Cheese Weasels Get Dirty In Utah

[Stichill_imp]

An extraordinary read. Thank you, Stichill.

I'm glad you've enjoyed, Cormanus. My prose does not measure up to the standards of color commentary set by you and EmptySea, but I do try to convey the essentials of the adventure!

[the Ferret]

All yours is missing stichill is those colorful Aussie names like wombygolly and lagabackabit lol

[pdedse]

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!

40 year old, tan RVs never looked so mysterious as they did after the "Breaking Bad" series.

Wonderful photos!

[Stichill_imp]

Riding Day 4 - Friday - Hanksville, Utah to La Sal Loop Road

There's something about the desert where every dawn seems fresh and clean, even if the environs...aren't.






We tried to visit the Hollow Mountain store but it was not open at that early hour.




Luckily their competitor down the street was open and well-stocked with our new preferred morning road food, frozen breakfast sandwiches.


The morning's ride didn't seem to portend great riding. Our plan was to head north from Hanksville on UT 24 to pickup up interstate 70 east, then US 191 south through Moab. Our main objective was to reach the loop road through the La Sal Mountains in the east, but there are no roads across Canyonlands National Park (a good thing). So, we anticipated some fairly mundane droning to get around Canyonlands before we again reached interesting terrain. We also planned to make a quick detour in and out of Dead Horse State Park to hit a fun "S" curve there on the main road into the park.


It turned out we were completely wrong about the ride north on UT 24. In the early morning light, there was a light haze of fog that gave the desert an ethereal quality. The road was smooth and there was absolutely no traffic at that hour. We spread the group out so every rider felt like they were crossing the desert alone. There were some land features visible in the distance here and there. When we re-grouped at the interstate, we all remarked how relaxing and sublime that ride had been from Hanksville.

The mood continued out on the interstate as we rolled east, just at higher speeds. Traffic wasn't too bad, and I had fun tucking in and zooming around the occasional truck or slow camper.

We were quickly done with the interstate and turned south toward Moab on US 191. I don't recall much about US 191 except that it seemed to follow a railroad line. I thought about how at one time, there was nothing here, then there was nothing but a railroad, and now there is also a highway. We reached Dead Horse State Park before I was expecting to, and zoomed in to do the "S" curve and have a quick look around from the first viewing area.


These buttes are called the Merrimack (left) and the Monitor (right), named after the US Civil War ironclads ([url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hampton_Roads]Battle of Hampton Roads) due to their similar appearance.




Right below the buttes is the cool "S" curve. Two 180-degree sweepers!


The second sweeper is off to the upper right of this pic.


We rode back out of Dead Horse and continued south on US 191 to / through Moab.

Moab, ugh. A definite "yellow zone" for motorcyclists, best avoided except to get to the other side of it, or to refuel if you need it (we did). It looked like every other tourist trap town you've ever seen, not quite the Gatlinburg of Utah but it's headed in that direction, maybe the Pigeon Forge of Utah.
We had checked the weather forecast, but I don't think we checked the fire map. It turned out that the Pack Creek Fire was raging up in the mountains and the La Sal Loop Road was closed.




So, a re-route was in order. We still wanted to see Castle Valley Road and as much of the other end of La Sal Loop Road as we could.


We rode back north on US 191 (through Moab again) and turned east on UT 128 that paralleled the Colorado River. By this time of day, UT 128 was getting pretty busy with tourist traffic, but it wasn't too bad. We were in a relaxed mood and no one was in a particularly hurry for the riding day (and week) to come to an end.


We turned south onto the straight section of La Sal Loop Road that runs through Castle Valley. There was a sign warning that La Sal Loop Road was closed due to fire, but it gave no indication how far ahead it was shut down. We could now see the haze of smoke in the distance.




When we reached the turn-off that headed up into the mountains, there were cones placed in the road with no further signage. I took this to mean "Stop Here". Two of the Weasels decided it was ambiguous and rode up there. For me personally, I didn't want to be "that guy" on the evening news: "A motorcycle tourist from Kentucky was overcome by smoke and flames from the Pack Creek Fire, up on the La Sal Loop Road. He was transported by helicopter to..."


The two guys didn't really go very far, just far enough to ride a pretty cool series of curves and then turn around.




We re-joined and turned back north toward UT 128.

All yours is missing stichill is those colorful Aussie names like wombygolly and lagabackabit lol

Thank you, ferret!

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!

40 year old, tan RVs never looked so mysterious as they did after the "Breaking Bad" series.

Wonderful photos!

Yeah, from uncool...to too cool! And thanks!

[peterbaron]

Wow, Stichill awesome trips, scenery and pics...how hot during your trips, any concerns about gas stations ??
Enjoy it

[GoldOxide_imp]

I am savoring your chapters Hank. I really like the desert. UT is on my bucket list.

[Stichill_imp]

Wow, Stichill awesome trips, scenery and pics...how hot during your trips, any concerns about gas stations ??
Enjoy it

Glad you like it! It was never very hot for us, thankfully. The very next week it turned in a scorcher out there. I think in hindsight two weeks earlier would be advisable. Typically not too much concern about gas in most places…it’s just that you usually don’t ride past them!

I am savoring your chapters Hank. I really like the desert. UT is on my bucket list.

Absolutely, it’s a “Don’t miss!”

[Stichill_imp]

Riding Day 4 - Friday - La Sal Loop Road to Palisade, Colorado

Below, Castleton Tower and Parriott Mesa on La Sal Loop Road as we rode north back toward UT 128. I don't remember if I mentioned that many of these sandstone formations are the remnants of massive ancient sand dunes that compressed the sand into solid rock. Considering how big these "remnants" are, I marveled at how large the dunes must have been.




The further north we rode on "UT 128 Scenic Byway", the more we entered a post-apocalyptic wasteland.


We turned east at the junction with regular 'ol UT 128 and rode on until we reached the post-apocalyptic enclave of Cisco.


Buzzard's Belly General Store belied the image, though, and was a fairly new-but-made-to-look-old (we judged) establishment set up to capture some profit from post-apocalyptic wayfarers.




Careful, ferret! Don't play on the gorillas!




The Cheese Weasels' natural habitat is shade.


We rolled out of Cisco and made our way to the capstone of this ride, Rimrock Road in the Colorado National Monument. It was not a road you ride fast, and there was some tourist traffic, but none of that seemed to really matter...it's a great rode to ride.









Beautiful ending to a great ride!


We found our way back to the Spoke & Vine Motel, loaded the bikes, had a nice dinner at the [url=https://357barandgrill.com]357 Bar & Grill, and came back to relax in the courtyard on a perfect evening.


Saturday morning, we said our goodbyes to our brother Weasel and were on the road by 6:00 am, bound for Topeka, Kansas.




Topeka Airbnb house


We pulled out of Topeka at 5:00 am Sunday morning and were back at my house in northern Kentucky by 4:15 pm, and my two companion Weasels were unloaded and on their way home by 5:00 pm.


THE END

[GoldOxide_imp]

Wonderful ending Stichill.


Did you touch the gorillas?



Really liked these snaps:

[Stichill_imp]

Wonderful ending Stichill.


Did you touch the gorillas?



Really liked these snaps:

Thanks and whew!

Wonderful ending Stichill.


Did you touch the gorillas?



Really liked these snaps:

No, I've been afraid of 145 °F / 63 °C gorillas since a young age.