MC Trip 2016 - CA, OR, WA, ID, MT, WY, UT, CO, & AZ

Day 4: 7-19-16

Day 4 started out as most days do, we woke up, packed up, had breakfast, and got on the road. However, that w old be the end of "normal" for this day.

We headed North out of Vernal, UT to a nice and beautiful day. As we turned onto US191 out of Rock Springs we notice a sign, "Road Closed at Mile Post 110". This should have been our first clue that something was a miss. Instead of stopping to discuss this sign or stopping to ask someone about this, we debated the proper means to marking a US highway (My dad is a retired AZ DPS officer). We made it to Daniel's Junction, were surprise surprise, the road was closed. The was a fire about 30 miles further north on US191. So, we had to head South, 98 miles to Kemmerer, then turn North on US30. The nice guys from WYDOT told us it would be about a five hour detour. If we had been allowed to continue, it would have only been another hour to Jackson.

Now, this detour was beautiful farm country. We all appreciated the scenery. But our troubles had not ended with just the detour. We were stop at least four construction sites along the way. Randy ran out of gas about 10 miles from Kemmerer, luckily he had a Rotopax with a gallon, with him. We did get do ride in Idaho for 10 miles a couple of days earlier than planned.

We finally made it to Yellowstone around 9pm, and of course we road right passed our turn off towards our campground. This miss, was caused be a chain reaction of events that we were just happy that we were on the other side of unscathed. We went 17 miles out of our way before getting turned in the right direction. Now, this story doesn't end here.

Earlier in the day, when we were turned out for the road closure, we called YNP to see if our camp sight would still be available IF we didn't make it tonight. We were concerned that fatigue would set in and we would need to find a road side spot to camp before pressing on to YNP the next morning. YNP reservations told us that the check in office closed at 10pm and our deposit would guarantee our spot for the next night. We thanked them and pressed on, deciding it was better to suffer a few more hours of pain tonight and have a full day of rest. We arrived at the Bridge Bay Campgrounds around 930pm, to find that YNP reservations had actually cancelled our reservations for tonight and given our spot away. We had one nice gal trying to help us and one crotchety old hag trying to put her two cents in every minute or so. They ended up putting us in the "Employee's camping loop" (right by the front), and told us to talk to a supervisor tomorrow.

We got our camp setup rather quickly and then we were all beat, we had travel 610 miles, 10 hrs 45 mins in the saddle and 15 hrs 30 mins of total traveling. We were done!

During our riding across Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho we saw Moose, Elk, Deer, Antelope, Lamas, Sheep, prairie dogs, and even a rabbit.

Many wild Tacomas were spotted, but two stuck out to me.
-In Pinedale a white 2nd gen with a red Tacoma emblem on the front grill.
-A silver 1st gen with a tan soft topper and tire swing out.

 

Day 5: 7-20-16

God may have waited until the 7th day to rest, but not us, we did it on day 5.

During the night we got a little rain, not to much, but still required cleaning of the bikes and tents. After coffee was consumed, we headed down to the campground's office to talk to the supervisor. He was very quick and pleasant to set everything right, they didn't charge us for the first night and we could stay in the spot for tonight.

We cleaned up and decided to go for a ride. We hit the Like Inn and did some shopping, then headed over to Old Faithful Inn for Lunch and showers. With those done we had ice cream and watched OF do it's thing. A quick fuel up and we returned to camp.

Tonight's plan is camp side dinner, a nice fire and a good nights sleep. For tomorrow, we ride.

 

The park wasn't bad at all. We were staying in Bridge Bay CGs, rode to the Lake Inn and Old Faithful Inn. We were able to miss the construction delays and almost always maintained 45 mph.


We are done for the day and about to have pizza and beer in Wisdom, Mt. I'll try and get some pics up later.

Today was an easy, we did about 270 miles in about 5.5 hrs. We went out the West gate, after doing the middle route through YNP, had to wait for some Bison to clear the road (and then the tourists). Stopped for fuel in West Yellowstone and put the hammer down. We stopped in Ennis for some food and to stretch our legs, then we pressed on to Wisdom. Wisdom is an awesome little town. It is a one stop sign town. We had to wait for the proprietor to fix the one gas pump so we could top off. My brother was pushing his luck by not gasing in Ennis and rolled into Wisdom on fumes, oh, he didn't want to fuel his Rotopax because he wasn't going top press his luck again. He presumed that a town had to have a gas station to be placed on the map... Haha.

Pics when I get a chance. Tomorrow morning we continue West. Camping somewhere near O'hara, don't have cg reservations, so we will dry camp somewhere off the road.

 

Wicked cool!

 

+1 for porters!

 

If you know of an area we should be looking for on US-12 to camp, I would help. We had planned on staying at the O'Hara Campgrounds, but when we had to adjust the dates and route, well they were already booked. So we figured we would get into that area and look for someplace off the side of the road to set up camp. If you don't have time, don't worry about it. We will find a place, we will sleep.

We are stopping in Missoula to hit up REI for some supplies on our way.

 

This is from my GoPro Facing backwards, catching a pic of my dad.





My brother ahead of me with the moon rising above him. In Yellowstone NP.



The moon rising over Yellowstone Lake at YNP. (By the way, that water is a little on the cold side. I had to go in, so I can say I did).

