<<PREVIOUS POST NEXT POST>>

May 22, 2022

Ok, now that I’ve told you what the blog is all about, here we go on our first adventure! While this trip was only a week long, it felt like a month due to how many experiences were had.

Ana and I woke up in the yurt later than what we were aiming for. This is common. We had a big riding day ahead of us, all on pavement. We loaded up our bikes full of camping and camera gear. My best guess on gear weight for me was probably somewhere around 70 to 80 lbs. I had about a week that looked pretty quiet on my calendar earlier in the year, and I decided to set that aside for some sort of personal trip. Timing worked out to where Ana was off work (Ana is a river guide on the Colorado river in the Grand Canyon), and the final race of the Supercross season was happening which was hosted in Salt Lake City. After the race, by happenstance our friends would be camping in the San Rafael Swell (a Utah National Monument) which we were planning on riding through on our way home, so we would meet up with them after SLC. We jumped on our steeds, gave them a kiss on the forehead (handlebars) and hit the blacktop for about 6 or 7 hours. One of the 3 billion things that is great about motorcycles is their fuel efficiency, being around 4x better than my truck or 4runner. Half of the ride was on quiet country roads, but due to pushing our timing, we jumped on the interstate for the second half. Country roads for the win…. always. Interstate can happen, but avoided whenever possible. The groove, the emptiness, green ranching fields and the aromas of country riding are dearly missed once you get on a 4 laner. We arrived in SLC, ate at the Red Iquana (best Mole’ in Utah), and headed over to the races. Watching our favorite motocross athletes was so much fun! Hooting and hollering, there is an amazing energy when the racing is good, and the racing was great. Ana’s favorite race was the 4 and 5 year olds on small electric bikes. After the race we got a hotel, unloaded our bikes into the room and crashed in the city that night. The next morning we drank coffee as we learned the extent of our vocal cord destruction from our elated states during the races the night before… not bad. In only slightly cracked voices we agreed it was time to get rolling. Down the freeway, over a mountain pass and into the wind!!! We received a phone call from a friend we were meeting up with down in the Swell telling us it was time to seek shelter, and it wouldn’t be safe to ride. Conditions where they were camping were described as a sand hurricane. Ana and I both have a similar style with camping, which is to rarely sleep in a tent. Just lay down the mat, sleeping bag, pile up some clothes for a pillow and good night. Well, the skies were all clear in the weather forecast, and temperatures pleasant…. I probably should have looked at wind speeds… perhaps slightly too casual in that end of the planning. So that being said, naturally we did not pack a tent with us for this trip. We heeded that advice from our friend and we got a hotel room in Price, Utah. Lodging selection was dictated by hot tub availability and we found one. Ah….. luxury.

Ana riding through the San Rafael Swell on her Suzuki DR650

The next day winds were back to reasonable speeds and we were hungry for some dirt riding, as well as breakfast. Breakfast happened, then the dirt… that order. Coffee first (obviously). We got on a very well maintained dirt road with great cruising speeds. As we dropped further into the desert, the sandstone walls rose and we found ourselves winding through a beautiful canyon. There were a couple of roadside pictograph sites which were inspiring, yet haunting. Pictographs are illustrations from ancient Native Americans made with paints and dyes. Petroglyphs are illustrations carved into the rock. The main panel of pictographs shown below is dated to well over 2,000 years old.

Notice in the 3rd photo that there are chips carved into some of the peoples/creatures chests, some reproductive parts, and some feet. No one knows why this was done, nor when, yet it is speculated that it was during the time of the art creation.

Our destination for the end of the day was just beyond the southern boundary of the San Rafael Swell where our friends were camping. I was out in this region about a month or two prior and had ridden a really great dirt road which was more of a 4 wheeler trail. It was quite a bit more technical, requiring more mental and physical exertion, but I thought it would be a fun and beautiful route to complete our ride to the final destination for the night. There are loads of different dirt roads in differing states of condition in this area, so you really get to choose your adventure. This road that we chose (and I had ridden before) wasn’t totally crazy for a bike, but there were a couple of pretty challenging sections, and for a fully loaded bike, it was not going necessarily gonna be a “gimmee”. One obstacle was a loose rocky uphill. The other a loose dirt uphill with some technical corners and a couple rocks placed perfectly to take away any potential smooth line. We took a nice long hour break just before these obstacles where we laid around in a dry river bed at the base of bright orange cliffs with the sun warming our skin. Hanging out in the sun in the desert by choice…..haha… that is a fleeting season. Shade chasing happens most of the year, but that baking sun on a quiet wind-free day feels so very good. Before resting too long to the point of wanting a nap, we got up and were ready to take on the obstacles ahead of us. I gave it the first go and was feeling good on it, but suddenly I was jolted into a small crash. It was all slow speed and no problem, but couldn’t find what threw me off course. Ana later pointed out that it was actually one of my gear bags on the side of my bike that hit a bank that was built on one side. So I hit that, and it threw me and the bike into a little ditch. Still getting used to having extra width from the gear bags. From where I stopped, the dirt would be too loose to get enough traction to make it up the hill. So, I ride back down, and now it’s Ana’s turn to give it a shot. Oh, she was looking great and I thought she had it in the bag. Momentum was lost on the hill, but not due to her performance with keeping RPM’s up and doing good clutch work. I came up to help, and what do you know… her bike is acting kind of funny. Uh-oh. Oh boy, I know this feeling. What do we have here? I’ve dealt with quite a few bike mechanical issues in the backcountry within these past 10 years. First things first, diagnose. No need to freak out. Yes, we are way out there right now. 60 miles on dirt to the closest pavement, and 40 more from there to the closest town. But thinking about these things at this stage is unnecessary and can’t do anything to help the situation, so really it’s a waste of precious time. It was late in the day, and sunset was a couple of hours away. But truly…. no need to freak out. With adventure riding, we have camp gear, food, water, a satellite communication device. We are fine. So focus on figuring out what is up with the bike, and let’s see if it can make it out of the wilds.

