One lap around the Great Salt Lake

[Frulk_imp]

Not much going on yesterday and the weather was projected to be stellar in the region...mid 70's and partly cloudy. Decided to hop on the CB1100 and run out to Wendover Nevada and check put the new super liquor store I've been hearing about that was recently built there. Also, since I was already out there I thought I'd head a little further west and take the scenic and remote backway around the west side of the lake heading northeast and eventually hit Snowville and then turn back south and towards home,

Map outlines the route...about 370 miles clockwise around the lake.


I put the aluminum trunk box on the rear rack in case I needed the space, zipped up the chaps and armored jacket and headed south towards Salt Lake at 08:15. Made good time and stopped at Salt Air (a concert venue on the shore of the Great Salt Lake that's been rebuilt a few times due to floods and fires).

Salt Aire. You can see the lake in the background.


From that same spot looking south at the Kennecott Copper mine 1,215 foot smoke stack

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennecott_...lter_Stack



Heading west on I-80 I was the closest to the lake I was going to get today. The lake has been down significantly over the past few years. In wetter years all the land in the foreground would be underwater.



Additional info on the lake

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Salt_Lake

Some miles west of Toole Utah on Highway 80. Dugway was the military site where the US Army destroyed it's chemical weapons inventory. This valley was chosen due to its geological stability, remoteness, and low moisture cycles.



Looking south into the valley



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dugway_Proving_Ground

Gotta love the American West when you see signs like this



At approx. 91 miles into the ride there's an exit to the north side of the road to another military area. Driving down that road heading north for 1.5 miles gives you the view in the pic below. Noteworthy for the fact that during WW2 there was a German POW camp about 15 miles north and 3 miles west in the picture. The spot were it was located is called German Valley. No escapes were ever recorded. Several of the POWs passed away in captivity and they're buried in Salt Lake City. Every year there's a small remembrance ceremony for them hosted by German military personnel assigned to the air base in the local area. X on the route map marks the spot where I took this picture.



Further west there's a rest area on a knoll that looks down towards the Salt Flats and Wendover, Nevada. I imagine when V-Max and Hayabusa riders dream, this stretch of road is what its about.



The Bonneville Salt Flats just outside of Wendover. I was going to ride out 100 yards and park the bike for a picture but decided I didn't want to deal with the salt. This is from the highway parking area. Interesting factoid about those mountains in the background. I was atving them and we stopped to explore one of the hard rock mines there and went into one at a gradual decent for about 100 yards and found a dead deer right at the end of the shaft. Very strange . Deer could have just walked back out.



I dabble somewhat in whiskey, having been to about 45 distilleries in Scotland and a few in the USA. Jefferson's Ocean is a small batch bourbon whiskey that's barreled and then moved to ships were it goes through all the worlds oceans for X amount of time. Instead of being classified by age the bottles denote what voyage the whiskey was on. They had two voyages in stock. 11 and 13. Not being superstitious I opted for the #11.



While in Wendover I refueled the CB on the center stand because there was the possibility I would have to go 150 miles without any gas station and my bike gets at BEST 50 mpg even when I throttle back. I reset the odo and coasted out to I-80 West without stopping at Wendover Airfield (which is tied to the atomic bombs used in WW2)

See more here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendover_Air_Force_Base