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Motorcycle Stories and Other Assorted Tales
by C. C. Crow
1994 Who's In Charge? Motorcycle Tour
5-21 SAT
Go to Bill's BMW to buy fork oil and ask about tires. Well, lets go look. How
much air do you run? When was the last time... wheel bearings,
brakes tight, steering bearing- $$$ I'm depressed. Go visit
Steve's hobby shop.
5-22 SUN
Wake with a better attitude. Work on bike all day. Change oil, filter, gear
and drive oils. Check breaks, set. Change fork oil. Disassemble
speedometer and fix (I hope). Feel much better about tour. I was
having second thoughts. It's been a few years. Maybe fall would be
better. It's going to be fun!
5-28 SAT
Call Rooti, rendezvous Sunday the 5th at Baker Creek Campground, Great Basin.
He's ready.
6-1 WED
Went to Bill's yesterday- only $366.00, all I wanted was a front tire... They
pointed out the bad front brake pads that I had ignored. Did rear
bearings, replaced inner race, discolored. I bought $20 rain gear
and $425 BMW leather coat. My old one is too small.
Wed. the 1st is supposed to be leave date but you know how it
goes. Went to PO for last time, gassed up and went to Hundman's.
Jeff has finished the last of Waynesboro drawings. It was 4 p.m.
by the time I could say I was ready to go- so I'll leave in the
morning.
6-2 THUR
I was tired! Wake at 5 a.m., too early, up and shower by 7:30. Last minute
this and thats. Check the list. Fix (I hope) saddle bag latch.
Okay, it's 9:30 when I finally leave. Should stop at Bill's, or
Steve's, no, no. Over Ship Canal, the perfect Seattle picture,
beautiful day, sea plane landing on Lake Union, jet plane over
head. Stop at Nasqually Wildlife Ref. for stretch. Get off I-5 at
Vader, go into Kelso the back way, mc crash, cops. Take pic of
bridge, Wearhauser train. Back on I-5 to Vancouver, check out
train depot, bridge, gas, into Portland. Visit Irene in hospital,
3G19, nurse, Fred. 4 p.m., gotta go. Crazy guy on I-205. Rest
stop, decide to go up Willamette R. Stop at dam and covered
bridge. On to Oakridge, gas and groceries. More photos of SP
equipment. Discover lens set of f22. Head up road to BLUE POOL CG,
site 24. Highway noise but very nice. Big trees. Leftover lasagna
for dinner. SP rail fanning by lantern light. Eight locos on
modest junk train.
6-3 FRI
Up at 8, moving by 9. Stop at RR bridge and wait for train that doesn't come.
Stop at falls. Over pass. Take forest road 60, back track, dead-
end, finally on to WINDIGO PASS, 12 miles up there is snow! Blast
through first band. Have to stop and inspect second. 30 ft of
snow. Risk it? I'm this far. Toss dirt and pine needles on it to
mark my path. This is it. If I crash someone ought to be up in a
few days. And what's up ahead? More snow?? Varoom- just remember
don't break your leg! A little slip, a little slide and I'm
across. Top of the pass just around the corner. Very nice. I zoom
down the highway, cut across to Crater Lake. Ugly rangerette.
Generator purrs. Into the Park. Lunch break by the lake. Cold and
windy. Jays. I do the rim drive. Put snow in cooler. Back on the
highway to Kalamath Falls, check out the town, RR tracks, depot
and roundhouse. Head for Susansville. Jet mode. Stop here and
there. Stop in BP for gas. Kid dumps gas over my bike! I can't
believe it. Oregon SUCKS. Law says they must pump gas. Pass by
forest fire, watch plane dump retardant. Near my camp? It's
getting late and my options are limited. Laughlin CG is a joke,
what a dump, cow pies, no water, no charge, oh well.
6-4 SAT
I sleep in till 9:30. Jerk off until 10;30, finally get going. Plane glides in
and drops retardant. I go back and take photo of cool barn. Cop.
UP train. Head down 395 to Reno, see old BMW, the guy is cruising.
Take 359 up hill and over to Virginia City, cool town, lots of
building to photograph, rodeo parade, Goldhill and Silver City.
