10,000 miles, 4 bikes, 50 days, 11 states plus B.C. in Canada.

The western states of The United States of America are the most amazing destination for adventure bikers.The friendliness, hospitality, and welcome of the people is overwhelming.

With scenery on a scale which beggars belief and distances just so huge after Europe, it takes weeks to adjust to riding hard all day and only covering 2 or 3 inches on a map of just a third of the country.Vast empty spaces between names on the map which may turn out to be nothing more than a junction between a railway and a road with not even a house,let alone the gas station and snack bar you need.

A truly big country,stunningly beautiful and so much of it empty.You can ride for hours through awe-inspiring wilderness,and the only sign that man has ever been there is the empty road. Complete biking Heaven.

My American dream came true in May/June 2003, by courtesy of Bikeshare. First I investigated renting a bike in USA, but after a lot of internet searching and talking to people I realized that the availability of my prefered type of bike, a big trail bike, was limited and all bike rental was very expensive.

I looked at the possibility of a bike-buyback, popular in Australia and New Zealand, but received no response or interest whatsoever. I considered shipping my own bike over there and talked to H C Travel who quoted me an amount approximately equal to two weeks of USA bike rental costs . This seemed a good deal and I was proposing to go ahead with it, when I received an e-mail from a USA Big Trail Bike Club member suggesting I join Bikeshare. See the fact-file for details.

By searching the internet and reading I established a provisional list of places I wished to visit.

I studied the USA Bikeshare member details and e-mailed about six members asking if they could do a bikeshare with me, and three replied offering to do it. One in San Luis Obispo, which is on the coast between Los Angeles and San Francisco, and two near to Seattle in Washington State.

Since I had decided I wanted to go for about 50 days, I decided that I would do three Bikeshare's so that I would not be borrowing any one person's bike for more than about 12 days. It subsequently turned out that no one has ever done a multi-share before since the usual length of bikeshare is two or three weeks, and I felt it was unreasonable to put too many miles on one person's bike.

The insurance was fairly easy to sort out on this occasion, as all three of them were able to include me on their own insurance policies .

I then began to plan the provisional routes for three two week trips,starting on May 1st and returning home to England on June 20th.
Since there was some doubt about how early the snow would clear, I planned to go first to San Luis, and do the southern route through the major national Parks Grand Canyon and to the east, and then work northwards with the advancing summer. In the event this worked out very well in spite of spring being approximately two to three weeks later than normal and me having to be very flexible to avoid snow blocked mountain passes in various places. There was only one place that I was not able to visit because the pass over into it was blocked by snow at the time that I needed to go.Sadly this was Yosemite National Park, but I was looking for a good reason to return.

I flew from Manchester to Chicago to Los Angeles and then on a small plane to San Luis. Once I arrived in Chicago the Airport was in nothing less than total chaos. Due to the heightened security requirements following 911, The one and a half hours allowed between my connecting flights was less than half of what was really needed, so I missed my flight. They booked me on to the next one, but I missed that also. When I eventually arrived in Los Angeles the last connecting flight of the day to San Luis was about to leave. They bundled me into a car and we chased the plane out on to the tarmac, where it stopped and they allowed me to board. When I arrived I discovered Bill, my first bikeshare partner, waiting for me with my luggage which had been there three hours already.

We drove out the short distance to Bill's house and I met his wife Phyllis.
it was then that Bill told me that Bikeshare is less about borrowing bikes and more about making friends and meeting people,and I found this to be very true as the trip unfolded. I frequently found it impossible to find time in an evening to write up my Journal due to the hospitality I was offered in so many places. I either did it the next morning before riding off, but for a few days it did not get done, and unfortunately on a trip like this if you leave it a few days you can't remember.

The weather was pretty bad for the next two days, so I stayed with Bill, enjoying their superb house, meeting friends and family, visiting microbreweries, a music concert, and nice restaurants.

It was planned that I would ride bills Yamaha Venture, which is Yamaha's version of the Gold Wing but unfortunately it had a gear box fault, so it had been arranged that I would use Wes's bike ( another Bikeshare member ).This was a Kawasaki Concourse, a thousand CC four cylinder sports tourer, which turned out to be a very good touring bike, sweet handling comfortable and well equipped with panniers etc.