She turned the bike on and showed me what was going on. Ana has more of a background in riding pavement than I do, and I have more experience on dirt than she does so she’s still learning some of the mechanical sides of dirt riding. She revved the engine, put it into gear, let out the clutch. The engine revved just fine, but the wheel was not engaging. This could be a few things. Chain issue, transmission issue or clutch related. I came to the conclusion that her clutch had burnt up. I haven’t experienced this before, but I’m aware of it and putting together the elements, it was the only bike damage that made sense. That is not a repair that people carry spare parts for in the backcountry, so this bike was stuck. Ok, now it’s for real adventure time, and it’s time to make something happen. It’s amazing that once you realize there are no easy options on the table for getting out of this sort of situation, and there is only one, action happens quick. No reason to spend any more time trying to will the situation out of existence. This bike was not moving on its own, and it was really far out there, and sunset was not far off. Time to go.

Preparation is a major part of the adventure riding game. Go out ready to take care of yourself, because that’s what it comes down to. There are no people nor resources to help with the exception of what you decided to bring with you, so you need to calculate the potential situations (much of that comes with experience) and do what you can to handle it without having to use that satellite beacon to call a friend in for help. I was carrying a 30 foot section of 1 inch webbing (think seatbelt material) for this exact sort of situation. It can also be used for a number of other situations. Useful stuff. We decided to tow her bike out. 60 miles on dirt, 40 on pavement. This is a monstrous tow. Never, ever have I come close to being in a towing situation of this sort of magnitude, this deep in the wilderness. Game time, hopefully this goes well….

The hill that killed.

Well, it took us a little bit to get our rhythm down. The big thing with this process is that you can not let that webbing go loose. It has to stay at least close to being tensioned in order for it to not get caught up in anyones wheels. Our very first pulls made me a little concerned. I would immediately get tossed to one side, overcorrect, and then the line would yank back on the bike a violently. Keep in mind this is extremely slow speed at this point as we’re just trying to get our bikes going in a straight line together. So, I put the bike down a handful of times during this learning process. Ana pointed out that when I corrected the pull on the bike the line would slacken and when I got too far to the next side the line would yank on me. So, starts become slower, and I stayed slower when swaying during the initial pull. Once we would have our momentum going in a straight line, we were all groovy and it became clear that we were gonna get that bike out of there barring anything going wrong with our tow. At this point, we are laughing! I mean, like belly laughs, just having the greatest time one can imagine riding our bikes together! Woowee!! We are having fun with this, pumping on our fists in the air, standing up on our pegs, soaking in the views with our chests into the air. We were in the face of adventure and we were and we were having a blast with it.

Shot before the novelty of our situation wore off

Yes, correct. The novelty of the tow did indeed wear off, shocking I know. But, we were still having fun for most of it, or at least weren’t miserable. We really got our rhythm down. Except for one part…. braking. That too had it’s own learning curve. Unfortunately this time it took affect on Ana’s end. And the crash looked kind of gnarly. I don’t remember exactly what happened, but while coming to a stop her bike ended up getting laid down on it’s side. We weren’t at high speeds, but it wasn’t slow speed either when it happened. She got her forearm pretty scratched up, but other than that she was fine, and the bike was too for the most part. She’s a beast, some people call Ana “sledgehammer”, or “sister sledge”. Tough wilderness chica, thats for dang sure. One of her gear boxes on her bike got smashed in pretty good. All functional still, but it’s mangled. Soft bags are really the way to go for off-road, which are now in the mail. Boxes can cause pretty bad injury if things go poorly. They are the better option for street riding however, as laying the bike down doesn’t happen on pavement, and it allows you to lock up your gear. Once we started getting into more braking situations we figured it out. I would wave my hand downward, wouldn’t apply any brakes, and Ana would slowly break for both of us. It was actually very satisfying to get dialed at working together to keep us both safe, pretty much all of it done through feel and intuition as we were not able to communicate vocally over the sound of my bike. It was a dance of sorts, and it was super fun.