Into Carson City, take quick tour. Down 395 to Genoa, Rangerette
with weed whacked, over to Minden to say hi to mill. Down to
Holbrook Jct, around through Wellington and Smith, up alt 95 to 50
and Fallon. Decide to jet east into evening. Past Sand Mtn and
desert bombing range. At Eastgate I take old highway 722 up
Carroll Summit and camp by road, great site, just one more car
goes by and its quiet for the evening. Next on at 7 a.m. Sleep
under the stars. Hoot owl scares the heck out of me.
6-5 SUN
Wake at 4 a.m., can't sleep, watch moon rise. Finally sleep a little more. No
water. Over Railroad Pass and into Austin, very cool town, lots of
photos, tight town, churches, cute things. Continue east on Rt.
50, "The Loneliest Highway", one summit after another, to Eureka,
okay buildings, keep going, stop at Antelope Summit for canned
salmon lunch. Stop at Ruth Copper Pit, Ely for groceries. Ride
hard into GREAT BASIN, check out store, no Rooti, unless he got a
new bike. Up the hill, turn left onto gravel road to BAKER CREEK.
Okay, let's party. He's got site 14, stole it. Cook steaks and
drink beers. Big smoky fire, Rooti has the most huge tent, you
could park your bike in it!
6-6 MON
Goof around breakfast, ride up to visitor's center, joke with rangers, water
up at drinking fountain, ride up other side to Wheeler Peak CG,
try to hike Bristle Cone Pine trail but its snowed in so we turn
back. Campground is being renovated. We head back down and go to
Baker to Whispering Pines for great $3.50 shower. Back to camp for
spaghetti dinner and another smoky fire.
6-7 TUE
Break camp, stop at Baker store for gas and talk with Baker babe. We go up
over pass and drop down to Pioche, stop to toss rocks at bottle.
Take back road into Enterprise and up to PINE VALLEY CG. Stop and
talk with talkers. Hang around sawmill camp.
6-8 WED
Head down into St. George via Spanish Trail. Take side trip to Calente, have
lunch at Frosty. UP power hop. Into St. G., stop for groceries and
sports shop. No liquor stores! Into ZION, crowded, we take last
ride into canyon, next year it will be restricted to busses. Snack
lunch. Yell at speeders. Up through the tunnel, jet across to
BRYCE CANYON, it's 4:30 p.m., decide to call and see if we can
delay the boat by a day. No problem. Hang out at Ruby's Inn, tour
desk, buy rum, decide to stay at campground. Drive around Sunset
and choose site 303, set up and cook dinner, ribs. Rooti stole
wood from neighbors, I return it. Talk to the Sloves. Dinner is
ready. Just as we sit down the Dickley's arrive, this old couple
saying we stole their campsite. They didn't leave anything behind
except they said the paper stub. We shake our heads. They refuse
to go find another site. Out tents are set up, we're eating
dinner. They are in a mini-RV. They go find the camp host, an old
guy who they get the ear of, bad ass bikers! He decides the old
folks are right and wants us to leave. We tell them to get a real
ranger down here. Ranger Bob arrives, law enforcement, asks'
"Who's in charge here?" Could it be the guy with the gun?? All
right but we explain that it is going to take us some time. Hour
on, hour off rule. The ranger takes off and we continue to pack.
Then the people leave. We figure to go have dinner. We move to
campsite 208 and cowboy camp. Even the ranger had left a milk
bottle that said "occupied" on it. We are pissed when we find the
Dickley's never come back.
6-9 THUR
We freeze, 33 degrees! Get up and have hot tea and breakfast. The ranger
doesn't even come by to say thanks for moving. We check the
registration board, rule #1 is leave a personal item to mark you
site. We rest our case. We decide to go see the head ranger.
Charlie Peterson agrees with us, we were mistreated. We are happy.
We go look at the canyon, then head towards Escalente. Stop at the
Frosty for a shake, booming business. We go say high to granny at
the local visitor's center and ask about the Burr Trail. Looks
good. We go to Boulder and stop for a grazing lunch and shade.
