I'm getting ready for another ride in a few weeks and preparing to set up the trip blog I remembered that I had to create a new address the last time. That address is www.fabiusrider2017.blogspot.com . So on this blog there is day one , the post before this one, then all the posts after day one are on the other blog. I also see I had comments that I did not address or answer and that is because I didn't know they were there.

The next trip is from Tennessee to Newfoundland and either back to TN or we will explore elsewhere. I guess we will see the endurance of our bodies and our wallets. The first part of the journey I may not post much of it and just give updates. That is because we will be visiting family, taking a day trip to Delaware to give me 49 states that I have ridden in, go to the BMW rally, and finally visit friends in Central NY before we actually start the adventure.

We just did a weekend at the Georgia Mountain Rally in Hiawassee, GA. The riding in that area is great. Lots of twisty mountain roads. Not far from there is the Tail of the Dragon, which I did last year and the Cherohala Skyway which we did do this time.

June 19 day 01

 A quick update from my phone and if you know me, you know I hate these stupid phones. If you were tracking us, you will see it shows us south of Paducah.  That is not correct, as with all electronic devices they require power and in this case I was using super duper rechargeable batteries which should have lasted for days, but they didn't. 

We met our first day goals and continued on the route for day 02. We got to Van Buren, MO and decided to get a place for the night. But there are no rooms to be had anywhere so we had to continue on. We spotted a motel called "Lucky" motel and desperate we are we checked and they had a room. I slept in worse. So we are currently west of Van Buren, MO. Mileage for today is around 630, I will know better when we get back to gje motel from supper.

Time for another Ride

It has been a while since my last post. We bought the house in Tennessee and have moved down to it. The motorcycling in this area of Northeast Tennessee is great. I have the "Snake" Rt 421 20 minutes away, the Dragon's Back just north out of Marion, VA. I have not been able to ride as much as I would like due to photography obligations.

So why am I here, because it is time to head back across our great nation on the bike. I am headed to Salt Lake City for the BMW International Rally and when My wife joins me out there we are headed North through Glacier NP into the Canadian Rockies where I hope to capture images in Banff and Jasper National Parks. Then down with a swing through Washington and Oregon States so my wife can check them off her list. We will stop in Jackson, WY to visit with one of our nephews, and of course do photography.  

Back to the Wave

I will be going back to the Wave here in a month or two. I scored two more passes and have alerted my poor brother to expect another expedition. There will be a full moon at that time and the goal will be to get moon shots. We'll be stopping at Canyonlands NP for sunrise at Mesa Arch and checking out Arches NP. Then down to Monument Valley for the full moon and finally off to Coyote Buttes North for the Wave hike and photo mission.

The plan to get back to Alaska looks like it will be off as we are purchasing a home in Tennessee and it would not make a lot of sense to not take advantage of the riding and exporation by bike in that area.  

In early October I went with my family to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, a usual annual event. I did not take the motorcycles because I was with extended family, and there would not have been time to go riding. Overall a poor year for me riding. Just over 4200 miles when I normally average around 18000 miles. I expect to be back up in that range next year with a planned trip to Oregon for the rally and up to Alaska again to try to reach the Arctic Circle. 

But for now back to the Outer Banks. When I go anywhere I try to do a bunch of photography. I was up every morning before sunrise, going to the beach to try and catch sunrises. The first few days where cloudy and getting sunrises was poor at best. The sunsets, which I went for each evening were no better the first few days. Again a lot of cloud cover. Clouds are great for these photos if it will allow the sun to peek through and do it's thing. As the days went by the conditions improved and I was starting to get some great sunrises and sunsets. The photos included here are from that trip.

The order of shots are a sunrise, three sunsets and a sunrise. The two sunrises are the same morning, and two of the three sunsets is the same evening. The two sunrises were taken the morning after the two same sunset photos and the same day as the third sunset. The sunsets were taken in the hamlet of Duck looking out over a pier that was destroyed in 2011 by a hurricane. I thought it made great subject matter, and kept going back to get the right sunset photo. Photo 2 and 4 are the same evening and the wind was blowing hard. I used a 9 stop neutral density filter to smooth out the waves. This did however cause a little blur in the moving clouds. The next evening, photo 3 it was much calmer.

What I didn't get were storm photos. There was constant threat of storms, and we got rain, but no storms, no lightning. I would like to get some unobstructed lightning photos to add to my portfolio. 

