The Long Way Home - Day 35 - Storming the Beach!

The Long Way Home - Day 35 - Storming the Beach!

Monday, August 3rd.

We left Julian today, eager to reach the beach.  Our final day was a 99 mile day.

But we couldn't leave Julian without some apple pancakes!

We found some nice country roads as we dropped down out of Julian

Our first glimpse of the Pacific and we could feel the cool ocean air.

Dirt roads leading us into San Ysidro

Crossing over the bridge in front of the border crossing.  The Mexican flag on the left is in Mexico.

We are so lucky to have such a great family to come home to!  Here we are with our greeting committee.  gpsKevin also came down to welcome us home (Thanks Kevin for all the support in planning this adventure!)

I'm not sure how I got my facts messed up but it turned out the border park was closed today!  Kevin had scoped it out for us and we came up with a plan.  The main gate to the park was closed, but we waited for the ranger to be distracted with some cars and we raced down a service road next to the park entrance and past the "do not enter" signs.  This was a road left open for the border patrol.  These trails split up and snaked around the hills next to the border, but we eventually made it through the maze.  This is a short video of Hank and I storming the beach!

So we finally made it.  Here are some of the stats:

1. 35 days of riding on The Long Way Home.
2. Two days of riding for the trip out to Denver and back, plus one for my brother visit: 38 total riding days.  
3. 22 States
4. 6600 miles on The Long Way Home and 7000 miles total.

We live in a really fantastic country.  Thinking back, there was not a single state that we did not enjoy experiencing.  From the people we met to the places we rode through, it's an experience we will hold forever. 

Thank you, everyone who followed us through the blog.  Thank you to my work family for covering for me for over a month and especially thank you to my wonderful supporting wife and family. 

~Bill and Hank

The Long Way Home - Day 34 - Our Heads in the Oven

Sunday, August 2nd.

California was the plan for the day.  We started in Blythe and headed west into the heat.  When we rolled out of Blythe it was already 99 degrees at 8:30 in the morning.  Our plan brought us around the north end of Salton Sea, through Borrego Springs, and up into Julian.

We were honored today to have our second ride-along: Jeffrey has been Hank's friend for over 10 years and he figured out how to come out to Blythe to meet us and ride with us.  This

is Jeffrey and his mom, Jane.

Jeffrey's a motorcycle nut and he has to be to choose to join us for the Blythe to Julian stretch of our journey in August!

We had a goal of covering as many miles as possible as fast as possible, but it was not to be.  We lost a bolt out of Jeffrey's front brake almost right away.  

We found some shade (yes, Hay has many uses!) and scavenged a bolt from another less important location and moved on.  Our next delay was my pannier bags.  It's apparent that these are 6000 mile bags and we are trying to push them to 7000 miles.  A bit of rope and some ingenuity, and we were off.

On our way to the Salton Sea, sometimes the trail disappeared and we had to go cross-country:

We had the throttle pinned a lot today in hopes of avoiding the heat!

The Salton Sea is a great mix of life and death.  In many ways it's a dead area because it's been largely abandoned after being touted as the next Las Vegas but the plans to rejuvenate the area failed, The few that are left are are crazy bunch of tough individuals.

There are still a few residents here

This marina had been abandoned for awhile.  The price of the gasoline here was marked at a little over $1, and what's up with the "no dirt bikes" sign?

The fish in the sea go through cycles of crazy population growth and then decline

Salton Sea.  Elevation 250 feet below sea level.

From the Salton Sea, our plan was to head through Ocotillo Wells OHV Park but even though we wanted to play in this familiar area, it was just too hot.  We hit the highway to try to get up to higher elevation.

One last look at our Ocotillo Wells before heading for higher elevation.

Borrego Springs was a bit cooler.  We stopped by these cool metal sculptures.  There are dozens of these scattered around the area and of course, the boys have to show their excitement:

It finally started to cool off as we approached 4000 feet.

We arrived in Julian about 5pm.  

Tomorrow is our final day! Wow, it is only just starting to sink in that we are one day away from completing a dirt bike ride from Maine to California.  We plan on leaving early so we can make the Pacific Ocean in the early afternoon.  

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The Long Way Home - Day 33 - California!

Saturday, August 1st.

Today we left Wikieup, Arizona with a goal of making Blythe, California.

We were so thankful to find that the weather had cooled off significantly.  There was a nice cloud layer and we had very light rain for the first few hours.  The desert we rode through this morning was like a botanical garden.  I've never seen so many healthy saguaros, ocotillos, chollas, and mesquite in one place.  Believe it or not, the desert seemed very lush!

I couldn't pass up the chance to snap a photo of the dancing saguaros!

There were a lot of sand washes today.  This was similar to our home turf and we've done a thousand miles of sand washes so this was a lot of fun for us.

It surprised us, but we came up on a water crossing today!  We dropped down into a valley that had a large oasis, complete with trees and a stream.  We had to cross the stream three times, but one section was particularly wide and deep.  We found some trees and sticks forming a dam that looked like they were chewed by a beaver.  Could that be true??

The water was deep enough to almost cause the bike to suck in water which would have been disastrous!

The bikes made it through OK but our boots were filled with water and our pannier bags were pretty soaked as well.  Somehow the computer in my bag came through completely dry (there was almost no update today!).

Another 40 miles or so, brought us to Parker, Arizona for lunch.  From there, we headed south along the Colorado River.  That's California over there!

At times, the road along the river was reduced to a barely discernible trail with deep silt.  The light tailwind added an additional challenge: If we slowed down too much, the blinding silt cloud would overtake us.

