Steamboat to Wyoming

Saturday 6/22/13 Continued...

So I know anyone who read the last one is wondering if I succeeded. The answer is sort of not really. I'll get to that in a minute.....

I headed back to the house, linked up with Matt and we went out and had some dank trendy-mex food. While we were eating out appetizers two dirty (physically) transient types walked by and commented on it. We hooked em up with a taste and they were appreciative. I'm pretty sure we got hustled but it's whatever. Matt and I talked business, apparently there is this competition every year in boulder for 100k in funding for the best 20 start-ups that apply. You also get use of an accountant, office space and are provided with a mentor. This is in exchange for 20% of the business.

It's a genius idea really, venture capitalists have young up and comers competing in an organized system and furthermore the support system helps to protect their investment. I'm definitely going to have to look into it.

Heather met us out after dinner and got a drink or two. Then I met up with Tye, an old buddy from Portsmouth and Matt and Heather headed. Ty and I hit up a couple spots, I don't remember the last one. We were out on the smoking deck and I started up an argument with this chick. You know my steez. I forget what it was about. Maybe the only goood thing about chicago being deep dish pizza. She says something along the lines of fuck you, we should be friends. Kicks me and walks away. Last call rolls around and suddenly she's in front of me like are you coming home with me or not? Sure I say. We get a cab and bounce. Her friend is rather unimpressed. Back at her place the bottle of absinthe comes out. I wake up in the morning next to her fully clothed. We both forgot each others names.

Sunday 6/23/13
We re-introduce out selves and go back to boulder to get breakfast and her vehicles. She has a baby blue scooter.

Special... props to Nate, the klr+trailer rider for the fantastic photo.

Anyway, we had a killer day. Oh and her name was Siobhan (pronounced Shiv-on).We road that little scooter up to this neat little place called Jamestown in the mountains and had the strongest mimosa's I've ever had. It took us about an hour cause the thing is only 50cc's. We did help tow a biker for a little bit though. Then we went to came back, traded out for the KTM and went to a brewpub/ bar called Avery. There we sat with two yuppie women (not to their detriment at all though) and talked about all sorts of inappropriate things. Over all it was a pretty sweet day. I went out again that night, everyone bailed on me but I ended up kickin' it with this Mexican dude who didn't really speak English until close. Oh and a Minneapolis native atmosphere fan put her number in my phone.

Monday 6/25/13

Oliver and I did an oil change and put wheel weights on the bike, we made a bit of a mess but got the job done. He was a huge help and I'm pretty sure we leveled up his man skills at least 2 fold. Joe showed up in in the early afternoon. We went and grabbed lunch and planned our route. Pearl st is very distracting at lunch time and Joe started to appreciate Boulder. Finally we packed up and hit the road for the best ride I've had so far this trip.

First we went up through Jamestown on these awesome mountain windies. The pavement was grippy and clean, then we went into Rocky Mountain national park, there were huge elk, massive mountains, it was breathtaking. I took some photo's while riding but it doesn't really do it any justice.

Here are the photo's

We got pretty high up there for a minute. The loss of power was obvious. We came down into the flats and then our route took us onto some dirt roads that turned into trail with a gate across it. One of the gates had been broken down so we road around it and continued up. We soon realized why the trail was still closed. As we climbed higher and higher more and more snow was crossing the trail in these massive speed bumps, the KTM had with its brand new rear tire had no problem powering through them but Joe's heavier DR 650 had a little more trouble and require a push every now and then. Whenever I pushed snow was flung down the front of my jacket. At this point it had gotten dark and was about 9pm Luckily, I retrofitted the KTM's headlight with an HID and Joe had a Baja Designs LED so the darkness really made no difference to us. We finally got into steamboat at around 1030 and stopped in at this awesome restaurant. I've forgotten the name but apps were half off and the jim beam and gingers came in pints and were righteous. The waitress was funny, she said "boulder is a great place if you want to have a social life and go out and bang bitches". the owner super cool. They directed us to a free spot to camp up in the mountains. Okay so I went back and figured it out. It was the Mahogany Ridge Bar and grill. Awesome place. Totally recommend it.

We found a rather level and lumpy pull off and set up tent. They had given us a 30lb trash bag filled with ice for Joe's ankle. It was a bit of overkill but nice none the less.

