Huntington Beach

A cool soft breeze through my open window, the sun shining outside, my bed nice and comfortable.  Southern California has a lot to offer me this morning, and I love it. Its Friday and Damien had to head work, so my day involved a lot of lounging around.  I cooked up a breakfast burrito, went to the beach, walked around.  Not too much to complain about all in all.  Not too much to write about either.  I had a fish burrito for lunch.  I read and hung out on the pier and beach. Damien got back from work and we had In-n-Out for dinner. I worked on getting over a cold.

The next day was not too different.  I had another lazy morning and Damien's dog Kelcy came in during a morning thunderstorm. Damien then toured me around the area trying to convince me how awesome the area is.  He's right, a lot of it is awesome.  Not too bad for a couple of days in SoCal.

Zion, heatstroke, Vegas, Huntington

This sets out as being one of the longer days of my journey.  I woke up after the sun came out,  but before it was able to warm up everything too much.  As I packed up my site and talked to my neighbor, I could not get over how stunning the rugged southwestern scenery was. Following is a picture after I packed camp and was about to head out.

I headed into town and sat down at a coffee shop to pull myself together and plan out my day.  I'd ride the bus tour, ride my bike through a different path, and then make for the 8 hours towards SoCal.

After a quick perusal of the visitor center, as I was about to hop on the one of the guide buses, the driver came up to me and asked, "what type of bike do you ride?" Turns out, she spotted my backpack as a tank bag and herself rode a 05 BMW 650GS.  She was pretty nice to me, turns out her name was Gene and she had lived in Portland a ways back, and settled here for the past 9 years, as she needed somewhere with more sun.  Funny thing, I can totally understand where she is coming from.  But as we got to the final trail before headed back, I took her picture.

The park itself was gorgeous.  Every corner was something new and beautiful.  I threw in a few pictures, but just don't think that they did justice to it all.

There were tons of signs directing me to not feed the squirrels under penalty of fine and putting down the animals and what not, yet they seemed to get awfully close and friendly along the way. I finally turned the corner and this old man was tossing peanuts at a squirrel and scratching its belly with a stick.  He told me the squirrel really liked it, then looked at me seriously and said, "do you have a problem with this?" I was laughing inside but said no and turned around. At this point he noticed a wet spot on my pants (from my hydration bag) then says to me, "don't worry I won't tell anyone about it."  Then not two seconds later, he yells at his friend down the path, "Ralph, look at this guy walking past you, he wet his pants!  ha ha!"  It was like I was in a movie or something.  Just feel sorry for the guys family for having to deal with him, for me its just amusing, his grandchildren are probably going to end up bombing something. (Yes that is the picture of the old man's stick.)

At the end of the paved trail is where I diverged from the masses. The path carried on through the river, and I had to limit my time in Zion.  I sat down and opened up a granola bar only to be accosted by a squirrel  The sucker was fat and hungry, and ended up trying to pull the food to himself.  He actually tried to bite me to get to the wrapper, and at that point I has lost patience and just flung him off the bench.  Just glad he didn't get a solid bite in me.  Though I did get a couple pictures of the cute fat little piece of fur crawling around on my lap.

I got back to the bus, filled my hydration pack with a some Zion spring water, and got onto my moto.  I was looking forward to the tunnels that I was told about.

The ride was amazing going up to the tunnel, though on the other side, the area was less impressive.  My opinion could be slightly tainted by some of the idiot drivers riding my tail as I followed a train of traffic to the other entrance.  On the plus side, I did see some big horn sheep.  Other than that, it wasn't too great. (last pic is on the park side of the tunnel.)

The way out was beautiful.  I stopped by some whole foods mart nearby that Gene has suggested that I visit and ran into a gal and her mother who had been in the park filming a movie that they could not say anything about.  That were from New York and that explained all the New Yorkers I had met and the annoying hipster with a bandanna and a macbook who looked at me ironically when I asked if he'd watch my bag as I used the restroom. Hipsters. I bought a bandanna to soak with water for the road. Shhh.  But anyways, I took a picture of the gal and her mother in case she gets famous or something.  They seemed nice enough.