Wes rode with me on the first day on his Triumph Tiger. We set off eastwards over the mountains, but the forecast of good weather did not materialize and it was grey and damp so we could not do the spectacular mountain pass over Mount Pinos, that we had intended. It was cold and I was glad of my European warm riding gear. I sadly missed on a number of occasions my electric heated vest which I had not taken because I did not expect the bikes to be fitted with a suitable plug and Socket.

As we dropped down off the coastal mountain range into the desert near Lancaster, I had the first of my major climatic experiences. We went from winter to midsummer in little more than half an hour. Astonishing! Baking hot desert and cloudless blue skies.

Palmdale-Victorville-Lucerne Valley were all a bit grim as I was going across the outer northern edges of Los Angeles area. After Lucerne valley through Landers down to Joshua Tree it was classic dessert scenery with houses, shacks, mobile homes dotted all over at random. Amazing total lack of planning,it was so awful it was interesting to see as a demonstration of the importance of good planning.

We stayed at "29 Palms", beside the northern entrance to Joshua Tree National Park,and the next morning very early we rode through the park. Then Wes left me to ride home.

Going through the park the sun was very low and highlighted the volcanic rock formations and amazing cactii with dramatic light and shade effects. Due to the unusually wet spring the cactii were covered in flowers, and the barren volcanic landscape had bloomed with flowers everywhere.

I rode a fairly major road eastwards through Rice to Parker along miles of straight roads across plains of sand scrub and cactus, past dried out salt lake's with impressive pointy mountain peaks all along the periphery of the plain.

Stopping in the little town of Parker on the Colorado river for lunch, I had a foretaste of the friendly people I was to meet throughout my trip. As I was enjoying my lunch in walked a guy who I had met only once before in deepest Wales in a small roadside cafe, about two weeks before I left for America . He had promised to send me a copy of the Rand McNally road atlas for USA, but it had not arrived. He earns his living by doing conducted tours in the USA for wealthy clients who wish to travel and take photographs. He had given me much very useful advice about travelling in USA. He didn't turn a hair on seeing me and said "I am glad I have bumped into you because I can now let you have the map". I reckon the odds against that meeting were higher than winning the lottery.
After he left I was talking to the owner of the restaurant and on hearing about Bikeshare he expressed the desire to do a motor home share with anyone in Europe who is interested. That sounds like another good idea for someone to organise.

My route then took me through Havasu city where the old London bridge has been rebuilt. The weather was so hot,and the town was so long ( I clocked over 7mi. of the main street where the highway goes through the town with no bypass) with a very slow changing set of traffic lights at every block intersection. It took so long and I was suffering so badly from the heat waiting all this time in full riding gear, that I could not face the diversion to see the bridge, and got out onto the open road as quickly as possible to cool down. My flip up helmet was a godsend in these conditions. The slow traffic lights were to become a recurring inconvenience in many small towns throughout my travels, in fact when riding on normal (not freeway) roads, it was hard to maintain an average speed over 50mi. an hour.

I had been advised to visit Laughlin which I was told is a biker town. Arriving on the Tuesday I was told that the previous weekend there had been 27,000 Harley Davidson's there, and I missed it all. It must have been like Douglas in TT week. They completely took over the town, which is a mini Las Vegas gambling town since I was now in Nevada the gambling state.

I diverted here to go along the most traditional unspoilt section of the Historic Route 66 through Oatman,and what an amazing place it is, complete with what must have been paid actors acting out the wild-west scene. Really authentic looking 1800's town with saloons,board-walks,the whole bit! An unmissable slice of history.

The road out of Oatman heading east towards Kingman is an absolute big trail bike delight , broken tarmac, narrow, severe gradients and bends, in fact completely unimproved from the original road on which so many people in the early years of the last century made the great trek out to California.Apparently some drivers at the time made a living out of driving peoples cars over that section,because they were too scared to do it themselves.

After crossing the Interstate 40 , There is another old section of route 66 almost to Ash Fork. All of these Sections of route 66 are very traffic free and most enjoyable.

What can I say about the Grand Canyon that has not already been said a thousand times?

