For my dozens of readers who graced these pages back in 2013 when I wrote about my Africa adventure and ride West, I have decided to either bore you or entertain you with more ride stories and hopefully an interesting adventure.
I'm preparing to fly to Denver, where my slightly used and dirty motorcycle has been sitting in storage since mid June. I have gone over to the dark side some would say by switching from a Harley to a BMW. The Harley still resides in my garage gathering dust, and the new 1200 GS dual sport bike has been broken in quite well during a trip in June to New Mexico and Colorado. The GS offers the best of both worlds of motorcycling, being a great touring bike and able to take on most of the non-paved roads on this planet.
Not having ridden dirt since college, I availed myself of an off road training course offered by Rawhyde Adventures. After three days in the mountains of Colorado, riding mud, dirt, hills, and sand, I felt pretty confident that I could hold my own with what would come. After testing my skills riding the trails around Ouray and Telluride with a friend, I rode to Denver, parked the bike and flew home.
That brings me back to the present, packed and ready to fly to Denver, where I start an adventure of multiple parts. Here's a preview of what's about to happen, and I will fill in the blanks as the trip unfolds.
Part one. Ride from Denver to Yellowstone where I meet some friends for several days of backpacking the trails of America's most visited National Park. I was 8 or 9 years old the last and only time I was in Yellowstone, so this is high on my to do list.
After that, I ride the bike to Vancouver, BC, where I meet Vickie who will fly in from DFW. After a couple of days exploring Vancouver, we depart on an Alaska cruise for seven days to Anchorage. After flying back to Vancouver from Anchorage, we will spend a few days enjoying Victoria, BC, and Vickie will fly home.
The third leg will be my ride from Vancouver back to Arlington, route undecided at this time.
Stay tuned for updates as the adventure unfolds.
Rawhyde Adventures training school June 2015
Getting the new bike dirty after learning how to navigate water crossings.
