Cooked Goose .....+RR

Actually he was real cool and all I got was a warning - Shiprock in the background



Just got back from a 7 day 4000mile Colorado and SW ride - more to follow

Anyway Boxermoose's 2012 American SW tour goes like this:

Been a while since I was able to get some meaningful seat time and way overdue to clear my head. This means long days riding and short nights sleeping..... And few pics so bear with me

Saturday morning - leave Pearland (south Houston) 5am

Stelvio all packed up and ready to go!!!!



800 mile day thru North Texas to overnight as a small state park 30 miles north of Tucumcari NM







Got an early start and headed up 104 to Las Vegas NM - nice empty road - full of these critters sunning themselves



Breakfast in NM - Bruces Cafe if I remember right



After food on to Taos and then up and over the pass to Chama CO

The pass was fun followed and then passed an older guy on a brandy new 1199 duck - guy had some of the worst body english I ever saw - but according to him he usually only rides on the track

From Chama I headed over to Pagosa Springs, check the map and decide to head, via 114 to Gunnison as my home base the next couple days & cheat by taking a small camp cabin at the KOA as it was a bit cooler then I thought it would be. This killed Sunday with about 500 miles for the day

I had some time to kill as I had an appointment in Denver Tuesday for a tire change so Monday I headed back down 114 and then over to Colorado Springs. On the way back I took a more direct route. By the time I get to the junction of 285 and 50 the sky is very threatening and you can see the rain coming in fast. Throw on the rain gear, gird my loins and head up to the pass in the maelstrom. Get about 3/4 of the way over the top of Monarch pass and stop for...construction - sort of a theme for passes in CO on this trip. Hold waiting for release and finally as the storm is thickening around me we get release....and snow in earnest

The last 2 miles to the top and first 3 miles down the pass were snowy, slushey and generally crappy - passed a couple guys on smaller bore DS bikes going the other way and they looked like 2 wheeled snowpeople:uhoh

Back to the cabin cook some food and warm up - about 300 miles for the day...the shortest day of the trip...but not the coldest.

Tuesday dawns early as I've got 250 miles to Denver to see Woody for a tire change. With some trepidation I head out on 50 back over Monarch - but now it's dry just cool at 32 degrees and make it into Denver around 10:30. Most of the trip never warms up over the mid 40's until I descend into Denver where it warms up into the mid-60's

Leve Denver by taking the cowards way out down I-70 thru Breckenridge to 82. To pay for my earlier lack of bravery I take CO RD 12 (I think this is the Kettleback pass) up and over to Crested Butte. 30 miles but 20 of it are wet dirt

BTW - finally made it thru the Eisenhower tunnel - cold and slushey but just about every post-apocoliptic novel I've ever read takes you thru either this tunnel or the one in NYC so for me it was kinda neat to finally go thru

Dirty girl





Make it back to Gunnison about 7ish and around 500 miles for the day and my last evening in CO

Wednesday morning dawn and I head over to the TIC TOK for a Mountain muffin and then head down 50 to 550 and then over to 145 and down to Cortez for a late lunch. It's neat watching the mountains flatten out and as you crest that last ridge and emerge down into Cortez you are in the great SW - or as I like to think Coyote and Roadrunner territory.

Mindfull for falling anvils I then head to Shiprock. Here I decided to shoot the rock in Sepia format, sort of the old west theme portion of my trip




I wanted to hit Monument Valley before the end of the day - got directions from this fellow


Quick stop at 4 corners - I couldn't be bothered waiting in line for a proper picture so snapped this


Heard about Navajo fry bread thought I'd try some - $5 bucks later...wasn't to bad, not the gut bomb I thought it would be and ate 1/2


Next over to Monument Valley

loved this cloud








It was getting later then I wanted and was still in the middle of the valley so I took a cheap Motel room in Mexican Hat and had dinner at a swinging steak place just down the road (Just a work of warning about the place - they add 18% to the check gratuity...which I'm OK with being a tourist spot and all..however the CC slip still has a slot to add tip again and I'm not down with that.

600 miles or so for the day

Met a cool Italian fellow - fulfilling his dream he had bough a Harley a few weeks previously on the East coast and was taking his long saved for 3-4 week journey to LA to ship the bike back home

Left Mexican Hat early the next morning and headed thru Bluff. The sun was perfect that morning but not right to take a good pic of Mexican Hat - tho anybody whose see roadrunner cartoon has seen it a hundred times

Head over to Buff and then 491 down to Gallup and then down minor roads thru the reservation to Quemodo arriving to fuel up around 3

Look see at the map and decide to overnight at the Valley of fire state park and head over to Socorro Before Socorro you see the VLA - but no Jodie Foster :cry



From Socorro I headed down to SanAntonio and pick-up 380 toward Roswell. This is a very empty road and I was chased by thunderstorms from San Antonio East, past White sand missle range. So I end up flying past the Valley of fire with a overhead threat of heavy rain and high wind....so I head east and arrive in Roswell after dark and take a cheap room at 8pm dog tired

Around 6-7 hundred miles for the day and sleep till 7:30 the next morning

Friday dawn very dank and dreary. Roswell smalls like horse poop this morning and the clouds for a low dark ceiling

Head south in this thinking I'll stop in Artesia for breakfeast - the weather is still dreary with a light mist and arriving in Artesia shows me one of the most depressing and dirty oil towns I've seen so I plow thru to Carlsbad and the weather worsens somewhat

At this point my plan was to head down to overnight in Big Bend, one of my most favorite places ever - so I head down 285 to Ft. Stockton

Leaving Carlsbad the sky falls - heavy rain and high wind all the way. Crossing I-20 heading south the rain deepends and I'm thinking this is total suck age but what the heck it's only water and I'm unlikely to melt....

