Mike's Motorcycle Tours

Mike's Tour to the Grand Canyon, 5/93.
Mike's Tour To Colorado, 5/94

Mike's Tour to the Grand Canyon, 5/93.

I say "We really made it?" to the north face of the Grand Canyon.

This was to be my first motorcycle trip, with an expected range of 1500 miles over 3 1/2 days. Dangerous Dale and Jimmy "I got enough gas" Quan were my co-conspirators on the 3 day blast to the Grand Canyon. I'd only been outside of California once before in my life, to the southernmost tip of Oregon. I was looking forward to adding another state to my resume.

We headed off early on Friday evening, hoping to make it to Barstow by midnight. We ended up sleeping at a reststop off of 5. Sleep wasn't to good. We awoke early and made it to the north rim of the Grand Canyon by 9 pm. Dangerous Dale and I still remark at how beautiful route 67 into the park was: great sweepers with clean, ripple free asphalt. We slept in the forest that night, with a wild coyote making some racket at around midnight.

Dale and Jimmy had me convinced that coyotes would only eat people if they "were really hungry." Man it was cold that night. My $25 Sears sleeping bag just wasn't up to this high altitude sleeping. The next morning, I found out why we were so cold. After packing up our bags and heading for the main park entrance, we discovered snow about 1/2 mile down the road from where we slept. Yowza. The park was great, and the scenery of the Grand Canyon surpassed my expectations... I woulda been a geologist had there not been computers. Coming home that evening, we had some of the hottest weather! We were staying alongside bigrigs just to try to keep cool.

Dale (left) has his curlors still in. I wave to the camera.

This is also the trip where Jimmy got the marque "I got enough gas." He ran out of gas 3 times (3 times!) on the trip, each time at about 175miles on my Seca's tripometer.

Mike's Tour To Colorado, 5/94

Tracy says "Where the hell are the mountains?" to Colorado... the 3rd state (out of 5) we'd eventually touch.

(The other states we'd touch on this trip: Nevada, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico.)

This was a great trip! The usual cast of Dangerous Dale and Jimmy "I got enough gas" made it, along with my brother-in-law, Tracy "Mr. Kawasaki." We set off late on Friday night, destination "Hazen" Nevada. We pulled into a camp at past 2 in the morning. We have developed a bad habit of driving past 10pm... we need to fix that. The next morning, we're off screaming across HWY 50 thru the desert. Later in the afternoon, somewhere east of Eureka NV, we notice signs that say "Gravel." Hmmm.

Dale (left) looks oddly at the camera, while Tracy let's us know who farted. Jimmy (center), is taking a leak on Dale's foot.

Dangerous Dale is leading, averaging around 90mph, me next, Tracy, then Jimbo. What happened next is sort of hard to describe. The eastbound lane suddenly drops about 2 inches, and we're riding in about 1 inch of gravel. It was a total mirage... you had no idea the gravel was so deep (or so wide.)

Tracy gets ready to take a dip into the Cayonlands.

For about 1/4 mile, we're alternating jumping into the paved west bound lane (still heading east!) and the gravel east bound lane as traffic permits. All this, and we never slowed to below 45mph! It would almost bite us... the gravel suddenly got a little deeper on us, and the lip to jump onto the west bound lane got a little bigger... Dangerous Dale decided to make the jump... Holy Crap!

His bike totally got sideways going up onto the west bound lane (still heading east!), with D.D. being thrown 6 inches into the air. I was screaming in my helmet, "Don't bail in front of me, you asshole!!!" The rest of us made it thru with less excitement... D.D. scared the hell out of me that day. The rest of the trip was great... we say Zion National Park, Arches, Bryce Canyon.

Jimmy, me, and Tracy entering a new time zone...

Southern Utah should just be made a national park. It's great. The locals are a little wierd... I'll have to fill you in on our experiences with the locals at another time. Well, we were all set to me Ron in Durango, Colorado, but a serious storm kept him from making it. (He had moved to Austin, Texas so that he could work himself to death a little quicker.)

We came back, hit 4 Corners, hit Death Valley, and home. 1800 miles in 4 days. Zow!

Mike's Tour To Canada, 7/95

This was a Tracy, Jim and Mike tour... D.D. had prior plans. We set off on a Saturday morning, about 9 am. We headed all the way up 101. What we sort of forgot was that we'd left on 4th of July weekend... and traffic sucked. 9 pm. Campsites were full. 12am, motels were full. 1am, motels full. 2:30 am, we park it on THE SIDE OF THE ROAD around Lincoln City, Oregon and try to sleep.

This is where we awoke. Jimmy was standing on HWY 101 when he took this picture. Tracy calls for breakfest delivery.

The next day was a little better, we made it all the way to Port Angeles, Washington.

Tracy say's "Hi" to a wet Washington state...

I'm setting a fashion trend in rain wear...

We befriended a fellow biker, Chris, who let us stay the night at his house on Victoria Island. Victoria was a really beautiful city... much nicer than I expected.

Tracy, me, and Jimmy... somewhere's on the northern tip of Victoria Island.

The next day, we jammed up to the tip of Victoria Island, and found a KOA to sleep at. Tracy kicked my ass in ping pong. The next day, we jammed back to catch a ferry to Anacortes, Washington. It was a long ferry ride. The islands in the strait were very beautiful.

Jimmy and Tracy ready to explore downtown Victoria Island.

We spent a couple hours looking for Bill Gates in Redmond, but couldn't find him. So we headed east into the Mt. Rainier national forest.

I wave to Mt. Rainier. (I think...)

It was great! We woke up the next morning in the forest, and had some of the largest flap jacks (pancakes) known to man. Mike :" Jesus Christ... these are huge!!!" Waitress: "You're in logging country, son." The sites down 410 were great... hooked up to 123 and down to Mt. St. Helens. That's amazing stuff, even after 15years!

Destruction at Mt. St. Helens.

Incredible to think it had been over 15 years since she erupted...

On the way home, we stopped by Muzzy's, in Bend, Oregon. Why? Why not!

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