Deseret, Cactus, & Texas: October 2018

Back in September, Russ, Rick, and I went on the UTBDR ride. It was while I was in the middle of that ride that I first hear my mother-in-law was hospitalized. She passed away about a week after I returned so I haven't had a chance to record anything here about that ride.

DAY 1: Russ, Rick, and I had arranged to ride the UTBDR. Russ and I would trailer from AZ to Monument Valley with Russ' wife and meet Rick there. We unloaded at Monument Valley around 12:30 but learned Rick was still working and would meet us later that day. Russ' wife drove the trailer up to Northern Utah to stay with family and we started riding while trying to coordinate a meeting place with Rick.

Ready to leave home

Trailer Unloaded in Monument Valley LDS Church Parking Lot

Lauri closes up the trailer before leaving

Russ bows to Mexican Hat

Mexican Hat

Taking a break in Valley of the Gods

Looking down from the top of Moki Dugway

Pulled in to Bluff UT gas station very tired

As we continued to check on Rick during the ride, we discovered he was still working on his project. We finally arrived at the gas stop in Bluff as the sun was setting; Rick still had not left and his house was 6-7 hours away. Rick finally told us he was leaving as we were setting up camp in the dark at Sand Island State Park.

First campsite at Sand Island State Park

DAY 1 Video Link

DAY 2: Morning arrived and we received word that Rick had ridden all night and was trying to find the campground.

Russ' bike battery was dead in the morning. Luckily, he had an emergency Li Ion backup starter battery.

Rick arrived as the 990 roared to life. We were off for the next segment of riding, heading for the Abajo Mountains.

Russ looking down on Brushy basin

We stopped on Brushy Basin Ridge to look over the edge to Brushy Basin

Rick at Brushy Basin overlook

Russ' bike would die at idle for the first 2 hours of our ride, but started acting better after that.

Stopping at Newspaper Rock

Newspaper Rock

We camped on a remote road in the La Sal Mtns... until the rain started.

Campsite for 1 hour

Day 2 Video

Day 3: We woke up in our new campsite after the emergency evacuation of the one we started at. We discovered Russ had a dead battery again. He had been charging his emergency starter battery during the previous day so he was able to once again start the bike with that. The lithium battery in his motorcycle was new so we figured the problem wasn't the battery. It had to be some parasitic drain. Russ looked everything over, found a few potential problem areas, and taped those up to insulate them.

La Sal Mountain campsite number 2

Deer walked into camp

While we were working away, a deer walked into our camp casually eating leaves and eyeing us curiously.

We had read that La Sal pass had degraded and was no longer the recommended route for the UTBDR and that the new proposed route was through Geyser Pass. That is the way we went. All of these roads were easy graded roads. Our plan had been to ride to Moab and stay the night, then ride the White Rim Trail (not part of the UTBDR route) the next day. We ended up arriving in Moab at noon with a half day to kill. We decided to try to do the White Rim Trail that afternoon and get a full day's jump on our schedule. Things didn't go that smoothly.

We rode up Long Canyon through Pucker Pass (fun) and into the entrance for Canyonlands Nat'l Park. We were thinking that we would get the permits for White Rim and if we couldn't finish that day, we'd just camp along the road. The Ranger lady told us that would not work. She said camping was only allowed in designated camping areas and we would need to pay for those permits. We said OK. She said all of those permits were probably already sold and that she didn't sell them in her line we would need to go to another line. She then said it takes Motorcycles 6-7 hrs to do the loop and we only had 6 hrs to sunset. We decided to see where we get to in 3 hrs and turn around if it appeared we wouldn't finish. She said most people go clockwise. We decided to take her recommendation.

We quickly made it to Musselman Arch

Musselman Arch stretches across the valley 2000 ft below

Washerwoman Arch

Long story short, Murphy Hogback gave us trouble going clockwise around the loop (we don't think we'd have had any trouble the other direction). Russ's bike battery died completely as we exited the National Park. We camped on the side of the Shafer Trail road on the way out.

Day 3 Video

Campsite on Shafer Trail

Day 4: Russ got the KTM jump started in the morning with his little battery pack but the bike died a short time later. We jump started again and made it about 1 mile down the road and the bike died again. I was sent 20 miles to Moab to get a new battery. It was hard to tell what everything wrong with Russ's bike was but it was clear that the battery was no good anymore.

Russ trying to start his bike

I had to ride into town to get Russ a new battery. We eventually made it to Castle Valley Overlook.

Castle Valley Overlook

Hideout Canyon Overlook

We camped at a great spot on Onion Creek where we washed ourselves and our clothing.

Our Favorite Campsite of the Trip

Day 4 Video

Day 5: Onion Creek to Wellington

This was our first day with no electrical issues in Russ's KTM. We started at Onion Creek which was a fun ride up the stream.

Onion Creek Road

Next we were onto the Kokapelli Trail into Yellow Cat Mine. There were significant stretches of sand. This section takes you through Utah's badlands. Very desolate and hot. We ended up camped at a river 10 miles East of Wellington.

Campsite near 10 miles outside of Wellington

Day 5 Video

Day 6: Wellington to Current Creek near Fruitland

We broke camp and rode into Wellington for fuel. We also continued into Price to resupply at Walmart. While riding on the highway to Price at 60 mph, the metal water bottle I forgot to secure fell off and went bouncing and spinning down the road. Luckily Russ and Rick were able to dodge the projectile. Rick picked it up and handed it to me in the Walmart parking lot. The bottle was scratched and dented but still held cold water.

Packing up before riding into Wellington

We found that many people want to talk to us at fuel stops and parking lots. Monticello, UT seems to be an adventure rider crossroad. We met 4 other adventure riders at the Monticello Chevron station on day 2 and we were the only ones doing the UTBDR. They were either doing the TAT or going to a rally or some ride of their own design. In Wellington we spent a long time talking to an Africa Twin rider on his way to Colorado. We were worried that we would need to detour because of fires on our next leg but he assured us it was all open. he had ridden the area a few weeks earlier.

We headed up 9 Mile Canyon to the petroglyphs at balanced rock.