Ride 3 - Pine Valley and Cedar City, UT - 7/3/09 - 7/5/09

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Over the holiday weekend I took a nice long ride up to Pine Valley and then to Cedar City via Enterprise and back, broken up by a few days. I had originally planned to ride with Stephen down to Mesquite to visit our sister Janet, but Tamari's family was having a reunion up in Pine Valley over the 4th of July, so I had to (got to?) attend that instead.

I decided I still wanted to ride because it had been a while since my last journey. I rode up Route 18 to Pine Valley during the afternoon of Friday, July 3rd. It was a beautiful and peaceful ride. I have driven up there a few times before in a car, but it's a completely different experience on a motorcycle. I just seem so much more aware of the surroundings and the mountains. I also am more aware of the nature close by... like the flowers on the side of the road and the birds zipping in front of and around my bike.

When I arrived at the West family reunion (Tamari's maiden name), I was quickly greeted by two of her bike-riding siblings, Annie and Terry. Annie said she learned on a Honda Shadow like mine and she has a Harley now. Terry told me of his 10 bikes (wow). They were both impressed by my ride and that felt good.

Unfortunately I had rehearsal shortly afterward, so I drove the car to Cedar City and back. But the next day, the 4th of July, I decided to ride motorcycle to Cedar City for rehearsal, a 64 mile ride one-way from Pine Valley. I was worried about the return trip because I wasn't sure what time we would get finished with rehearsal and I didn't want to ride back in the dark. But rehearsal ended at 9pm and it was still a little light outside, so I decided to skip the fireworks in Cedar and just ride back to Pine Valley that night.

Finally I rode back home to Santa Clara on Sunday, making a total round trip mileage of about 200 miles. On my way home to Santa Clara, I took a small detour to Mountain Meadow to view the tragically historic site of the 1857 massacre of 120 people.

This first picture shows the site where the original encampment was at the south end of the valley where the first fighting took place and some people died (click pics for larger view).



This second picture is about a mile North up the valley (to the right of the first pic) where the settlers were betrayed and massacred.



It was sobering to look out at the beautiful landscape knowing what awful bloodshed had occurred over 150 years ago. It's like the valley still held a melancholy about it.

I had a few milestones on this trip. The first milestone was that for much of the trip I rode at 70mph (a few times to 75), the fastest I've ever ridden before. It was rather fun and I feel confident that I will soon be ready for freeway speeds. The difference is that on a freeway there are multiple lanes with large vehicles passing you at even faster speeds. This included 18-wheelers. Yikes.

The second milestone is that much of my return trip from Cedar was at night. Luckily there was a full moon, but it was still a bit scary at 65 to 70 mph. The cool breeze was so refreshing and there was something about riding at night that was mystical. I was on some pretty middle-of-nowhere roads at 10pm on the 4th of July and saw almost no traffic. It was like the night belonged to me alone. Well, it belonged to me and the three deer I suddenly saw standing on the side of the road. Heart attack. "Stay there little deer, please don't jump in front of this speeding piece of metal!" Thank goodness for high-beams.

The last milestone was that this was my first solo ride, at least over any distance. I didn't have Stephen with me. It was good for me because I realize how much more fun it is to ride with other people. It's just neat to share the experience. The only way I can share this ride now is by writing this blog, but nobody has the memory but me. The good part about it was that I was able to ride over an hour straight without feeling the pressure to stop or wondering if the other person is tired or needs to pee or something.

I also made a few discoveries. I discovered that after about 45+ minutes straight on the bike going at high speeds, my nose starts to itch. I am not sure why, but I think it's because of all of the vibrations running through me start to tickle my nose after a while. Also, once you get off of a motorcycle after riding for over an hour straight, all of your extremities are practically asleep. Very funky "pins and needles" feeling going on all over the body.

Here are a few last pics of Pine Valley. The mountains are beautiful. I saw a few huge birds that I thought were large hawks or maybe eagles, but after seeing them more closely, I think they were buzzards. At one point I saw about dozen of them together perched on the trees or circling around.

View Southeast from our camp.



A nice rock formation on a hill riding out from Pine Valley.



Large buzzard in the sky that wanted to eat me.