Day 2 PCH (Saturday, September 15, 2012)

Today we road the most miles out of any day on the trip. 483 miles.  We started from the KOA in Jerome ID, passed into Oregon, and finished the day at a Days Inn in Yakima, WA.

Our Campsite at the KOA in Jerome, ID

Just pulled off the freeway to rest

I-84 getting close to the Oregon border

Crossing the border into Oregon

Pretty nice scenery through the Mountains

Crossing into Washington

Route for the day.  Several places where cell reception was bad

It was fairly late when we got to the Days Inn.  We went and got a pizza and headed back to the hotel to watch the BYU football game.  I was pretty exhausted from the days drive.  I was definitely ready for bed.

Day 1 PCH (Friday, September 14, 2012)

Here is another map of the entire route.  The bubbles indicate the places that I had planned on spending the night.

My plan was to get everything packed Thursday night and then get into work early Friday to get off at 3 pm and hopefully be on the road by 4:00.  Well as it always does, things took longer and it was getting late Thursday, so I decided to just get to bed and go in and work just 1/2 day and finish on Friday.

When I got home Friday I gathered everything that I planned to take around the bike.  It looked like way too much stuff, but I feel like I needed all of it.

Here is all the stuff laying on the ground waiting to get packed on the bike

Everything made it on the bike (barely)

After loading everything up, I decided to take it for a test spin around the neighborhood.  Instantly it felt way different and was kind of hard to control.  After a few minutes I adjusted to it and it felt ok.  I was a little nervous about driving so far with such a big load on the back.

Starting Mileage

Mike showed up about 3:45 pm.  We said our goodbye's and got on the road a little after 4:00 pm.  I wished Mike was more interested in motorcycles and he would have had one too, but I was grateful that he was willing to come with me, even if he was just following in his car.  Most of my pictures are thanks to him taking them behind me.  Otherwise I probably wouldn't have very many.

Heading towards the freeway

Traffic was already crazy going through Salt Lake City.  It took quite a while.  There was a small rest stop in Kaysville that we pulled off at to just rest for a minute and relax after all the traffic.

We continued on I-15 until the I-84 split off.  I'm not a big fan of Interstate driving, but these first couple of days we just wanted to quickly get up to the Canada border and then out to the coast.

Entering Idaho

Our destination for tonight was the KOA in Jerome, ID  I had hoped to make it before dark.  It was close, but we got to the KOA about 8:45 pm.  It was a nice sunset as we were getting close.

When we got the KOA I was pretty tired.  I think the late nights lately had really started catching up with me.  We got our tent set up and then jumped in his car and headed into Twin Falls to a Wendy's for dinner.  I was exhausted but also excited to be out on the trip.  I was hoping to get to bed early, but we stayed up late talking.  I knew I would regret it the next day.

Route for Day 1 (243 miles)

9 Day Motorcycle Trip along the PCH

I have always loved the ocean, and try to get there at least once a year.  Ever since I bought my bike I had been dreaming of taking a trip down the Pacific Coast Highway.  After about a year of planning, I set off for the coast.  This trip was taken in September of 2012 and I am just now finally doing a report on it.  I hope that I haven't forgotten too much.

Here is the Google Latitude tracking the route that I took.

The main idea of the route was to start from my home in Lehi, UT.  To head up to the Canada Border.  Then follow as closely as I could the the coastal highway down to the mexico border.  Then head back home.

I had planned out the route and where to stay even to the point of making reservations for each night.  I know this didn't leave much room for variation or error, but it also gave me the peace of mind, that I would have a place to stay and gave me a goal to get to each day.

Mike my brother-in-law expressed an interest in coming.  He even talked about buying a motorcycle.  But in the end he decided to come but just to drive his car along with me.  He wasn't able to come for the whole ride, but he will be there for the first 5 days.

In preparation for this trip, I ordered a rain suit from Motorcycle Superstore.  They sent it in plenty of time, but it was a the wrong size.  It took calling, emailing and online chatting to finally get them to send me the correct size in 2 days so that I would have it for the trip.