To stand on one of the many viewing areas and look down 1 mile into the Canyon,really does justify the overused word awesome. I would advise anyone going there for the first time to bypass the official viewing area and touristy center, and go straight to the last viewing area towards "Desert View",called "Lipanpoint". Apart from being less crowded the view is definitely much better .

Also, if you can, take a camera with a U. V. filter because there is a lot of haze across the canyon due to the air pollution. I had intended to take the road around to the northern rim of the canyon, but the access road was closed due to snow.

The road down to Cameron which drops from 7,500ft. to 4,500ft. goes alongside the Little Colorado Gorge. If it were not a neighbor to the Grand Canyon,this scenic gorge and road would be world famous in it's own right. It is a fast fabulous scenic Big Trail Bike Grin Factor 10 road.
I stayed that night in the Cameron Trading Post, which is on an Indian reservation,and is thus alcohol free which is a pity as I needed a beer after a day like that.

North up the H89 through the amazing Marble Canyon to Page and the Glen Canyon Dam,which holds back a 100 mile long reservoir in super scenic surroundings.

If you go to Page visit Sit'n Bull Espresso and see Julie who serves delicious coffee and cakes. As you enter Page the biggest sign,and I mean big,was:"The Churches of Page welcome you", all listed in detail, about 20 of them in a really small town. Useless info I know, but I thought it said something about the place.

Just outside Page there is a new fuel-fired power station,built in the most scenic place you could find,right on top of a hill,visible from over 50 miles away,stacks belching smoke.I decided they put it there because they were proud of it.Who cares about this pesky scenery,look at our magnificent power station.

As I fuelled up in Kayenta to enter Monument Valley, a dust storm was raging. One concerned motorist stopped and advised me not to go down the valley as he considered it too dangerous for a bike.

As I crested the rise just outside the town,and saw the steep drop down into the valley with the arrow straight road disappearing into the gloom in the distance,it was weird.You have seen the pictures of it so many times you feel you have been there before.However the dust raging across the road,the classic western films rolling sagebrush bowling across the road in front of me, and the bright sun above shafting down through the dust, all gave it a special magic.

The "town" of Medicine Hat is named after a very special rock formation just like a mexican hat,but there is practically nothing else there. Nearby I visited the Goosenecks State Park which was not even on my map,but it is so scenic.The closest set of multi-river-meanders in the world, all on a river canyon many 100's of feet deep,and I had the place to my self, in fact I almost failed to notice that the little black dots moving on the river far below were canoeists.You lose all sense of size in these places it is all so vast.

The roads north out of Medicine Hat, H261 & H95 over to the H191 are a must, unless you have a bike that can't handle a 3 mile section of spectacular dirt road in the middle, all the rest is tarmac.You climb up the face of a cliff with severe gradients and huge dramatic unprotected drop-offs. My Kawasaki was happy on this,the surface wasn't bad, and the whole 70 mile loop including the very fast swoopy and empty H95 is unmissable.

Overnight stop in Blanding which is a Mormon Town, as I was in Utah now, and no alcohol anywhere, not even in the supermarket. I left it at 6am, absolutely freezing, snow flurries because all this huge area is at 6 - 8000 ft. It warms right up with the sun and you quickly shed layers after 10.30.Midday to 4pm you absolutely cook, then it quickly goes cold again. I don't think I dropped down below 4000ft for a week.

I made my first visit to one of the 4 separate areas which comprise Canyonlands National park which is bigger than Wales I reckon, and the 4 bits of it are separated by massive river canyons that can't be crossed. You must take 100's of mile long detours round to the next adjacent bit of the park.

I landed up in Moab about 4pm,and had to find a bike workshop to change the bike oil as it was due, and I immediately got pulled into the dirt-biking community there, and spent 3 nights staying with a fabulous guy I met in the bike shop.

They loaned me a small dirt-bike,an XR280,and we had a day riding "Slick Rock". Get that up on the net and look at it. It was (sorry but it was) awesome. Most fantastic days dirt-biking I ever had, and I've had some good ones. An area of bare sandstone, all domes and gullies which stretches out of sight.Many 100's of sqare miles, with a surface like coarse sandpaper that grips unlike anything else I have ridden on.There are 21 miles of trail riding route marked out in white paint blobs that you follow CLOSELY.

2 or 3 years ago a guy got 10 ft off course, and he came to a flat end a little later, 550 ft down,on the road beside the river. I had just ridden past where it happened and didn't know.There are no barriers or warnings, and when I went back to look you have absolutely no idea there is a drop-off at all let alone a 550ft one, until you are less than 5 ft away. You take care of yourself in America, or you don't last. How refreshing!
One bit of the trail was a 9inch wide ledge at a definite 40/45 degrees that curved about 15 ft round one of the sandstone domes, with a 6/8ft drop-off one side and a rock wall at about 20 degree to the vertical up on the other which your footpegs scrape against. If you weren't behind someone who had just ridden across you would never attempt it.
My 3 days in Moab were so good I didn't want to leave. There is a dirt-biking community that has moved there from all over the USA, because it must be one of the best places on the planet for dirt biking. Many of them past National Champions in various dirt-riding disciplines. They all meet up in a diner every day for breakfast at 7.30,and decide who rides where and with whom that day.

There are 10's of thousands of miles of legal dirt trails just in Utah and quite recently the bikers went to the State Rights of Way Dept, and said:"How about if we create some new trails across the area, because there is no access and nobody uses it". "Great Idea," said the ROW boys,"get on with it",and they did. Can you even imagine that against the current international background of restriction and closure? I rode out one evening with Fred,the bike shop owner, on his VFR800, and we did a fabulous mountain loop over La Salle Mountain, across a corner of Colorado,climbing to nearly 9,000 ft, and nearly got taken out by a herd (flock/troop) of elk bounding across the road around us, and those guys are BIG.

To cap it all there was a fabulous little micro-brewery (in spite of being a Mormon town),which served real-ales to die for. Oh,and it was hot and dry. I loved the place! I want a holiday home there. Heaven on wheels.Go there before you shuffle off!

I have very fond memories of lying immersed to the neck in the outdoor whirlpool bath at Jim's house, high on the hill overlooking Moab town, drinking a cold beer and watching the sun set over the red mountain range opposite and the lights come on below.Gulp!

Storms, tornados, heavy snow falls all across NW USA, so my plans to go up to Yellowstone and the Rockies bit the dust. In fact it looked a bit dodgy that I would get back to California to deliver bike no.1 back to San Luis Obispo on time.

I plotted a careful route which took me north and west round 2 other sections of Canyonlands,and past Cathedral Valley which you can't get into without a dirt bike or a 4 by 4, which is a pity because I really wanted to see it. What a shame it wasn't later in the trip when I had a proper Big Trail Bike.

I was advised by a motel owner to visit a virtually unknown Utah State Park "Kodacrome Basin", yet another weird and fantastical variation on the eroded rock formations theme. Then to Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park. By this time I should have had terminal sensory failure after so much of the eroded volcanic rock scenery, but each are so different in the patterns and the way the rock shapes form that the enjoyment was endless for me.Probably one of the most amazing was Arches National Park,next to Canyonlands, where you have numerous natural rock arches.Some of them so big, spanning so wide, so high and so slender,that you can't believe they can stand up.

I spent one night in Las Vegas just so I could see what it was all about, as I couldn't avoid going right past it anyway. Fascinating to see ,but I will not be going again.

Death Valley was everything I imagined, and I was exceedingly fortunate that the weather was unseasonably cool at only 100deg F. In fact they had had more recent rain than they had had for many years and I took photo's of mountainsides and right down in the very bottom of the valley that were sheets of yellow flowers where it hadn't flowered for many years, and the salt lake was sticky and muddy under an inch of salt when I walked out onto it.

I rode right through the valley from end to end, planning to ride out at the top end over a 75 mile mountain pass to Big Pine. When I got there it was a dirt road, impassable for the Kawasaki, so I had to turn round and go all the way back to furnace creek in the middle of the valley, where I had been at lunchtime, to fill up with gas. It was then 5pm,and still nearly 100 degrees, and I faced another 100 miles to get out to Lone Pine. I didn't know if there were motels there, so I bit the bullet and stayed in the very expensive Furnace Creek Resort, swam in the pool and tried to cool down. I have never been so hot after 9 hours riding in the valley which just about did for me,even at only 100deg.

Next day back to San Luis Obispo just in time to meet the owner of bike no 2,but that is another story.

Ted Scott. #K143