And that was my last interaction with Zion.  I got on my bike and took off for a long, straight and hot ride towards SoCal.  The ride was uneventful and HOT.  We were pushing 110 degrees in places and it just felt that I was riding into walls of heat.  I had to pull over every so often and literally pour water in the visor of my helmet, on my jeans, all over.  This would feel great for the next 5 minutes.  I drank and drank out of the hydration bag, but still felt thirsty and pulled over in Las Vegas for a smoothie, as I knew that I needed some solid food, but nothing seemed good.  I wasn't sweating, still hot to touch, and a tad disoriented/confused... all signs of a slight case of heatstroke? After about 30 min in the AC I felt good to eat, so grabbed a pita, a coffee and got on the road again.

The sunset and moonlight were beautiful and I had toyed with the idea of pulling over and taking a picture of the sunset silhouetting a Joshua tree.  It would have been an artistic triumph, I'm sure. There was a nasty dust storm that I rode briefly through as I entered California. I'm sure everyone in their climate-controlled Escalades were laughing at me. I was. It was dark as I rode through the Mojave, for which I was thankful, it was still a hot ride. I started to realize a runny nose and sore throat, so I grabbed some Zincum Gluconate at a pharmacy while I gassed up in Barstow.  I finally made it to my friend's at 11 or so that night.  He had a room for me, a cold beer, I was thankful that I was in Huntington Beach.

Day Moab to Zion 09/07/11

So I slept well the night before watching the moonlight drift on the walls of the Colorado river canyon.  In the morning I had finished packing and having a piece of Melissa's bread when Ellen yelled at me to come over and eat some sausage.  So I had to get up and say goodbye to Steve and Ellen over a few pieces of Canadian Bacon, breakfast sausage and coffee. As I loaded my bike I met some of the campers who had arrived late to our campsite - they were headed back to Colorado and Texas from Burning Man.  I had guessed that from the looks of their bikes the night before.

I then headed into town to talk to the visitor center about what to see that day before I hit the road.  As I came out to my bike I ran into Con and his wife taking a look over my bike. Con had a DR650 and his wife a little Kawasaki Sherpa - she was looking at switching over to a V-strom.  They were retired, from AZ and pretty pleasant to talk to, directing me to a local coffee shop, WakeNBake, where I checked email, let my phone and ipod charge and met a web series author named Amy who was moving from New Mexico to Vancouver, BC. Overall Moab was a pretty fun little tourist town that had a lot more than I had expected in it, with a cool little vibe and people from all over.

I decided I would drive through Arches park, walk around and take a few photos before heading down to Zion.  Up the road I passed an interesting US department of Energy site called the UMRA project; a quick search on the web showed that it is a Uranium mining site.

Arches was fantastic.  Really hard to describe the beauty of the park past pictures you have probably seen, and I only drove through a portion of it.  While I was here I decided that I would need to come back at some point and spend more time appreciating all of it.

Met an Israeli and his girlfriend, they were pretty nice, taking pictures on their iphones and ipad.

From Moab I drove back to 70, and fueled up in Green River.  I was a little concerned, as the previous day I was told the stretch without services was 200 miles, but I have come to learn on the trip, while asking people is a good way to find out information, never take it as a hard fact.  It turned out that the stretch was 105 miles, which is much more in my range than 200 (maybe possible on my bike, not sure?)

The ride to Zion was beautiful as we skirted entrances to Bryce Canyon, but not as notable as Moab had been.  I wasn't sure the fastest path into Zion, so asked a fire and rescue truck out of Leeds, UT who informed me I was only 25 minutes or so away from the entrance.

I took a few pictures on my way into the Canyon/ park area.

At a gas station close to the park entrance I purchased a couple beers for camp that night and a couple locals let me know a place I could camp out for the evening for free just back up the rode 10 minutes.  Which beat the $18 fee in the park.  It was already dark, but I set up my tent in spite of my initial impulse to sleep under the open clear moonlit skies.  One of the neighbors had mentioned the idea of Scorpions out which was enough change my attitude towards the tent that night.  I did hear some rodents or something through my stuff outside the tent that night as I read, and felt pretty good about making the best decision at that point.

