Day 9 not exactly as we planned

Mileage - 80
Ride Time - 4 hours

Well today was not exactly what we had planned. We got a bit of a late start today and did not manage to start riding until about 10. The big event today was hancock pass at 11,800 feet. The ride up is supposed to be challenging enough to where there is a detour. On the way to the climb we were notified by another rider that the pass was closed due to snow. He said you could get close and that it was a beautiful ride up so we decided to give it a shot.

I was really nervous about the climb because it was supposed to be very rocky. It also did not help that while we were chatting with the owner of our hotel and happened to mention that we were going over Hancock he said "oh, well as long as you are very experienced riders then you will be fine." Anyway with visions of the most vicious rocks imaginable in my head we pointed the bikes up the road and headed up. In the end it was pretty technical with a few very interesting snow banks you had to cross but all in all I think we did great. We rode up as high as you could get on the road (11,600ft) and then hiked a little to get a few photos. Then my dread of getting back down kicked in. My fear was not justified though as it was not bad getting back down either.

Since the detour took us right back through Salida, where we stayed last night, we decided to stop in at a pizza/brewery that someone had recommended the night before. In town we both agreed that we should just call it for the day and rest up since it was already 2pm and we still had to eat.

It was a beautiful day today and even with the pass closed I am very glad that we went up. Crazy that a pass could still be closed on June 19th. From the look of things it did not look like it was going to be opening up any time soon.

Day 8 - Up into the mountains

Mileage - 270

Ride time - 10 hours

We woke up at 6 this morning since our maps said it was going to be a long day. When we took a look outside we knew it was going to be a bit longer as it had been raining all night and was still going.

About 30 minutes from the hotel we were suprised because the mud was not all that bad. We still had pretty good visibility so other than riding in full rain gear it was not that bad. Well all good things must come to an end and this was no exception. Suddenly the mud changed from a little slippery to deep muck that clogged up the tires and was super slick. Palmer dropped his bike early on but seemed to get it out of his system since that was his only drop of the day. I was extremely confident on the red devil since I had gone 6 days without dropping it at all. Well that confidence was shot when I came around a corner and went crusing into some deep slick ruts at 25-30mph. The red devil finially could not take it and slipped out from under me.

After a while the sun came out and we began to dry out. We also began to climb and it started getting pretty cold. This was the first time that I closed up all of the vents on my jacket. Soon we had climbed up to our first pass at 10,000 feet. We spent the entire day climbing up and over 9000-10000 passes. We passed through aspen groves and lush forest. I can't do it justice but it was amazing.
I am probably forgetting a ton of it but I have to say it was the prettiest and best day so far. Do I say that each day??
At the end of the day the clouds cleared as we descended to Salida. Salida is a really cool town that has a downtown area that is alive. This is a big change from the ghost towns that we have been passing through since the begining of the trip. There is a festival going on downtown so we are headed down there to check it out.

Day 7 - 4 States one day

What a day!! Said goodbye to Graham this morning, took a quick parting group shot and hit the road. Bummer to see Graham go but it looks like things are getting tougher from here and that V-Strom 1000 is just not really up for it. He will be missed.

We hit the road out of Liberal Kansas and ducked quickly back into Oklahoma to pickup the trail again. It did not take long for us to get back out into the wheat fields again and start cruising on gravel. We saw tons of pheasant as we crossed the fields and also started to see tons of deer looking animals (antelope?). The sand also did not wait long to make an appearance and was a good bit deeper today. After about 70 miles we left Oklahoma and crossed over into New Mexico. Almost on the border the terrain switched over to desert scrub. As we were getting use to running up our speed on the hard packed desert we ran across an area covered in prairie dogs. There must have been 5 hawks circling overhead just waiting to pick one of those little guys off. Really neat to watch the prairie dogs pop out and check for hawks and then go sprinting off for another hole.

