Cheese Weasels Get Dirty In Utah

[Stichill_imp]

Very nice ride report, thank you !
But honestly, 4 cheese weasels and not one of them owns a CB1100 ? (at least the pictures I've seen show nothing but a few poor 2-cylinder engines - my apology in advance. Also worried about the long sitting and diet combined, this could easily help getting your BMI up from X to X+5 in a matter of a few weeks

Well you’re right, no CB1100s among the Cheese Weasels. The reason I became a CB1100 forum member: I almost bought a 2014 DLX but it became sold and then there were no more available. So I bought a BMW F800GT instead. Later on I was excited about the 2017 EX but the spokes and tubed tires were not OK for me. I never did buy a CB1100…as time went by, interest has also cooled. The tire selection issue keeps me away from a used bike.

My BMI needs some help for sure. I had a pretty stressful year and I ate too much! Now that the trip is over and life is more stable, I am working on getting in better shape.

In any case, this is my favorite motorcycle forum. I have contributed here for a long time and I hope my CB1100 friends can enjoy this journey.

What a brilliant trip and adventure Stichill. So great you did it now too as you can save up to much to do "when you retire"! Who knows what other life pressures will be around later on in life. I have visited the States many times in my life being ex Merchant Navy (aka Merchant Marine) and Honeymooned on the West Coast on a 10 day four wheeled road trip. I am always amazed at the wildly varied landscape in that huge continent, thanks for bringing that portion of it to life, great journey.

I appreciate your kind words, Tev, thank you! I am a huge fan of riding in Europe as well. So many continents to conquer!

[Stichill_imp]

Riding Day 2 - Thursday Morning - Escalante to Boulder via Hell's Backbone & On to Loa for Brunch

The BMW dealer in Grand Junction, where our Lone Weasel (GS buddy) found a front tire late Wednesday afternoon, would not install it, saying "We have five 'emergencies' ahead of you." So he had to take it to another shop early Thursday morning to have it fitted. They opened at 9:00 am but he was there early and had the rim off the bike, so they took pity on him and started working on the tire at 8:30.



Meanwhile the Three Weasels left Escalante, bound for Boulder via the old summer road "Hell's Backbone". Apparently it was built by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) during the Great Depression, to shorten the trip between the two towns.


It was a terrible road in terms of severe washboarding, but took us through some beautifully remote, rugged, forested country.




I had just run into position before the 10-second timer snapped this shot...I was trying not to trip and plunge over the cliff!






Hell's Backbone Bridge




Coming downhill on the east side was less scenic, but the road was in better condition in terms of washboarding. I started to really get into running it...in many sections it was like 129 Tail of the Dragon but gravel. My son-in-law later said he was having trouble keeping up with me, lol. At some point the gravel changed to paved chipseal and then it was really "game on"! I felt like an alpine skier slaloming down the mountainside.

UT 12 from Boulder north to Torrey was a fantastic road, one of the best ever. Beautiful forests to the west and expansive views to the east.







We fueled up in Torrey, then headed to [url=https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g57048-d4372149-Reviews-Marinia_s_Country_Cafe-Loa_Utah.html]Marinia's Country Cafe in Loa for brunch.

[Stichill_imp]

Previous post is Day 3.

[Stichill_imp]

Riding Day 3 - Thursday Mid-Day - UT 72

We left Marinia's Country Cafe in Loa and headed up UT 72 north of Fremont, which we'd heard from another rider was a great road.


Turned out to be awesome! This would be the ultimate CB1100 road: huge, wide, long sweepers in open country where you can see all the way through the turns. Long climbs and long descents. The only problem we faced was wind: it was ridiculously windy. It was windy enough to throw you off your line, windy enough to pick a bike up off its side stand and toss it over. This was the only day and road where the CBR250R struggled a bit. I kept up on the inclines, but only by tucking on the climb and carrying plenty of speed through the curves and down hill.








That's UT 72 on the left in this picture.

