A Little Bit Of Paradise
21 May 2008, written by moto 0 CommentsWe rolled into Paradise Valley and the little hamlet of Paradise for a quick rest. Little did we know that Paradise would be a shangri-la to wait out a major wind storm. We threw down some lunch at the Paradise Saloon (best cheeseburgers in all of Nevada so far). Our plan was to saddle up and ride over Hinkey Pass. At the 7820 feet elevation summit, Obi-Ben and Moto caught a glimpse of a lion on a distant ridgetop. Unmistakable, lurking low to the ground near a big boulder. When Obi-Ben got his scope out, it had vanished. What was in front of us was an impassable stretch of snow. We scouted it out, but the downslope of the pass was all north facing. What really turned us around was a fast moving
squall that chased us back down into Paradise. We returned to the saloon and met many townsfolk trickling in for spaghetti night. We met Steve Lucas, a friendly and generous man with a big cowboy hat who bought our dinner. Besides running the local feedlot, Steve runs a B&B 10 miles out of town called the Stonehouse. He also owns a little house in town called the Adobe House, which is where we stayed. The Adobe was a fully furnished house with beds, a loft, a coffee maker, and satellite TV so we could see the final performances on American Idol. There was also a .38 Special CD in the stereo, so we rocked that out the next morning. Stay tuned for more about our stay at the Adobe, our thoughts on Cook versus Archuleta, and the prospects of getting into the ranching business.
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Hans Solo Returns to Salt Lake | Tres amigos continue west
19 May 2008, written by moto 0 CommentsDesignated Pace Car for the opening segment to Baker, NV, I reported home to
Cottonwood Heights, late Sunday afternoon after logging 504 mostly all-dirt
road trip miles in about 28 hours.
The boys are in high spirits, suffering a few challenges yet recovering with
grace each step of the way. We have about 20 new best friends from our
overnight experience in Baker, and will report more soon.
The challenge will be, due to the remoteness of this amazing route, getting
internet or cell phone coverage for posting images and text. The boys will
figure out how to get ‘er done, though… they are all tech-savvy, highly
driven mostly upright mammals.
Me, I will post some more thoughts about awesome Day 1 after a night or two
of distilling. Or distilleries.
mb
Day 2 Update From Eureka, Nevada
19 May 2008, written by 2 CommentsAll is well after two days and lots of dirt. The small issue I was having with the KTM not starting ended up being a non-issue. When we rolled out of SLC on Saturday, we stopped at The Edge Motorsports in Draper, Utah. Cody the technician took one look at my clutch lever and offered an explanation: I had replaced a bent clutch lever with an aftermarket lever and the aftermarket lever wasn’t engaging a small switch in the clutch assembly. In a nutshell: it starts every time as long as it’s in neutral. No worries.
After the first day, we landed in Baker, Nevada, at the Silver Jack Inn (which will warrant a longer post later). Hooked up with an old friend from Park City, Mike, on a tour on his Moto Guzzi.
Second day was scheduled to be an all dirt route from Baker to Eureka. Before getting rolling, we all rode to the top and back of the paved road into Great Basin National Park, a twisty climp up to the summit of 10,000 feet. After gassing up back in Baker, Hans Solo split off from the group and took his own path back to SLC. Darth, Obi-Ben and Moto did about 240 miles in the dirt, saw some ghost towns, an amazing sunset, then rolled in to the Best Western at 9:00 PM local time. No cell phone service the whole trip, so no road posts. Today’s route takes us to Battle Mountain, Nevada, where we expect to have cell.
All is good.