Preface: A year ago, I had planned a ride up into Canada to explore Yellowknife and Inuvik as ultimate destinations, with some backwoods riding to traverse some of the ride north and south. As fast as plans are made, circumstances conspire to scrape away the foundations they're laid upon, and the plans crumble before you.

A year later, once again a time allotment just wasn't there to do what I wanted to do, and the hazy concoction of Plan B began to coalesce. What materialized was rather etherial - being nothing more than a general area of the western United States and Canada, and a few weeks to do it - before the mind numbing responsibilities of life's toil came to bare once again. In a departure from the usual rides I embarck upon, this one will be without a defined beginning or end - we're just gooing to start when we start from wherever we meet, and go from there.

Lasvegasrider, BigDogAdventures and JumpingChollo were all in at some point. BigDog and I elected to meet up with 'chollo and LVR out in the west slopes of Colorado somewhere, and start some kind of plan from there. In another departure from the norm for me, this ride will not be on my usual thumper. I decided to take my new-to-me 950 Adventure. A few weaknesses in the design are much touted in ADVRider. Will this bike prove to be durable enough to survive? Will I be durable enough? We'll see.

The Trip West: As we headed west to meet up with 'Chollo and LVR, we began to narrow down the 'meeting area'. 'Chollo just picked up a new-to-him '05 R1200GS, and LVR had just finished reworking his '95 R1100GS. LVR was figuring on traveling with us for a week or two while heading on a mission to Alaska. 'Chollo, Bigdog and I each had more or less the month of June off. We're all on big bikes, so the basic terrain compatibility is there.

As I mentioned, this ride is different than most other ones I've done before in that there was no real plan. No routes. No destinations. No itineraries. We'll figure that out as we go along. BigDog and I programmed most of the US/Canada Pac NW/Great Basin area into the GPS using City Select and Roads & Rec as a backup for most any eventuality. We conjured up a point to assemble the ranks somewhere between Grand Junction, CO and Green River, UT to get started on wherever it was we were headed. It was that evening I got a message from LVR that he was out - focusing his energies on his Canada/Alaska run, and 'Chollo was a day behind getting out of work. I'm looking forward to hearing LVR's tale when he gets back. Adjusting to these circumstances, Bigdog and I pulled the plug, and holed up in Montrose, CO - this is where the ride was now officially starting.

You can also read my ride report on ADVRider!

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[Day 2][Day 3][Day 4][Day 5][Day 6][Day 7][Day 8][Day 9]

[Day 10][Day 11][Day 12][Day 13][Day 14][Day 15][Day 16]

Day 1 - Montrose, CO: We got a good night of rest in Montrose, and set off at first light westward, climbing up into the vast wilderness of the Uncompahgre Plateau. Before we left, I sent one last message to 'Chollo, informing him to meet us in Green River, UT that night. Not sure he'd get the message, but that's where we figured we'd end up that night - although in a very circuitous manner.

We had a bunch of waypoints out in the Utah desert, and we figured on visiting a few of them as we meandered our way to Green River. I had less than 200 miles of local riding on my 950, and zero with it loaded with any gear or with TKC80's on it, so it and I still needed to get acquainted with one another, and hopefully we'd be compatible partners.

As we climbed 3,000 feet up the Uncompahgre, old highway 90 became the Divide Road, and we traversed some beautiful meadows as we rolled along at over 9,000 feet. We toyed with the idea of continuing on north along the Divide road up to 141, some 50 miles away, but opted to head southwest and into Utah to do some exploring. Afterall, I used to live in Grand Junction, and had been up around here before, and we were looking for places we'd both never been. So we turned on CR25 and headed towards Nucla.

I had no idea what kind of fuel mileage or range I would get on this bike, nor how it would do on real offroad riding. Although the 950 and I were becoming friends, we still didn't know each other really well.

We got fuel in Naturita and headed south on 141 through Big Gypsum Valley until the intersection of old Route 666, where we passed through Dove Creek (the first time we intersected the Trans Am Trail) and then off into the beginning of Utah's Canyonlands on a lonely dirt road.

The first stop was Hovenweep National Monument - an area that was populated by Pueblo Indians in the 1200AD time. Hovenweep is a Paiute word meaning 'deserted valley', but it was obvious a good deal of indiginous folks had lived here in days long gone. As we decended into the lower desert, the first wave of heat blasted us.