Cruise down the canyon, it's great but hot. We stop at the start
of the gravel road and ask ourselves if we are crazy. Yeah, why
not? We talk to someone coming up who says it wasn't that bad but
he came up from Capitol Reef. We stop again at the top of the
switch backs and take photos of the route. We move on, it's not
rough at all. We hit two sandy places but just put it in low and
push through. Hey, we didn't remember the dirt going for so long
but it does. Past the post, edge of the Park, no further, all the
way out to the junction. We must have buzzed over it in the truck,
not noticed. Finally we are on pavement again. We stop to
celebrate. It wasn't that big a deal, was it? We jet on, it's
frying hot. Getting late, the final leg is back onto gravel and
its the worst section. Terrible washboard. How much longer?
Finally we make it to BULLFROG, camp site 13, cowboy style.
6-10 FRI
Eat breakfast and watch the campground activities. 9 a.m. ferry, watch it come
in, $3 each, broken nose. We check in and decide we want an extra
day. Messy paperwork. Oops, no tin can, free upgrade to power
boat. Okay. Beer and ice, head for the cliffs. Water is up but
they still work. Remember, point your toes, slap you hands to your
side and breath out. We hang out for a couple of hours. Decide to
head north for a change. Less exciting. We check out FORGOTTEN
CANYON, see assault of Defiance Ruins, (restored). Find a camp
site up a side canyon, nice shady sandy beach. Cowboy camp, BQ
chicken, great.
6-11 SAT
So, what are we going to do? Back south? No, we go north to Hite and gas up,
beer and ice. Watch show. Let's go up river, we keep going and
going, finally realize water is flowing, we're up river, drift
back down. It's hot. We head south, looking around. Decide we want
to say on main channel. Find a place to hide from the sun and take
a swim. Back down the canyon there are no sites, finally come to
Forgotten Canyon again, and take the point. We sleep on the rocks
under the stars.
6-12 SUN
Our last day on the Lake. We watch the lake wake up from our perch. It gets
sunny so we take off down the canyon. Spend the afternoon at swim
cliff with a diving show every 15 minutes. Hide from sun. At 4:30
its time to take the boat in. We unload and pack our bikes. Check
the boat in, figure out bill. Call home, gas up and roll out.
Great vistas. Camp at Natural Bridges. They have defaced the sites
with camp pads. I feel bad, tell the ranger so. We cook spaghetti.
Neighbors cowboy camp, asks us to turn Rooti Rocket lantern off.
Forget it. We watch moon and Venus set. It's silent except for
talk radio.
6-13 MON
We give rangers a rough time, ask questions. Decide to ride north, too hot to
go south. Ride past Comb Ridge to Blanding. Notice the Stone Bank
has been restored. Up to Moab, stop at City Market, real food!
Stop at spring for sandwich. Then up along river to Cisco and I-
80. I need tire but GJ is closed Monday. Gas up at Lomar store,
cute honey. Ride up rt 139, cool pass, big wind, stop at Dinosaur
and think out plan. Too late to make it to Courtney's. We stop in
Vernal, ride up the hill, past big phosphate strip mine, they have
logged dead forest. Very beautiful aspen forest. Camp at ASHLEY
NF, cook pork loins, good, windy, cool.
6-14 TUE
We break camp and drop down to Flaming Gorge Res., visit the dam, feed fish.
Ride rt 191 up over high country, windy and cold. Into Green River
we see if we can surprise Courtney. He's working swing shift. We
do laundry, shop, shower and shave. I go take photos of RR yard
and town. Castle Brewery. Watch game 7 of Stanley Cup, 3-2 Rangers
over Canucks. Tacos.
6-15 WED
Overcast and cold, ponder our decision. Go out for lunch at cowboy bar. Do
nothing, watch movies on TV. Thunder of Drums, The Tailcoat Movie,
basket ball game.
6-16 THUR
Okay, we're moving, pack bikes, BIG breakfast at the Embers, walk the bridge
over RR tracks, head north via 372,374. Still windy, partly
cloudy, cool. Stop at river, stop at bar for hope, BO show, hot
tea, into Jackson, the hole, shop for dinner, heading for Brooks
Lake, stop at Moose Jct. see Mr. Moose, note TETONS has campsites
so we go to Colter Bay CG, site B, BQ beef ribs, campfire, hike
hill to see Tetons by moon light.
