My Trails

The weather was better this morning so I decided to ride to Flaming Gorge Dam. I also needed drinking water and thought I could find a campground with a spigot. The highway to the dam was above 8000 feet for most of the way, so it was a chilly ride until the road dropped 2000 feet to the visitors center.

The tour of the dam was fun. The guide new all her numbers and statistics for the tourists and recited them at each stop along the way. After passing through the generator room one guy asked her how long it took for the electricity to get from the generators to a nearby town. She looked puzzled for a few moments and then said, “I’m not quite sure but it would probably take 20 minutes or so.”

On the way back I pulled into a pay campground and filled up a couple of gallon jugs with drinking water. Usually if you pay to stay at a campground, the dump is included with the fee. This dump station had a sign that said there was a $6 fee on top of the camping fee.

A while later I came to a sign announcing a historic cabin down a dirt road so I pulled off to check it out. I went maybe 5 miles and still hadn’t found the cabin. The sky was beginning to look angry so I turned around and gave up any more sightseeing. I only wish they would tell you how far some of these places are from the main road.

I just made it back before the rain came down in buckets. I probably was going a little too fast up the forest road to get here, but there is nothing worse than getting soaked minutes from home.

The weekend has brought many people out to the forest even though the weather has not been great. The camp on my left has a dog that barks constantly. I thought the animal was in distress after listening to him bark and howl for three hours, so I walked through the woods to see if he was hurt or something. Apparently, the owners had just tied him to a tree and left.

Rambo and his friends are camped to my right. It sounded like machine-gun fire for a while this afternoon. Even as it rained the gunfire went on and on. Usually there is a rule about shooting in a camping area but I don’t think many rules are enforced up here.

Minnie and I are in the Ashley National Forest, a stones throw from Flaming Gorge National Rec Area and the border of Wyoming. We only traveled about 150 mile today. I was pretty lazy this morning and didn’t get on the road until 10:30. It seem like the longer I stay in a place the longer it takes to put away all the stuff I got out.

I stopped at the Walmart in Vernal, UT to buy some groceries, and then filled with gas and propane at a Pilot nearby. The road up into the mountains was very steep and Minnie struggled to pull us to the top. Several sharp curves made us slow to 20 mph, causing a slow recovery for the next stretch. If I go back into town, I think Honda will do a lot better job than Minnie.

This is a really nice site but several tall Aspen trees will make it challenging to get a good solar charge. I plan to spend a few days here while I explore the area.

This was my best pair of pants! I don’t even remember my leg touching the muffler on my motorcycle but I guess I need to be more careful.

Today I went to visit Bryce Canyon National Park, the longest single trip I’ve put on the Honda so far. The park was only 40 miles to the north but side trips in the park and exploring a couple of forest roads racked up 115 miles on the odometer.

It was not a comfortable day to ride. There was a strong, gusty wind that bounced me from time to time and the traffic was heavy, as usual, once I got close to the park. Every parking area in the park was full but I had no trouble squeezing my bike in someplace. I didn’t take any hikes down to the hoodoo s because I’m still feeling a little weak.

I noticed the new thing all the tourists are doing is taking pictures with selfie sticks. I have seen the formations of Bryce Canyon several times and they are awesome, but I have to say I got the biggest kick out of watching whole families carrying their camera phones out in front of them on three foot aluminum poles.