Ride Report: Burn Across The Great Basin

[dub]

Immediately upon receiving an invitation to my cousin's wedding in Jackson Hole, Wyoming I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to take a ride up to the Tetons. The wedding was on a Friday, my original plan was to take Wednesday thru Monday off work; one day for the wedding and five days riding. Then, I was asked to be in the wedding party, which meant I would have to be there a little earlier. Finally, something came up at work and I couldn't take Monday off. The trip seemed to be unraveling. But, I decided I would still ride because it would be more fun than driving my truck and flying in to Jackson was way too expensive. At this point it would be less of a leisurely ride and more of a high speed burn across The Great Basin; a lot of miles in a little time. I was prepared to sit there and watch the mile markers fly by.

Day 1: Tahoe to Lehi, Ut

I had to be in Jackson around noon, 1 at the latest, for the rehearsal, so I decided to bite off a big chunk on Wednesday, leaving a short ride up to Jackson on Thursday morning. Highway 50 across Nevada was not nearly as boring as I thought it was going to be. There are actually seventeen named mountain ranges that the road traverses. It's a repeating pattern through a long, flat, straight valley up and over some hills, and back down into the valley. They call it Basin and Range Topography. The sheer desolation is kind of interesting. If you have never ridden the route, I recommend it; the novelty alone will hold your interest.

Mountains in the distance



Getting closer



Oh, look, a bend in the road



Sometimes the basin is short enough that you can see across it to the next mountain range from the one you are already in.



Mountains in the distance



Oh, look, a bend in the road



Wash, rinse, repeat.







As you can see skies were variable. I was extremely lucky to thread the needle between thunderstorms all day long. At my rest stops I heard that it was raining to the North, along I-80, and I could frequently see that it was raining to the South. I got lucky this day, but it wouldn't hold out later in the trip.

Day 2: Lehi, Ut to Jackson Hole, Wy

I rode some fun roads in the mountains East of Salt Lake this morning.





But when you get into Wyoming it's just a flat, straight road. Once you turn East on hwy 26 and head back into the mountains, the road follows the Snake River and is perfectly nice. Unfortunately it's the main thoroughfare into Jackson so it's clogged with traffic. The Tetons are north of Jackson, so if you approach from the South you don't really get to see those jagged peaks piercing the sky on the way in, just rolling foothills. I also had a bit of a route planning snafu. It turns out hwy 162 from Eden to Avon wasn't paved. I didn't discover this until I got to the end of the pavement. It seems a little strange since it has a state highway designation. It didn't even occur to me to zoom in on the satellite view to check. I decided to backtrack a little and head west over North Odgen Pass to I-15, head North, then take hwy 89 East and hook back up with the route in Logan. I'm sure I missed out on a great road. It's probably a graded, easy dirt road in good shape, with awesome remote mountain scenery, that my Tiger could have easily handled.  But, I had somewhere to be and didn't think the best decision was to go off exploring an unknown dirt road in the Wasatch. Next time...



From the top of the Jackson Hole Tram



The wedding venue, Snake River in the foreground, Grand Tetons beyond.



Day 3: Jackson Hole, Wy to Ontario, Or

I chose a Northern route for the 2 days home to contrast my Southern route coming in. Not exactly the most direct route; It added a lot of miles so I was in for two long days on the way home.

The first leg, hwy 26 NW to Salmon was pretty boring, it was straight and flat up a valley.



(Excuse the haze, I was having some condensation issues in the camera housing, it would appear.)

But the whole stretch heading SW back down toward Boise on 93/75/21 was great.









The Sawtooth Mountains in the distance. You may notice the clouds looking a little threatening. In fact, I had already been rained on at this point. As soon at I left hwy 75 on to 21 in Stanley I went through a very brief but very intense thunderstorm. The kind of driving rain that makes you slow down because the raindrops hitting at highway speed sting.



Unfortunately for me, when I got to the best section of road, this twisty bit here the sky opened up again and it poured rain. Above is the last picture from Day 3. I guess once the deluge began I lost interest in taking pictures. It did eventually stop raining as I lost elevation and headed down towards Boise and I was dry by the time I got to the Hotel in Ontario.

