Category Archives: 2012 Cross Country

2012 Western US Moto Adventure Gallery

This gallery contains 245 photos.

No need to scroll past those pesky words, or search through 43 posts – all the pics (plus previously un-posted pics) from the entire trip are right here. (Click on a picture to view as a slideshow).

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2012 Western US Moto Adventure: Trip Stats

2012 Western US Moto Adventure: 07/04/2012 – 08/15/2012 Totals: 43 Days (6 weeks, 1 day) 9961 miles. 18 States – NC, VA, TN, KY, MO, KS, CO, UT, NV, CA, OR, WA, ID, MT, WY, IL, IN, WV 39 days … Continue reading

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Western US Moto Adventure 8/15/2012: IN, KY, WV, VA, NC – Home Again

We made it. Each progressive 500 mile day gets more difficult. I pushed through today with sheer willpower, but now we’re home. This is good because I don’t think my neck and back could make it another day (why did … Continue reading

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Western US Moto Adventure 8/14/2012: KS, MO, IL, IN

The best part of today was eating dinner at Cracker Barrel. Other than that, we had perfect, overcast weather (no sun but no precip is actually ideal traveling weather) for another day of riding east on the superslab. We landed … Continue reading

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Western US Moto Adventure 8/13/2012: CO, KS – superslabin’ it home

We decided to jet home the fast way today. Its not that we are tired of being on the road; touring around on our motorcycles has been enormously fun. Its just that everything we’re looking forward to is at home. … Continue reading

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Western US Moto Adventure 8/12/2012: CO – Pikes Peak, Race Day! 90th Running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb

For us, race day started at 4:45 am. Kevin had set an alarm for 5am, but that turned out to be unnecessary. The gate at the bottom of the mountain opens to spectators at 4am. Some camp in the cars … Continue reading

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Western US Moto Adventure 8/11/2012: CO – Pikes Peak, Race Day is Tomorrow

From the beginning, we knew the day before race day would be mostly a waste. There is only one road up the mountain, and its the race course. Due to the logistics, if you want to watch the race live, … Continue reading

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Western US Moto Adventure 8/10/2012: CO – Rocky Mountain Institute

The Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) is a “think-and-do” tank that works to improve energy efficiency in buildings, transportation, and industrial processes. One of their more well known projects is their involvement in the retrofit of the Empire State Building in … Continue reading

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Western US Moto Adventure 8/09/2012: CO – Colorado Springs

Not too much to report for today; we mostly ran some errands in Colorado Springs, and then relaxed in camp. Kevin finally decided that his front tire wasn’t going to make it much further, so the first stop of the … Continue reading

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Western US Moto Adventure 8/08/2012: CO – Pikes Peak

Two 14’ers in two days. We went for a short, 3 mile hike before packing up camp this morning at Mt. Evans, but I neglected to take any pictures. Since we weren’t sure if we’d get a chance to ride … Continue reading

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Western US Moto Adventure 8/07/2012: CO – Mt. Evans, 14000+ ft, and mountain goats

The people we met in camp the night before work at the Cafe and bakery up the road, and suggested we go there to grab breakfast. Again, something other than oatmeal, nuts, and crazins sounded delicious, so we went. The … Continue reading

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Western US Moto Adventure 8/06/2012: WY, CO

“Nobody comes through this town without lookin’ at a map.” That quote was probably the most memorable part of our day, as we rode south across the desert from no-where, Wyoming to no-where, Colorado. It was said by some old … Continue reading

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Western US Moto Adventure 8/05/2012: WY – Medicine Wheel

At this point, we’re getting pretty good at setting up camp in the evening, and packing up and getting on the road in the morning. If we try, we can pack up and be on the road in an hour, … Continue reading

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Western US Moto Adventure 8/04/2012: WY,MT,WY – Beartooth Pass

More great weather, and more awesome riding today. The goal for today was to get the heck out of the crowds at Yellowstone, and ride the famous chief Joseph Highway and Beartooth pass into Montana. On the way out of … Continue reading

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Western US Moto Adventure 8/03/2012: WY – Yellowstone National Park, Day 2, North Loop

I didn’t know Yellowstone ever had nice weather, but we’ve had two days of it here. Since we couldn’t check into our cabin until a bit later in the day, we packed up camp in the morning at Bridge Bay, … Continue reading

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Western US Moto Adventure 8/02/2012: WY – Yellowstone National Park

The south entrance to Yellowstone National Park is maybe 50 miles north of Grand Teton National Park. It didn’t take us very long to pack up one camp, and then ride to the next. The only reason it took as … Continue reading

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Western US Moto Adventure 8/01/2012: WY – Grand Teton National Park (Day 2)

During our exploration of the Colter Bay area of Grand Teton National Park yesterday, we discovered a small marina with boat rentals. A paddle on Jackson Lake sounded like the perfect morning activity, until we woke up to the cold … Continue reading

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Western US Moto Adventure 7/31/2012: ID, WY – Grand Teton National Park

We had more beautiful riding weather this morning as we left camp, and headed for the pass into Jackson, WY, en route to Grand Teton National Park.

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Western US Moto Adventure 7/30/2012: ID – Atomic Tourism Day (with bonus nuclear powered jet engines)

Today was just awesome. The really fun stuff is after the break, but I like to keep things in chronological order, so the beginning starts like this:

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Western US Moto Adventure 7/29/2012: MT, ID – South into Idaho

Today we officially changed course, and threw out a good chunk of our original plan for this trip. After discussing some options in camp last night, we decided to trade a bunch of riding that would take us to the … Continue reading

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Western US Moto Adventure 7/28/2012: WA, ID, MT– New tires for the Lolo Pass

Our stop at the motorcycle shop in Clarkston was a success. We showed up just before they opened, and they had new rear tires on both bikes right away. Fresh rubber changes everything: Now we were all set to ride … Continue reading

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Western US Moto Adventure 7/27/2012: WA, ID, WA – The Land of Big Hydro

Route 20 through the northern cascades is amazing, and somehow we had more beautiful weather today. One sign we saw labeled this part of the country the American Alps, and I doubt its much of an exaggeration. Our goal for … Continue reading

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Western US Moto Adventure 7/26/2012: WA – San Juan Island to the North Cascades

More beautiful weather as we hopped the ferry mid-morning to San Juan Island.

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Western US Moto Adventure 7/25/2012: WA – Orcas Island

Several of our friends had recommended that we visit the San Juan Islands while we were in the area, so as much as we wanted to stay, it was time to get back on the road. We said our goodbyes … Continue reading

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Western US Moto Adventure 7/24/2012: WA – Aircraft Carrier Tour

One of the benefits of having a friend that is an officer in the Navy is that they can take you on a tour of an aircraft carrier. We were like gawking children, it was so cool. Thank you Scott:

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