[Stichill_imp]

Riding Day 3 - Thursday Afternoon - Fish Lake, Capitol Reef, Hanksville

The wind continued as we turned around on 72 and rode south to the junction of FR036 that runs northwest around the top of Fish Lake, where it becomes FR640 and finally UT25.

Junction of UT 72 and FR036, looking north toward UT 72.


FR036, looking northwest toward Fish Lake.


Looking northeast from UT 25 toward the south end of Fish Lake.


Looking south on UT 25 from the south end of Fish Lake.


Our GS buddy texted us and said he'd had enough of fighting the wind out on I-70, trying to link up with us around Fremont. He said he'd see us at the motel in Hanksville. We were getting pretty tired of the wind ourselves, and although it was a little early in the afternoon we decided to just blast straight east to Hanksville ourselves. We fueled up again and took some refreshment at the same Phillips 66 station in Torrey, then we got back on UT 24 heading east for Hanksville.

A nice bonus was that we would pass through Capital Reef National Park. Although we didn't go in, we did stop for a few photos of the imposing formations. It seems so amazing that you can be in low mountains with grass, shrubs, and trees one minute...and the next in an arid landscape that is completely different.




We then rode through a literal moonscape of flat terrain with piles of gray soil, almost completely lacking in any vegetation. To be honest it looked like an industrial waste site, full of mining tailings or something like that. Pretty bleak. Finally we arrived in Hankville and the OYO Hotel. Although it had been cleaned up, painted, and some new furnishings installed...at was still a worn-out 40+ year-old motel.


It was hot, and it was still windy, so it was dusty. The motel clientele were an eclectic bunch. There were some working guys in pickups, a pair of couples from Kansas traveling on touring Harleys, and a well-dressed older couple in a Toyota Tacoma who looked and seemed out of place. Turns out the truck was a rental, and it was equipped with one of those platform tents mounted high over the truck bed. They had been in it the night before and got no sleep as the wind whipped at the fabric and rocked the truck on its springs all night. So they threw in the towel and got a room at the dingy little place where we were staying. The looked like recent retirees, eager to get out and enjoy the outdoor life, but the outdoor life pushed back a little harder than expected.

The GS is back!


The abandoned phone booth gives away the age of the motel.

There was also one of those white two-door sloped cabinets emblazoned with the word ICE in red letters nearby, designed to store bagged ice. It was making noise and heat but holding no ice inside it...wasn't even cold inside. I have no idea why it was running, but I jiggled the plug in the wall to make it stop, yet still look like it was plugged in.

After pouring a bourbon and catching up with the Lost Weasel, we walked directly across the road to Duke's Slickrock Grill, which turned out to be the best restaurant and exceeded all our expectations in every dimension. Hard to believe it has existed in this heaven-forsaken place for decades.


Knocking one back with The Duke.


The service was fantastic and the meal was excellent. We could not have been more satisfied as we walked back.

Upon entering the motel parking lot, we were surprised to find that Mr. White and Jesse had moved their operation from New Mexico to Utah and had just gotten back from cooking up a [url=https://breakingbad.fandom.com/wiki/Blue_Sky]batch of blue out in the desert.


It was nice when the wind died down, the temperatures dropped, and sunset fell over Hanksville.

[GoldOxide_imp]

Riding Day 3 - Thursday Afternoon - Fish Lake, Capitol Reef, Hanksville

The wind continued as we turned around on 72 and rode south to the junction of FR036 that runs northwest around the top of Fish Lake, where it becomes FR640 and finally UT25.

Junction of UT 72 and FR036, looking north toward UT 72.


FR036, looking northwest toward Fish Lake.


Looking northeast from UT 25 toward the south end of Fish Lake.


Looking south on UT 25 from the south end of Fish Lake.


Our GS buddy texted us and said he'd had enough of fighting the wind out on I-70, trying to link up with us around Fremont. He said he'd see us at the motel in Hanksville. We were getting pretty tired of the wind ourselves, and although it was a little early in the afternoon we decided to just blast straight east to Hanksville ourselves. We fueled up again and took some refreshment at the same Phillips 66 station in Torrey, then we got back on UT 24 heading east for Hanksville.