1st Motorcycle Date

After a year and a half of having my motorcycle, I finally convinced Kristin to go on a ride with me.  Kristin had received a 2 hour baby sitting from our neighbors and she decided to use this to go on a ride.  We originally planned to go up American Fork Canyon.  But when I got home this was the view of Alpine and the canyon from in front of our house:

Because of the fire, the canyon was closed.  So instead we decided to ride out west of Utah Lake.  Below is the route we followed:

When we were out west of the lake we stopped for a rest and took some pictures.  Kristin wanted proof that she went on a ride.  You could really see the smoke from the fire.

When we got out by Pelican Point, we went went off of Redwood Road and went up behind it on a dirt road.  This was where we had a couple months back camped with the father and son's outing.  When we got back behind the mountain, there was a steep road up to the top of a hill.  It didn't look too bad but as we got about 3/4 of the way up, I realized that this bike is a lot heavier than my dirt bike and I also had 2 people on it.  It was close but we made it to the top without falling.  The views from the top were pretty amazing.

I was pretty nervous coming down the hill so Kristin graciously walked down while I brought the bike down very slowly, I about went over a couple times on the way down.  I think I will leave hill climbing to the dirt bike.

On the way home we had a few minutes so we stopped at Arctic Circle for a shake.  It was a fun date and nice to go for a ride with Kristin.  She said it was a lot better than she had anticipated and said she would go again. :)

Day 3: Denver Trip (Saturday, Sept 24, 2011)

Today is the third and final day of the trip.  I plan to drive home today.  We were up kind of late last night so I didn't get on the road as early as I would have liked.  But I did end up leaving around 8:30.

After getting out of downtown I headed onto I-70.  The traffic was pretty light and it was a nice drive.

I turned up on highway 9 towards Steamboat Springs.  This section of highway was actually really cold.  I put several more layers on and was still pretty cold.  The colors were starting to turn which made for a nice drive.

Somewhere around Kremmling

I think that was the only picture I took of the ride home.  I was pretty exhausted and just wanted to get home.

I stopped for lunch in Steamboat springs.  The weather was really nice.  Right before pulling off the freeway a bee flew into the cuff of my jacket and stung my wrist.  I was nervous because the last time I was stung by a bee was when I was a little kid and I was slightly allergic and my throat had started to swell.  Luckily I didn't have any negative side effects this time.

After lunch I continued on Hwy 40 towards Vernal.  This was a long lonely stretch of road that was really boring.  After several days on the bike, it was getting hard to ride more than about an hour before my rear end would get sore and I would have to stop.

I got to Vernal and had some dinner.  The sun was getting low in the sky and I was pretty exhausted.  I still had 3 hrs to go and I didn't know if I could make it.

But after getting some food I set out towards home.  I was passing Strawberry reservoir just as the sun was setting and it really was one of the most spectacular sights I have ever seen.  I should have stopped to get some pictures but I was worried about riding through the canyons in the dark and wanted to keep moving.  Now I wish I had some pictures.

I continued on towards Heber and by this time it was dark.  I then went through Provo Canyon and on to I-15.  I pulled into the garage a little after 9:00 glad to be home.

Ending Mileage

So it looks like the trip was 1,358 mi in 3 days.  So that is an average of 450 miles each day.  The days seemed kind of long especially on the type of bike that I have.  I think in the future I plan to go less miles each day.

Day 3 Route

Day 3 Stats

Day 2: Denver Trip (Friday, Sept 23, 2011)

I got up around 6 am this morning feeling very refreshed.  In the craziness to get everything ready, I hadn't gotten much sleep the past few nights, but last night I finally slept soundly all night.  I had a little breakfast and got all packed up, and then wandered over to the edge of the cliff to look down at the river.  I met a couple who had a big RV that was on a long cross country trip.

Then I headed back to the bike and made sure everything was ready to go.  I took off around 7:30 and was excited for the day.

Views of Gooseneck St. Park

I drove close to the 4 corners area but because I was hoping to make it to Denver tonight, I decided not to take the detour but continue on towards Denver.

