) • Sunglasses • Waterproof boots (Daytona) — Still LOVE them Lobby!!! * Workout shorts worn under leather pants for those quick jumps in the streams  ** Sas would usually start out the day with the Mesh jacket, wind jacket, long sleeve and sleeveless shirts and then layer down as the day warmed up. Ohno's gear: • 3 pair non-riding underwear and 2 pair to ride in • 2 pair of zip-off pants, one that converted to a swim suit/shorts (North Face) • 3 long sleeve cotton shirts • 2 T-shirts cotton • Covered toe sandal shoes (Teva) • 4 pair riding gloves; summer, cold-weather, three-finger rain and a just in case pair • 3 pair riding socks (Cool-Max) • Gortex liners for BMW Rally Pro riding suit • Full face helmet (G-max) • Waterproof Boots (Sidi On Road Gore-Tex Boots) • Heated vest with sleeves (Aerostich) • Long thermal wear pants What Ohno wore riding: • BMW Rally Pro 2 suit • Long sleeve shirt • Gloves • Socks • Underwear • Gmax full face helmet • Sidi On Road Gore-Tex Boots • Hadd bandana After we detrmined the 'Wing wouldn't fly south in Rapid City, South Dakota, we were back down to one bike and we lost a lot of space since the BMW's hard bags are so small and it doesn't have a rack. All the gear we had mailed to Minneapolis wouldn't fit on the R1100R. We had to pare back. We opted to send out the dirty clothes we had worn the last few days, which worked out fine. We also determined that, generally, we were in our riding gear. Some of what we thought we'd need for going out in the evenings went back, too, since we usually pulled in late. So did some of Ohno's underwear.  We sent back about 15 pounds worth of stuff via the post office: • Large Marsee tailbag • Eclipse soft saddle bags • Dirty long sleeves that we rode out in • Dirty underwear (and bra) that we rode out in • Dirty socks that we rode out in • Sas's skirt and jeans • Ohno's extra gloves • One pair of Ohno's zip-off pants • Some Garmin pieces and cords • Thermos • Sas's iPod that had quit on her Back to this:  There are a few things we needed. A few things we could have done without. • Sas needed a lightweight windbreaker, we fixed that in Este Park on the way up the mountain. • The iPod. It broke, the battery crapped out. Sas missed it two-up once and awhile. Not as often as she thought she would. • Ohno thinks the cotton riding shirts should go and be replaced with something more high tech that breaths and doesn't hold moisture. • For the type of traveling that we did you just need one outfit for the evening. So two pairs of pants were overkill. • Zip off pants are great because you don't have to pack separate shorts. The pair that Ohno brought along also doubled as swim trucks and dried in a snap. • We never used the tight fitting Cool-Max shirts or our warm undergear, mainly because the weather and altitude changed so frequently. • Ohno thought he would really miss having a pair of jeans along but he got used to his new "Parachute Pants" look. (Having a couple of beers and a tall Jim Beam before looking in the mirror helps. ) We know this is long but it will be great to go back and see what worked and didn't work for our next trip. |