I thought I would update my attempted trip to the Smoke Out West down in Arizona and hopefully save you guys and gals some pain while out on the road.
I usely do some pretty hard planning when it comes to long trips and what I was focused on the most for this one was the weather.
But no matter how many times I looked at it all I saw was lots of rain. I can deal with rain all day long usually!
Knotso even warned be the day before saying I might have some problems getting over the passes. I basically told him "bullshit"!! It's May, I'll get over ok. Well as we know that didn't happen. Guess you have to learn to listen to those "Truckers". They seem to know a bit about road conditions.
Anyway, I get out of here at 0530 in the morning. It's raining lightly as was expected. It took me an hour to get around the Puget Sound to where I gassed up in North Bend before heading up over the Snoqualmie Pass It only goes up about 2900 ft but I had several to climb to get over the Cascades and Rocky Mountains with a lot higher passes ahead of me.
So I get up near the summit about 2 hrs after leaving and I hit snow! Never ridden in snow before so it's definately a weird experience. But it was mostly slushy in the main truck lane due to the 18 wheelers. At the summit I stop and take several pictures but by now I'm so cold and wet and frozen that I can't hardly work the clutch or shifter but I get it over to the side of the road ice skating it as I slow down using my boots like skies. I can't find my little pocket camera so break out my large Pentex and shoot a few shots.
I have a lot of snow and ice building up on the front of the motor.
I figure the snow only started within a mile of the summit so it should stop once I get over the otherside. But this wasn't the case. On the Western slope it climbs steeply but on the Eastern side it drops gradually so I attempt to continue for another 30 miles but my glasses froze up with water and snow on each side so I couldn't see. My aircleaner was clogging up and the motor was starting to choke so I rode the next 30 miles at about 25mph looking over the top of my glasses while traffic shot past me in the faster lanes. I think I can imagine what they were saying about me. But there is nothing around in this area so you just push on hoping for the next town.
But I finally got to the little town of Easton and pull into a resturant and attempt to warm up. It's raining cats and dogs outside now. I call Knotso and he tells me it's suppose to let up by noon so I ask the waitress if I can hang out for a while. Lucky they had a lounge so I had a few Jim Beams. This helped warm me. But I never dried out.
Well, long story short I finally make it back home although it takes me a lot longer to retrace my steps. I was so cold and I never want to do that crap again!!
But some things I could have done better. First off I usually pack pretty good. I put everything in bags or ziplocks. But for this trip I forgot some stuff. I carry a folder that has vital information in it in case I was to have an accident. Contact info, my DD-214, meds prescriptions and such. Well I forgot to put it in a waterproof bag and it got really socked. My tool back is full of water from all the snow and slush it had to endure. I'm going ot get a more waterproof pouch for it. At least I keep all my tools soaked with WD-40.
My duffle bag on the back is more waterproof than my T-Bag. That T-Bag leaks real bad so everything in it needs to be in plastic bags.
But even some stuff that wasn't in bags inside my duffle got wet.
Sure was an experience and now my bike needs some HEAVY cleaning.
Now time to start planning for the next trip!! Which one will it be and where will it take me? Will you be coming with?
:2thumbs:
I usely do some pretty hard planning when it comes to long trips and what I was focused on the most for this one was the weather.
But no matter how many times I looked at it all I saw was lots of rain. I can deal with rain all day long usually!
Knotso even warned be the day before saying I might have some problems getting over the passes. I basically told him "bullshit"!! It's May, I'll get over ok. Well as we know that didn't happen. Guess you have to learn to listen to those "Truckers". They seem to know a bit about road conditions.
Anyway, I get out of here at 0530 in the morning. It's raining lightly as was expected. It took me an hour to get around the Puget Sound to where I gassed up in North Bend before heading up over the Snoqualmie Pass It only goes up about 2900 ft but I had several to climb to get over the Cascades and Rocky Mountains with a lot higher passes ahead of me.
So I get up near the summit about 2 hrs after leaving and I hit snow!
Never ridden in snow before so it's definately a weird experience. But it was mostly slushy in the main truck lane due to the 18 wheelers. At the summit I stop and take several pictures but by now I'm so cold and wet and frozen that I can't hardly work the clutch or shifter but I get it over to the side of the road ice skating it as I slow down using my boots like skies. I can't find my little pocket camera so break out my large Pentex and shoot a few shots.I have a lot of snow and ice building up on the front of the motor.
I figure the snow only started within a mile of the summit so it should stop once I get over the otherside. But this wasn't the case. On the Western slope it climbs steeply but on the Eastern side it drops gradually so I attempt to continue for another 30 miles but my glasses froze up with water and snow on each side so I couldn't see. My aircleaner was clogging up and the motor was starting to choke so I rode the next 30 miles at about 25mph looking over the top of my glasses while traffic shot past me in the faster lanes. I think I can imagine what they were saying about me. But there is nothing around in this area so you just push on hoping for the next town.
But I finally got to the little town of Easton and pull into a resturant and attempt to warm up. It's raining cats and dogs outside now. I call Knotso and he tells me it's suppose to let up by noon so I ask the waitress if I can hang out for a while. Lucky they had a lounge so I had a few Jim Beams. This helped warm me. But I never dried out.
Well, long story short I finally make it back home although it takes me a lot longer to retrace my steps. I was so cold and I never want to do that crap again!!
But some things I could have done better. First off I usually pack pretty good. I put everything in bags or ziplocks. But for this trip I forgot some stuff. I carry a folder that has vital information in it in case I was to have an accident. Contact info, my DD-214, meds prescriptions and such. Well I forgot to put it in a waterproof bag and it got really socked. My tool back is full of water from all the snow and slush it had to endure. I'm going ot get a more waterproof pouch for it. At least I keep all my tools soaked with WD-40.
My duffle bag on the back is more waterproof than my T-Bag. That T-Bag leaks real bad so everything in it needs to be in plastic bags.
But even some stuff that wasn't in bags inside my duffle got wet.
Sure was an experience and now my bike needs some HEAVY cleaning.
Now time to start planning for the next trip!!
Which one will it be and where will it take me? Will you be coming with? :2thumbs: 
