Hwy 82 above Fork Lake Creek, CO. Uncongested roads and beautiful scenery. How do we do it? The secret is to avoid becoming fixated on your destination.

Independence Pass, CO, the highest paved pass in North America. The fuel injected Ducati ran as smoothly as ever. I could feel the performance hit at slower speeds but at higher speeds there is less aerodynamic drag due to the thinner air which tends to make up for most of the lost power.

Hwy 65 near Skyway, CO. The previous evening in Hotchkiss, CO Jeff discovered his countershaft sprocket retaining plate had worn through, leaving nothing to prevent his sprocket from slipping off the end of the shaft. He McGuivered a temporary fix with bailing wire and a call to Salt Lake City Ducati confirmed they had a replacement retainer in stock. Slick City, here we come! When I returned home I ordered myself a new retaining plate to avoid the same fate. I figured since both our bikes had 40-50,000 miles the wear would be similar. I was surprised to see my retainer had no perceptible wear and decided to keep the new retainer as a spare.

After installing the new retainer, we found a room in downtown SLC for the night and went out to sample some of the SLC nightlife. This is the view that greeted us in the morning. We met some other Mad ones who were gathering at Jitterbug Coffee shop @8am for a ride through the mountains to Torrey.

There was some sort of group ride delay (I call it group cluster fu**), the weather in the mountains was looking cold and wet, and the coffee at Jitterbug's was living up to its name. I was feeling antsy to ride. So around 10am Jeff and I decided to head south through the desert until the we had skirted the weather front. This is the east side of Utah Lake, Hwy 68 looking south.

Same spot, looking towards the Wasatch Range.

After a while we had left the cool, wet weather behind for the warmth of the desert, which was nice after a long winter north of the 38th parallel. We took a series of secondary roads to I-70 East and a short side detour off the Interstate onto old hwy 70 that detours through a short but scenic canyon area. South on 89 brought us to Zion National Park. The Zion-Mt. Carmel Tunnel is 1.1 miles long and was carved out of the native rock before it opened in 1930.

Jeff + tunnel + Ducati exhaust note = fun!

An evening in the Park. No crowds. Nice.

Buffalo graze just outside the East entrance to the park.

The hills above Mt. Carmel Junction in the evening light.

In the morning, we head back into Zion to do the tourist thing.

This is the view from inside the tunnel looking through a large "window" near the West end. A crescent moon hangs above.

We parked the bikes and took the shuttle bus up into the Floor of the Valley. This is Weeping Rock, the water that trickles here fell as rain over 1000 years ago and has percolated thousands of feet through the sandstone to finally see the light of day again.

Weeping Rock from a distance.

After exploring Zion National Park for a few hours it was time to head north and meet up with the mad ones in Torrey, UT. This is Hwy 14 a couple miles above Cedar Canyon Campground. The day started out as a real cooker but it was deliciously fresh and cool at altitude.

Cedar Breaks National Monument. Once again, over 10,000 feet. The roads in this area are fantastic riding and have plenty of natural scenic beauty.

Madness 2007 - Part 3
Index of Madness 2007

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