Author: Matt Quinn

Date: 8/30/2019

Miles: 290

Today we left Marion, Ohio in the morning. We traveled west along 309 in the morning. It was a very straight and flat ride for several miles. I was able to really use the “Go Cruise” throttle lock which acts like cruise control. This is definitely convenient on long rides. It locks on the throttle and rests on the front brake lever.

Along the way I was hoping to get some good photos but I feel like all we saw was corn and soy for miles and miles. One thing I realized and took note of was the fact that there were really only trees around houses. It was a little different knowing that on the east coast there are trees everywhere. Out here there are nothing but fields full of crops and then some houses.

We kept riding all day until we reached Paxton, Illinois where my cousin and her fiancé live. Before arriving in Paxton, we saw what seemed like 100 wind turbines. They are quite enormous and odd to see in the middle of fields full of corn and soy.

We crossed into Indiana and Illinois today. I literally locked up the brakes to be touristy and take photos of the signs! Hahaa They always seem to just show up

The ride was mostly flat and straight today. We came across some turns and we actually got excited. Gabe and I joked about how to hit a turn on the bike because it was a while before we hit any good turns. I joked that “I forgot how to turn.” Haha

After we arrived and relaxed momentarily we stopped at Harvest Ale House for dinner and drinks. They serve a pint of bacon. It’s thick cut, brown sugar glazed bacon!! It was sooo good! Then we decided to stop at the local Dairy Queen which has been around since the 50’s. Overall, it was another day in the books. To me, it was nothing spectacular, but it’s always amazing to see what life and the way of living is outside of the northeast. Out here it’s all farming and agriculture!

Date: 8/29/2019

Miles: 250

Today was another great day. We left early from Clarion, PA and grabbed some food at a local restaurant called Country Seat. We had a delicious breakfast and then made our way west and headed south on 66 south.

There were beautiful rolling hills filled with corn fields shortly after leaving Clarion. We then saw a sign for “Scenic Overlook” where we decided to stop. Luckily we did. There was an amazing view of the Allegheny River. It was almost as if we were at Horseshoe Bend in Page Arizona. The photos don’t do justice.

From there we traveled west along 165 into Ohio. There were no “welcome to Ohio” signs except the street which we crossed called “State Line.” We kept heading west through Springfield and stopped at Hoppin’ Frog Brewery for lunch. This place happens to be rated top 100 in the world for the last 12 consecutive years. The beer and food were excellent.

It was a great little break. The weather was amazing and we traveled through a bunch of state roads and passed tons of corn fields. At one point we were at an intersection and a horse and buggy trotter by. That was different. Luckily I was able to snap a quick photo with the GoPro. We continued to ride down state route 162 until we hit Marion.

Gabe found a spot where there was a little bike event going on. We stopped and had a some drinks and some cheese and bacon covered fries. They even had live music. It was a good place to stop before deciding where we should end for the day.

Finally, we ended up at a Quality Inn. Tomorrow we plan on making it to Paxton, Illinois where my cousin recently purchased a house. It should take us about six hours of ride time to get there.

Date: August 28, 2019

Miles: 315

So, it turned out to be a great first day overall. Gabe, his coworker Christian, and myself started our trip to Seattle. Gabe and I have done a similar trip to San Diego two years ago and it was absolutely amazing!!

Today we left at about 9:15 this morning, stopped locally for some grub, filled up the gas tanks, and hit the open road.

We rode about 150 miles before we hit some rain. I noticed there was another interstate; I-180. We darted off the highway and got underneath the overpass so we can be out of the rain and change into rain gear. We hate changing into rain gear. For one reason, your body doesn’t breathe well. The other reason, finally testing out the rain gear. Does it work?! Well you always hope so. Gabe’s pants had a hole in the crotch. I gave him some Duct tape to make a quick patch before proceeding with our trip.

