Day 3- Bryce NP to Natural Bridges NM

269 miles.

Rudi's forks have been getting worse and worse. He sometimes gets gnarly speed wabbles in turns, by the time we got to Bryce last night they were completely bottomed out. We do a quick flush in a parking lot and they seem to be a bit better. A mechanic at the repair shop in Bryce City suggests putting PVC pipe in as a preload spacer, if the oil alone doesn't work we'll try it. We leave Bryce and head east towards Kodachrome State Park. The road there is amazing and super fun, they don't take the National Park pass so we head back on the main road. We're trying to get to Mesa Verde today, to meet up with my older brother Erik, his wife Julie and her family.
We stop for gas is a little town and the station also happens to be the towns hardware store. Perfect time to add those PVC preload spacers on Rudi's bike. After an hour or so we're back on the road. We go over the mountains on SR 12, a fantastic, windy, high elevation road and then through Capital Reef NP. It's getting late and starting to get apparent that we won't make it to Mesa Verde, so we settle into staying at Natural Bridges National Monument. It's empty and we get a nice spot, make dinner and watch the stars.



Feeding the baby.



SR 12. Utah.



Capital Reef.



Petroglyphs (lower mid frame). Capital Reef.



Bike crew. Capital Reef.



Lazer.



Moon man on the moon.



Small fire.



Big fire.



Bug Report.
7/10.
Lots of little guys. And one juicer to the shield.

Day 2- Zion NP to Bryce NP

90 miles.

I decided to take care of my leaking left valve cover, I figured it was just a crappy gasket. To my surprise my left cylinder head had warped, like the right one. With out the time to take it to a machine shop I rode into Hurricane, UT on Rudi's bike to buy some RTV sealant. It did the trick, a little ugly, but sealed.
We left Zion and headed towards Bryce, the scenery changes almost immediately as you are now in a higher elevation with trees and mountains. It's a gorgeous, but short ride to Bryce. We quickly get a spot at the North Campground and take the shuttle to Bryce Point and walk the 3 or so miles Rim Trail. Its late in the day and we make it back to our campsite and head off to listen to a Ranger give a speech about astronomy. I eventually start to doze off and wander back to my tent for bed.



Tourist overlook 1. Bryce Canyon.



Tourist overlook 2. Bryce Canyon.



Mr. Lizard.



Vee luuvv Amereeca! Euro Rudi.



USA USA USA!!!!!!!



Wall Street.



Tourist overlook 3. Bryce Canyon.



Bug Report.
4/10.
Not many out. Kind of a bummer.

Day 1- LA to Zion NP

440 miles.

The trip started a day late, Rudi's battery died on the way out of Santa Barbara and I just got my right cylinder head back from the machine shop, the surface where it meets with the valve cover gasket had warped.
Rudi and I woke up at the butt crack of dawn in an attempt to try and beat the heat through the Mojave. We were on the road by 4:45am. Watched all the sorry suckers making their early commute to work and saw the sunrise through Apple Valley, not a bad way to start the trip.
We made it to Vegas by 10:00am and it was already hot as fuck. I needed to stop at the BMW dealer to grab a few more valve cover gaskets, as now my left cylinder was starting to leak like mad. We got the parts, gassed up, and got out of the wasteland known as Las Vegas.
Made it into Zion after a quick stop in St. George for some groceries. Riding into Zion I was blown away, it's a totally magical place. We meet up with my friend Jessica Lazer who is riding her '92 Honda CBR from San Francisco to her new home, New Orleans. She's riding with us through Utah and some of Colorado.
We set up camp and rode the shuttle to an awesome little swim hole that someone told her about. It was the perfect way to end a long day of desert slab riding.






Mojave. CA.






Nevada.






Arizona.






Utah.






Zion NP.






To the swim hole.






Maxing. Relaxing.






View from the top.






Bug Report.
6/10
Nothing really great except for the juicer I caught to the chin. Some little gnats and stuff,, but mostly too hot for any living thing.

Goodbye loyal friend

05-14-10 to 06-09-11
You took me around the country without a hiccup, through rain, snow, and heat. Thank you Nighthawk, you will be missed.

Dudes in the desert.

Get free. 

Fuck with the BEST...

die like the rest. Later.

Dark Side of the Lens.

Pretty awesome and inspiring.

DARK SIDE OF THE LENS from Astray Films on Vimeo.