There were also miles of farms on the Arizona side of the Colorado growing all sorts of crops including our favorite: Hay!

Hitting the Hay

We crossed the river at Blythe and entered our home state of California!  Two more days will get us to the Pacific Ocean and the end of our adventure.

Tomorrow we leave Blythe, pass over the northern end of the Salton Sea, ride through Ocotillo Wells OHV Park and Borrego Springs, and end up in Julian (Shown in green on the map).   The forcast for tomorrow is 111 degrees!!

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The Long Way Home - Day 32 - Good Gates, Bad Gates

Friday, July 31st

Today's plan takes us from Seligman on Route-66, to Wikieup, Arizona.

Leaving Seligman, we got a chance to snap photos of some of the cool shops and buildings on Route-66, like this diner:

Soon after leaving Seligman, we came across this guy.  He's just a young one at about 2' or a bit more.  We didn't try to pick this rattlesnake up.  Crikey!

From here, we headed up into some higher ground for some fun forest trails.

I locked up both brakes when I caught a glimpse of this in my peripheral vision: The perfect tree that we have all modeled our elementary school drawings after.  It really does exist!

The gate story continues from yesterday and we found that there are good gates and bad gates (just like Wizard of Oz's witches).  This is a bad gate, it's all about big chains, locks, and NO, NO, NO.  We came up to this gate from the inside and had to disassemble and then reassemble part of the fence to get out.

This is a good gate.  It was unlocked and it used words like Welcome, Please, and Thank You.  YOLO (You Only Live Once) Ranch rocks!  

After working our way through the maze of good gates and bad gates, we dropped down out of the highlands into Bagdad and had some lunch at a diner. -yes, there is a Bagdad, Arizona.

We even got to park next to an FJ40 Landcruiser

After lunch we were at a lower elevation and it was starting to get really hot.  When I say really hot, I mean maybe the hottest weather I've ever been in.  I was so thankful that our bikes ran perfectly because if we had to stop, I'd seriously worry about our safety.  It was so hot we had to limit our speed to avoid the hot air from penetrating our helmets and jackets but we had to keep moving to have some airflow.  I found that if I opened my mouth,  it would dry out in seconds, and the first water out of my Camel Back hose was almost too hot to drink.  When we heard it was 110 today, it explained a lot.  Crazy hot.

I had to stop briefly to take a photo with this Saguaro cactus.  There were hundreds of these around here.

Just before our destination, we came across this little town of Nothing.  I think they should really work on their self-esteem.  You can have All (mart) or Nothing - looks like they chose nothing.

When we arrived at our hotel in Wikieup, we threw our reins over the hitching post, hung up our spurs, and went to dinner at the Trading Post Diner.

Tomorrow's plan takes us to Blythe, California!

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The Long Way Home - Day 31 - Canyon Stop

Thursday, July 30th

Today's plan takes us from Tuba City, past the Grand Canyon, to Seligman, Arizona.

The ride from Tuba City to the Grand Canyon went just as planned.  Much of the roads approaching the park and inside the park were paved with no dirt options but we did include the few dirt roads that the park had to offer.  

What can I say about the Grand Canyon: Everyone knows it's spectacular.

We even got a glimpse of the Karate Kid

It was a bit hazy today, so the photos don't show the detail as well, but in person, it was as awesome as ever!

I think we've been on the road too long because the crowds at the Canyon were starting to bother us and we got anxious to leave, so we hopped on another of the dirt roads inside the park and headed south.  Eventually, we were riding through wide open prairie land and making good time (no more pesky people!).

But sometimes, these remote roads we ride on don't go through as planned: We were on a great pace with only 30 miles to Seligman and we were confident we would arrive around 3:30 pm.  First we came up to one of our roads that was completely grown over with waist high sticker bushes.  We've pushed our way through some roads like this but this was completely taken back by nature and we could only discern the very start of the road, then it completely disappeared.  We could see other roads in the area to route around on so we started down another trail. However, we eventually hit a very well secured gate and couldn't get through.  This continued for hours.  At one point we tried to just head off cross-country to see if we could meet up with a road 3 miles away but we were thwarted about 2 miles in by more fences.  

When we finally gave up and routed around the extra long way, our last 30 miles turned into 120 miles and we rolled into Seligman around 8 pm.  The good news is that our new route took us through 20 miles of Route-66 as we approached Seligman.

Route-66 is packed with these old businesses.  Some of them are closed but many are still open, giving a very fun, nostalgic feel.

Tomorrow, our target is Wikieup, Arizona.  It is really starting to feel like we are on our home turf and we are only one day away from the California border!

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The Long Way Home - Day 30 - In The Zone

Wednesday, July 29th

We left Escalante, Utah and headed south. passed by the west end of Lake Powell, and eventually reached Tuba City, Arizona.

Much of the morning, from Escalante to Lake Powell was spent in Utah's Grand Staircase National Park.  

It's impossible to capture this landscape with my iPhone.  These rock formations are unbelievably large.  Even the pieces that broke off and rolled down to the foreground here would dwarf a person.

Approaching Lake Powell

After lunch at Lake Powell, we continued south towards Tuba City.  This area was an unknown because all of the track goes through Navajo property.  As it turned out, all of the roads were open and my tracks all went through.  

We were in the Zone just south of Lake Powell

The roads I picked were all very sandy so It was a bit of a workout but made it very fun 

No tall riders through this fence!

sand sand sand

Tomorrow we turn west again, making a stop at the Grand Canyon, and end up in Seligman, on Route 66.  The green line on the map above shows tomorrow's route.

Now that we've entered Arizona, California is the next state - We are getting close!

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