Day 4: Ontario, Or to Tahoe

No pictures from this day. As you can clearly tell, I use a helmet mounted GoPro to get those riding pov shots. On a day of shorter mileage, and at more normal highway speeds, I don't notice the camera up there at all. But when you put in 500 miles at 80mph you start to notice the increased drag quite a bit. So, I elected not to mount the camera this day. Just as well, there wasn't much to see. There was a nice stretch of highway heading West on 20 where the road meandered along a river through a canyon. But, other than that if you know what Eastern Oregon and California looks like you can imagine the scenery. With few exceptions, the highway was mostly flat and mostly straight. Every once in a while the road changed directions or there was a small hill, but mostly the day consisted of looking at my GPS and thinking "oh, great, in 80 more miles I get to veer left"...80 miles later..."ooh, only 50 more miles until a fuel stop". I got rained on twice this day, once in a brief thunderstorm in between the Burns and Lakeview fuel stops. Heading down 395 towards Susanville (although I didn't go that far, I cut the corner at Standish) I could see more weather in the mountains. Very dark clouds and lightning strikes. I was glad to hang a left down 395 and stay in the shadow of the Sierra. It stayed dry all the way down 395 through Reno and Carson City, but sure enough as soon as I started to head up into the mountains over Spooner Summit I rode right into the weather and it rained on me all the way home.
I didn't stop to take any photos, in fact, I barely stopped at all. I went straight up road warrior status on this day making the 559 mile ride in 9 hours 28 minutes stopping only 3 times for fuel and a short break. I chose evenly spaced gas stations and did the whole ride in 4 more-or-less equal legs of around 138 miles each.

Here are my stats according to Garmin:

          |Distance|Moving Avg|Overall Avg|Total Time|Moving Time|Stopped Time
Day 1  |610       |68            |58            |10:36       |8:57           |1:39
Day 2  |334       |58            |52            |6:25         |5:43           |0:40
Day 3  |541       |62            |54            |10:00       |8:39           |1:20
Day 4  |559       |66            |59            |9:28         |8:30           |0:57

Obviously this trip would have been a little better if I had more time to meander and stop wherever I felt like it. A good example being The Fairview Peak Fault Zone, a little 6 mile dirt road jaunt off 50 would have probably been cool to see. And there were plenty of spots I wouldn't have minded stopping for a break to soak in the scenery if I didn't have somewhere to be. But, at least I was riding my motorcycle.

[GreenMachine]

I want to do that!  Especially that unusual route you took across 93, 75, 21. 
Good story. 

Kind of makes you start to believe we have some of the coolest digs right here in our back yard.

[KKM]

Wiles, This is funny as we only missed each other by a day. Almost the same route. I was coming back from Idaho with a new car. A new Camaro ZL1. This was a fun ride. Found some roads in Wyoming that I would love to go back to on the Aprilia. Yes there was some big thunder showers east of Austin on monday. Are you racing or riding this weekend ?

Kevin

[Mel]

Cool pics and story Dub!! It sounds like you had a great adventure. I'm digging those dry bags you have on the sides of the bike !

Mel

[dub]

Kind of makes you start to believe we have some of the coolest digs right here in our back yard.

I believe so, yes.

Wiles, This is funny as we only missed each other by a day. Almost the same route. I was coming back from Idaho with a new car. A new Camaro ZL1. This was a fun ride. Found some roads in Wyoming that I would love to go back to on the Aprilia. Yes there was some big thunder showers east of Austin on monday. Are you racing or riding this weekend ?

Kevin

ZL1 huh? Take it to a trackday. This weekend I'm at a Wedding in Seattle. I'm not riding there. Next race is Round 6 at Sonoma Labor Day weekend.

Cool pics and story Dub!! It sounds like you had a great adventure. I'm digging those dry bags you have on the sides of the bike !

Mel

Those are Wolfman Expedition dry bags. They work great. One time, before I had the Tiger, I rode my SV down to the Bay Area for a friends wedding. I had a set of Cortech Saddle Bags. The skies were bright blue up here, and the forecast was clear the whole way. Heading down Echo Summit I started to see some unexpected threatening clouds in the distance. By the time I got to Fresh Pond it was pouring rain. I pulled into the Chevron and put the rain covers on. But it was to no avail; my wedding clothes were all wet when I arrived. Never again. The $259 for the Wolfman bags is well worth avoiding another situation like that.