We rode about an hour in the rain until it cleared up. After it seemed to clear we stopped in Bellefonte, PA at Lykens Market where they also have gas. We filled up and got out of the rain gear. Unfortunately for Gabe, his crotch had a hole and he got wet along with his leg. His pants were just about soaked! I’m just glad it wasn’t me! haha

Ironically, Gabe and I stopped at the same place two years ago. It was for a similar reason too! We had to stop there to change into rain gear. It must not be a road trip unless we hit rain on the first day.

We rode for several hours longer. We actually hit the highest point in I-80 east of Mississippi. Then we decided to call it quits in Clarion, PA. We found a Motel 6, checked in, and went to Applebee’s for dinner before calling it a night. I’d say we had a great first day. Even Christian, Gabe’s coworker, enjoyed his first day on the road with us.

Before we started the day, we filled up our Camelback’s.  We wanted to make sure we had plenty of water and also be able to drink while riding across Death Valley. It was supposed to be about 100F.  For those that don’t know, it is roughly 100 miles traveling east/west on route 190.

Before entering the park, we stopped for gas in Death Valley Junction.  We were told that gas is extremely expensive in the park and when the temperatures are that high, gas mileage is much less, so I was concerned that I would definitely need to refill.  My bike gets less than Gabe’s bike.  By the time he would be at half-a-tank, I would be just about empty.  After filling, we continued into the park.  It was beautiful!  I never realized how mountainous Death Valley is.  When we entered, the temperature was high 90’s.  We came across the sign for Death Valley, rode passed then decided to turn around and get pictures of the sign.  I thought it was cool that we did this to show people we took the motorcycles across the country and then through the hottest place on Earth.

Shortly after stopping for sign, there was a parking lot with people parked at Zabriskie Point.  So, we stopped and walked up this path and took some pictures.  It was really neat to see the Badlands and the way the way the sediments settled and formed.  We were only up there for five minutes or so because it was pretty hot.  At this point it was already above 100F.  As we got back to the bikes we were putting our helmets on.  I was using my Bose ear buds so I would hold my helmet between my legs, put the ear buds in, then put on the helmet.  Well, it was a good thing I looked down!  I noticed a nice shiny gold looking piece of metal attached to Gabe’s tire.  It was a nail!  Of all places, we were in the hottest places with nothing really nearby.

We had to unload some gear to get the tire plug kit.  However, the nail was so small it would have been exhausting trying to ream the hole to plug the tire.  I spit on the tire to see if it would bubble.  Of course, the nail went all the way through the tire.  While looking at it and deciding what to do, Gabe dropped the nail.  Now we couldn’t find the nail to plug the tire.  Although it was a very tiny leak, it was hot and we still had 50 miles or so to go until we got out of the park on the western end.  Luckily, Gabe found the nail.  That was a relief.  We ended up deciding to coat the nail in the rubber cement and place it back in the same hole.  It held and we took off.

We went a few miles down the road and saw the visitor center so we stopped to look at the tire and cool off inside.  His tire was still in good standing.  Inside the visitor center, they had a display with the temperature and the humidity.  It was 109F and only 16% humidity.  I think this was a little higher than normal because it looked as if it rained just a couple of days prior.  They have a neat 3D display of all of Death Valley.  While inside we tried getting some water from a water fountain.  This was a major let down.  The water was coming out hot.  I held the button for a couple minutes and it was still hot, so I had some anyway.  I wanted to make sure I was hydrated.  Then we headed out, filled our Camelback’s up, looked and Gabe’s tie again and got back on the road.  At this point, it was 2:30 in the afternoon.  Gabe’s bike was displaying 108F and you could just see heat waves ahead.

While riding from the visitor center through Furnace Creek, there are signs that show the elevation.  At some points the elevation is more than 100 feet BELOW sea level.  Badwater Basin is just a little south from there and at one place it is 282 feet below sea level.  We didn’t go there, we just kept riding.  From Furnace Creek, you ride through Beatty Junction which has an elevation of -187 feet.  It was HOT.  Then, off in the distance a few miles more there appeared to be gold hills.  These “gold hills” were actually sand dunes.