We cut through the Navaho Indian Reservation on the old Aneth and some gas exploration roads, looking again for fuel.

As we decended again, the heat rose. It was getting hot - maybe about 95 degrees or so. We decided to try our luck at Moctezuma Creek to get a little fuel and maybe a snack of some sort. Even CitySelect v.7 has a lot of omissions in places to get fuel, and there are places waypointed in there where you can not. We found gas, and topped off - the camelbacks, too. Utah and Nevada have always been the places I have found where gas can become a very precious commodity. If you're heading into no man's land out there, you'd better get gas everywhere you can find it, and keep as full as you can. You'll be very, very glad you dd somewhere down the line. An intriguing road popped into view a little way west, so we decided to explore it. We rode out to Bluff, UT, and just a little south of there into the foot of the Comb Hills. Comb Wash Road intersects Rt 163 here. It must have been near 100 degrees here, but we decided to traverse the desert here - afterall, we'd come all this way, and it sure looked awesome.

A few miles up, the cooling fan whirring constantly on the 950, the road branches. We took the Snow Flat Road fork, leaving the relatively nice graded dirt of Comb Wash Road behind. It was out here on Snow Flat Road where the 950 and I came to terms with each other.

If I was to be a 950 rider, here's where I would cut my teeth. The road gets progressively more rough as we climb a ridgeWe climbed several ledges near the "Twist" and traversed some deep sand to cross this road before we reached the easy slickrock and the decent back to Rt 261. The 950 is a big, heavy beast, but I was really quite impressed how well this monster could tractor it's way through relatively technical terrain. We hammered it through some more sand, and over another ridge, and the road got progressively easier, although this section would be a mofo if it were raining at the time.

Looking out southwestward. Somewhere out over there is the Moki Dugway....

When we reached Rt 261, we decided to make a run north torwards Green River. The Colorado River is a major geographical hurdle to overcome in eastern Utah, with only a few places to cross it. We'd have to go to Moab if we wanted to cross the northern part, or Bullfrog Ferry to cross due west of here. This late in the day, either of those options would put us probably out of reach of even making it to Green River tonight, so we decided to cross at Hite's, which meant some highway miles.

We'd pretty much figured out that we wouldn't make Green River on the fuel we had left. There was a gas station in Hite's Crossing that *might* be open. At times in the past, the hours were somewhat sketchy. We might not make Green River anyway.....

We made the decent on Rt 95 down towards the Colorado, in hope of gas at Hite's. It'd been over 25 years since the last time I saw any part of Lake Powell, and I'd really forgotten how truly rugged this area is.

We lucked out, and perhaps popular demand had seen fit to extend the hours at Hite's for gas. In fact, it looked like you could get fuel 24hrs there, as long as you had a credit card. That was something not feasible 20 years ago. Had there not been fuel here, we'd have been in a bad way - and on the first day! We'd not have had enough to get anywhere before running out. We'd have had to loiter around the marina and tried to bum some fuel from the boat people Gas with a view - a variation on an advrider ritual theme invented by Jonz on the CD Ride we did last year.

We ran back up the grade to Rt 95, and crossed the Colorado River, perhaps 150 feet or more above the River. The heat was tolerable, but just barely. I used water from my camelback to wet my shirt down, but that would all evaporate away in mere minutes as we motored north to Hanksville.

As we neared Green River, old State Rd 24 looked like a nice pulloff.

The odo clicked through 425 miles as we rolled into Green River - a place we both rode through in last year's Trans Am Trail ride. We'd left a message for 'Chollo to meet us at the motel we stayed in last year, and we were a bit worried when we arrive there and there was no 'Chollo to be seen.

No messages, either Bigdog and I wandered on over to Ray's Tavern for dinner. Good food, good beer It's a cool joint that caters mainly to the dirtbiker and rafting crowds - pretty much the only crowds in town anyway. Bigdog wandered off to slumber away 430 miles of desert running, and I waited up for 'Chollo. He and I hadn't ridden together for almost two years, and I was kind of anxious to see that new R1200 of his. About 2300, 'Chollo rolls into town - and he and I have a few beers to celebrate......Before we know it, it's 0100 - and we need to get some sleep.

To conclude day one, BigDog and I rode about 430 miles and sweated about 8 liters each.