Adventures By Guy

I usually stay up until 11 or 12 but the last three nights I wanted to get to bed early as the last three days have been somewhat draining. The first night I stayed up chatting with Trevor as we are both used to going to bed later… The next night I was writing my post and uploading pics when Mark our host got home from helping someone. We stayed up until 1 am talking and he was telling me some fantastic stories of his past. We finally hit the sack. The third night Trevor and I stayed up until midnight… again! This was not good as we had agreed to get up at 0545 and get on the road by 0645 so we could go down the Burr Trail and through Long Canyon and at the end of that there is a pull off that overlooks a lot of country and in the distance to the east are the Henry Mountains. We were going to watch the sunrise over the HenryMountains. I pulled out and 400 yds down I come across 4 mule deer crossing the road. They were in no hurry. The eastern horizon was just starting to get light while the stars were still bright on an ink black background. I am always watching for deer but now I was on high alert. 5 miles later while we were descending into the Canyon a buck starts bounding down the side of the road just to my left. He did this for about 200 yards until he could go down the embankment. The light was now enough so you could faintly see the Canyon walls. We pulled up 10 minutes early and I got out my GoPro and we waited. As the sun got closer it started lighting up a little cloud near where the sun would peek over. Even though the sun had not come up yet you could see better and better . At this moment I couldn’t help but think what a parallel that is to Jesus Christ and his influence. I was thinking of the 2nd coming and that the whole world would know he cane even if we were not there to personally see him descend. His influence would spread throughout the world. Then the sun peeked over and soon you couldn’t look at it. We turned around and watched the rays light up the cliffs behind us. After a while we hopped on our bikes and slowly went through the Canyon at 15 to 20 mph. I have it all on my GoPro. I promise to learn how to edit and get it posted. Something I thought was pretty neat was as we went along you could see a perfect shadow outline of the canyon rim on the opposite side of the canyon. I had never seen that perspective before. We then headed back to hwy 12 and headed towards Escalante as that ride on 12 never gets old and seeing it in the morning light is always better than later in the day. Plus those curves are just soooooo good. We arrived in Escalante and we found Nemo’s was closed. Our whole purpose was to go there to get some ice cream! Mike had to fill up his KTM as it only has a 4 gallon tank. I was always carrying two extra gallons just in case he got desperate. Two or three trips ago I nicknamed his KTM “Snort” because I would be point man and he would be bringing up the rear and through our intercoms I could always hear him gunning the bike and playing around as his mufflers are a bit louder as the KTM is a bit of a hotrod and it was always going snort, snort, snort back there. You can always hear Snort before you can see Mike coming over a hill or around a corner. While we were at the gas station some older cowboy’s truck wouldn’t start. Low battery. He had no jumper cables so I asked him if he wanted to try my jump pack? Sure. I said it wasn’t meant to start a Cummins diesel but we could try. It helped, but no go. Another old guy comes over and they are old friends. That guy went to a shop around the corner and came back with jumper cables. I said… look at the bright side… this happened in town around the corner from a shop instead of out on the range in the middle of nowhere!! He agreed. We wished him good luck and headed down 12 towards Kodachrome Basin. As we got closer I suggested we take the Canadian all the way to Bryce Canyon NP because we were pretty close. So that’s what we did. Bryce is a cool thing to see. If you aren’t up to a hike then go on a horseback tour. Loraine and I did in the early 90’s. It was awesome. After taking pics and waiting a long time for Trevor as he was really digging it and checking it out. (That’s why we went after all) we headed back up 12 and I suggested a detour of 18 miles. 9 miles in to Kodachrome Basin for some good ice cream to make up for Nemo’s being closed. So off we went . We pulled up and the lady came out to collect a fee for entering the park… but we were parked off to the side and I said… we’re just here for the ice cream. She smiled and said… it’s inside so see you there. A big waffle cone and 3 large scoops for $6. It’s good! I had 2 scoops of Moose Tracks and 1 scoop of Caribou Caramel. Mike got the last of the Raspberry Pecan much to Trevor’s dismay! After eating we saddled up and went back 9 miles to 12 and then 80 miles or so to Boulder. Along the way we lost Trevor because he turned around to go back to a rock shop as he wanted some petrified wood. He was successful. Meanwhile I went to Mark’s shop and hooked up the trailer and brought it to the house and we started loading the bikes. Afterwards I sat on the porch talking on the phone and then posting as it was beautiful out. 70° and a 10 mph breeze. I was looking out on a herd of Angus with a background of white Mesa’s from one horizon to the other. I went in when it got dark and Trevor and I once again stayed up until midnight. It was a good day… great ride on a wonderful road with wonderful scenery, got to introduce Trevor to the Southwest. He loved the scenery and especially Bryce Canyon. Now we look forward to a good trip back to Illinois.  The following pics were taken by Jared.  I have a lot of video and pics on my GoPro to come.