From there, we kept riding and went up and over Towne Pass.  As we climbed in elevation the temperature on Gabe’s bike went from 108F to 86F at the top.  From the top we headed down the other side and into Panamint Springs where the temperate was back up at 106F.  This was where you can really noticed the elevation change affecting the temperature.  O our way down, there were some cool views into the valley.  When we got to the bottom,  we noticed a car on the shoulder of the road.  Then we could see a grey fox hanging out.  To cool down, we headed up the road and stopped for some very refreshing ice cold beers and cool off at the Panamint Springs Resort.  We headed up the mountain from there on our way out of the park.  This was a fun stretch of road.  It was really windy and twisty which was perfect for me.  Unfortunately for Gabe, he was taking it easy to make sure the nail was not going to fall out, so he did not get the full effect.  We reached the higher elevation which was nice.  It was back in the mid 80’s at this point and comfortable.

By this time is was later in the afternoon and so we headed to Ridgecrest.  Our initial goal was to make it to Bakersfield which is further east but the heat really drained us and we were exhausted.  Gabe and I were thinking about making it to Bakersfield so that we could find a motorcycle shop to look at the tire and possibly patch it.

This was an interesting day.  I never realized how mountainous Death Valley is, it was hot, but not humid like New York or Florida, and we managed to get out unscathed by a tiny little nail.

But Pain Meter: 5.5/10

Gabe and I started the day with breakfast next door to Marble Canyon Lodge. We then rode to and walked across the old Navajo Bridge and it was amazing. It is such a work of art. I think that the beautiful back drop with the red rocks along with its shape makes it so incredible. The bridge spans just over 800 feet and the Colorado River is more than 400 feet below! It’s so cool, especially knowing it was built in the early 1900’s. They recently (1990’s) built an almost identical one to keep up with today’s volume of drivers.

After checking out the bridge, we headed to the North Rim Grand Canyon. About 20 minutes after leaving Marble Canyon, we could see reason approaching quickly. We stopped and got into or rain gear. Good thing we did! We hit a lot of rain and then climbed in elevation and the temperature dropped about 15 degrees in just a few minutes. It continued raining and dropped to about 48 degrees. I was very chilly, and so was Gabe, but we pushed through and made it to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, it was incredibly foggy and it was hard to see the the true size of the canyon. So we got coffee to warm up. We hung around to watch some of the fog dissipate and luckily we were able to see some parts of it. I’ve never been there before so I was a little disappointed. But, the cool part was that I was able to get good pictures with the fog and the canyon. I feel most people get the same pictures on the best days, so it was different.

Then we took a ride to Point Imperial with no luck. The fog was too thick. We couldn’t see more than 20 feet. So, we headed north to leave the park and then headed west to make our way to Zion National Park before the day ended.

We got to Zion and it was gorgeous! I didn’t know much about Zion National Park, so I was shocked.  Right after we entered, we were lucky enough to see some longhorn sheep up on the mountains.  The mountains are just incredible!

While riding through the park, we saw others hiking.  We decided to stop and take a hike.  We hiked up to the top of this one trail and there was a magnificent view of the valley.

After we hiked, we rode through the rest of the park and arrived at the visitor center where we decided to head to Las Vegas. Our goal was to ride through Death Valley the next day so we wanted to go through it early.  We didn’t want to get to Vegas at a late hour because we were staying at a friend of a friend’s we’ve never met. We thought that we were going to get to Vegas around 10:30 in the evening.  However, there was another time zone to cross and we completely forgot about it. That worked perfectly!   We cruised for three hours and arrived at about 9:30.

