Motorcycle Camping / NOT HAPPY! / Senior Thoughts / Petroglyphs UTBDR / EP4

Hey there guys, JR with you back with my adventure series Washington, New Virginia on dirt episode four where I'm riding adventure motorcycles and camping through north central Utah. Some awesome erosion canyons, water stream crossings, wild camping on a BLM site. Top it off with some ancient hieroglyphics. 7 15 a.m. Had a little coffee, packing up my head on down section five. 8 a.m. on the nose, rolling out of camp. Kind of a new record for me maybe, but the sun's not coming up quite as early as it used to and I'm not as young as I used to be so we'll call eight o'clock. Doing pretty good. Beautiful morning, not a cloud in the sky. See what awaits us this morning. I put the 14.2 sprocket back on last night. I could definitely tell the difference. It's a big improvement on the trail. Bike's doing swell. Started right up this morning. We're up at almost 9,000 foot elevation. A pair of little deer. Well, I just lost a bunch of footage on an SD card. I'm in Utah section four, headed out of Fruitland. We'll go forward from here. Got a water crossing coming up. I'm not a happy camper right now. Yeah, so I'm not a happy camper. Losing good footage on my SD card doesn't make me happy, but hey, on long distance adventure rides like this, you've got to learn that things are not always going to go your way. Got to adapt and overcome, whether it's a flat tire, running out of gas, whatever it may be. It's just a fact. Life is going to throw curveballs at you. So, do you want to be standing up at the plate swinging at them, or are you going to be sitting in the dugout? Yeah, yeah. All along riding through here, you can see signs of great washes of dirt, mud, logs, rocks. Obviously, when it rains around this part, it takes part of the earth right along with it. Man, I would not have want to been stuck back in here when that was happening. Very interesting route. I just ate lunch on the trail. Oh, nice. A couple of little water crossings. Nice. Cool your boots off. I might just stop early tonight, especially if I'm along the stream. Played a waiting game where I waste my time. I let my dreams die young because I misread the signs. Signs it might be over. Signs I'm not so young. I'm not so young. He was a mountain boy. There he walked the line. Stay forever young. So, here I am, Joe, J.R. DePue, on a two-wheeled vehicle hurtling along on these trails through the mountains of Utah. If I go over the edge, it's severe injury or death, and help is a long ways away. Why in the world am I out here doing this on this motorcycle with my little stove and my camping gear? It's because I have an adventurous spirit, and I think that's in common with all my viewers out there. Whether you're young or old, we're adventure riders. We seek adventure. We need adventure in our lives. So, whether you're out on a multi-week adventure ride like I am, or just a day ride, big bike or little bike, it doesn't matter. Guys, we've got to read the road signs in our life, and if they're calling us to more adventure, don't put it off. Get out on the road less traveled. Now I read the signs. Stealth cow hiding behind that tree trying to take me out. Ninja cow. Well, it's getting towards evening, and I'm beginning to feel tired, and I might need to find a place to camp. This is a cool canyon following a stream off here to the right. I found this little spot. It's got some shade because it's hot in the sun right now. I really haven't had much to eat today, so I was thinking I would push on to Wellington and get supper at a restaurant there, but that's still a good hour and 20, hour and a half away. It's time to throw in the towel for the day. It'd be really nice if we could have a fire, but took a little nap, ate something, slept almost an hour, just laid out on the ground, and went down to the stream over here, crossed the road, and took a full body bath. So I don't think I'm going to even set up the tent tonight. Let's hope that's not a mistake. Potato chowder soup, that's what's for dinner. It's 8 30 a.m. August 15. I wasn't feeling very good this morning, a little bout of stomach upset, so all I've had is some coffee, and it took forever to get packed up even though I was up at 6 a.m. Some kind of original Velcro cockleburs got all in my netted armor shirt, and I had to pick them out one by one, and I've got some visitors. Helmet on, backpack, water pack on, and we're rolling. Nice, smooth, easy pace, and I've got a little acronym that I keep trying to repeat myself, and that is SOLO SAFETY and DEATHGRIP. SOLO SAFETY, so I keep reminding myself of whatever the issues might be that I need to keep foremost in my mind about riding solo out here, because from the time I stopped for camp last night till leaving this morning, one vehicle came by, and that was actually a relief after all the side-by-side activity and endless pickup trucks, travel trailers parked all over in the wilderness. You think it's wilderness, man, they haul those things all over the place, and then they got their side-by-sides ripping around with their music blaring. I don't get it, but anyway, and then DEATHGRIP, of course, again, is to ease up on my grip on the handlebars. Up ahead is some petroglyphs. I'm gonna stop and take a look at them. You're riding through cattle range country, come to these cattle grates. Don't aim for the center of them. There's almost always a gap right there. I have seen pictures of a bike with its front wheel jammed down in the center of that grate, but make for a bad day. This is the location of some petroglyph rock art. Okay, who did this work on these rocks, and what did this valley look like then? Okay, guys, that wraps up this episode of my series, Washington to Virginia on dirt. Be sure to subscribe because coming up next episode, we'll be in Moab, and then we head into the mountains of Colorado. I'll see you out there.