A local ride to Watkins Glen State Park is a great place to get some really nice waterfall pictures. That whole area, and the Ithaca area are loaded with great cascades, and falls. Chittenango Falls which is also near by is one of the better waterfalls in the state. I have photos of these falls, but at this writing, I haven't converted them to .jpeg format. But because the latest post shows first, you will already have seen them by the time you read this.

The top two photos are Cathedral Rock from different locations. Cathedral Rock is located outside of Sedona, AZ.The next photo is from motorcycling in Alaska, and this is Denali NP. The next two photos are at Grand Canyon NP, the next is motorcycling in Glacier NP. The last photo is at Horseshoe Bend in Page, AZ. A story on this Horseshoe Bend photo. To get the shot you have to stand on the edge of the rim, which is I am guessing about 1000 feet down. Doing the same at Toroweap, it is about 3000 feet down. The day I took this shot, two others were standing there with me. I was on one end, and a Frenchman was on the other. He turned away after setting up his camera and as I looked over, the camera and tripod fell over. I yelled, but it was only enough warning for him to turn and watch his camera smash down onto the rocks. It didn't go over the edge, which might have been more merciful for him. I don't speak french, but I understood what he was saying. Poor guy, I am sure it ruined his vacation. The other photographer next to me waited for color in the sky, and finally said he was going. Five minutes later the sky developed color. He didn't get his shot.

The top two photos are at Lake Powell, sunrise, and "Lone Rock". The next three are at Monument Valley. The first one is in the morning at Totem Pole during a nasty sand storm. You can see the sand in the air, and it's effect on the next two at sundown. The bottom two are at the Grand Canyon NP. The lightning photo took a while to get and that is looking out over the Painted Desert. The bottom photo is at Toroweap, on the North rim of the Grand Canyon. You take a 60 mile dirt road to get to it. The last five miles are four wheel drive country.

The top photo is from Upper Antelope Slot Canyon, which I visited once. The rest are from Lower Antelope Slot Canyon, which I visited four times. I prefer the lower canyon because for photography I believe it has better features, and fewer people. Plus as a photographer you can go in unguided for 2 hours, while the upper is guided and busy with tourists. The Upper does have a spectacular beam in what I believe is called The Cathedral. Here I have a couple of beam shots, one is at "Hole in the Rock", and the others are at "The Chief". If you look you can see the profile of "The Chief". Here is a little secret, the beam or ray of sun only occurs at certain times, and is not always visible. You have to have dust in the air. That is where my brother comes in handy, throwing sand into the rays to make the beams visible.

Bryce Canyon NP, Utah. The top photo with the snow was taken in 2008 on my first cross country ride. The rest were from flying into Arizona and driving up to that region in the fall of 2011.

The Wave Coyote Buttes North, Arizona, Utah border.

I try to get out and do a cross country ride every year. I have for four years in a row, and this year was to be the fifth, but it didn't happen. There were a number of reasons, and when it came down to the date I was going to leave for the west, the heat, and fires were going to be a bit much for me. I don't mind the heat, but riding in 100+ degree heat for 12 to 14 hours a day is doable for a day or maybe two, but for better then a week straight would be just too much. 

I had planned to hit the rally in Missouri, then go to Rocky Mountains NP in Colorado, over to Canyon Lands NP, and Arches in Utah. Maybe go back to Monument Valley then up to Jackson, Wyoming, and up to Glacier, Montana. I planned to spend some time at each location to do a bunch of photography. In a way the break is welcomed and maybe I needed the rest.

Next year, 2013 I try for the Arctic Circle again. The BMW rally is in Salem, Oregon, and since I am already half way there, then I have to go for it. I will plan the trip during our long, long, cold winters here in Syracuse. I know that my wife will meet me in Oregon to explore the Washington, Oregon, Northern California areas. She may then meet me again in Alaska like the first time. I expect I will go back to Chicken, AK and pan for more gold. I loved doing it. Fever maybe, but what the heck.

I thought I would stray from the original intent of this blog to add some non motorcycling trip photography. Some of the photos I am going to post are from local motorcycle trips, and quite a bit more are from my yearly visit to my brother in Arizona. I go out there, and drag him around on my photo expeditions. He is a good sport about it.

In the spring of this year I had scored two passes to get into The Wave. This is in the Coyote Buttes area of the Para Canyon Recreational Area. They allow 20 passes a day into this feature. 10 passes are by internet lottery, and 10 passes are by show up lottery. I had been trying for years to get in, and finally scored the passes. The hike in takes about 2.5 hours to cover three miles. But it is well worth it. I will note that Craig, my brother, and I got to The Wave at about 0800 am and did not see another soul until about 1100 am, and then for a total only about 7 other people. Craig and I were the only ones with the proper passes which have to be displayed. A shame that people get the passes, and don't use them, when others who would, can't get them.

