Cornering Consciousness

Two weeks to go before Summer semester begins and there’s a break in my days, a perfect time for a quick trip to knock off some bucket list items, like the Shafer Trail, Valley of the Gods, Moki Dugway, Halls Crossing and a bonus – the Burr Trail. Other things had come together as well, the Tiger for one, and the right gear for this 902 mile trip in three days, from 1200 feet to almost 10,000, 56F degrees to 103. After living and riding in Southern Utah for twenty years it’s a switch to start my travels now from the Wasatch Front with cooler temps that tease you into thinking status quo on weather conditions and temperatures, all of which are amplified on a motorcycle. The Tiger is packed for the range of temps mentioned above, along with gear for the random squalls that pop up down south. My route south took me through Emigration Canyon, over Parley’s to Heber, through Starvation State Park to Duchesne, on to Green River and then to the Canyonlands National Park turn...

Showing up in Moab at the start of the Jeep Jamboree in a Hummer H3 is excruciatingly similar to showing up at a Harley Rally with a Blackbird. Reconnecting with an old friend was the inspiration behind this trip, along with the potential to explore the iconic tracks of the area, but they were all closed unless you happened to be part of the Jamboree. We were not. And that was probably a good thing. We slabbed to Moab on a Friday and were duly awed by the last quarter of the trip, that part of I-70 that cuts through the seemingly uninundated parts of the La Sal National Forrest area and the tip of the San Rafael Swell. We'll be back to explore their vacant backroads. We were disturbed a bit though, not by the beautiful vistas, but by the H3 that would slam in and out of neutral whenever I opened the throttle at freeway speeds. The slamming subsided along 191 as we made the descent into Moab. Camping along the Colorado was the appeal for us, so we took 128 east and wound our...