|  | Topic : western US road trip |  |
| | | mag10 | | Set |  |  | | Reg. Date | : | 05/02/2010 | | Posts | : | 482 | | Location | : | Wisconsin, United States |
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| | Posted : 14 Jun 2016 - 12:28 Post title : western US road trip | | | just got back from a 15 day lap of the western US. Just the wife and I. Many parts of the country we had never been to. Many of them awesome. Mostly great roads and wildly ranging gas prices.
we also managed to hit quite a few craft breweries along the way.
this was our intinerary, the pix and videos have not been sorted out yet.
Pacific coast highway trip 2016 - approximately 5500 miles
Day 1: (5/28/16, Saturday) – WI to Sioux Falls, SD - 475 miles
I-94 to I-90
Day 2 (5/29 - Sunday) – Sioux Falls, SD to Whitewood, SD - 385 miles
I-90 to SR 14A, ride the Badlands loop (US 240), exit at Cactus Flats back to I-90 at Wall.
Lunch – stop in Murdo, SD
Dinner - in Deadwood at the #10 Saloon.
Day 3 (5/30 – Monday/ Memorial Day) – Whitewood to Sheridan, WY via Spear fish canyon, Sundance/Devils Tower, US 85 to I-90, 300-350 miles – the scenic routes
From Whitewood, SD take I-90 west (two exits) to US 14A to ride Spearfish canyon. At Cheyenne Crossing (stop for pie) take US 85 west/south to Four Corners, WY. Turn right onto SR 585 to Sundance. Take left in town center, it becomes US 14, to ride west to SR 24 North to Devils Tower. Stop at scenic, overlook there is nothing to see in the actual park itself.
Then ride back south on SR 24 to US 14 West (towards Carlile/ Moorcroft, WY) then west on I-90 to Sheridan, WY.
Lunch – Gillette Brewing Co
Dinner – Blacktooth Brewing, Sheridan, WY
Day 4 (5/31 – Tuesday) – Sheridan, WY to Missoula, MT - I-90, 450 miles – all slab
Lunch – Neptune Brewing, Livingston, MT
Dinner – Highlander beer/Missoula Brewing, Missoula MT
Day 5 (6/1 – Wednesday) – Missoula to Sunnyside, WA– I-90, 350 miles
Missoula take US 12 west to thru Lolo Pass to Waitsburg, WA then SR 124 to the Tri Cities, then back onto US 12/182 west
Day 6 (6/2 – Thursday) – Sunnyside, WA to Astoria, OR – 275 miles
From Mabton, WA – take the Glade road south to the Bickleton hwy, then on to Goldendale, WA. From Goldendale take hwy 97 south into the Colombia gorge. Then hwy 14 towards Vancover, WA. In Vancover take 205 north to I 5 and then exit at Longview and cross the river into OR and hwy 30 to Astoria, OR
Lunch – Wet Dog Brewery – Astoria
Dinner - Fort George Brewery - Astoria
Day 7 (6/3 – Friday) - Astoria to Mckinleyville, CA - 430 miles
Pacific Coast Highway – US 101
Dinner - 6 rivers brewing.
Day 8 (6/4 – Saturday) – Mckinleyville to Winters, CA - 375 miles
Pacific Coast Highway south 101 to Capella, then hwy 20 past Clear Lake to hwy 16 south thru Esparto and onto US 505 south to Winters - 280 miles
Day 9 (6/5 – Sunday) – due to snow in the Sierras – Winters, CA to Lee Vining, CA – 310 miles
East on CR 31 to Davis, 113 South onto I-80 east to Reno, NV. Exit onto US 395 south towards Carson City, NV. Stay on 395 to Lee Vining
Day 10 (6/6 Monday) – Lee Vining, CA to St George, UT – 470 miles
US 395 south to Lone Pine, CA then cut across Death Valley, take 136 to 190 east to Beatty, NV. Take US 95 South towards Vegas. Exit #93 onto Durango Drive (south) then left onto Bruce Woodbury/215 east to US 15 North thru the Virgin River gorge to St George, UT.
Day 11 (6/7 Tuesday) – St George, UT to Grand Canyon National park South Rim – 300 miles
From St George, I 15 north, exit for hwy 9 east towards Hurricane, then 59 south/east to Fredonia, AZ, then 89 ALT to (ride North rim) Marble Canyon, then 89 south towards Cameron, just past Cameron back into the Park on 64 west (south Rim).
Lunch in Tuba City
Day 12 (6/8 Wednesday) Grand Canyon to Grand Junction, CO – 440 miles
US 160 to Kayenta, AZ, then 163 north thru Monumnet Valley. Then US 191 north towards Moab, UT to I-70 east
Lunch at Moab brewing
Day 13 (6/9 Thursday) Grand Junction, CO to Ogalalla, NB – 460 miles
I-70 east over Vail and Eisenhower passes.
Day 14 (6/10 Friday) – Ogalalla, NB (or wherever) to Altoona, IA - 480 miles
Exit SR 560th south - stop in Marne see Baxter cycles,
Day 15 (6/11 Saturday) – Altoona, IA to home
I-80 east to I-380 north to US 151 east – 352 miles
Stop in Anamosa at national cycle museum, lunch
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| | | RatDog | | Chaac | |  | | Reg. Date | : | 09/12/2012 | | Posts | : | 516 | | Location | : | Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, United States |
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| | Posted : 14 Jun 2016 - 12:55 Post title : Re: western US road trip (Re: mag10) | | | Sounds great! Did a similar trip as a fly and ride a couple years ago. Highlights were: Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Devil's Tower, Beartooth Pass, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, and The Night Rodeo in Cody, WY.
Strongly recommend if you see a gas station, stop and fill up! They are few and far between in spots and we nearly ran dry.
Have fun! Looking forward to pictures.
| Paul
2012 Triumph Thunderbird Storm ABS (stealthy and fastest matte black!)
Previous Bikes:
2001 Suzuki Bandit GSF1200S
1981 Yamaha SECA XJ-750
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| | | mat1600 | | Thunderbird | |  | | Reg. Date | : | 06/03/2010 | | Posts | : | 8,596 | | Location | : | Bridlington, Democratic Independant State of Yorkshire, United Kingdom |
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| | Posted : 22 Jun 2016 - 20:27 Post title : Re: western US road trip (Re: mag10) | | | Mag - I feel lucky to have covered some of your tour - without realising the number of breweries (Bad homework on my part) especially as I have been in the Sheriden area a couple of times. With my dad living in Montana I will be there again and will be using your list for reference.
You sure covered some ground.
| My first natural instinct is to breathe. My second is to evade tax's.
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| | | mag10 | | Set | | | | Reg. Date | : | 05/02/2010 | | Posts | : | 482 | | Location | : | Wisconsin, United States |
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| | Posted : 23 Jun 2016 - 18:40 Post title : Re: western US road trip (Re: mat1600) | | |
mat1600 wrote:
Mag - I feel lucky to have covered some of your tour - without realising the number of breweries (Bad homework on my part) especially as I have been in the Sheriden area a couple of times. With my dad living in Montana I will be there again and will be using your list for reference.
You sure covered some ground.
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there are a fair number of other craft breweries along that route thru Wyoming and Montana that we were not able to stop at, as we would have never gotten anywhere!
If you have time there are many excellent beers (mostly ales) to be drank. I did not see any real ales until we got into Washington. The majority of craft beers in the western US are hoppy, really hoppy (and not Yorkshire craft beer hoppy either )
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| | | mag10 | | Set | | | | Reg. Date | : | 05/02/2010 | | Posts | : | 482 | | Location | : | Wisconsin, United States |
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| | Posted : 28 Jun 2016 - 12:24 Post title : Re: western US road trip (Re: mag10) | | | I am finally been able to get sorting the pictures and videos from this trip. these are a few of the stops along the way.
 Devils Tower, Wyoming
 the Crazy woman montains, Montana
 Lolo Pass, Montana/Idaho
 the hopyards of east Washington
 down in the Columbia Gorge
 We made it to the Pacific ocean! Astoria, Oregon
 Donner Lake, Donner Pass, California
 California border check point. We went into and out of CA several times on this trip, they are very serious about this border business.
 the view across Mono lake, CA
 just before the decent into Death Valley, CA
 beautiful Death Valley
at the Grand Canyon, Arizona
 Monument, Utah
 near Vail, Colorado
 We stopped by Baxter Cycle in Iowa, very cool place, lots of vintage bikes
 the unused portion of what started the trip as a brand new tire
| | Post edited by mag10 on 28 Jun 2016 - 12:37 |
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| | | mat1600 | | Thunderbird | | | | Reg. Date | : | 06/03/2010 | | Posts | : | 8,596 | | Location | : | Bridlington, Democratic Independant State of Yorkshire, United Kingdom |
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| | Posted : 28 Jun 2016 - 19:00 Post title : Re: western US road trip (Re: mag10) | | | Whats with a border control in California ?  Has it too just got independence 
| My first natural instinct is to breathe. My second is to evade tax's.
