9/12/09

Leaving Las Vegas - 11 Sept 2009

Ah, morning in Vegas. It doesn't quite have the same flair as the night view. On the way out of town Frank Sinatra came on with "The Best is Yet to Come." Quite a beautiful sign if you believe in the god of the iPod shuffle. Either that or I have to much Sinatra on my playlist. At any rate it put a smile on my face to start the day. And Frank and Vegas just go hand in hand.
Heading over the damn dam was tedious with a line of possible terrorists waiting to go through security. The route was mostly downhill so I was able to coast on the bike powered off saving some gas and the added heat of the engine.
I was starving and this was my last option for food for awhile. So I parked at the dam tourist center and picked up a light breakfast while marveling at the engineering feats. The new bridge going in is quite incredible. I come through at least once a year and it's interesting marking the progress.
After past the dam and the tourist trap that it is and back into Arizona I headed off road. I've always wondered about the trails to the west of the road to Vegas. I made a short loop back to 93. It was hot hot hot and I couldn't stay out of the trails for long. I'd like to come back to do more exploring. Now there was some sand and I did tip over once... on the left.
I took a heat break at a gas station to cool off, I could feel the starts of dehydration and heat stroke. Frozen sugar water (aka ice cream), gatorade and some air conditioning were what the doctor ordered. I also had to tighen up the bolts clamping down the handlebars which were completely adjustable by this point. The vibrations of the bike just affect everything. I need to go through with some locktite when I get though.
Well, queue the begining of the drama of the day. My bike died along the side of the road. This would be the part that I keep thinking about the horrible fuel pump issues but of course it seems really early. The fuel light was on and we need to get into the workings of the tanks on the bike. The stock tank, under the seat is what feeds the infamous fuel pump. Now the Safari tank in the front has a higher level than the stock tank so if all the tanks are full, and all the lines are open the stock tank will overflow. So the procedure that the former owner walked me though involves opening the petcocks for the lobes of the front tank as required. Hypothetically each time you open up a lobe of the front tank you would get another 100 to 150 miles of range. I was keeping track of it at the start of the trip but the odo fogged over on the humid coast so I couldn't keep track of mileage. That's my excuse anyway. So when I opened up the last petcock for the lobe and expected at least a hundred miles, logically. Well, remember I said I crashed on the desert trails? That will transfer gas between the lobes on the front tank and screw up my assumptions.
Initially I thought that there was a blockage of some sort from the right lobe and that's why I was having this fuel problem. So I finally got to make use of my Starbucks coffee bladder to transfer fuel. There was about a quarter of a gallon hiding in the front tank so I drained it and pored it into the rear tank and crossed my fingers that it would be enought to get me to a gas station.
Putting along at just bellow the speed limit (and pissing off all of the vehicles behind me on the two lane road) I managed to coax my bike to the edge of Wikiup, AZ and Joe's BBQ. Inside I asked about a gas station and the lady working there said it was about a mile down the road but she would give me a ride. A much better alternative than hiking around at 100+ degrees! I've been really impressed with the people I've run into along the way that have been willing to lend a hand or a ride. I'm going to have to pass it along now, knowing how much of a difference it makes.
So with a minimum of drama from running out of gas in the middle of the desert I was off again! I was just ready to be home. I played around with stopping over in the Flagstaff area for the night but it was just time to get home.
So I was within a hundred miles from home so all the drama should have been over. I saw a rainbow on the horizon and pulled out my camera while riding to get a picture. Well this was the one time that my fears came through, I dropped it. I pulled off, dropped my backpack and started running back to save my camera from the 65+ traffic. At least I wanted to try to recover my memory card that had all my pictures from the day. I saw the camera bounce off to the side of the road and found it slightly mangled but better than I could have expected. The battery and memory card were missing so the scavenger hunt begin. I figured it was worth the effort to try to find the memory card.
As I found the battery a Sheriff's department SUV pulled up at my bike. Oh, boy. I kept looking for the card and one of the officers came up and joined the search. The second started asking me about the ownership of the bike, the tag of course was the old owners and apparently their system showed that the tag was expired. Then I heard "You owe me a beer!" The first officer had found my memory card! I take back at least some of the things I've thought about cops. We went back to my bike and I handed over the bill of sale and title that wasn't yet transfered to my name. Eventually, the officer came back and wished me luck, told me to be careful and I was back on my way. An amazing event. And best yet, the camera still works! It's no longer waterproof but what can you expect dropping the camera at 65+?
I took it really easy riding back into town after all the incidents I'd already had. Dinner and conversation with a friend on the way home was a perfect way to wrap up the day. I headed home and passed out in my own bed. Always a wonderful feeling after two weeks on the rode.

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Misadventures - 10 Sept 2009

I woke up to a beautiful meadow on hypothetical forest service land. I'll explain shortly. I took my time wrapping up camp and having a wonderful breakfast. Caffeine and Carbs, that's my definition of a good breakfast. I decided to scout out the trails that I'd come in on and o some exploring. There were a lot of dead ends but they were very established trails and some of them had been maintained to the point of having water bars. It was fun jumping the 690 over them.



