2818 miles on a Bonneville - Day 1

I finally got the chance to take a long road trip on the Bonneville.  This was part of the reason I haven't posted in awhile.  The plan was to ride up and connect up with some people in my riding club. They had headed up to Vegas earlier and a small subset was continuing on to Moab, UT where I was going to connect up with them.  This was the route on my first day.  I was going to stay overnight in Snowflake and make the final drive into Moab the following morning.


View Larger Map

The best time to beat the heat in southern Arizona is early morning, so I departed at 5am.  This is why my eyes are still closed.  Trying to get those last few seconds of sleep. The Speedpack bag looked like it was made for the bike and gave me plenty of room.

 4800 miles on the bike.  What will this read when I'm all done?

 Quick dramatic action shot and then I was off.

My dad wanted to ride up with me on his Honda dual sport, and I was happy to have company on my first leg of the journey.  We met up in town and continued on to Globe, AZ where we stopped at McDonald's for breakfast.  We spotted a BMW and Suzuki in the parking lot.

From Globe to Show low you have to pass through the Salt River canyon.  Lots of switch backs to lose and then gain elevation.  It other words..great motorcycle curves.

This is the bottom of the canyon where you cross the Salt River.  There used to be a rest stop here but the state closed it due to budget problems.  On the right is the closed old bridge, and on the left it's more modern replacement.

We stop at a pull-out on the other side of the canyon to take in the views.

Pretty country.

One last self shot before we head on to Show low and Snowflake.

We had a leisurely lunch in Show low and then took a 40 mile detour to the south east to see if we could see the smoke from the Arizona wild fires.  It's been a very bad fire season so far and no rain in site yet.  I forgot to snap a picture of the smoke.  We could see it way off in the distance, but had to turn around.


We arrived at our hotel in Snowflake safe and sound.  We probably traveled ~250 miles on this first leg.  Stay tuned I'll post more later and the pictures get much better!