I know that the North Rim is no big deal....unless you've never been there. We noticed as we left the Motel that there were quite a few bikes at the motel last night...maybe we would meet some of them when we got back.
......never did meet this one's owner
 |
| From Riding SM4C, Sabmag |
Very creative in the Dir signal department :clap
 |
| From Riding SM4C, Sabmag |
There was this pair. The sweet Harley belonged to a gal bike writer (an actual writer).
 |
| From Riding SM4C, Sabmag |
An extra clean Hawk
 |
| From Riding SM4C, Sabmag |
........and his riding partner. This gals husband had the trike built for him when his health wouldn't allow him to ride 2 wheels any longer. Sadly he died, so he left it to her.
 |
| From Riding SM4C, Sabmag |
So we grabbed coffee and a roll at the gas station in Fredonia. It would be about 70 miles out to the Rim. 28 miles to the Jacobs Lake turnoff then 40+ miles on to the big ditch. We really didn't know the gas situation out there, but we all had a 200 mile range.
I only get about 30mpg when I'm towing, but prolly high 30s when I leave the DS bike behind which I did for this run. We'd spend another night at the GC Motel so the trailer would be safe there.
The ride to the rim is a great ride. Good roads in the season (Sometime in May to middle of October). The elevation is around 8 to 9 thousand feet, so it's snowed in and the park is closed during the winter.
Lots of open fields, Pine Forests, and twisties.
Finally we arrived at the rim.
 |
| From Riding SM4C, Sabmag |
I tried to do all the photos in stitched Panoramas to give you a better look see.....but as you know, it's hopeless to capture the magnificence with a photo.
Here's my contribution.....
 |
| From Riding SM4C, Sabmag |
There's actually a hiking trail down this valley, I think it's this valley, that goes 5000ft down to the river, and a bridge for crossing, then a trail back up to 7000 ft to the South Rim Natl park. I'll leave that for a younger man. :rofl
 |
| From Riding SM4C, Sabmag |
 |
| From Riding SM4C, Sabmag |
Boys will be boys. :1drink
 |
| From Riding SM4C, Sabmag |
 |
| From Riding SM4C, Sabmag |
You just can't stop yourself from snapping off picture after picture. At least I couldn't.
There's a window rock out there that is fantastic. Note the very small people on top of the rock.
 |
| From Riding SM4C, Sabmag |
The bigger picture...
 |
| From Riding SM4C, Sabmag |
 |
| From Riding SM4C, Sabmag |
 |
| From Riding SM4C, Sabmag |
More GC pictures at the link under each photo...if you haven't seen enough yet.
That gives you a sampling of the sights from the North Rim. Of course we moved east on the 15 mile road along the rim to Cape Royal, and the 3 mile spur road to Pt Imperial, as well.
There are also a lot of dirt roads in the park and nearby Kaibab Natl Forest.
I'll show you some of that on tomorrows Toroweap adventure....'Adventure' at Toroweap is the key word.
There's a magnificent lodge at Bright Angle Point and a gas station convenience store halfway to the point and even more at the Jacobs lake turn off. There's camping at both those places as well.
I've found that nothing is really busy during our recession, but for the North Rim Hotel or camping you'd have to ask before you went there to be sure.
We numbed ourselves out with spectacular sites. Before we left the rim new sites were just 'ho hum' events. :D
We all rode back to the motel and arrived there around 6pm. At one point of the ride I lost a map out of my tank bag window. I turned around and went back for it. I got off the bike and retrieved the map, and in my haste to not worry the guys about where I was, I left my kick stand down.
I'm terrible about that if I get in a hurry....or later in the day when I'm tired. Well, this time I didn't notice it till I was in a big left had sweeper at about 60mph.
Oh shit, I recognized the symptom right away. I've crashed doing this same thing before. I'm sure I was in panic mode. The right thing to do is to hang way off the bike on the left....then you can most likely make the turn without leaning more.
....but I was lucky, I just leaned harder and that forced the kickstand to give way before it pole vaulted me into oblivion. Wow, luck beats good.
Back at the motel, we relaxed a while before going out for Bread and hot dogs for a dinner at the motel room.
We also met many of the riders of the other bikes at the motel. Nice folks.
 |
| From Riding SM4C, Sabmag |
The North Rim did not disappoint..... I could stand to go back there for another visit.
No comments:
Post a Comment