After cruising in the desert for a while I saw what looked like a dark cloud on the horizon. The cloud looking things then became two and about the time I was thinking how strange it would be that two little storms were camped out on the horizon I realized they were our first mountains. After what seemed like a long time we turned towards the hills and they gradually grew and grew until they became mesas. We ran up to and around a few and then the trail went straight up a set through some of the most technical trail that we have seen so far. I think that was a pretty good preview of what is to come. After we got to the top we cruised through some rolling scrub for the rest of the day. We were up at altitude so the whole day stayed nice and cool. We finished out the day in Trinidad Colorado bringing the total number of states for the day to 4.
Tomorrow is supposed to be a tough day with 260 miles of technical trail so this might be the last update for a few days. Hopefully I will have the energy to at least do a post with video so I don't have to take the time to type. For now we are hanging out at Valcome Motorcports getting oil changed on both bikes and new tires on Palmers bike.

Here is a little video all clipped together of the terrain from today.

Day 6 - Second Verse Same as the First

Mileage - 210
Ride Time - 8 hrs

Well day 6 was pretty much as exact copy of yesterday. We started out in the same rolling hills as yesterday and were just as blown away by how amazing they were. We spent the entire morning crossing cow fields and carving through the corners.

The afternoon was filled with the same straight as an arrow roads and as if one queue the heat kicked in at about noon. We had a little deeper sand which actually helped things a bit. The cross winds were not nearly as bad which also helped us out.

We are in Liberal Kansas tonight and everyone is pretty beaten up from riding for 6 days straight. Also it is the last night that Graham will be with us so a few parting drinks are in order. The three amigos are going to turn into just team brothers Straughn. Tomorrow Palmer and I are headed through the corner of New Mexico and into Colorado. Things should start getting progressively harder from here on as we head out into the desert and then up into the rockies. We are planning to end the day at a motorcycle shop tomorrow where Palmer is going to change his tires to full knobbies, get his crash bars repaired from an earlier fall, and we are both getting oil changes. Should be a fun filled day.

For now I am going to hop in the shower and clean off the dust from the day. Then the plan is to work on Palmers bike a little and then grab some dinner and a few beers.

Day 5 crossing the plains

Mileage- 200
Ride time- 8hrs

The time is flying by way too fast. Day 5 is already over and we are about to sack out. The day started off beautiful as we headed out across the plains. From everything I had read I was expecting today to be pretty boring as we headed in a straight line for hours on end. Was I ever wrong... The day started out twisting over rolling hills. The only other thing I have seen that looked like the view today was in ireland. Really looked like a sea of green.


Here is a little video of the ride.



After leaving lunch the view changed a bit. To picture the ride just think of hoping in your car, cranking up the ac and driving through some of the most beautiful wheat fields you have ever seen. Now take away car, hop on a motorcycle, throw in a few truckloads of sand here and there to make things interesting, put it all in your oven, heat to 98 (record temps today) and bake for 5 hours. Extremely hot but I would not have changed a thing. Everywhere we looked there was a harvester cutting down wheat. It all stretched as far as you could see. Pretty amazing how much farmland there is out there.

Hopefully we are starting a new trend today as all the bikes stayed upright the whole time.

Tomorrow looks like we run for 200+ miles without a single turn. I think the sand is going to continue as well so it should be interesting.

Day 4 mileage is right on target

What a day! Today was a long mileage day of 250 and we loved avery bit of it. We rolled out out of the Ozarks and headed into the plains. Lots of long stretches of straight roads with amazing views. Increadable how quickly the scenery changes on the way across the country.

Day 3 and we made our mileage

Click to enlarge image


It is the end of day 3 and we got in the full mileage for the day. Also we are starting to make a dent in our route as you can see above. Still having some trouble with Palmers side bags melting and we have a new fender in the mail for him but the bikes are running great and everyone is feeling good. Well now that I say it Graham did break his shift lever in a fall today so that is on the repair docket.

Today was pretty straight forward. We hit a few technical sections but until the end of the day I would say we were about at the level of the last two days. At the end of the day (10 miles until the end) we hit the hardest section so far. We were cruising along just fine and all of a sudden the trail got pretty narrow. Then the rocks showed up and then it got steep. We had a few drops but all in all everyone really did great.

I am pretty wiped out so that is about all I can post but I hope to check out some of the video we shot today and post a few tomorrow.