My Epic October Western Motorcycle Ride Trip Report

[Big Bend]

Part 1 of 9

Well, that was fun!!! Have I got a ride tale to tell.. This last October I took a one month unpaid leave sabbatical from work. I REALLY needed to get away from everything for awhile. It was the perfect time to hit the road and go on my 2nd motorcycle adventure since I took up the hobby last year.. (you can read about my first big trip here.) The opportunity came along, and even tho it was gona be tough on the wife and kids for me to be gone that long, these chances just don't happen very often and I had to grab it. Oh boy was this going to be great! I had 2 weeks to get ready.

When I told my riding buddy Jeff about my plans, he got pretty excited too, and somehow managed to talk both his bosses (wife and job) into taking 2 weeks off. So I'd travel the first half of October with a friend and the 2nd half would be solo. We began making plans to head out West, eventually ending up in Vegas... The thought of riding across boring Texas to get to the good stuff in NM, CO and beyond, then Jeff having to ride all the way back to Houston by himself afterwards, was a little too much for him. He rides a Yamaha FZ1 which isn't exactly designed for long distance touring. Fortunately my brother-in-law has a nice trailer and he let us borrow it. We decided to tow the bikes to Albuquerque (I have an uncle/aunt that live there), leave the car/trailer at their house, ride together for 10 days or so, and somehow end up in Vegas. Then Jeff would head back to Albuquerque and trailer his bike home while I continued on by myself.

We both had some work to do on our bikes.. new tires, oil change, etc.. Jeff bought some soft cases. I filed my IRS taxes late with an extension, then found out I was getting a refund, so I spent it on an Olympia Phantom riding suit (its VERY nice, dry and warm - and glows so bright woohoo!). Finally Friday Sept 28 arrived. With temps in the high 90s, we loaded the bikes up and hit the road for Albuquerque, driving all night arriving at my uncle/aunt's house Saturday morning. A quick breakfast and a few hours of sleep, I woke up and started to unload everything. Unfortunately tho, I tried to get my GT off the trailer by myself before Jeff woke up (hey I'm still a relative newb to this whole motorcycle thing, and had never trailered before). I took off the tie downs from one side of the bike, then I watched in horror as the tie downs on the other side (which I hadn't loosened yet) pulled the bike over where it hit the side rail of the trailer. I thought my beloved GT was gona totally flip over the rail and crash to the ground, which would have been a HUGE disaster! Fortunately the rail stopped the fall. Unfortunately the rail hit the fairing right by my clutch cable, snapping it at the bolt, cable fluid spilling onto the trailer. I was like "no, No, NOO!!", but thankful that was all the damage. Oh and later I dropped my camera but didn't think much about it at the time.



Jeff woke up and came outside and saw the situation, understandably pissed that I didn't wait for him to help, that this was gona delay our departure from Alb. We got his bike off the trailer.. I then called BMW Sandia in Alb and towed my bike over, hoping they could quickly fix the problem and get us on the road. Unfortunately they didn't have a spare clutch cable, and it was Saturday afternoon and they couldn't get another cable until Tuesday. Darn the luck! Oh well, nothing to do but wait. Fortunately I had my car, free lodging, and Sandia Casino was a few miles away so I could spend the next 3 days hanging out and playing poker (another hobby I have). Unfortunately for Jeff, this was gona be a major cut into his 2 weeks off. To kill the time he rode around Alb by himself up to Sandia peak, then headed to Taos for 2 days via the same back mountain roads I took during my first road trip. Later he did some sightseeing, took the scenic tram up to Sandia. Not too bad, but still the delay sucked big time.





Tuesday October 2 finally arrives, and I'm hoping my bike will be ready early. But noooo.. the Service Mgr calls me and says yes they got the clutch cable in, but they need another part to finish the job, a little rubber thingy used to bleed the clutch cable, which won't be in till Wednesday. Oh the horror!, but what can you do... Fortunately BMW Sandia finally got it right the next day, and by 1pm Wednesday Jeff and I were ready to head to Colorado. Woohoo!! "On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again..." We stayed in Durango CO that night, and while there met 3 riders from Houston of all places, one who had a 04 GT. They had hauled ass from Texas to Jackson Hole WY, Idaho, and Utah and now Colorado, all in just 5 days. They said the Southern road into Canyonland National Park was not to be missed... Nice people! The next morning Thursday Jeff and I headed up the Million Dollar Highway to Ouray CO. It was fairly overcast, temps in the 50s, but boy were we glad to be on the road in such beautiful Colorado mountains. I've been to CO many times (in a cage), have even been on this highway before too. But it was all new to Jeff.. what a treat! We loved it...











We stopped in Ouray for lunch, such a pretty town! We were planning on heading on to Telluride, but it started raining pretty hard and was cold, so we decided to call it a day and spend the night in Ouray, which had a nice bar in walking distance from our hotel. Life was good! We didn't know which way we'd head in the morning, would just play it by ear depending on the weather, maybe head South down the Western side of the San Juan mountains towards Mesa Verde, maybe go West into Utah.. Well the next morning it was still raining in CO, but Utah was clear. We headed West.

to be continued...