On this trip we based ourselves in Page, AZ where we could get to The Wave, Horseshoe Bend, Antelope Slot Canyon, and up to Monument Valley. This whole area is ripe for landscape photography. Another great spot in this area is Toroweap Point. This point overlooks the North rim of the Grand Canyon. I visited this point in the fall of 2011 and met some great photographers there. One photographer, Craig Bill has a website, craigbill.com that has many great images for sale.

 

Home

I made it home today. The ride was short by comparison, about 400 miles. I took RT 86 through the southern tier. This was a nice route except the road conditions were real bad in parts. The weather was good, although a little windy. My trip was just short of 8200 miles plus a little over 300 on the DRZ 400 dirt bike. I was on the road a little over 31 days. I will post, like last time, more photos and video as I review and process them. The trip to Alaska I was in the rain 15 of 39 days. Some of those days, an all day soaking rain. This trip I might have an hour to an hour and a half total of light to sprinkle rain. Saw a lot of storms, but was able to avoid them or time them so that they were not a factor.

My appreciation goes out to Ken and Carol for their hospitality. To Sandra and Chaz, Ron, and Bob for their hospitality and friendship. To Fred and Judy who had the toughest job, walking Knucklehead (her real name is Lucy) our almost two year old golden retriever twice a day. To my wife Rene' who lets me go on these adventures. More to come.

Slider

My run from Albert Lea, MN., through Chicago to east of Cleveland in a word, suck. Sorry for the bluntness, but the trip was good for the first two hours. Then the traffic started getting very heavy, and it is difficult to make time, and put down miles. I dealt with the traffic which was heavy with some very nutty drivers to Chicago. My first video was just after getting to Chicago and the traffic was slowing down. Thought I got some of the actual traffic jam, but maybe my frustration over ruled that idea.

I spent one and a half hours in 86 degree heat going 10 feet at a time, never getting out of 1st gear in this traffic jam. I did follow another bike on the shoulder for about a 1/4 mile before the shoulder narrowed too much to proceed that way. I finally had enough and got off the highway to try and make my way through the city. Ended up going through the inner city and learning their rules of the road. I guess the object is to be first. Had a woman who twice tried to race me through an intersection after pulling beside me in the bicycle lane. The third time, she just pulled beside me then cut in front of me to cut me off like she was the queen of Chicago. She wants to be first, go ahead. I did video it, but will not post it. She then proceeded to try and pass a van the same way, and on her second try, cut him off. Then a male comes flying by me in the bicycle lane. Now I was not putzing around in the hood, I was going quick to get out of there. Which brings up this observation. Some genius traffic engineer got all the lights timed so that they turn red when you get to them. My bike was showing full bars on the temp gauge, and I could not get going long enough to cool the engine down. 25 to 30 lights and I made two, one was green the other orangish. After about another hour to and hour and a half I finally got back to I90 and the traffic was moving. I hopped on, and I thought I was now going to put down some miles.

I am on this three lane bridge doing 65 to 70 when I heard a splat and a scrapping sliding noise behind me. I am wondering what the hell is that, and I then see a black box sliding across the lanes in front of a car. My right pannier / case had fallen off. How or why it happen I do not know. Luckily the car did not hit it, and it appears it made it to the shoulder without being struck by any of the high speed traffic. The bad news is I am on a bridge with narrow lanes, and a shoulder about 18" wide. My bike is 38" wide. I park as far to the right as the concrete barrier will allow, and proceed to head back to the pannier. Just like the old days as a cop, having traffic wiz by you without the drivers giving a thought of moving over or even slowing up a bit.

I found the case to be remarkably undamaged. The hinges are worn, and there are some serious scrapes, but the integrity was intact. Those Jesse cases can really take a licking. I got the case back on, and when I got a break, took off. That bike can really go when you get on it.

My goal was to get onto the east side of Cleveland. I did not want to deal with morning traffic going into Cleveland. Problem was I had lost almost three hours with the Chicago delay, and the pannier ordeal. I was determined to reach my goal, and upon checking my smart phone for the weather decided I could get in between the storms. I started into Cleveland in the dark, and half way through it started to rain. So much for the "smart" in smart phone. The perfect way to end the day, in the rain. I made it to the east side and ended the day at 14.25 hours and 755 miles.