We were quite hungry when we got to Vegas, so our friend’s friend, Kim, took us to the Peppermill Fireside Lounge.  On our way, she took us through the strip. The amount of lights in Vegas is unreal.  Now I know why the Hoover Dam has to generate so much electricity haha.  We didn’t stay out or explore the strip since we didn’t want to be rude, but we were also exhausted from riding.  Overall, it was another great day to see what this country has to offer.

Butt Pain Meter: 3/10 (stopping and hiking really helps)

We went to Arches National Park after camping for the night. What an amazing experience! 

Before going to the park, we went to the visitor center to find out which places we should see. They were very helpful and gave us many suggestions. So we took off to the park. 

Upon entering the park, there’s a giant red rock wall. We drove through the park and there were so many beautiful features. There were some rocks that appeared to be balancing on the rock below. 

We were headed to Delicate Arch. Delicate Arch is one of the main attractions. It is a nice three mile hike round trip. We made sure to go there first before it got too hot. Before we got to the main arch, we came to a much smaller one and were amazed at first. So we walked up to it, and from there you could see Delicate Arch. It was fascinating! 

We walked up to Delicate Arch and it was enormous! It’s hard to believe something like this exists in nature due to wind and water erosion. This arch stands at about 64 feet tall and 45 feet wide. It doesn’t look that big in pictures until you see someone standing under it. 

From Delicate Arch, we hiked back and went to another arch called Landscape Arch. This arch, too, was incredible. This arch is very thin in comparison and over 300 feet wide. In 1991 a giant piece of rock broke and fell, making the right side even thinner. 

There were more arches that we saw while riding by, but we stopped at Skyline Arch since it was a very short hike and we were hungry. It looked so small from the road, but when we got right up to it, it was massive. This one was cool too. There were giant boulders below the arch from when the boulders fell out, forming the arch.

I thought this was the best scenery I’ve ever seen. It’s so different than anything I’ve ever seen. I was truly in awe the entire time. I highly suggest making a visit here if you ever have a chance!
Butt Pain Meter: 6/10. Hurt to get up off the bike

We headed out of Colorado Springs and took route 24 west. We were working our way to Moab. While on or way, we came across a massive valley on top of the mountains and saw some antelope which was neat. I believe it was 48 degrees when we left and also when going through this elevated valley northwest of Buena Vista. 

From there we went up route 82 over the Independent Bypass. The roadway was very similar to Pikes Peak. It was truly amazing. The views were beautiful and the drops were steep. You could see down to the bottom into a luscious green valley on both sides of this pass.

Without realizing it, the other side of route 82 dumped us out into Aspen. Aspen was very busy. I thought it was just a ski village, but I guess I was wrong. The cool part, however, was that there was a corner with a bunch of people taking photos. I thought there may be some type of monument or historical thing. We pulled into a gas station to fill up before continuing. We overheard someone say there was a bear with two cubs in an apple tree eating apples. We looked over and there they were! You could see the limbs bent and a brown blob. Then they ran down, jumped over a short raught iron fence, and up a pine tree. It was really interesting to watch.

We then booked it to Utah for a while and instead of taking I-70 all the way, we got off onto route 128. We were told it parallels the Colorado River, so we gave it a whirl. At first it was flat and boring, but we were heading closer to the beautiful red rocks. Sure enough, we got to the river and, wow! The views were absolutely amazing! I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so incredibly surreal.

We were so intrigued with the beautiful red rocks right along the river, we had the GoPro’s out getting pictures of each other and trying to record what we were seeing. We were like kids seeing something awesome for the first time. 

We followed route 128 until we got onto route 193 and headed into Moab. We found a campground, set up camp, and went for dinner. We were eager to start the next day and check out Arches National Park! 

After camping overnight at Rocky Mountain National Park, we were heading towards Pikes Peak. We left and it was in the high 40’s and foggy. It was very chilly, but we pushed through anyway.

We were speaking with someone two nights prior and he suggested riding the Peak to Peak highway which is a scenic bypass. This road brought us through the mountains and there were all kinds of long sweeping turns. It was very beautiful.