A nice bonus was that we would pass through Capital Reef National Park. Although we didn't go in, we did stop for a few photos of the imposing formations. It seems so amazing that you can be in low mountains with grass, shrubs, and trees one minute...and the next in an arid landscape that is completely different.




We then rode through a literal moonscape of flat terrain with piles of gray soil, almost completely lacking in any vegetation. To be honest it looked like an industrial waste site, full of mining tailings or something like that. Pretty bleak. Finally we arrived in Hankville and the OYO Hotel. Although it had been cleaned up, painted, and some new furnishings installed...at was still a worn-out 40+ year-old motel.


It was hot, and it was still windy, so it was dusty. The motel clientele were an eclectic bunch. There were some working guys in pickups, a pair of couples from Kansas traveling on touring Harleys, and a well-dressed older couple in a Toyota Tacoma who looked and seemed out of place. Turns out the truck was a rental, and it was equipped with one of those platform tents mounted high over the truck bed. They had been in it the night before and got no sleep as the wind whipped at the fabric and rocked the truck on its springs all night. So they threw in the towel and got a room at the dingy little place where we were staying. The looked like recent retirees, eager to get out and enjoy the outdoor life, but the outdoor life pushed back a little harder than expected.

The GS is back!


The abandoned phone booth gives away the age of the motel.

There was also one of those white two-door sloped cabinets emblazoned with the word ICE in red letters nearby, designed to store bagged ice. It was making noise and heat but holding no ice inside it...wasn't even cold inside. I have no idea why it was running, but I jiggled the plug in the wall to make it stop, yet still look like it was plugged in.

After pouring a bourbon and catching up with the Lost Weasel, we walked directly across the road to Duke's Slickrock Grill, which turned out to be the best restaurant and exceeded all our expectations in every dimension. Hard to believe it has existed in this heaven-forsaken place for decades.


Knocking one back with The Duke.


The service was fantastic and the meal was excellent. We could not have been more satisfied as we walked back.

Upon entering the motel parking lot, we were surprised to find that Mr. White and Jesse had moved their operation from New Mexico to Utah and had just gotten back from cooking up a [url=https://breakingbad.fandom.com/wiki/Blue_Sky]batch of blue out in the desert.


It was nice when the wind died down, the temperatures dropped, and sunset fell over Hanksville.

Awesome read.

[the Ferret]

Simply astonishing posts and pictures stichill. What a trip!

I still can't believe you do all this on a 250 lol

[Stichill_imp]

Simply astonishing posts and pictures stichill. What a trip!

I still can't believe you do all this on a 250 lol

Thanks for sticking with it, ferret. After having to abandoned last year's report, I'm bound and determined to finish this one!

Simply astonishing posts and pictures stichill. What a trip!

I still can't believe you do all this on a 250 lol

Ha ha, that's part of the fun! What can I say, for some reason I just love this little bike. Such an over-achiever. There's something awesome about getting so much out of it. I'm amazed at all the places it's taken me. And when I hit the curves, there's not a bike I'd rather be riding. This thing handles like a dream.

Like I said, really it only gets challenged by running up long grades at high speeds and/or against powerful winds. But it never dropped below 55 mph at any point; usually it meant me running 60 while my compadres were running 70+. Not too hard to catch up on the downhill side, and it any case whenever we got separated for other reasons, i.e. someone making a photo stop, we always re-grouped somewhere down the road.

The one downside to running it at wide-open-throttle is that fuel economy suffered, meaning instead of 65+ mpg it dropped to maybe 58 mpg. The guy on the V-Strom 650 reported the same phenomenon. In fact, in terms of power, he fared little better than me with his barn-door windshield, huge boxy panniers, and giant top case. He was a rolling wind block. He really could not outrun me. My son-in-law on the triple FJ-09 was the one who could walk away from us both on the highway, but then he would run into fuel range issues himself. So it all balanced out and we ran together as a pack pretty well.