Video of Cleveland.

Bad Lands

The morning started out very cloudy so the photography was less then inspiring. The clouds cleared up at about 10:00 local and by then the light was high and the rocks were colorless for the most part. I guess we will call this a scouting trip, but as interesting as the area is, I don't find it very photogenic. Maybe that is just me, or maybe I haven't found the non tourist off the beaten path spots for photos. I could only pick two photos for the blog. A big horn sheep, and one of the features. The two videos tend to show the area better. I stayed until about 11:15 before getting on I90 to start east. I ran until 9:00 pm CT before stopping. I didn't get as far as I had hoped. I will try to get up early and get on the road early. I would like to get through Chicago, and Cleveland before the end of the day tomorrow.

Great visit

Thursday I ended my visit with Ken and CJ. They were such great hosts, but on top of that such great people. I left Boise for Jackson to visit my nephew Greg. The trip over was uneventful, and traffic on the Teton Pass took the fun out of it. I met Greg after work and he had his girlfriend Morgan with him. They make a great couple. We went out to dinner at a nice place, and Morgan paid despite my plea.

I left Jackson, WY a little late and did not get too far before the dark, cold, and Rene's voice in my head telling me I am not to ride at night convinced me to stop short of my goal. Today's ride was just a blast to get to Wall, SD so that I can hit the Bad Lands. I had planned to do some sunset at the park, but the clouds were too thick, and no sun to be seen. I hope the conditions are better in the am, but there is the possibility of rain. We'll see in the morning.

The ride was very windy, and I found myself being tossed around a bit.

Note on the two day dirt riding, we did about 200 miles on those two days. Plans are developing for Alaska and with that a four day ride with camping on the trails in the same area. Ken is doing that in about two weeks, and was hinting for me to stick around for it. But I do have to get home and reacquaint with my family.

Two Days in back Idaho

Spent two days dual sport riding with Ken near Warm Lake. Ken and CJ used to own a cabin there and they are still friends with those who still own cabins around the lake. This is a beautiful area and a pleasure to visit. We stayed with a friend of theirs, Sherm, who was a great host. Sherm has some help in Jennette, and Colleen who help him around the house. Sherm has a little trouble getting around, but it doesn't appear top stop him.

The riding was great, although I am still learning to handle the smaller bike, and do it on dirt, gravel and what ever comes my way. Yesterday the route was a little more primitive, and a little more tricky then today's routes. I did have a little crash today, no damages to me or the bike. I got a little out of wack on some fist sized rocks and ended up going off track up a rock wall. Had the bike back on the track and going in less then a minute. Going off the other side would have meant trying to get back up a substantial embankment.

First day video one.

First day video 2.

Today we had lunch in Yellowpine, and old mining town that has a winter population of about 25. This next video is coming back into Yellowpine after riding deep into the back woods.

A video of today's ride showing some of the route along the river.

Ken and CJ have been great hosts, and I thank them immensely. Ken has shown me some of the other side of dual sport riding. I start heading East tomorrow. I have a few choirs to complete in the morning so we will see how far I get. I would like to get to the Bad Lands for some photos.

Mt. Borah

Yesterday Ken and I drove out to Mt. Borah, about 250 miles from his home. We took his truck and loaded all the camping gear in. We arrived at the camp ground after sundown so we put on our LED head lights and set up our tents. We hit the sacks early for the big hike to the peak of Mt. Borah. It is at over 12000 ft., and the highest peak in Idaho. There were about 20 other cars and groups there to tackle the same thing, reach the peak.

I didn't sleep well, the full moon had my tent lit right up. I'm sorta like the chick and the pea (except for the chick part) who needs everything just right to get a good night sleep. At one point I check my watch convinced it is 6 or 7 and it says 6:05 which means 4:05 Idaho time. I had to get up, water a bush then try to get back to sleep, which I did. We took down camp before tackling the hike. There was a buck just eating leaves off off the bushes (not the same bush I watered) about 20 ft away. It didn't care about us, until I got out the camera. It was a little too dark for any good shots anyway. I would carry up my photo gear to the tune of 20 to 25lbs along with my Camel back full of water.

THIS HIKE WAS A KILLER. The numbers for us were we got to 10551ft and 3 miles with an elevation change of 3300ft. before we stopped and decided us two old farts need to head back. Now I mentioned there were several other groups and we out did many of them. Those who ventured further, very few of them made it to the peak. Most of them stopped at chicken ridge, aptly named because when you get there that is what you do, you chicken out. After resting at our turn around point we started back down. This one couple comes bounding past us and others. I don't know if they made it to the peak, but they sure were in great shape.