6-17 FRI
We think about staying but decide to move up to YELLOWSTONE. It was 27 degrees
last night. There is ice on the bikes. Break camp and cruise
north, the sun is out and it warms up, the forest fire damage is
everywhere, take Lake, Canyon to Norris CG, in town camping. Rooti
doesn't like the walk in sites so we drive the loops and decide on
site 90, in the middle of A and B. Set up camp and then take off
for the Canyon, hike Boulder Glacier trail, stop for firewood on
the way back, plenty to choose from. BQ chicken and have well
needed campfire. Beers around.
6-18 SAT
The geyser tour with Old Faithful Inn dinner, the roads are really bad, they
are working on them, well, sort of. Lots of buffalo. We do lower
and midway basins, take side roads, into Old F at 3, make res. for
5 p.m. Take history tour of Inn w/ Deardra, we are the wise guys,
built in 1903 designed by Robert Reamer, watch OF erupt from
verandah, go have beers in the bar. Bartenderess tells us to ask
for Cynthia, Rooti has pork, I have prime rib, great. Look at
fetishes in shop, Georgia twins, so cute, ride home via sun, big
blazing fire. My speedometer is out.
6-19 SUN
Another decision day, what to do? Break camp with Rooti and escort him to
Cody, stop at Lake shop, too picky, road to Cody is torn up, they
are widening it, Great scenery is torn up too, oh well. Really
cool canyon, no photos, but next time... Stop at gas, oil at wall
mart, DQ. The contrast girls. So long Rooti, so long Tunis. I
circle town, go north to 120, to 296, up over Dead Indian Pass,
spectacular views, meet bikers, stop here and there, into Cooke
City for pop and ice, maybe camp here, there, to Tower, MAMMOTH
SPRINGS CG, site 30, into town for beers and call home, Fathers
Day, soup for dinner, German neighbors, nice sunset. I've ridden
300 miles and moved my camp 20 miles north.
6-20 MON
Varoom, veroom... the camp is circled by the main road into the Park. I put
the covers over my head. At sun up I give in. Walk Mammoth Terrace
and take $2.75 shower at the hotel. Visitor's center date is wrong
or I am. Watch video on fire, go north to Livingston, visit
museum, eat at Winchester In & Out. West on I-90 to Logan, chase
ballast train to Helena, clouds, out of film, ride up pass, CG
closed, back down to Remi, cheap camp, last site, exhausted. Cook
chicken, thunder and lightening, little rain.
6-21 TUE
Break camp and return to Helena, find slide film at Butterfly 5-10, circle
city, lots of brick, check trains, head west, skip Mullan Pass,
lots of bicycles, into Missoula for rear tire. DQ, circle town,
inspect Montana Rail Link, see GP9, SD9, roundhouse is gone, truck
circle. Hot! Take 93 north, try and call Mike and Jane, no answer.
Ride along NP to Paradise. Very cool country. Stop at bridge,
leave and train comes, hot piggyback race, Too late at Thompson
Falls, down in canyon, come to North Shore CG, "stop now", good
and tired, cowboy camp, eat from cooler, fishing with Missoula
family, wet.
6-22 WED
Must be no charge, I leave early, into Sand Point, UP train into Priest River,
head up the Pend Orille, chasing chip train, very hot again, up
into hills, stop by water at Kettle Falls, up to Sherman Pass,
cool, shade and cold cold water. Drop down from Republic into
Colville Indian Reservation, very nice scenery. Wonder why the
Indians stay in the desert?? Into Grand Coulee, big gray cloud,
windy, check out dam, keep going, maybe camp, maybe camp. Too
windy, no cover, Coulee City park, on the end, grassy, set up tent
at sunset, still windy, take cool shower.
6-23 THUR
Wake early, it rained twice but not bad, pack up, can't figure out how to pay.
Expresso stand? Camas city, granaries, take Rt 2 across, stop at
church, Waterville, construction babes, through Wenatchee, take
side roads, rain threat, decide to push for home rather than Mt.
Rainier, more construction, snack at Stevens Pass, put on rain
gear at top of hill, cold. Stop at Zekes for onion rings and
shake, cops, rain, no trains, turn at Monroe, back roads to visit
hobby shop, traffic home, house is taped up for painting.
Next Log - 1995
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Cycle Tales
MOTORCYCLE TOUR LOG - 1994