We kept working our way south on route 7 and then route 72 into Black Hawk. We were still really chilly so we stopped for coffee to warm up. It worked well as the fog lifted and the sun began to show. Now we were heading through route 119 which brings you through some jagged maintains. That is always cool.  You could even see some people rock climbing the faces at some of the pulloffs.

We continued and took route 6 to route 40 to route 74 to route 285 to route 126 to route 67 to route 24. It was a lot of state routes heading south and avoiding highways. I had to list all the routes so I don’t forget how I made it from Rocky Mountain National Park to Pikes Peak. Going through the mountains is so awesome because there’s always a turn and goods views.

While coming through a town called Pines and into Buffalo Creek, there were a bunch of pine trees that were fallen. I’m not sure why, but it they were all down. It was very different. Most of the mountains are covered in healthy pine trees, so this was odd.

From there we continued more to Pikes Peak. Pikes Peak was phenomenal! Gabe and I couldn’t get over the views, the very tight switchbacks, and the incredible steep drop offs on the side of the road. It was definitely an experience people should try.

Once we reached the top, we were in awe. We were over 14,000 feet. The views were astonishing! There were some really steep sides. We checked out a bunch of places and really enjoyed it. 

From there, we headed to Colorado Springs to stay for the night. We went out to eat at a pave called the Rabbit Hole which was neat. It had good reviews from Google. As we were walking up to find the entrance, it wasn’t a typical for entrance. It was like entering a New York City Subway from the sidewalk. We walked downstairs and that’s where the restaurant was.

Butt Pain Meter : 3/10

We left my friend’s house and we were on our way to Rocky Mountain National Park. On the way, we took route 34 through some of the mountains. I thought it was cool because Gabe has never been to Colorado before so it was all new to him.

We got to Rocky Mountain National Park at the Estes Park side and headed towards Alpine Visitor Center. We hiked up the mountain a little ways and hit the summit at 12,005 feet. I felt the effects of altitude sickness. I was short of breath hiking up to the top. Gabe and I took some pictures with the sign and headed down the trail back to the visitor center. We spoke with one of the park employees and asked where we may be able to see some moose. She suggested go to Colorado River Trail Head. There are usually reports of moose on the west side of the park near Granby. She told us we can even hike to near where the Colorado River begins.

We went west and followed the seasonal Trail Ridge Road until we find the trail head. We hiked the trail then got off and walked along the Colorado River where it’s only 10 feet wide. We were hoping to come across a moose. We had no luck, but we saw hoof prints. After a while we turned back to explore the rest of the park. About halfway back, Gabe notices something off the trail through the trees. It’s a moose! We stood still and she walked up towards us, acknowledged us, and she kept grazing. We took some pictures of her. It was amazing! She wad only 20-25ft away from us. When they’re that close, you really get to realize just how big they are.

We left her alone and went back towards the east end of the park. I thought Gabe should see Bear Lake because it’s a very nice looking lake. We were also hoping to see some elk.  Well, we came to Moraine Park where there is an enormous meadow. We were told the elk usually like to hang out there in the rut. As we pulled in, we could see a bunch of people off to the shoulder. Just ahead in the meadow were a bunch of elk. The immediate herd consisted of a bull and 13 or So cows. We stopped a while and watched them. As we were watching, another herd with a bull and four or five cows were getting close. Everyone thought there was going to be an intense sparring match. That didn’t happen. But we did get to see the bigger bull steal all of the smaller bull’s cows.

Once we realized there was not going to be a sparring match, we went to Bear Lake quick to check it out. We were in a rush to find an open camp site so we could camp. Luckily there were a few campsites open and we were able to camp at the park. It was a good ending to another fantastic day on this adventure. If you’ve never been to the park or even Colorado, you really should see it. The mountains are enormous and  the pictures don’t do justice.