Leaving the land of the Rockies for the Moab of Utah...

So this post doesn't have as much to include about biking as I'm racing out the door.

My friends Andrew, Melissa and four kids were great.  Yesterday only the youngest put shorts on out of modesty.  The rest were part of an underwear wrestling club all day long.

But I had a great day in Denver, even with it being a holiday.  I was able to appreciate a lot of the culture and the city is reminiscent of Seattle or Vancouver.  I also picked up a couple items at REI that should help my panniers stay more organized, and a strap that should help the next gas tank stay secure.

And I decided that I would not make it down to Austin, TX.  I'm going back through Utah and hope to camp in Moab and Zion at least.  Who knows where else.  Should be getting into Huntington Beach either Thursday or Friday where I should be able to blog next.

Ahh, beautiful Denver

So the ride today was pretty easy, pretty straight, and pretty much high desert of Wyoming.  After I left breakfast with my friends (mmm, bacon...), I thought how nice the day was and going jacket less would be a bright idea to beat the heat.  Yes it beat any possible heat that I could have retained going through the mountains leaving Colorado.  I put it on as I gassed up at Park City.

Those were a couple shots after Park City, the scenery was beautiful and canyon-ish, then ascending into the high desert of Wyoming.  Kind of awesome.  Especially when I passed the guy wearing neon pink socks up to his knees, a red and white striped stalking cap and pushing shopping cart.  In the middle of nowhere.  Aside from that, I was able to spot a few antelope, the continental divide and a few gas stations

Yep, that was Wyoming.

I followed a couple for maybe a hundred miles in a black F-150, pulling over at the same gas station as them and getting into a little conversation.  Apparently I had made their trip a little more interesting as they kept referring to conversations on the ride about what I was doing... The wife had asked if I was getting better gas mileage drafting, but the husband told her I was too far away... they thought I was going to pass a few times, they were talking about how I was taking the same exit as them.  I'm happy to have made a portion of their trip that much more exciting.

On 287 I passed a rattlesnake on the road.  It was curled up and not hit yet.  I didn't see what it was and instinctively avoided it.  Its funny how I actually thought that I went through the snakes striking range and it could have grabbed my leg.

The excitement for the day was not until I reached Fort Collins, when I realized that somehow my spare gas can had been pressed against my muffler, and leaked out somewhere between there and Laramie.  I physically do not see how it could have reached this, and unfortunately half suspected the seedy looking group of bikers that I ran into at the last gas station.  I was kind of bummed at this, but ended having the joy stolen from me returned not much later.

As I cruised down my final stretch of 25 towards Denver, the cars started to back up.  I didn't know what the scenario that awaited, just bummed that I could smell Denver so close and it was being taken away from me.  As I was considering my options, a bike rode down in between lanes.  I realized while in Oregon this is illegal, in California it was not, and I had no clue if it was or not here.  After having a couple of vehicles close off the center lane after the bike in front of me, I decided the shoulder was the best option.  After I peaked the crest of the hill, I could see the traffic just go off to the next peak of the horizon and just keep going.  I'll be honest, I felt guilty a little as I drove by everyone else, a trail of bikes growing behind me, but really, not that guilty....

[Any legal entities reading this should note that this last paragraph was only a hypothetical situation merely intended for reader's potential pleasure, the writer of this blog did not break the law or intend to.  If what was written is against the law.]

And I got into Denver.  I was very thankful to pull up to my friend's house. Andrew and Melissa greater me, Joshua, the oldest of the little tyrants (adorable, precocious little things they are) put his hand on the muffler after he had been warned to avoid it.  He was brave and washed his hands in cold water.  They cooked me dinner and offered me a beer. It was fantastic.  All the while, the kids punched, kicked, climbed, sat in time out, were super cute, cried and laughed.  Joshua said that his tooth was loose but didn't want it to hurt.  I offered to pull it out after dinner and to my surprise he said he'd think about it.  It came out as I asked him the pros and cons of pulling the tooth out. We had ice cream on the roof and watched bats fly about through our view of the sunset and city.  Not a bad evening.

Some (better) pictures not taken with my smartphone are here, check them out!