Shiprock in New Mexico in the background

I drove through Cortez, Durango and then stopped for lunch at a McDonald's in Pagosa Springs.  It was a really pretty area of Colorado.  The weather has been great.  Nice sunny skies.

The bugs were pretty intense.  Each time I stopped I had to clean my face shield off.

Bugs

After lunch I headed up through the central part of Colorado on my way to Denver.  I remember a little windy section, and being not as enthralled with the central part of the state.  As I got closer to Denver there was more mountainous terrain which I liked.

It had been a long day and I was tired and ready to be in Denver.  I was meeting my brother in law who was in Denver on a business trip.  When I got to Denver and got on the freeway heading to downtown, I was a little shocked by all the cars as I had been riding secondary highways with few cars for the past two days.  But thankfully my GPS took me right to the front door of the hotel where my brother in law was outside waiting for me.  He was keeping track of me on Google latitude and could see that I was getting close.

The parking there at the hotel was expensive, so my brother in law had found a garage around the corner that was only $6.  I unloaded all of my gear and then went over to the garage to park the bike.

BYU was playing football tonight and so we went up to the room and watched the 2nd half of the game and we ordered a pizza.  It took me a little bit to unwind from the ride.  I felt like my head was still buzzing from the vibrations.  But it was good to finally relax after a long ride.

Actual Route for Day 2:

Stats for Day 2:

Day 1: Denver Trip (Thursday, Sept 22, 2011)

I have been home from this motorcycle trip for almost a year now, and thought it was about time I post up a report of this trip.  Hopefully I can remember enough of the trip.

My GPS on my phone was acting up so the stats on this trip weren't entirely accurate.  But they are close enough.

All packed up and ready to go

Odometer at the beginning of the trip

I ended up leaving about 10:00 am.  Up until this time I was pretty excited about the trip.  I had had moments of apprehension, but for the most part I was pretty confident I could do it.  Right as I was about to leave I got really nervous and I know Kristin was pretty nervous.  But once I got on the road the excitement came back and the nervousness fled.

My destination for the day was Gooseneck St. Park in the South East corner of Utah.  I was planning on camping there for the night and then continuing on to Denver on Fri.

I drove from Lehi, around the west side of Utah lake and then joined up with I-15 in Mona.  I then drove down I-15 to Nephi and through the canyon down through Manti.

Manti Temple

Stopping for lunch in Gunnison

I hadn't realized that my route took me right through Capital Reef Nation Park which was really amazing to see from a motorcycle.  

Just outside Capital Reef National Park

By the time I reached Hanksville, I was pretty tired.  I think the lack of sleep the last couple of days were taking their toll.  

I drove down close to Lake Powell and a few times caught a glimpse of the water.  This is the first time I have seen Lake Powell and hope to plan a vacation there some day.

Views of Lake Powell

It got dark about an hour before I reached the campsite.  It really wouldn't have been too bad except for a pretty scary section where the road turned to dirt and had tight switchbacks down the face of a cliff.  I couldn't see how far you would drop if you went off the edge, and it's probably good that I couldn't see.

I found some pictures of this road from another motorcycle ride report here.

I made it safely to the campsite and found a spot to set up my tent.  There were a few other people there but it wasn't that crowded.  I was camping at gooseneck St. park.  It was free to camp and from pictures I had seen online, it looked like a neat place.  As it was pretty dark I couldn't see much but I'll take a look in the morning.

I called Kristin and talked to her for awhile.  It was nice to be able to sit and relax for a minute.  It was already close to 10 pm, so I thought I had better get to bed.  I wanted to get a good nights rest as I was exhausted.

I didn't mind so much the traveling by myself except for the times when I stopped to eat, etc... Those were the times I felt lonely, but I would call Kristin to help with that.

It was too dark to get pictures that night, but here is a picture when I got up the next morning and it was still pretty dark.

Camp at Gooseneck St Park

Actual route for day 1:

Stats for day 1: