Patagonia, coming soon ...

Torres Del Paine N.P. near Puerto Natales, Chile.

Moab White Rim Moto Adventure

It's been a super long time since I've posted here, but that doesn't mean the adventures have ended. About a month ago, October 20th, I rode out to Moab on my GS to sample the red sand on my big 1200.
I rode out from Denver with friend Tom Gordon, through questionable weather. Vail Pass was chilly, but the roads were free of snow, so we cruised without incident. As we crossed into Utah, and turned south through Cisco, past Dewey Bridge along the Colorado River, we witnessed a blazing sunset on Fisher Towers.

We rolled through Moab just after dusk, stopping into the City Market for a few provisions, before heading out to the campsite to hook up with friends. We had a great site at the Gold Bar campground, right on the river. The fire was hot and the beer cold, when we arrived.

My new PIAA 520 lights threw out UFO quality brightness, which made me much more comfortable riding at night. I'm always looking out for a stray animal that wants to throw itself in front my bike.

The Potash road into Moab winds gently along the Colorado, between Tamarac bushes and some of the best sandstone slab in the country. Since our camp was about 10 miles outside of town, we got to ride the stretch of road several times during our stay. It never gets boring, although the scenery is distracting enough that you have to focus on keep your eyes on the road.

I'd ridden the White Rim in the spring of 2006 on a smaller, F650 Dakar, and found the terrain manageable overall. However, I was a little anxious to see how the 1200GS would handle this 90-mile stretch of backcountry dirt and rock. The 1200 is heavier, and would be much more expensive to repair if I had a high speed dismount. There are only a few spots on the White Rim that are concerning on a motorbike, and we all took everything in stride with no major crashes in our nine hour day. As we made our final ascent from canyon, we did run directly into a monster wind and rain storm which could've stopped us in our tracks if it had arrived 20 minutes earlier. We were lucky.

Relaxing for a few minutes between Rally sessions. We took breaks about every 10 miles of riding to enjoy the scenery and talk about near crashes!

This is a photo of "Crazy Matt," who is the first person I've met who rides a Nitrous injected BMW.