73 and Happy To Be .. Right Here / Utah Group Adventure Motorcycling

Hey there guys, welcome to my channel. Welcome to the Great Ride Open. I'm out in Utah on a multi-day adventure ride with a bunch of other guys organized by Moto Mission with Brock Gill. He's a good friend of mine. Awesome ride so far. I'll just keep saying that awesome but it's awesome. We're headed out of our base camp up into the La Salle mountains where it's cool and refreshing. Very soon we're going to be down in the hot country of Moab. It's going to be a blast. Glad you're joining us. Let's get rolling. Okay guys, this right here is adventure. Okay guys, welcome to the Great Ride Open. Today we'll be climbing up the geyser pass and through La Salle National Forest on our way over to Moab. We've got a multi-day ride coming along and it's going to be a great adventure. Glad you're coming along with me. It's going to be a lot of fun. Tomorrow we're going to be on the White Rim Trail including a camp out. Awesome. Adventure of a lifetime for me. Glad you're with me. We're on the dirt here now and it's just going to be better and better from here on out. Starting the climb up into the La Salles now. Look at these aspens already. Love it whenever I find myself riding among aspens. Just passed through a little rain cloud. Sprinkles of rain and the temperature has changed dramatically from where we left three step hideaway and we're just climbing and climbing and a few rain drops not enough to really do much more than wet your windscreen for a little bit. Definitely chillier. So off we go. There's Mr. Gill on his T700. Awesome dude. Okay we're in the cattle country here now. Hello Miss Moo. Yeah those are free range cattle. They know how to survive out here. We're up into the mountains here now and it's cooled off. The dust has died down. Hey guys. Naturally you had to turn and go right down the trail didn't you? Oh that's the fun of being out here. Saw a mule deer back there just a little bit earlier. Lots of cattle down in here. Have to keep an eye out for them and ride right. There's some more of them. Hey bossies. Very cool. Beautiful environment. Beautiful environment. Just tickled pink to be out on this ride. I mean just look at that. Majestic. Majestic. Everything about riding in the Moab area of Utah is majestic. Get a chance to get out here. Okay here's some deer. Little young buck right there. Hey buddy. Here's some more. Came through here last year. Going the other direction and that was on my ride from Oregon all the way to Virginia. You can check those videos out on my channel. That was an epic journey. Loved every minute of it but this was a highlight. This and riding over the Rockies, Ophir Pass, all California Pass, all those passes. Yeah it's great to be out doing this sport. If you are new to it you've got a lot to look forward to. If you're an old-timer like me just keep doing it as long as you can. They've had a lot of rain in this vicinity and parts of the west over the last couple of weeks could affect the trail. I'm seeing some runoff rutting but not too bad. Overall this is a pretty easy trail up and over Geyser Pass and down into Moab from this direction. Yeah getting a little more rocky and some washouts here. Yeah careful in this turn. Well I'm enjoying doing this on my WR. Last time I came across this the other direction I was on my heavily loaded DR650. Now I'm on my lightly loaded WR with a new suspension and Signs of a little heavier rain up here already today. Some looking out over the view. Yeah magnificent. I don't know if you guys can see that or not but we're looking down into the canyon land from up here in the beautiful spruce and lovely. What is this? Okay somebody dragging some firewood back to camp. Ready to go Bradley? It's hard to leave a viewpoint but there's going to be more. Well that was a great spot to stop and take a little break and what a view. We've got Brock in the lead. Whoa here right now David right behind him. Awesome rider. He is riding a Honda CRF450L with only one arm. Awesome dude. He just threw up a stick behind me trying to take me out with a big old stick. This guy's hunting and a little concerned about people coming through here too fast. That wouldn't be us but that was his concern. I didn't know it's hunting season but I think it's hunting season almost any time. Not being a hunter myself. We're getting back into a little dust. down now on the opposite side of the La Salle and off of Geyser Pass and look at this. Awesome. We're looking down into the canyon lands and Moab desert area. How awesome is this? Okay guys this right here is adventure. Down out of the high environment of the mountains. So cool and we're looking down here on the desert. We're going to be riding right down there. All these guys are having a great time. Taking pictures. A couple of fathers and sons riding. Just go awesome. That's the beautiful green mountains we've just wound our way down out of. Now we're getting into the red rock slick rock area as we descend our way down into Moab. Awesome. Awesome looking terrain. So worth it if you ever come to Moab. Got the Pan American right up here in front of me. Justin I believe is the rider. He's riding carefully and having a good day out. Now we're getting into some red rock formations. Beautiful. Now we're having a great day out. Everybody's having a good time. Getting into a little sand and more challenging terrain for sure for the whole day. But everybody's doing fine. No mishaps. I did come in hot on a couple of corners back up there in that pea gravel on the mountain and yeah a little two-wheel drift around the corner unintentionally but I said wow that was cool but let's not do that again. This should be a good warm-up for what we've got coming tomorrow. It'll be on the next video. It'll be the White Rim Trail and we're going to camp out. I may What do you guys think? You having an awesome day? There's a bunch of guys behind me. Thanks for pulling over. We try to share the road. I think it's really important to be good ambassadors for our motorcycling adventure sport when we're out using these trails. Recognize that other people use them. The jeeps, the bicyclists, joggers, in order to keep access open to us and we need to be courteous to one another and share the trail just like these jeeps did for us. Wow another awesome sight. We got a late afternoon sun going on or early afternoon and this is awesome but to get it in the morning sunlight with the shadows the colors are more vibrant. Spectacular. Incredible. Okay we just stopped for a little refreshment set in the shade. Some of the guys rode a little bit of the Slickrock Trail. 102 degrees and I'm kind of feeling it but when you get moving and you got that air flowing through you oh man that feels good. Stay hydrated that's the key and it's not just water. You need electrolytes in there with it. What do you think Justin? I think I've got a bit of a smaller bike. I have a 650 but I didn't have the time to ride it over here. Well it's a trade-off. I've got a 650 and I am enjoying this a little bit more. My buddy just bought one of the Throwback KX 450s and he said he loves it. What's your experience on this Harley so far? Mostly fire road up in Washington. I do a lot of camping and things like that but way different than here. We got a lot of just log roads you know. They're just kind of gravelly but not big rock. This is taking it to the next level isn't it? Yeah exactly. So far so good though. Yeah I haven't fell over nothing fell off. Nobody has fallen and hurt themselves today so far. These guys are tempting fate on Slickrock here. The Slickrock crew. Hey Dave are you cool enough? It's only 102 degrees. I feel like it could be a little warmer. It could be. Like I don't have enough gear on. Anthony what is the Missouri motto? It says show me state. Yeah so that's just what you were doing show me how to ride Slickrock. I thought it was you can always tell a Missourian but you can't tell him much. That's what I thought it was. That's what my wife said. Oh man that's awesome to watch someone else do it. Yeah it's 102 but Dave said it could be hotter and he's probably right. Reward at the end of the day. We're at Milt's Stop and Eat Moab Utah Burgers and Shakes. Sounds like a root beer float right? Tater Tots. Oh oh Cappuccino. I'm shocked. You must be out of it. Tater Tots hot and crispy cheeseburger made to order. Reward at the end of the day. Well guys that wraps up day one of the Great Ride Open. We're headed to the hotel get a good night's rest because tomorrow we hit the White Rim Trail. That'll be in the next video and it's gonna be a long day. We're gonna need all the rest we can get. See you on the next one.