I had the belly fairing off for ground clearance, which cost me some mph on the highway, and had larger-than-usual H&B X-Travel bags, which caused more drag. With the belly fairing in place and my usual H&B Street Oval aerodynamic bags, wind / air resistance would have been a complete non-issue.

If had been running solo, I wouldn't even comment on the hills/wind in terms of the bike's power. After all, I'm riding for pleasure, so what's the rush?

[Stichill_imp]

Riding Day 3 - Thursday Afternoon - Fish Lake, Capitol Reef, Hanksville

The wind continued as we turned around on 72 and rode south to the junction of FR036 that runs northwest around the top of Fish Lake, where it becomes FR640 and finally UT25.

Junction of UT 72 and FR036, looking north toward UT 72.


FR036, looking northwest toward Fish Lake.


Looking northeast from UT 25 toward the south end of Fish Lake.


Looking south on UT 25 from the south end of Fish Lake.


Our GS buddy texted us and said he'd had enough of fighting the wind out on I-70, trying to link up with us around Fremont. He said he'd see us at the motel in Hanksville. We were getting pretty tired of the wind ourselves, and although it was a little early in the afternoon we decided to just blast straight east to Hanksville ourselves. We fueled up again and took some refreshment at the same Phillips 66 station in Torrey, then we got back on UT 24 heading east for Hanksville.

A nice bonus was that we would pass through Capital Reef National Park. Although we didn't go in, we did stop for a few photos of the imposing formations. It seems so amazing that you can be in low mountains with grass, shrubs, and trees one minute...and the next in an arid landscape that is completely different.




We then rode through a literal moonscape of flat terrain with piles of gray soil, almost completely lacking in any vegetation. To be honest it looked like an industrial waste site, full of mining tailings or something like that. Pretty bleak. Finally we arrived in Hankville and the OYO Hotel. Although it had been cleaned up, painted, and some new furnishings installed...at was still a worn-out 40+ year-old motel.


It was hot, and it was still windy, so it was dusty. The motel clientele were an eclectic bunch. There were some working guys in pickups, a pair of couples from Kansas traveling on touring Harleys, and a well-dressed older couple in a Toyota Tacoma who looked and seemed out of place. Turns out the truck was a rental, and it was equipped with one of those platform tents mounted high over the truck bed. They had been in it the night before and got no sleep as the wind whipped at the fabric and rocked the truck on its springs all night. So they threw in the towel and got a room at the dingy little place where we were staying. The looked like recent retirees, eager to get out and enjoy the outdoor life, but the outdoor life pushed back a little harder than expected.

The GS is back!


The abandoned phone booth gives away the age of the motel.

There was also one of those white two-door sloped cabinets emblazoned with the word ICE in red letters nearby, designed to store bagged ice. It was making noise and heat but holding no ice inside it...wasn't even cold inside. I have no idea why it was running, but I jiggled the plug in the wall to make it stop, yet still look like it was plugged in.

After pouring a bourbon and catching up with the Lost Weasel, we walked directly across the road to Duke's Slickrock Grill, which turned out to be the best restaurant and exceeded all our expectations in every dimension. Hard to believe it has existed in this heaven-forsaken place for decades.


Knocking one back with The Duke.


The service was fantastic and the meal was excellent. We could not have been more satisfied as we walked back.

Upon entering the motel parking lot, we were surprised to find that Mr. White and Jesse had moved their operation from New Mexico to Utah and had just gotten back from cooking up a [url=https://breakingbad.fandom.com/wiki/Blue_Sky]batch of blue out in the desert.


It was nice when the wind died down, the temperatures dropped, and sunset fell over Hanksville.

Awesome read.

Awesome read.
I was wondering if anyone would get the pop culture reference!

[Cormanus]

An extraordinary read. Thank you, Stichill.