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| | | Daycruiser | | Chaac | | | Reg. Date | : | 08/11/2011 | | Posts | : | 704 | | Location | : | Garner, NC, United States |
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| | Posted : 28 Jun 2016 - 21:09 Post title : Re: western US road trip (Re: mat1600) | | | mat1600 wrote:
Whats with a border control in California ? Has it too just got independence |
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No, that's what we called Bug Stations. Dept of Agriculture runs those to check for insects, plants, fruits and other forbidden things from being brought into California. They usually just ask you if you have any of the things on their list and if you say no they just waive you through unless they have some reason to think your lying. Then they'll inspect your vehicle and stuff.
| | Post edited by Daycruiser on 28 Jun 2016 - 21:10 |
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| | | AZCactus | | Taranis | |  | | Reg. Date | : | 01/05/2013 | | Posts | : | 4,524 | | Location | : | AZ |
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| | Posted : 28 Jun 2016 - 23:10 Post title : Re: western US road trip (Re: Daycruiser) | | | Daycruiser wrote:
mat1600 wrote:
Whats with a border control in California ? Has it too just got independence |
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No, that's what we called Bug Stations. Dept of Agriculture runs those to check for insects, plants, fruits and other forbidden things from being brought into California. They usually just ask you if you have any of the things on their list and if you say no they just waive you through unless they have some reason to think your lying. Then they'll inspect your vehicle and stuff. |
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Yeah i remember the medfly outbreak (or something like that) years ago and authorities gassed CA...but i'm ok, escaped to AZ 
Btw, nice photos!
| 2009 Thunderbird 1700 Big Bore
| | Post edited by AZCactus on 29 Jun 2016 - 15:49 |
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| | | mat1600 | | Thunderbird | | | | Reg. Date | : | 06/03/2010 | | Posts | : | 8,596 | | Location | : | Bridlington, Democratic Independant State of Yorkshire, United Kingdom |
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| | Posted : 29 Jun 2016 - 15:13 Post title : Re: western US road trip (Re: AZCactus) | | | So the migration of bugs and seeds have to report there too. 
That's the sort of new borders we need.
| My first natural instinct is to breathe. My second is to evade tax's.
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| | | mag10 | | Set | | | | Reg. Date | : | 05/02/2010 | | Posts | : | 482 | | Location | : | Wisconsin, United States |
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| | Posted : 29 Jun 2016 - 19:31 Post title : Re: western US road trip (Re: mat1600) | | |
mat1600 wrote:
So the migration of bugs and seeds have to report there too.
That's the sort of new borders we need. |
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they seemed quite interested in whether we had kangaroo rats or apple maggots with us. I am not sure what either of those are, but they are not allowed in CA.
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| | | mat1600 | | Thunderbird | | | | Reg. Date | : | 06/03/2010 | | Posts | : | 8,596 | | Location | : | Bridlington, Democratic Independant State of Yorkshire, United Kingdom |
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| | Posted : 29 Jun 2016 - 20:02 Post title : Re: western US road trip (Re: mag10) | | |
mag10 wrote:
mat1600 wrote:
So the migration of bugs and seeds have to report there too.
That's the sort of new borders we need. |
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they seemed quite interested in whether we had kangaroo rats or apple maggots with us. I am not sure what either of those are, but they are not allowed in CA. |
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I would probably have said something really stupid at that point and got myself locked up.
There is always good stuff to remember from road trips. Great pics. 
| My first natural instinct is to breathe. My second is to evade tax's.