Here is our route:

Tuesday 6/25/2013

We broke camp and headed for Craig to meet up with Tim Hasselman. Tim is a wild land fire fighter and was supposed to have the day off but due to the fire risk had to work. He gave us a tour their facility and helped us with maps and directions up to Wyoming. He had a super helpful coworker who spent about half an hour going over directions, maps and trails with us. We took off and headed back to Steamboat to run a few errands. I'd called Verizon to warranty my phone, and a lady there had kind of hooked it up. I can't tell you what she did because she made me promise i wouldn't but suffice it to say she hooked it up.  We got the new phone, Joe searched in vain for a rear tube and we hit the road north. We also planned our next three days at a cafe called Makoa in craig. Very reasonably priced food with free wifi, and coffee. Family run, if you ever go you'll see what I mean.

We head north for about 50% tarmac and 50% road it was pretty mellow and fun with some stunning views. We got into Encampment and asked a friendly local about a grocery store, he said the closest one was twenty miles. We thanked him and headed for Lazy Acres camp ground. We rounded the corner and low and behold a small grocery. I don't think he was being malicious, I think he might not have understood us. We bought some dinner supplies and set up camp. I fixed this kids pedal bike. He is solo riding from Denver to Yellowstone. The derailleurs needed adjustment, we cooked up some dank dinner and had James ( read kid from above) join us. At 18 riding solo from Denver to Yellowstone solo is pretty badass. I sure wouldn't do it.

Here is our dank ass dinner:

Here is our route:

Boulder, Oh my love.

Wednesday 6/19/2013 Continued.

While Heather was working and I wasn't I remember that I had an old friend from World Of Warcraft that lived in Minneapolis. I hit him up on facebook and he invited us over for a fire / barbecue. Its awesome because he actually dated a girl that I went to high school with. Small world. Heather got of work and we headed grabbed some food,  a old high school yearbook and headed over to Joel's place. Joel was very welcoming and exactly how I remembered him, we first met playing WOW because we were both being pranksters and fucking off when everyone else was serious. Joel had some semi-fam there, D and his girl friend who's-name-i-can-neither-remember-nor-pronounce.  Also he had another WOW friend there whom I'm forgetting the name off. We kicked it till about midnight reminiscencing about raids and talking about life. It's always nice to meet people of the internet.

Thursday 6/20/13

Heather was able to get off work for a couple hours in the morning, she whipped up a dank breakfast, I packed up my stuff and bade her farewell.
Here is a photo of us right before I left:

Heather said "one of the reasons i liked you was because there was absolutely no chance at commitment" I wish more women share that mentatility. Then again its not every chick that lets a stranger off a dating site pick her up at the airport at midnight on a dirtbike. 

I want to take this time out to say I absolutely fucking hate Iowa. That state sucks. Its terrible, the riding was awful there was strong headwind the the drivers suck. If you're from there I'm sorry. I'm sorry for you and your family.  

Nebraska kinda sucks too.

So I basically pinned it from Minneapolis to Columbus, interstate the whole way.  I was feeling pretty good and was actually going to ride through the night to boulder but I passed this dirt race track in columbus and I had to go back and check it out.

It was bad ass, dusty as fuck but badass, these guys were whipping these cars in full drift at 100 miles an hour inches from each other. It was like redneck nascar. Granted that sounds redundant but it was actually really cool. The crowd was live, the beer was cheap and the bartender gave me the last one on the house. Here are some pictures. There is also video phootage but, well I don't feel like waiting the two days to upload it.

The owner let me pitch my tent next to the track so I camped there. Here is a photo of the baby whipes I "showered" with after the race was over.

Here is my route:

Friday 6/21/2013

Got up early, broke camp and hit interstate 80 for about 450 miles to boulder, along the way I cursed truck drivers that drive next to each other blocking, ate some terrible fast food and though my stomach was gettin' destroyed. Nebraska kinda sucks but finally I made it to Colorado. I motored up to Elite KTM in Loveland orginally to get oil but ended up gettin a new rear tire. The mitas E-07 did not hold up the way I thought it would and after 3000 miles its pretty much done. Here is my sexy new Mefo Super explorer:

 The guys at Elite KTM were awesome, they let me use a corner of thier shop and even demo a KTM 990 Baja so I could go to the harley shop to pick up wheel weights. Its a sick bike but I like my 525 more. It was nice trying a 14k rig and still likeing my bike better, it made me feel good. Here is my baby posing outside of thier shop all ready to rock:

 Got DAMN she is so fine.

I headed for Boulder, unfortunately despite my best efforts no internet dating or couch surfing had worked out. Luckily a certain honey badgers cousin resides here and she and her boyfriend offered to put me up. They gave me a room, a shower, cooked a dank dinner and we went out last night. I don't know what it is about boulder and me forgetting the address of where I'm supposed to go but I got lost and didn't make it home till 6 am. The birds were chirping and the sun was coming up. I definitely slept on the sidewalk a little bit. I'm just going to go ahead and blame it on the altitude.