I ended up riding into a State Park on some lakes. Now the trail into the park was barred which seemed weird but oh well, most gates are easy to go around on a motorcycle. I don't know if it's just human nature to be drawn to water, life giving like it is. Maybe it's a "Oh! Shinny object" knee jerk reaction but there's something about lakes, oceans, rivers, creeks that really brightens up a day.
However upon leaving this park I was asked for a recipt. Uh oh. Apparently I was on private land camping last night (Victim less crime of the day number 1). Also all trails (and beaches) are nonmotorized so if I had hypotectically rode my bike onto the lake beach to take a pictures that would have been my 2nd victim less crime.



Headed south once again I was skirting south Lake Tahoe. There were some fun twisties and I ran into another motorcycle traveler. I like his helmet. It's good to put the information out there for people to know!



Over one of the passes I saw dirt roads leading off into the distance. It was too much tempation ot pass up. So I went off exploring and found some fun desert riding. A point of interest, the scorpion tires are like riding on ball bearings on hard packed trails like this... I might have gone down once or twice.



On my way to find some hot springs my mirror gave up the ghost and broke off. The vibrations finished the job that my crashes had started before. Of course it was the left side, which is the one that I use most.



I read about these hot springs online and decided to try to scout them out. The directions were sketchy and signs were few but an unexplained gravel lot of the top of the hill seemed to be a possibility. So I look over the edge and down next to the creek are these pools that have been built up using rocks. The hot water from the spring mixes with the cold creek water to make a perfect break spot.



For all of my Tech friends out there, ran across this in the middle on nowhere.


The rest of the day I pretty much just burned the miles. I've been away long enough that I'm ready to get home. Along the way I stopped and took a picture of a couple on a Harley from Houston. Texas people are always so nice, I ended up riding with them to Vegas. They waved to almost every vehicle on the road. I stopped for the night in a Motel in Vegas. A hot shower was calling my name.

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9/7/09

Wandering around Tahoe - 6 Sept 2009


I woke up and my Aunt and Uncles house in Tahoe City, visited some before tracking down my cousin, working down at the beach. Work is an annoying thing but it does pay bills so I left her to it.

Tahoe is much to beautiful of a place not to do some wandering in and I've hit my limit of sedentary activity. Riding a motorcycle might not seem like a very demanding activity but it's very simulating. There are constantly changing views and situation awareness is very demanding. So because I couldn't head out on my bike, I hit the trails, hiking trails.
It is a indisputable fact that many of my stories (and all of the entertaining ones) start with "It seems like a good idea at the time." This turned out to be one of my worst screw ups in a long time. I forgot to change my shoes from my stylish flip flops to my more serviceable chacos. I didn't take food or water. And I didn't turn around when I should have. But the views were amazing.
Of course my rate of picture taking rate was directly related to my heart rate which in turn was directly related to the incline of the trail. I am going to blame my shortness of breath on the altitude. Not my lack of activity of the last month, trying to nurse my knee back to healthy.

Naturally, being a evil, environment hating, outdoors enthusiast, all that was running through my head was "I wish that I had my dirt bike right now." This trail was ideal for dirt bikes, and my cardiovascular non-fitness would have appreciated it as well.
The call of "I wonder what's over this rise" is a dangerous one and it led me up this trail to Marlette Lake Reservior. This would have been a good place to turn around, but I hate retracing my steps. It looked like "Flume Trail" would head back to the parking lot that David's car was sitting in. It didn't of course, but that's what I was going with at the time.
The blisters that I'm suffering the next day are worth it for the amazing vistas that this trail treated me to
This Flume trail was a shelf just sticking out from the mountain side. My solitary hike turned into moutain bike dodging on this very popular trail. I could have used the two wheels, even if they were peddle powered!
This was before I really started devloping blisters thanks to my "hiking" flip flops. But at this point I was too committed to turn around. The heights of these beautiful views just served to show me exactly how far away I was getting from the car.(Far left of the point that you can see here)
I'm calculating that I hiked around 10 miles because a sign at the lake reservoir listed 28 being 7.4 miles away and that was after an hour and forty-five minutes of hiking. That got me a looooong way away from my car. But I was lucky and a group of mountain bikers were driving back to their cabin that direction. Doublely lucky because they insisted on feeding me and giving me water and Gatorade. I wasn't in dire straits for hydration but it certainly helped the cause.
After a light breakfast, a heavy hike and no lunch, I was starving. I managed to connect up with the Brownells for dinner. They're resent transplants to the area from Phoenix and they look like they're happy in their new environment. Who could blame them with Tahoe in their backyard! I headed back down to Sacramento to return David's car but took the back way on 50. The moon was amazing so I had to stop and play with long exposure settings. All in all, it was a good jaunt up to Tahoe.

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9/5/09

Sacramento to Tahoe - 5 Sept 2009

It was a beautiful morning in Sacramento. My body rhythms had me up at 7am with Katie's three cats. The cats kept me company until 10am when David and Katie got up in time to watch the Georgia Tech football game. Breakfast was courtesy of a neighborhood bakery and donut shop. They had brotchen at the backery! Quite exciting!

After the freedom of riding my motorcycle anywhere I wish, I was feeling hemmed in and restricted by my lack of transportation. It's very frustrating having to depend on other people, even if they're friends and family. The dilemma of how to get up to Tahoe to visit with family while I'm waiting for my bike arose. David, hero for a day, loaned me his car while he's going to a family function with Katie.

So I made my way north to Tahoe and here I sit, dealing with all this beauty in the pines.

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