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| | | mag10 | | Set | | | | Reg. Date | : | 05/02/2010 | | Posts | : | 482 | | Location | : | Wisconsin, United States |
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| | Posted : 01 Jul 2016 - 12:31 Post title : Re: western US road trip (Re: mat1600) | |
| | | poobah22 | | Set | |  | | Reg. Date | : | 29/07/2015 | | Posts | : | 21 | | Location | : | Westmont, IL, United States |
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| | Posted : 14 Jun 2017 - 16:25 Post title : Re: western US road trip (Re: mat1600) | | | Stop it. Its California. The land of fruits and nuts. They do a lot of crazy things there.
| 2010 Thunderbird 1600 ABS
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| | | poobah22 | | Set | | | | Reg. Date | : | 29/07/2015 | | Posts | : | 21 | | Location | : | Westmont, IL, United States |
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| | Posted : 14 Jun 2017 - 16:39 Post title : Re: western US road trip (Re: mag10) | | | Wow. What an awesome trip. I would love to do something like that. What I was impressed with is you were riding somewhere between 300 & 500 miles a day. Two weeks ago I took an 800 mile round trip ride over a weekend (400 miles/day) and I was extremely uncomfortable in the saddle and after the ride I didn't want to even look at the bike for the next week cause my ass hurt so bad. The seat I currently have on the bike is Triumph's long haul seat with a do it yourself gel bad in it. When I first got the bird after about 45 min to an hour in the saddle I start to feel discomfort. So I installed one of those do it yourself gel pads in the seat and got a pair of moto skiveez and I was able to ride about 90 minutes before I started to feel discomfort and I had to get off for a while. What I was trying to avoid was having to get a new aftermarket seat and I'm coming to the conclusion that if I want to go on 200 mile + rides I will have to bite the bullet and just get one. My question to you is what kind of seat do you have on your bike and if you have any tips/advice for dealing with rear end fatigue on long rides?
| 2010 Thunderbird 1600 ABS
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| | | mag10 | | Set | | | | Reg. Date | : | 05/02/2010 | | Posts | : | 482 | | Location | : | Wisconsin, United States |
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| | Posted : 14 Jun 2017 - 20:30 Post title : Re: western US road trip (Re: poobah22) | | | Glad you enjoyed the write up.
We do a lot of road trips and planned that one for more leisurely sight seeing.
As to the seat, currently I have mustang seat, very comfortable. I have had 3 other seats on this t bird before the mustang and done some wicked miles on all of them. its all personal preference of course. What works for one......
To do really long miles days you have set up the whole bike to suit you (no matter what bike) handlebars, grips, pegs, boards, extra pegs all come into play.
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| | | poobah22 | | Set | | | | Reg. Date | : | 29/07/2015 | | Posts | : | 21 | | Location | : | Westmont, IL, United States |
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| | Posted : 14 Jun 2017 - 20:36 Post title : Re: western US road trip (Re: mag10) | | | Hmm. thanks for the info. I am currently between the Mustang and the Corbin. What other seats have you had?
| 2010 Thunderbird 1600 ABS
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| | | mag10 | | Set | | | | Reg. Date | : | 05/02/2010 | | Posts | : | 482 | | Location | : | Wisconsin, United States |
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| | Posted : 16 Jun 2017 - 18:37 Post title : Re: western US road trip (Re: poobah22) | | |
poobah22 wrote:
Hmm. thanks for the info. I am currently between the Mustang and the Corbin. What other seats have you had? |
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Started with the stock 2 PC seat, then the long haul seat, followed with a series of alterations to the long haul. Those included removing the inset for the rider backrest, resulpting the foam, inserting 1 1\2 inch thick gel in the rider seat and 3\4 in the pillion seat, covered with a 1\2 inch of memory foam and wrapped in a black deer hide. I by far have the most miles and longest ride days on that seat. I only changed to the mustang because of the larger pillion seat (at my wife's insistence).
The mustang seat still may end up being recovered in deer leather
If you have the quick detach pillion backrest the mustang pillion seat barely clears it on width. No pillion, no problems then.
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| | | poobah22 | | Set | | | | Reg. Date | : | 29/07/2015 | | Posts | : | 21 | | Location | : | Westmont, IL, United States |
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| | Posted : 16 Jun 2017 - 20:05 Post title : Re: western US road trip (Re: mag10) | | | Ha that's funny. Most certainly gotta listen to the wife in these matters. Thanks for the info.
| 2010 Thunderbird 1600 ABS
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