Here is my route:

Saturday 6/22/13

Well I'm sitting in the park off pearl street enjoying the beautiful women, weather and children screaming as they run through the fountain. I fucking love this city, it has free wifi and outlets in the park. OUTLETS IN THE PARK: 

Even 220... I mean seriously boulder?

So I met these two dudes on KLR's ONe has a homemade trailer.  The other has been on the road for 10 months and is completely powered by magic. Check it out at Magicianonamotorcycle.com. 

Here are their bikes.

Well folks its time for me to make moves. I don't feel like uploading the route maps because A) it was straight fucking highway, and B) neither of those states deserve any kind of recognition.

Peace love and fuck asshole truck drivers.

Minneapolis

Sooo its been a wild last four days and I'm still in Minneapolis, this city is awesome, the people are super friendly ("Minnesota Nice"), the women are beautiful, the food is outstanding and the rent seems relatively cheap.

Here are some two photo's from 6/16:

Serous-face:

Twerk Face:

That was at a basement club called Honey.  We ended up there two nights in a row.

6/15/13 Saturday 

I woke up early, made my last blog post and did some laundry while my couch surfing hosts slept. Then Thomas and I took off to one of his buddies to help build a retaining wall. We stopped somewhere and got breakfast. I had a bombass breakfast burrito. I wish I could remember the place. We arrived around noon and the work party was in full effect.

There were probably 10 or fifteen guys working and two thirty racks. Naturally, I jumped right in. Its been weeks since I'd done any real physical labor and my body and mind had missed it. Its always cool when you see a bunch of friends helping out another friend with so much gusto. Inspiring. Here are some photo's of the guys :

About halfway through the rain hit, everyone went inside but I kept working. I wanted to hold it down for the northeast. I put about another hour or so with thomas and another dude and we got it to the point where it would be relatively simple to finish. Then we headed back to thomas's to change and get ready for the evening. As we were climbing on the bus the rain stopped and the sun came out... Course... Anyway here is a picture of the completed wall... 

Damn Sexy. 

We went out again and ended up at Honey again. A wild time for sure.

6/16/13 Sunday

After two nights out we were starting to feel the burn. The weather was beautiful so we went to Hidden Beach, a lake beach with a mudhole to boot. At hidden beach is a guy that gives away free Tie-Dye t-shirts. He hangs em from a tree and when they are taken replaces them. He has given away over 26000 tee shirts. Here is the tree:

Here is Justin, killin it on a slackline:

While the view at the beach was great Justin and I were gettin' a little antsy at the beach so we took off in search of a volleyball game. While we didn't find any volley ball I did get a decent burrito at Chipotle. I'd give it a solid 6.9.

We met back up with Thomas and some of there friends then went back to the house and watched terrible rap videos on youtube. I started to get a little stir crazy after a couple hours so me and this dude Alex went out to try to catch last call. 

Alex is a total "fixie" and a competitive track bike athlete, it was interesting. While there is a superficial difference in the tool, skinny bars vs wide bars, brakes vs no brakes, fat tires vs skinny the thrill of picking your line at speed was the same. When he said when he sees gridlock traffic in front of him he gets a rush it reminded me of looking down trail at a rock garden. We caught last call... twice, then wandered around a little bit with a bottle of wine. 

I stumbled home and crashed out on the couch.

6/17/13 Monday

Today both Thomas and Justin had to work, I slept in, ran a bunch of errands, did some laundry and caught a session of Hot Power Fusion yoga at Corepower. The yoga was great, just what the doctor ordered, I'm still feeling it as I right this. I replaced my lost copy of Zen of Motorcycle maintenance and bought Thomas and Justin Shantaram as a parting gift.

A couch surfer I had contacted prior to arriving in Minneapolis contacted me and told me if i was still in town she was having a fire and invited me to come over. Never one to miss a fire, I headed over to her place. We got pizza and sat around the fire, there was another couch surfer there too, he was a student from Sweden.

11:15pm rolled around and it was time for me to pick up Heather, an okcupid date from the airport. She lives in Saint Paul and had been out of town visiting friends in LA for the weekend. You know you've got a winner when someone you've never met agrees to have you pick them up at the airport on a dirtbike at midnight.

We made it back to her place, dropped off her bag and my bike and walked to a local bar for long islands. Damn good drinks. They closed we came back and hit the hay.

