6 months ago we started mapping this thing out. I feel like I've been saying "I want to do this ride one day" for years--well now we're actually doing it!! The journey begins Wednesday >:) The lines below are meaningless, any homies in Denver, Vegas, or SoCal who might wanna catch up let me know!!
Day 0: tech gremlins, a sheared crash bar bolt, and a dangling fog light... But we made it to Wilmington! Hopefully we can sort out all this stuff and the next 3500 miles aren't so rough >_>
Day 1: done! We are about 650 miles in with no further issues. Glad to have gotten it out of the way yesterday! We started at sea level on the beach, and 9, 10 hours later were on a mountain at the NC/TN line. We've seen such beautiful scenery and we're barely out of our home state
Day 2: all the riding is starting to take physical tolls in weird ways. My bottom teeth hurt, why?! It's also helping break some patterns that I just can't do anymore. Compulsive social media consumption, snacking, too much coffee, there's too much ground to cover to keep up these habits
Day 3: we made it across The Big Flat! 16ish hours including stops, from St Louis to Denver. It was exhausting, and boring, but also beautiful. We had about an hour of setting sun and brilliant sun-rays (📸: @crissdragon.bsky.social), one of my favorite sights so far. 2k miles in... now we rest!
Day 5: Denver to Pikes Peak to Ouray is a route that is so beautiful, words fail to do it justice. Mountains, prairie, lakes, rapids, the best we could come up with to describe it was "breathtaking." This state is breathtaking. 📸: @crissdragon.bsky.social at Cottonwood Pass
Damn I'm jelly. I didn't make it to pikes peak. I was so close but I chickened out and turned west.
Day 6: kind of a wash, sadly. Many of our adventures were washed out by rain (including our airbnb lol) and we didn't get a ton of photos. But we saw some buttes and some mesas, and made memories just in unexpected places. Who knew August was the rainy season in the desert??
Day 7: Grand Canyon is real cool! We went to see it in the morning then spent the entire rest of the day driving around it to get to Vegas. After being in so much wilderness, Vegas has been complete sensory overload and I wish to escape to the mountains. But first we gotta get through death valley!
Day 10: we made it. It took a lot longer than we wanted today but we made it. Boots in the water Pacific coast version tomorrow!
Planning a first trip to the Grand Canyon can feel like a lot. I wrote down the basics that helped me if you’re curious: www.thetraveler.org/grand-canyon...
YES. it's fucked up just how amazing it is to ride though. It's the only thing I've been able to think about since. Y'all doing the San Juan Mountain Skyway?
We did that today actually!! It was excellent but we got rained on most of the time, so viewing distances were fairly short and tbh we need a redo sometime in the future. I bet it's a hell of a road when it's not pouring
That sucksss. :c But it's worth it, IMHO, especially if combined with Unaweep-Tabeguache and Hwy 92. Could make a trip out of just riding SW Colorado and visiting sites like the Black Canyon!
Such a beautiful skyscape!
HWY 285 through Colorado, or HEY 550 from Durango North are musts if you travel through Colorado. Avoid the interstates.
Message me~ you needn't remain on I-5 if you want scenic ;p
This is so incredibly fucking cool. I've got to do this some day too, especially now that I've got the wing. How long y'all think it's gonna take?
My original plan was to do this with a goldwing too!! I think you'd have a great time :D We're giving 12 days total for NC to SoCal but taking an indirect route up through CO then down around the grand canyon that adds some distance. And spending an extra day in a couple places 👀
Taking the time to hit CO is soooooo worth it, I just had a riding vacation there last month and it was easily the best vacation I've ever had. How y'all getting the bikes back? Riding back or is there a shipping option I don't know about and should be considering for the future 👀
It's such a surprisingly big state with SO many beautiful places, I cannot wait to see it all The plan is to ride back.. over time 👀 NC to SoCal, store the vehicles and fly home, then fly back for SoCal to Seattle in the spring, store again, then finally Seattle to home next summeish!
I... I never considered putting a bike in a storage unit to break a larger trip up into manageable pieces. I'll have to remember that, that's smart!