A friend made the comment in an email to me after I decided to take advantage of the window in weather and head home that it was a shame I rode through the finest landscape there is in the country (riding Utah and Colorado and not stopping). At first the comment hurt my feelings since it sounded like I had somehow failed. But then I was okay with it. I was, after all, on a motorcycle ride and I had seen some incredibly beautiful scenery. I didn’t do everything I hoped to do, but I rode 4,200 miles by myself, through a lot of adverse weather conditions. For a newbie rider, I feel that was a great success. And life is a learning experience — I couldn’t find out what I liked and didn’t like about this kind of ride without doing it.
I have to admit I was a little scared about riding alone when I was heading out, but that was quickly replaced by being afraid of the wind. What a way to start a trip — 65 MPH wind gusts and dust storms.
After I got through the wind conditions in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona I was confident and happy riding alone. I was a little apprehensive riding into Death Valley alone because there were no towns and no traffic, just miles and miles of road with nothing but warning signs about water for radiators, but I thoroughly enjoyed the ride and would recommend it to anyone heading out to California. The rides both down into and up out of the valley are stunning and the immensity of Death Valley can only be comprehended by riding or driving through it.
Right before my first out of town ride (to Eureka Springs, AR) I had read David Hough’s book Proficient Motorcycling literally finishing it the night before I left. Great book, but story after story that ended badly. All those stories had me so spooked that it negatively effected my riding the entire trip to Arkansas and back. All I could do was watch for the things the book mentioned and be afraid of them.
I don’t know what my problem is but it seems to take a long time for me to get stories like that filed away as useful information and not something that scares me.
David Hough was the guest speaker at the rally and I had the pleasure of sitting next to him at the banquet Saturday evening and also attended a couple of his seminars. He’s a really great guy and I got good information, but he talked about a lot of bad things that happen while riding. David’s stories have a point to them — trying to help you learn from the mistakes of others and hopefully avoid them yourself. But the stories still scared me.
It seems like a lot of people who ride want to swap stories about the accidents they hear about. Personally, I don’t get this. Wouldn’t it be like drivers getting together and talking about car accidents, or people who are facing heart surgery getting together to talk about everyone who died in heart surgery? While I thoroughly understand anyone who has been in an accident needing to talk about it, I don’t get all the other people who can’t wait to tell you accident stories.
While I still do a lot of reading to learn more about riding a motorcycle I make sure it’s well before a planned ride so the information can kind of settle in my brain and not cause me problems. I try to avoid people who like to discuss every accident they’ve heard about.
Bottom line, once again I had those stories in my head and the rider who left the rally (me) wasn’t the same rider who had arrived. My confidence was gone and fear had taken it’s place. So when I took a route north that turned into tight little mountain turns at elevation with no guard rails I choked and got really scared. While it got better the next day, I never totally got over it for the remainder of the trip. I either need to figure out how to avoid this stuff or how to process it so it doesn’t effect my riding.
Also while at the rally I mentioned the wind I’d encountered on the trip out and an experienced rider told me the bike knows how to handle the wind and I should keep a really loose hold on the handle grips. I have to admit my reaction to getting hit by a gust of wind that moves me around the road is for me to grab hard on the handle bar. I took his suggestion to heart and it really helped me when crossing northern Nevada and Utah in high side winds. The wind was much less tiring to me physically those days and he was right — the bike knew what to do when hit by a gust and didn’t really need my choke hold.
There are pros and cons for me riding alone. I could get up and go when I wanted, stop when I wanted, eat when I wanted. I probably didn’t eat enough backed up by the fact I spent $162 on food in 12 days and a good part of that was bottled water. I am good about staying hydrated. I was able to use my throttle lock a lot to let my hand rest because I was determining the speed of the ride, not the person ahead of me. But it’s always been comforting to me to have Jean-Francois ahead of me on long trips since he looks out for me, and I missed that a lot. I also chose to be conservative and not do some things that I would have liked because I was afraid of dropping the bike while I was alone or getting the motorcycle someplace I couldn’t get out of. Camping is definitely an issue when I’m alone since I have asked to have my motorcycle moved for me on many occasions to get out of dirt or gravel parking areas. I figure moving it is a better option than picking it up.
I don’t regret erring on the side of caution. I wasn’t sure on the way out to California if I was being a weenie or being smart when I stopped due to 65 mph gusts being forecast the first two days. When I approached Grants, New Mexico the next day and saw the large flashing sign “Reduce speed! Dust storm ahead!” I figured I had made the right choice. Seeing a couple RV’s on their sides along the side of the road confirmed that.
I made all 4,200 miles without dropping my motorcycle — sort of a change of pace for me. I came close when I had to find a place to turn around near Ely, Nevada and got off in deep gravel, but I was able to keep going and didn’t fall. I was out in the middle of nowhere with no one around, so that was scary.
I got home safely — I think some of my conservative decisions contributed to that.
Was I scared sometimes? Yep. I was afraid of the high wind at times, switchbacks still scare me, being out in the middle of nowhere alone was a little intimidating, and the snow storm was a level of terror I hope I never revisit.
Did I learn a lot? Of course. I learned I have skills I still need to work on. That you don’t ride 12,000 feet Colorado mountain passes in May. I learned how to handle wind better (even though I still don’t like it). I learned that possibly extended mountain rides, rides through totally isolated territory, and camping rides should be done with a riding buddy so I may head for flatter terrain on the next solo ride. It seems that while I love mountains, desert isn’t the landscape that makes my heart sing so I think I need to head for the coast next time around.
Did I have a great time and would I do it again? In a heartbeat. I’m already planning my next ride.
