Colorado Cruiser: Utah 2007 Motorcycle Ride

Moab, La Sal, Paradox, Bedrock, Naturita, Flat Tire, Deer, Montrose

Today's plan was to eat lunch in Teluride, then ride the million dollar highway to Ouray, Silverton, and spend the night in Durango.

We started the day by riding back up to Arches visitor center to buy a T-shirt for my friend's wife. She'd seen on in Zion but didn't buy it at the time. You have to go through the entry gates to get to the visitor's center, and this morning they only had one gate open and a long line backed up. Finally another ranger came out and started waving on people with passes. I dug my pass out real quick and showed her so she waved us on My pass covers 1 carload, or 2 motorcycles and cost $80.00. I've easily paid for the pass with just this trip.

We rode south after getting the shirt. We ran into road construction with about 5 miles of 1 lane road. We pulled up just at the tail end as a group was passing the flag man and he waved us right on down the road. We were very lucky to avoid the 15 minute wait because he stopped the car that was a minute behind us. It was the last luck we'd have all day.

They seem to be widening the road between Moab and Monticello to 4 lanes. But we turned left at the road to La Sal. It started very straight and flat as it climbed slightly up the shoulder of the La Sal mountains.

We crossed the should of the mountain into Old La Sal, then dropped down into canyons leading us off the mountain. There were some really nice twists and turns going through the canyons.

At the bottom of one canyons I smelled fresh cut hay (alfalfa). Sure enough we saw a farmer out on his tractor cutting a field. The smell reminds me of the summer I spent with my grandfather and grandmother in Blanding. He had 3 fields that he let me cut, then we let it try and bailed it. He irrigated with water pumped from a pond through pipes, and I had to move the pipes twice a day. It was a great summer to remember.

We stopped for pictures at the Colorado State border, then continued riding canyons and eventually started a descent into a Paradox valley. We rode past the town of Paradox, but we stopped at the Bedrock store. I bought a baseball cap and some spicy Chicarones to munch on. The Bedrock parking lot was all gravel and I was a bit nervous about dumping the bike.

We were going to ride through Naturita and I was going to stop by the farm house again, so I led on the way out. We rode through the valley then started through a small canyon. I saw my friend drop back and figured he wanted to let me get ahead so he could ride the twisties at his preferred pace (faster than mine). After a couple of miles I came to an intersection so I stopped there to wait, but after 2 minutes it was obvious they weren't coming, so I turned back.

There they sat beside the road with a flat tire about a mile back. I had a small pump so we tried to put more air in it, but we could hear air leaking when it got to 15 lbs. We were only 3 miles from Naturita, so I took my bags off my bike and let then ride it into town looking for some help. They came back followed by a guy in a pickup. He tried 4 times to plug the hole but it continued to leak each time. He'd brought a big tank filled with air but it kept leaking out of the tank and the tire. So eventually my friend just rode the bike slowly into town on 10lbs of air.

We stopped at a cement plant to try to air his tire up, but again, it wouldn't hold any more than 10 lbs. The plant manager looked at the patch job and proclaimed it crap, then pulled the patch off and got his plug gun. But after 15 minutes he couldn't get the tire to hold air either, so we rode the rest of the way to town.

The Goodyear tire shop said they'd give a shot at plugging the hole, but only after 45 minutes. so we left the bike and went to Blondie's Diner for some lunch. They had great burgers, fries, and real milk shakes. We watched some little girl's birthday party with a face painter. The girl painting faces said she used to work at Circus Circus in Las Vegas and she was very good. I especially loved her full cat faces, but she did clowns, vampires, flowers, and a bunch of others. It looked like the kids really had fun.

Back at the tire place, they tried 3 or 4 times to plug the hole with no luck. My friend called his HoG riders membership to get a towe into Montrose for new tires, but they said the could would be $500 to towe it and they would only cover $100 of it. The tire shop said they'd take the tire of and try to patch from the inside, but we had to wait another 90 miutes. So we went back to Blondie's to wait.

Somewhere in here I decided to go for a short ride to see the farm and look for cell service to call family. I rode up to Nucla the back way and found a spot where my Cingular phone worked and called my daughter to chat.

A young guy on an old Harley Pan Head pulled up to see if I was ok and we chatted about what was going on. He told me about a nearby motorcycle shop named "To-Hell-U-Riders" that we could have been towed to. But too late now.

After he left, I headed back for the tire shop.

I'd only ridden about 1 mile and wasn't going that fast when a deer ran into the road from the left side. I grabbed for the brakes and swirved right but I hit the doe's front right shoulder and head. It spun the deer and kicked me even farther right. I probably twisted more throttle on as I went into the grass and started to climb the right bank, then got the bike slowed again as I went over bumps. The bike finally fell on the left side and skidded the last few feet back out onto the asphalt.

I didn't feel any pain, but thought maybe I was just in shock or adrenaline was covering it up. I got up and looked for any sign of injury. About then a truck pulled up, a mother and daughter got out. The mom said "Are you ok? Why did you fall down?" the daughter said "Mom, he hit a deer." We turned back and the deer was still standing not far from the road and took off.

The lady also looked me over but there were no bumps, bruises, blood, or even torn material. The bike had slid on the highway bars and hard saddle bags just like it was supposed to. I stood the bike back up and started right up. She followed me down to the tire shop where my friends were.

My windshield was busted so we removed that and threw it away. But there was no visible damage to the bike other than the scrapes. The fall did straighten out the clutch handle that has been bent for a long time.

In the mean time, the mechanic found that the tire had 2 hols in it about 1/4 inch apart. That's why no one could plug it. So he patched the whole thing from the inside and filled it up. He put it all back together and we went to look at my skid.

Then we headed for Montrose. Most things you read suggest that patching a motorcycle tire should be a temporary thing, and you whould replace the tire as soon as possible. There was a Harley shop in Montrose so we headed there.

We started the ride kind of slow then gradually picked up speed. The ride was very fun, but it got a little cold in a few places. We followed another group of rider down the last set of turns out of the mountains with my eyes constantly looking for more deer.

Waiting in line at Arches National Monument