The trip back down was tougher in some respects then the trip up. The loose stones had you slipping and sliding. The knees and thighs really felt the burn, while the calf's felt it on the way up. At about 9500 ft. I notice the fingers starting to tingle, I guess a little hypoxia was setting in. Understandable with the lack of O2 at that altitude, and the physical activity. About 300 to 400 yards from the camp ground I heard a bunch of chirping, and it was coming from a large tree with numerous holes. I knew there had to be a nest, and a little checking revealed baby chicks of at the time I thought to be owls. Later the mother arrived and it was a hawk. I haven't checked any guides to see what kind of hawk yet. I tried a few shots without he tripod, but they just were not sharp. So back to the truck and back up hill to the nest. The mother, and three chicks are in the photos above. Also is a view from our peak on the hike. The photo of me shows the elusive peak in the back ground. By the way, it was getting a little cold up there, and that another 2000 feet altitude would have meant another 10 degree drop in temp. This is a video of the chicks:

Back to Ken and CJ's

The route back to Ken and CJ's was about 500 miles long, and 300 of them must have been twisities, curves and sweepers. Awesome riding, beautiful scenery, riding in canyons along rivers and crossing over mountains. The routes were RT 93 to RT 12 (awesome road) to RT 13 to RT 95 to ID 55.

The above video is RT 95 the down side of a mountain that goes and goes and goes.

On Saturday Ken and I took Rene' to the airport. She made it home OK but with a lot of delays. Ken and I are leaving this afternoon for the Mt. Borah area to camp. We will hike up to the peak tomorrow, and return to Boise tomorrow night. The next few days after that will involve dual sport riding up in Yellow Pine, Warm Lake areas on the smaller bikes. I do not believe I will have any connectivity in these areas so there may be another break in the daily blog entries.

A note, you can leave comments on this blog, and you can track me on the SPOT tracking page. There you can use the map to zoom right in to my locations.

Glacier

Rene and I got to Two Medicine Lake at about 6:20 am and that was a few minutes too late as the water had already started to ripple. I took a few shots and we looked for a vacant camp site for our home for the night. Found one. We returned to East Glacier, had breakfast and packed up to return to Two Medicine camp ground where set up our tent.

We went to Many Glacier after setting up camp. Rene and I did a ranger walk first off, and I was not able to do much photography. The ranger would yell out "DAYOO", to alert the bears of our presence. After the second time, I sang out, "Dayoo, day light come, and me want to go home". By the the forth time, others were singing the same thing. Trouble maker. After the walk we decided to take a hike in the same area. Some trails were closed because of grizzly, and some folks were talking about seeing some grizzlies up on a hill. We made it back to a waterfall before starting back. Still no sighting of any grizzlies, and I want to see and photograph some grizzlies.

We had spent much of the day over at Many Glacier, so my plan of starting up the Going to the Sun Road had to be delayed. A bunch of storms were coming into the area, and we still had to finish setting up camp. The rush was on to get back to Two Medicine. The route there, RT 89 to RT 49 are very twisty roads. Great motorcycling roads except for the roadway condition. There are spots of gravel, and abrupt level (ridges) changes. But these problems are not the whole way, basically just about a mile stretch. I thought I had video of RT 89 and 49 but I don't. Guess I'll have to go back and get some. Rene' definitely wants to go back. That trip will be a full week at Glacier, I believe it to be a prettier and much more exciting place then Yellowstone.

These videos show some of the scenery, and one of my favorite roads, the Going to the Sun Road. The Going to the Sun Road is cut into the side of the mountains, and is currently under reconstruction, so it is very slow going. Hopefully it will be done in the next year or two.

We hiked at Logan Pass to see Hidden Lake. This hike lead us through about 1/4 mile of snow. I HATE snow, coming from the Syracuse area I get to see way too much of it. About 5 months worth. The scenery from the end of the trail was as spectacular as many of the other look outs in Glacier. We did pass by mountain goats that were just hanging out on the trail, and a big horn sheep that was eating up the hill side.

From Logan Pass we tok the Going to the Sun Road down into Apgar Village for dinner at Eddies. Apgar Village is at the end of McDonald Lake, and I was hoping to get some sunset type photos, but the clouds were too thick over the lake. We skipped what wasn't going to happen to head for Whitefish where we had reservations at the Grouse Mountain Lodge.