10-5-04
Well, I am back in camp as of Saturday.
I have
been flirting with getting a cold and have been taking it easy and trying to
stay away from my friends, so they don’t come down with it too.
I was in the process of writing a road log of my
trip but I didn’t ‘save’ it and consequently lost it when I shut down my
computer. oh well, I guess I will make up
a new shorter version here.
I left a couple of weeks ago on my new (to me) BMW
R90/6 and headed to Red lodge and Roberts MT. From there I headed down to Mike
Cox’s place near Dillon MT. We checked the weather and there was a big storm
coming, so I made a mad dash for the
hot spring near Austin, NV. This was somewhere around a 800 mile ride and I was
sure happy to get up to my neck in hot water and watch the stars and again in
the morning watching the sun come up in Big Smokey Valley. The storm pushed me
on down to Goldfield where I have a nice cabin with a big wood pile for the wood
stove. The storm sort of dried up
down in that dry desert and I went over to Bishop to get a charger/hookup to the
bike, for my cell phone. The trip
over to Bishop over Gilbert and Westguard passes is one of the best bike rides
possible, long fast stretches and sharp curvy winding zingers. Wow! It was great
fun.
I came back through Fish Lake Valley and had the
good fortune to meet up with Pete Swan where I spent the night and caught up on
all the local happenings. The next morning I made it over Lida summit and
stopped at the junction to Gold Point, when my bike QUIT!!! Dead it was. I had
been noticing the red generator light acting funny and it turned out it wasn’t
funny at all. Fortunately the phone was charged and I was able to call Ken
Polman on Montezuma Mountain. Ken made a rescue run and picked me up in his
little diesel pickup and hauled me to Silver Peak.
A call to Bob the BMW motorcycle mechanic in
Roberts Mt led to the determination that the rotor on the alternator was bad.
Bob sent a rebuilt one via express mail and in a few days I was back on the
road. If you ever have to break down and hang out some place while you wait to
get back on the road, silver peak aint that bad a place to do it. The party
never stops there. I had ride in “the Bum’s” new to him 1968 Harley with
sidecar. What a classic trip sitting next to that big twin and listing to it
work. What a beast! Next I had the good fortune to be introduced to Dick Diamond
who took me on a tour of his holding and collections (a cool Crossly, two
tractors, old cat, BSA with Globe sidecar, etc) and best of all he gave me a
ride in the desert in the side car of his new Ural which is a Russian style old
BMW. It was just too much and I scared the shit out of him when I broke into a
spontaneous howl and uncontrolled yelling how great it was.
I made it back to Goldfield to pickup my gear I had
left there and headed south. I have a friend in Indian Springs who just recently
got a new KTM 650 motorcycle and I stopped in to see it. It is a serious dirt
bike and I have wanted to see one and I got a chance to at least sit on it. From
there I headed into SIN City and popped out the other side, with out getting any
on me, and made it across the Bolder Dam. I had to go through Security before I
was let on the dam. Jeez this is starting to get weird. I wasn’t allowed to
stop and look at the dam at night either. National security I guess. It would
take a million pound bomb to blast that big hunk of concrete but with
motorcycles you can’t be too careful I guess.
I saw a sigh for the Grand Canyon and since I had
never been there I decided it was time. A twist of the throttle and zoom I was
there. I stopped at the airport just south of the rim to check out a Ford
tri-motor plane that I had always wanted to get up close and check out. They
have a really nice restored one there on display. On my way out I met a guy who
wanted to talk BMW’s and VW’s. He had a really nice hotted up Karmen Gia. He
let me in on a little known tip that if I wanted to ride about 15 miles of dirt
I could get into the park for free. Free! That’s for me and it turned out to
be a wonderful road through the pines and it was forest service land too.
It
ended on a paved road and next to the Grand View where I had the pleasure to
watch the sunset on the canyon. Camp back on that gravel road was only a mile or
so, which let me enjoy the sunrise as well. The park has way too many
restrictions, but it was off-season for tourists, which made it nice.