Z7ii 400mm. f18. ISO 200. 1/640

This was a section of landscape that we were passing while I was towing the DR650 and Ana. It’s really far out there, and sacrificing a few minutes of our time sensitive journey just needed to happen in order to photograph this beauty. I signaled that I wanted to stop. We pulled over and I went straight to my 100-400mm lens because of the beautiful layers in the scene. Long lenses really help these layered scenarios as it "stacks” the ridges closer and makes them bold and pronounced. I really loved this scene, and it really grabbed at me in a natural way. We were just riding along and it popped out. I love when nature calls to me to take a photo, rather than me looking to take photos of nature. While I like quite a number of photos that I’ve shot while looking for photos, and I love the adventure of looking for photos, the ones that I’m happiest with are the ones where I’m not looking for images, rather I’m just looking at and being in nature. I’m really grateful that I got to capture an image I really like during this awesome 100-mile tow adventure. This is a moto event going down in the history books of our friend group.... It was no small adventure. The photo is definitely a special one to me.

The sun had set while we were still on dirt, but we were close and we were going to make it to pavement while there was at least some ambient light out. As we started to see more built out sprinter vans set up to camp for the night, we knew we were getting close to pavement. We hit the road, and started picking up the speed. On dirt we were around 40mph and slower. With the pavement, closer to 50mph to 55mph. Hats off to Ana. I think I’d be fairly horrified having zero control over the bike going 50mph, she was really along for whatever ride came her way, and she handled it brilliantly. We still had a while to go. Inside our heads I believe we had both submitted to the idea of grabbing a room for the night. Turned more into a hotel trip than camping, but hey, totally cool with some luxury, no problem. Fortunately this pavement road is way in the middle of nowhere so cars in front of us or behind us never happened. There were a few that passed, but that was it. I think we ended up rolling into town around 10 something and were grateful to find the gas station open for some fast gas station food (which was the better option than what we had in our food bags at the time), and some ice cream to nurse our nerves. Found one of the only lodging options in town, over-priced and all…. the whole experience! We booked it, and mowed down on a semi-warm packaged burrito, locally made potato salad, and then to the glorious, all hallowed be thy name….. iced cream!

Our friends who were in the area were supposed to leave that next day, and it was likely going to be in the morning, but we could not get ahold of them. We had their GPS coordinates for their camp and decided to roll over there and try to catch them before they left. If we don’t catch them, we’d have to leave Ana’s bike in Torrey, and she’d ride on the bike of my bike the 4 hours back to Zion, drop her off, then I’d return to Torrey with my pickup to collect that bike and move onto the second portion of this trip where I’d be solo in that same region. We trekked over to their camp, and their vehicles were there! They left us a note on their toy hauler saying they were out for a ride and a hike. We were so relieved. Her and the bike could now go home in one of their vehicles. We set up a hammock and a chair at their camp and relaxed after our last stint of towing…. thank goodness. All safe, mission accomplished.

z7ii. ISO 1250. f6.3. 1/640

An owl winking at Ana while she takes his photo at our friends campsite. Great shot there Ana.

After lounging around their camp for an hour or so, the 3 of them rolled in. We got to share the story and we all had a great time with it. Ana ended up loading up with one of them in their truck along with her bike and they rolled back to the Zion area. I stayed at the camp with my friends. One of them and I went for a day ride on a really great backcountry road in Capitol Reef National Park. The beauty was amazing. My friend says he’s having problems with his vision at night, so he did the 40 mile dirt road to get back to camp before sunset, and I stayed behind in order to shoot. I’d then travel after sunset and meet up at camp. I pretty much had an hour until sunset where we parted ways. I had been up here before but in my 4runner and not with good light, so I already had a composition in mind from the past from looking around. I explored some, then I rolled up to the location I had in mind for sunset. After shooting sunset and a little bit at blue hour I loaded up and had a smooth, enjoyable ride back to camp.

The next morning my friends made breakfast, gave me a couple of dehydrated meal packs and snacks that they had, and included some home made jam from their peach trees. They fueled me up on water and pulled out to head back to Zion. All alone now. Alone in the desert. It’s quiet, and still with the mid-morning sun beating down on the dusty sand that hasn’t seen rain in months. There’s a feeling with that, it’s humbling, and I believe that it’s good for us as humans. The desert, especially when alone has a way of making one feel very small. Even this vast desert is small, it’s tiny, nothing really, the earth and our galaxy are just a blip, and here I am as one single person taking up only feet worth of space, and living a life probably no more than 100 years. 100 years compared to the years it’s taken to shape the desert. Those years compared with the eternal nature of the universe, its space and time. It is overwhelming and solo time in the desert helps to see that reality with a certain amount of weight to it. This existence that we are living, how are we connected to the universe and eternity? This is one of the greatest questions the desert conjures up inside of me, and I know I’m not alone in that. I love pondering this thought, and I’m happy to get forced to think about it this whenever I have solo time in the desert.

<<PREVIOUS POST NEXT POST>>