Earache Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 Against my better judgement, my buddy Phil and I are going to attempt a ride from Denver to Sacramento, California beginning on 8 April, 2021. April is the snowiest month for our area, so we're hoping there will be no major snowstorms happening that week. It'll be chilly both at altitude and in the deserts of Nevada and Utah as we head west. Basic route is pictured below. 1,400 miles each direction with about 2-1/2 days each way to complete the trip with 2-3 days in Sacramento area. As usual, anyone that wants to join us is welcome - just let me know. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earache Posted February 21, 2021 Author Share Posted February 21, 2021 Trip will include stops at Cedar City, Utah, Eureka, NV, Lake Tahoe / Reno and a few National Parks along the way. If the weather holds out, it should be a fantastic ride to begin our season. If the weather doesn't cooperate, then it'll suck more balls than have ever been sucked on a bike trip. It will be memorable either way. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XTreme Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 Wow! That's going to be a tough one Eric! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tym Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 Can i follow in an RV? 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earache Posted February 21, 2021 Author Share Posted February 21, 2021 5 hours ago, XTreme said: Wow! That's going to be a tough one Eric! It won't be bad at all if it doesn't snow much. 2-3 feet of snow will put a real damper on things. Hopefully that won't happen or we'll have to scrub the ride. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earache Posted February 21, 2021 Author Share Posted February 21, 2021 2 hours ago, Tym said: Can i follow in an RV? That would be the optimal way to do this trip really. Not a bad idea! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boboneleg Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 Wow, I wish you luck . We can only dream about things like that at the moment. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earache Posted February 21, 2021 Author Share Posted February 21, 2021 27 minutes ago, boboneleg said: Wow, I wish you luck . We can only dream about things like that at the moment. Thanks - I think we'll need a fair bit of luck for this ride to even happen. If the forecast at time of departure calls for any snow, we'll have to delay it. Simply can't ride in deep snow. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earache Posted February 21, 2021 Author Share Posted February 21, 2021 An alternative route to the south in case of too much snow / cold is posted below. This route will allow us to do Death Valley and Yosemite as well as keep us warmer. It'd be perfect if we casn do both routes - one out and one back - but time will dictate that. This southern route is about 1,700 miles so might take a day longer. I'd rather not do two 800+ mile days back to back. We only have one week allotted to do this and want to spend 2 days in Sacramento to visit my bud's wife. She's on a travelling nurse program and has been there for 6 months. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XTreme Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 1 hour ago, Earache said: An alternative route to the south in case of too much snow / cold is posted below. This route will allow us to do Death Valley and Yosemite as well as keep us warmer. It'd be perfect if we casn do both routes - one out and one back - but time will dictate that. This southern route is about 1,700 miles so might take a day longer. I'd rather not do two 800+ mile days back to back. We only have one week allotted to do this and want to spend 2 days in Sacramento to visit my bud's wife. She's on a travelling nurse program and has been there for 6 months. What bike is your mate riding Eric? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyrider Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 39 minutes ago, XTreme said: What bike is your mate riding Eric? is it a holiday or a marathon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earache Posted February 22, 2021 Author Share Posted February 22, 2021 2 hours ago, XTreme said: What bike is your mate riding Eric? He has a BMW GS - hope it makes it <gg>. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earache Posted February 22, 2021 Author Share Posted February 22, 2021 1 hour ago, skyrider said: is it a holiday or a marathon It's not for pussies, that's for sure. We only have a week so it is what it is. We've loads of rides like this, it's really not that big of a deal. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alfalfa Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 yep, north route has some good tarmac! Road thru Gateway is Butler gold route. Panguitch route is one of my favorite paved routes, too! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earache Posted February 23, 2021 Author Share Posted February 23, 2021 10 hours ago, glitch_oz said: Northern map brings back memories...there's some pretty spectacular country and good dirt/ gravel to the west of Blanding (UT191) onto the 276 to Bullfrog.... I've been through here about 45 times and know the area extremely well. We won't have any time for off road on this trip as we need to cover lots of miles each day. I also suspect that we'll have to go much further south this trip as it'll still be pretty cool temperatures on the northern route. Getting out of Colorado is gonna be the hard part as we'll have mountain passes to contend with and they'll be full of snow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesmoDog Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 I'll take a pass on this one... I haven't ridden with snow on the ground since I lived in Indiana. That's been over 20 years now, still have snow here, don't feel the need to ride in it! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earache Posted March 27, 2021 Author Share Posted March 27, 2021 Welp, we expected that this might happen..... Canceling our trip in April due to too much snow on the ground and more expected soon. Might do a smaller trip a little later...like late May. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tym Posted March 27, 2021 Share Posted March 27, 2021 Sounds like allot of water will be heading downstream when the melt hits. Thats a good thing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slowlycatchymonkey Posted March 27, 2021 Share Posted March 27, 2021 Most wise. When it happens how many hours a day do you anticipate being in the saddle? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earache Posted March 27, 2021 Author Share Posted March 27, 2021 3 minutes ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said: Most wise. When it happens how many hours a day do you anticipate being in the saddle? Usually around 11-12 hours per day. I like to try to leave each day around 6 AM and stop by 6 PM. Sometimes goes longer than that but not by design; we just bite off more miles than we can chew sometimes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slowlycatchymonkey Posted March 27, 2021 Share Posted March 27, 2021 Just now, Earache said: Usually around 11-12 hours per day. I like to try to leave each day around 6 AM and stop by 6 PM. Sometimes goes longer than that but not by design; we just bite off more miles than we can chew sometimes. Blimey that’s a lot of hours on a daily basis. Do you do any training for that or do you just regret that you didn’t half way there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earache Posted March 27, 2021 Author Share Posted March 27, 2021 7 minutes ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said: Blimey that’s a lot of hours on a daily basis. Do you do any training for that or do you just regret that you didn’t half way there? Every time I post a ride report or trip plans here, someone says the same thing; "that's too many miles, too long of a day, etc". No training or anything involved, it's just the way that we travel. We are used to it. Our trips are for riding, not eating, stopping, etc. Not everyone's cup of tea, I understand. Check out last summer's trip: 4,000+ miles in 8 days. Loads of fun! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slowlycatchymonkey Posted March 27, 2021 Share Posted March 27, 2021 I’d never say it’s too many miles or too far because what’s enjoyable is a subjective thing. What your doing is a lot by most peoples standards- more hardcore than a jolly to a cafe for a cup of tea and home again! One day I road 6 hours and couldn’t have been happier to stop, it was boring and I was knackered, later in the same week the conditions were terrible and it took 17hrs but it didn’t seem that far or that long, tis all very variable to me. Look forward to hearing all about it in May. Thanks for the link. I’ll have a read up 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earache Posted March 27, 2021 Author Share Posted March 27, 2021 10 minutes ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said: I’d never say it’s too many miles or too far because what’s enjoyable is a subjective thing. What your doing is a lot by most peoples standards- more hardcore than a jolly to a cafe for a cup of tea and home again! One day I road 6 hours and couldn’t have been happier to stop, it was boring and I was knackered, later in the same week the conditions were terrible and it took 17hrs but it didn’t seem that far or that long, tis all very variable to me. Look forward to hearing all about it in May. Thanks for the link. I’ll have a read up Ya also gotta remember that the distances in the USA are a bit greater than what you're used to. 350 miles won't get me outta the state of Colorado. Many times the next town that has fuel might be 200+ miles away so you pretty much have to do longer distances. It's different but it is fun. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tym Posted March 27, 2021 Share Posted March 27, 2021 Takes me an hour to go 30 miles in Connecticut. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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