I headed up to Kanab in Utah and happened in to an
enemy outpost of the BLM to see if I could pick up a map , without letting them
know I was anarchist. It was too weird, the guy in this place had long hair and
pierced ears! He actually was rather nice and copped me a cool small map rather
than the big state road map they usually give out. I asked for recommendations
and he said definitely do highway 12 as it has been voted ‘best bike road in
the usa’. It goes though Brice Canyon, Grande Escalante, Capitol Reef, and
then on to hwy 95, Natural Bridges,
Canyon lands and up 191 to Arches National Park and Moab. I camped just
south of Moab and found a really nice gravel road off the highway. I went up
about ¼ mile and made camp in the Juniper and Pine trees. I set up my little
tent and had a cozy night while it
rained ALL night. It had cleared off by moring and when I got up and packed up I
knew I was in trouble. The four wheel pickups were squirreling up and down the
road. Oh, what a mess it was. I had to duck walk the bike out of there and
was really glad I hadn’t gone back further off the road. The bike was a
muddy mess, but I didn’t go down!!!
I blew outta Utah and headed into Colorado. There
were small rain squalls along the way and on top of the pass just west of Salida
it was pretty close to icy. At 11,200+ feet it was brisk to say the least. I
dropped down into Salida (7000ft) and stopped by my friend Kactus Jack and his
wife Linda’s shop. As it happened, they had just
pulled in and I would have missed them five minutes either way. I
hadn’t visited with Jack in twenty
years and it was great to reconnect again. Jack and Linda just bought an old
adobe house that had been fixed up
and I bunked in the spare room for
the night. Before bed I was serenaded with the duo playing several of Jack’s
tunes. Linda bought a Martin Bass guitar a couple of years ago, and the
combination of Jacks guitar, harmonica and base was great! Oh, Jack just had to
get out his new Doe-Bro (sp?) for a demo. I really like that, it is LOUD!!!
From Salida I headed down the canyon and into the
eastern front along the mountains to Denver. I called my friend Nick, but
he was gone to the Taos wool show. I really like to keep in contact with Nick as
he and I got along so well
on the trip we went on to Iceland. His mother Grace is surely one of the
hardest working mom’s and one of the best marketers I have ever known. The
whole family is very talented and always thinking out of the box.
The storms were getting more regular and looking at
the weather map at a gas station I figured I needed to dive in somewhere until
the storm passed. I have a friend here in Miles by the name of Tucker who has a
brother and mom that live in Denver. When Tucker and I went down to deliver
sheep one time we stopped for the night at their place. Tuckers brother Craig
and wife Nadine and mom Betty took me in and let me stay a couple of night.
Craig took me to a BMW store near by. Oh, there were some nice looking bikes
there. I keep thinking I need another motorcycle since I only have two…..
Craig works in the fast paced business of grocery marketing and I find his
insights into the ‘real’ world on business fascinating. Nadine just got a
new job after putting up with a bad one for too long and was really UP about the
new job. Betty is always on the go and was putting together 135+ Christmas
decorations for the senior center as well as teaching classes in crafts. She is
always on the go. I hope I can go half that fast when I get that age.
Saturday morning broke clear and cold. I scraped an
eighth inch of ice off the seat and buckled on my Icelandic wool felt cover,
loaded my gear and headed out. It finally warmed up but the wind in Wyoming was
and always is a test of nerves. Betty told me a story of her seeing a biker
blown under a semi truck. I kept far clear of trucks I can tell you that trip!!!
I made it home about a half hour before sunset, but
the deer were already coming down to eat along the highway. The road from
Broadus to Miles is VERY dangerous at night and there are usually several deer
killed every night on that road.
I had to go down and steal my dog (e dog) from
Sonny and Mean Jean on Sunday. I
knew that they were in church and that way I wouldn’t have to beg to let me
have my dog back. I didn’t want to infect them with my possible cold as Sonny
is on oxygen and I would imagine a cold wouldn’t do him much good. E dog was
very glad to see me and she just started to sing like a coyote (me too) we were
so happy to see each other. I left a note on the door that I had taken the dog,
but I guess they didn’t see it when they came home and they were panicked when
the dog wasn’t there when they got home. Fortunately they found the note
before the National Guard was called out. E dog seems to put on a little weight
when she visits down there. Sonny says that she likes to eat peanuts and dried
cranberries! I think she gets lots of table scraps as well. She is back on dry
dog food here at camp.
5,000 miles and at least that many smiles….
the
girls in camp Sunday morning.
Cheers, RX
Rex Mongold
1375 MT 59 S
Miles City,
Montana 59301
406-853-1940
(cell)