Here is a photo of us on the bike that night. The flash was super bright:

6/18/13 Tuesday

Heather had some issues with her plumbing in the bathroom, the faucet in the sink let water out at little more then drip and both the drain in her sink and shower were seriously clogged. I pulled the screen off the faucet and cleaned it. Then we pulled the pvc from under the sink and cleaned the extreme nastiness that had accumulated in there. 

Heather had enjoyed riding on the bike so we went out and busted out a bunch of errands around town. We interspersed food and drink as we drove.  I made copies of both my insurance card and my registration and laminated them so they'd be beaver-pond proof.

We got dinner, and were originally planning on seeing superman in imax 3d but since both of had had rather intense weekends we bailed and crashed relativity early.

6/19/13 Wednesday

Well last night is the first night I've gotten a full 8 hours in for at least a week and I feel like a million bucks. Heather went to work early. I got up, remembered the drain problem with the shower and decided to fix it. I pulled the plug and found quite a hairy situation. Har har har...heh. Anyway, that's about all I've accomplished so far today other then this blog and some emails. Tomorrow I will hit the road. I think I'm heading for CO.

Munising to the Miny apple

6/13/13

Well today saw me coming back into the states via Sault Saint Claire. I decided to forgo heading north around the great lakes in part due to beavers but also so that I might spend some time in Minneapolis. I had some fears crossing the boarder also do to the beavers. In one of my dives into a pond my registration and proof of insurance had become one in a wet blob of paper. Despite my best efforts (putting it in a bag of rice) it remained completely irrecoverable. Luckily I'm good at getting through security check points and I chatted up the guard about my garmin showing him my route instead of the my paperwork. Here are some pictures crossing back into ahmerrrica.

This bridge was clearly designed by drunken Canadians.

And goTDamn I'm glad to have 3g/4g data connection again. I was really roughin' it up there in Canada with no internet on my phone.

I got into Michigan tanked up and headed for Munising. OMGZOR trails EVERYWHERE.  That part of Michigan is SICK. There are four wheeler trails literally all over the place, you can't look and not see one. They are nice wide curvy sandy thing's that will definitely take you for a ride if you aren't paying attention but a blast non the less. And so dry, and well posted. There even sharp corner signs. I had a blast riding into Munising.

I got into Munising, which kind of reminded me of Franklin NH, rode around, stopped in at a grocery and picked up dinner supplies. Quickly found a nice little trail up to some powerlines, pitched the tent and set up camp.

That's garlic classico with fresh onions, tomatoes and poached haberno and cheddar bratwurst over lingquini. I'm getting better at this whole camp cooking thing. The bottle of Crown is stealthily hidden behind the stove.

Here is the route I took:

6/14/13

Today was a slog but totally worth it. 450 ish Miles. Also I figured out a way better mode on my gps, it keeps my pointer centered and turns the track to my pointer is face up, also it shows speed, speed limit and name of the road. It's pretty sweet and its called Nuvi mode. It made my life infinity easier at trail intersections. I found I was turning around a lot less after figuring it out. Speaking of trails here are some pictures of the beauts I was dealing with today.

The riding I've been doing in Michigan has been the best of the trip, essentially worry free and safe and fun.  I successfully navigated a river crossing and felt like a true ADV rider.

 I'd say it was pretty evenly split between 30-50 mile an hour trails and 75 mile an hour highway riding. I listened to D. Veloped the whole day get a taste of him here. Also thanks to Kyle Findly I was living in Costa HiDef. The back story to that is he gave me this sick pair of sun glasses that quite simply make life look better.

Sooooo, I made it to Minneapolis after about 11 hours of riding and met my first couch surfing host, Thomas. Thomas lives on the famous Lyndale avenue (often referred to by Minneapolis rapper Slug of Atmosphere). Thomas and his roommate Justin have been super hospitable, providing me with a room, blanket towel and superb tour guiding.. We went out dancing last night to some cool little hip hop basement club, drank more then I care to remember and got incredibly sweaty. The shit was real.

!Here! is a link to the route I took. I'm putting it up like this so its more interact-able. I want y'all to see just how gnarly it was.

Here is the image if you are feeling lazy:

Ok so its not showing the first 150 ish miles and I'm kinda frustrated because that was some of the best riding of the day. Oh well. First world problems. I started in Munising and if you take a look you'll get the idea.

It's Saturday morning and I'm at the laundry mat, my shit is done and its time to go building a retaining wall. That's all folks.

Also I took a panorama of one of the lakes, not the steadiest shot but I thought it was cool.