 

My brother is on a GS, so he would do this whole trip on nothing but dirt if he had his way. My dad and I are on RTs, we require a little more compact, so some dirt is ok.

 

Lunch in Dayton, WA.

Will update once I get to the hotel tonight in The Dalles.

 

Day 7 was a fun and easy day. Started in Wisdom, MT, a fun small town, with breakfast at The Crossing. Great steak for dinner the night before... Great food and good people. Then we headed to Missoula to get some supplies from REI, traffic sucked in town. Then we got on US12 and headed over the Lolo Pass. US12 is an amazing ride for motorcycles! About a hundred miles down the road we found a great spot to camp right were Deadman Creek joins the Losche River. My brother and I took a quick dip in the creek.

We had a nice time around the fire.

 

Day 8:

Today was very uneventful, other than seeing tons of beautiful country side and riding curvy & windy roads. After having coffee and breakfast, we broke camp and got back on US12, fueling up in Orofino. We stopped at a cool biker bar & Grill in Dayton for lunch. US12 took us through Walla Walla before jumping on the US730 and then WA14. WA14 kept us on the North side of the Columbia River and off of an Interstate. We made it to The Dallas some 366 miles after breaking camp. An awesome seafood dinner and some laundry and now it's time for rest.

Tomorrow we head for Lincoln city, with a short stop off in Tillamook for ice cream and cheese (not necessarily in that order).

 

In

 

Here is a picture of my brother laying down in Deadman's Creek. I think that rock was spring loaded, as soon as he touched it, he was all of a sudden standing up.


Man do I have a lot of video to go through, love my GoPro, hate editing.

 

Day 9:

Today was an amazing and beautiful day. We decided to take the Mt. Hood highway and cut west south of Portland. The Mt. Hood highway was amazing, what a fun road and it got kinda chilly. I remember one corner caught us all by surprise... I never knew my bible could lean that far over and keep going!

We took US 211 to US91 to US47 to US6. We didn't realize that this was the Oregan scenic vineyard route. Twisting roads through the hill sides with farms all around. Going through small farm towns that seem to be locked in time. Every new town was a surprise. US6 through the Tillomook State Park was a fun road as well, although with the traffic, we couldn't enjoy it as much as we might have wanted to. Still, riding between the trees like that was awe inspiring.x

The Tillomook factory was a zoo! Seriously, DisneyLand isn't that crazy in the summer. We may have gone through the cheese line more than once, and the ice cream, WOW, that made it all worth wild. I bought the porcelain Tillomook ice cream bowl to remind me of that taste. It's the only bowl I will eat ice cream of going forward. Dad's Bowl!

After Tillomook, we made a major milestone, we turned South. North and West are behind us. It was a quick jount down the 101 to Lincoln City, were we are staying the night. I wish I could recommend the Taste of India restaurant we were planning on, but they were closed. I can suggest you stay away from the Roadhouse, seriously, you can do better. It's only plus was that it was across the street from our hotel.

Tomorrow we continue down the 101 and camp in Shelter Cove, I bet wit e can find fresh seafood for dinner. Not sure if I will have Internet to do and update or not. The next day we do a quick ride over to my brother's house in Napa, so I will be able to do an update then.

I saw tons of sexy Tacomas today. There was one I remember, right after we came down from Mt. Hood, it was a red 1st Gen, extra cab, with a black soft topper. Driver's left arm (hanging out the window) was tatted up. Good looking truck and we stayed with him for awhile.

We did almost 300 miles in 10 hours, with stops, and ranged in altitude from ~4,600 ft to -19 ft.



This is one of those "Once in a lifetime" trips. Spending 2 weeks with my brother and my dad. Something we have never had the chance to do and most likely will never get to do again. I missed my wife's birthday, 2 of my kids had play recitals, and one of them is off to Disney World for the first time. I am very fortunate to have a loving and caring wife that can see that this is one of those things that will get me through life when my dad isn't around any more. She has encouraged me to do this from the start, and is making serval sacrifices herself so that I could do this. Being away from my little kids for this long is tough, but worth it, especially if I make the time to learn from this and do something like it with them. With all my love, Happy Birthday to my wife. I love you Amy!

 

One of the interesting things, that we continue to talk about, is signage and speed limits in different states.

In MT & WY they have these two lane, curvy roads set at 70 mph, while roads with far less curries and blind spots are only 55 mph in WA & OR.

In some states hazard signs for debri in the road read, "Watch for Rock" or "Watching for fallowing Rocks" Notice the "s" in one and not the other? So did we. In OR the signs simple read "ROCKS", what about them? And why are you yelling it at me?

Don't even get me started on passing lanes... Sorry, to late! In AZ we don't have a sign when passing lanes (on two lane roads) starts, but the have a triangles hazard sign on the Left side of the road that marks when it ends. This allows you to see, while passing, how much room you have left until you have to be over. In some of the states when have been, there is no sign at the beginning or end... They just end. Other states have a "Pass With Care" at the beginning and nothing at the end, other states have a sign on the right side marking the end, but it's just a white and black sign, so if you did notice it while passing, you might mistake it for a speed limit sign or something else like that.

The difference between states and their signage is crazy, not saying one is better than another. Just that it is strange to see such a difference, especially on US highways (not Interstates), you would think the US government would have made them all more universal in their markings.

/rant