2012 — The Great Utah/National Parks Tour

OFMC 2012 route Once again, eight stud bikers headed out on this year's trip: Bill, Dennis, Randy, John, Jason, Ken, Brett, and Friggs. But not all together. The plan was to meet John in Grand Junction, and Bill, Friggs, and Dennis set out early from Denver. Randy, Ken, Brett, and Jason were to come later.

As it worked out, Jason was late leaving work so the other three left without him.

Ken was bringing up the rear when the three neared Rifle, when his bike started handling very badly. He stopped to find that his brand new rear tire had been punctured and he had a flat. Randy and Brett noticed him missing almost immediately and pulled down off the exit at Rifle to wait for him to catch up. From down the exit, however, they couldn't see who was passing on the highway so after awhile they concluded Ken must have passed them by and was now ahead, so they took off to catch up. Still uncertain, though, they stopped a couple more times to let him catch up, but pulled into Grand Junction with no sign of Ken.

Concours being pulled onto tow truck Meanwhile, Ken was back on the highway waiting for help to arrive, expecting that Brett and/or Randy would soon be back. But he couldn't do anything until someone helped him rock the bike up onto its center stand, an apparently impossible task for one person when a bike has a flat. Help finally arrived in the form of a guy in a pick-up and the bike was stabilized so Ken could carry out the plan he had formulated. He called Eagle and spoke with friends there who have a Concours just like his and are mechanically inclined. They said they could help him if he could get the bike there. About this time Jason came along and did a double-take as he realized this was Ken sitting beside the road. He turned around at Rifle and came back but by that time there was nothing further he could do, so after calling the guys in Junction and informing them of the situation, Jason rode on. A tow truck took care of getting Ken to Eagle, but by this time it was too late to do anything, so he spent the first night in Eagle.

Everyone else gathered as planned, and in the morning waited to hear what was happening with Ken. Repairs proved to be time consuming so the group headed on into Utah and Ken finally was ready to roll around 2 p.m., with about 350 miles to go from there.

at the Big Rock Candy Mountain Resort Crossing Utah there was rain; that's why we have rain suits. The destination for the day was the Big Rock Candy Mountain Resort, and the food was great. Realizing that Ken might arrive too late for dinner, some eats were set aside for him. group shot at Cedar Breaks Ken, meanwhile, was riding through more storms and seeing some magnificent rainbows, just pushing on and on with a minimum of stops.

Finally, coming up the canyon there was one last rainbow and the end of the rainbow sat directly on top of the Big Rock Candy Mountain Resort. Pot of gold indeed. He came cruising into town and saw the motel, saw bikes lined up, and then saw John directing him to a spot right in front of the door of the room they would be sharing. At last the whole group was together.

The next morning we continued up the canyon and over to Panguitch, where we left the main road and headed for Cedar Breaks National Monument. After appropriate oohing and aahing, we went south to hook up with the road running down to Cedar City via Cedar Canyon, another nice cruise. Lunch was waiting for us in Cedar City, courtesy of John's cousin. Nice folks, who fed us well.

As we prepared to leave it was cold and blustery, so we geared up and headed out. Gearing up didn't last long. We blasted along I-15 toward Mesquite, NV, and it quickly got beastly hot! Time to stop and strip off all that gear. We got to Mesquite wondering how we could have been cold just such a short time ago because it sure was warm now. It was time to hit the swimming pool! Between swimming, gambling, golf, and eating, we managed to pass two nights in Mesquite.

cruising down Cedar Canyon When it was time to hit the road again we backtracked along I-15 into Utah, to St. George, with a stop at the local Harley dealer on the agenda. Some guys just like to spend money. H-D = hundred bucks, right?

We then headed east to Springdale and into and through Zion National Park. No touring here, but just passing through Zion is pretty darn spectacular. Out of the park to the east and we figured to stop at Carmel Junction for lunch, but a couple buses of tourists got there just ahead of us, persuading us to press on to Kanab.

cruising through Zion Heading out of Kanab we crossed into Arizona and took the road down to Jacob Lake, the jumping off point for the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We had cabins there, and they had porches, but the porches did not have roofs. The cabins themselves were so tiny they had no room for a crowd to gather, so we sat out on the porch. In the rain. Did I mention it was raining? Nothing to do but put on the rain suits and sit outside doing whatever we would normally be doing. In the rain. After awhile it was just time to bag it and go in.

John, Friggs, and Randy at Jacob Lake It was sunny in the morning and we headed south into the park. No weather for us but we later ran into other bikers who got drenched on this same stretch of road. Our good fortune. We got to the Grand Canyon Lodge, rode out to Cape Royal along the road where Ken almost got stranded many years ago, and then back to the Lodge to sit out on the patio overlooking the canyon and drink that beer John had been promising all these years. Of course the sun was blazing and the only chairs in the little bit of shade were taken by a family who were all either asleep or reading their Kindles. But we stayed long enough for the shade to stretch over us a little, too.

at the Grand Canyon Then back to Jacob Lake for another night, hitting just a hint of rain as we arrived. That night we didn't need the rain suits to sit out on the porch. And we had a good time with the very personable kid working the cafe. Randy blew him away by expressing his appreciation monetarily.

At the Grand Canyon Lodge Leaving Jacob Lake the next day we backtracked to Kanab and it was a good example of how the same road can look so different going the other direction. We might have been aware that we were climbing on our way in but the fabulous view we got going down was totally unexpected. What a beautiful ride. From Kanab we continued backtracking all the way to Carmel Junction and then on to the turn-off toward Bryce Canyon.

At the park entrance Ken had some work to do, finally having wi-fi for the first time in four days, while everyone else went on into the park. As so often happened on this trip, tourists found the stud bikers to be totally cool and asked for a photo with the group. In the process on this occasion, a kid backed up so that his bare leg pressed against Randy's blazing hot exhaust pipe and serious flesh burning ensued. Oops. Sorry kid.

Rolling again, we passed through Escalante and Boulder and over a high pass with spectacular views that Ken and John and Bill had chanced upon once many years before. It was just as spectacular the second time as it was the first. Then on into Torrey for the night.

From Torrey we ran east through Capitol Reef National Park on into Hanksville. Then it was a blast north to pick up I-70 again and a blast east through Green River to the turn-off that heads south to Moab. We detoured off that route, though, to run in towards Canyonlands National Park and then a left turn that actually took us to Dead Horse Point State Park instead, where we looked out over the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers. Then back to the main road, alongside Arches National Park, and on to Moab for the night.

Coming up from Moab In Moab a few guys started out on a walk to find an ice cream shop, with a few dropping off along the way, until we came to one. It turned out to be right next door to Woody's Tavern, the place John and Bill and Ken had hung their first time in Moab on a bike trip many, many years ago. Woody's is still there but the entire city has grown up around it in the meantime. Hey, we knew the bride when she used to rock and roll.

The next day was the finale. We cruised up the river highway back to I-70 and cruised on into Grand Junction. John split off and Dennis took off ahead to meet up with his family in Glenwood Springs. The rest of us cruised along and pulled off in Glenwood for a bite, promptly running into Dennis. Leaving Glenwood it very quickly devolved to horses heading toward the stable, every man for himself. No waved good-byes this time, we had all lost each other in traffic before reading the metro area. Another ride was over.

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