I eventually arrive in Ft. Stockton in the rain, fuel up and walk over to the travel center for a coffee and road burger..shudder
and make a decision.

Big Bend is likely socked in as badly as this place and camping wet like that sucks. Talking with a couple guys on there way to Mexico, going to ride the divide, they confirm it's raining heavy all the way to Sonora

So with heavy heart I cut the last day and head east - sure enough the rain stops in Sonorra and I stop and ditch my rain gear in a road side travel garbage can because the rain proof membrene has taken a dump and at that point is more of a wind catcher then rain proof. Feeling good that the worst of the rain was behind me I stop in Boerne for coffee and bit to eat. Sue me but it is a Starbucks

As penance for the frufru coffee I walk to the parking lot and look up to some of the most ominous clouds I've seen on this trip and get back on the road just as the skies open....and they stay open for the next 100 miles thru to Luling. Thank goodness for Texas putting the reflective dots between the lanes as that is all I can see at times as it also becomes full dark at 6:30 with the heavy storm clouds overhead. Some toe currling moments and I still question my decision making.

After Luling the clouds, while not parting, certanly let up and the next 150 miles home are much more bearable - and in the barn door for 10:30pm for a 800mile + day

Thanks for following along

Thanks! I like the antiqued/bronzed photos Goin' to GRIT?

Awesome images! I guess that goose is broken in now?

I hope to - be a day ride tho, not overnight

Moose said:

I wanted to hit Monument Valley before the end of the day - got directions from this fellow

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Navajo Nation police and all you got was a warning? You must not have been busting the limit by very much.

Heard about Navajo fry bread thought I'd try some - $5 bucks later...wasn't to bad, not the gut bomb I thought it would be and ate 1/2

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No powdered sugar? No honey? That's half the joy of eating fry bread.

I took a cheap Motel room in Mexican Hat and had dinner at a swinging steak place

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Very popular place and a destination point on some rallies.

Good ride report. Thanks for sharing.

Moose said:

Head over to Buff and then 491 down to Gallup and then down minor roads thru the reservation to Quemodo arriving to fuel up around 3

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Unless you've been there before, you missed a good spot by not going to Canyon de Chelly. From Monument Valley you just turn around and head back to Kayenta, then east on 160 a couple of miles and then run south on Indian Route 59. They repaved it two years ago and it's a very nice road to run. Once you hit 191 you just go south a few miles to Chinle and the Canyon.

From there you could have ridden the south rim on Indian Route 7 which will take you SE to Ft Defiance, then to Window Rock and then on to Gallup.

Just a suggestion for next time if you haven't been there yet.

Nice report Moose. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Nice trip Al!

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nice report. Liked the sepia cloud/sillhoutte shot the best.

Wow, nice report Al. I wish I had the nerve to head out like that.

Texas T said:

Unless you've been there before, you missed a good spot by not going to Canyon de Chelly. From Monument Valley you just turn around and head back to Kayenta, then east on 160 a couple of miles and then run south on Indian Route 59. They repaved it two years ago and it's a very nice road to run. Once you hit 191 you just go south a few miles to Chinle and the Canyon.

From there you could have ridden the south rim on Indian Route 7 which will take you SE to Ft Defiance, then to Window Rock and then on to Gallup.

Just a suggestion for next time if you haven't been there yet.

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Are you talking about turning off 191 onto BIA-7 to Chinle? We are heading that way again next May and I am interested in making this run/ Is BIA-7 paved fromn Chinle to Ft. Defiance and beyond. I am not real fond of making a dirt bike out of my wing.

$hooter said:

Is BIA-7 paved fromn Chinle to Ft. Defiance and beyond.

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No. It shouldn't be much of a problem for his Stelvio, but you don't want to roll down there on the Wing. Thanks for bringing that up.

Texas T said:

No. It shouldn't be much of a problem for his Stelvio, but you don't want to roll down there on the Wing. Thanks for bringing that up.

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Grrrrrrrrrr...thanks. I really dont want to outfit my wing with knobbies. There is another road out there close to you...maybe you know about it too. It is North of Mexican hat...highway 261. I was told that there are some serious switchbacks and that the road was paved except for the switchbacks...maybe a 3 to a 5 mile section, then back to pavement. Do you know anything about this road. We are thinking about going over to The Natural Bridge Monument, then head North up highway 95 until we get to highway 276, then drop down to the Bullfrog Marina and stay there over night. Then take the ferry across the lake and work our way back on highway 95 to Blanding, then head North towards moab. Thanks for your info...sorry about the hi-jack.

The PoPo pic with Shiprock in the background is epic!

Thanks for the report.

Shooter, I have not been on that road but fellow Wing riders out here have, and they tell me that it's no big deal. I've also seen a lot of photos and it appears to be well graded and maintained.

Co 12 - Kebler Pass. Done that one on my FZ1.

Nice shots, I just had to call off a trip that had a few points you hit so it saddens me, but next year...next year!

Looks like a great trip. On the good side, at least all the heavy rain hit for the boring parts and not the really interesting parts of the trip!

Moose -Awesome Photos, great report! enjoyed it.

Al, seems this was a great great trip and nice pics!

Great RR, really enjoyed the excellent landscape photos.

Thanks for taking us along. Loved the photos. Too bad about all the rain, but it does help to wash the bugs off, right?