2013 Western Sport Tour (WST)

[DucDave]

In the books. Tom promises a complete trip report. Pics up to Photobucket and Facebook eventually. For now, here's the final route and a brief report.

July 16 - Denver to Estes Park - Beautiful day
July 17 - Estes Park to Manitou Springs - Beautiful day
July 18 - Manitou Springs to Montrose - Beautiful day
July 19 - Montrose to Moab - Beautiful day
July 20 - Canyon Lands and Shaffer Trail - Beautiful day
July 21 - Moab to Flaming Gorge - Beautiful day
July 22 - Flaming Gorge to Grand Tetons - Beautiful day
July 23 - Grand Tetons to Yellowstone - Beautiful day
July 24 - Yellowstone t0 Cranbrook BC - Beautiful day
July 25 - Cranbrook to Jasper Alberta - Beautiful day
July 26 - Jasper to Lake Louise an Banff - Beautiful day
July 27 - Banff to Helena - Beautiful day
July 28 - Helena to Billings - Beautiful day
July 29 - Billings to Deadwood via Sturgis - Beautiful day (5 min sunshower)
July 30 - Deadwood to Chadron - Beautiful day (Thunderstorm after dinner)
July 31 - Chadron to Mankato - Beautiful day
Aug 1 - Mankato to Eau Clair (all day at Ducati Minneapolis - tires and brakes for me, tires and chain for Tom) - Beautiful day
Aug 2 - Eau Claire - Sault Marie Ont - Beautiful day
Aug 3 - Sault St Marie - Ottawa via Algonquin Provincial Park - Beautiful day
Aug 4 - Ottawa - Home Beautiful day (3, 5 min sun showers)

[DucDave]

Posted up a bunch of Pics on Photobucket...

http://s232.photobucket.com/user/Duc...20Sport%20Tour

[trider143]

Here is the GPS track log... which, coincidentally, matches the trip plan fairly closely.




Trip report and photos coming soon. (Took better part of afternoon to import all of my GoPro SD cards....)

[Kenn157]

Amazing journey in 3 weeks. Bravo Dave, Bravo!

You did just under 6,300 miles.

Someday I'll do that on the Explorer.

[trider143]

Minor correction....

July 28 - Helena to Billings - Beautiful day
July 29 - Billings to Deadwood via Sturgis - Beautiful day (5 min sunshower)

Substitute Sheridan WY for Billings MT. We continued on through Billings because the previous day we extended all the way to Helena, due to the State Fair in Great Falls MT

[trider143]

Video from Shafer Canyon Trail in the Moab Canyonlands. GoPro mounted on Dave's helmet to get a dynamic view of the trail and surroundings. (I only had static mounts on my windshield.)




PS: My rear brake failed completely below Estes Park, CO, well before this point in our trip. I had a great time descending while ABS kicked in on my front brake with some frequency ;-)

[trider143]

While we did have great weather riding during the days without question, we did have a few evenings with interesting weather...
At one point a local referenced whether 'raining mud' was next...

[trider143]

[nhbubba]

Whoa. Seems very weird seeing Dave ride at speeds <100.

[trider143]

As I looked over the railing at the Shafer Canyon trail, you may tell from the shaking video I was not completely prepared for what I saw ;-) (if you listen carefully you may also hear the wind...)

[Imbeek]

WTF !

As someone who loves riding but isn't all that psyched about heights, that looks like something straight out of a nightmare

...never saw that before, unreal.

[trider143]

And here is the "bounding box" of lat/long extremes for this trip. Extreme North/West happens to be the same point in Jasper Alberta. The extreme Southern point was around Ouray CO, which was due to a very fortunate wrong turn lead by yours truly. You should add the Million Dollar Road from Ouray to ?Durango? to your list of must-ride roads, based upon the Ouray approach and advice from fellow riders during the trip.

[trider143]

PS:

Raw data:
Lat Long
W 52.87329 -118.08230
E 42.60404 -71.35413
N 52.87380 -118.08206, in a later update I will comment about sunlight in the hotel bedroom around 10:30 PM
S 38.02081 -108.06146

Delta Lat : 14.8 degrees
Delta Long: 46.7 degrees!

[trider143]

WTF ! As someone who loves riding but isn't all that psyched about heights, that looks like something straight out of a nightmare

FWIW. I have a bit of vertigo. Like I told Dave at the bottom of the trail, dirt, sand, gravel and lack of a rear brake are great at focusing one's attention 20' in front of you ...

[maxim_X]

That looks awesome! how do you find out about such roads? How long does it take to plan a trip like this?

[Marc R]

WOW. I just browsed the pictures and the Shafer Canyon video. You guys are crazy, the good kind of crazy.

[trider143]

WOW. I just browsed the pictures and the Shafer Canyon video. You guys are crazy, the good kind of crazy.

Thanks! I take this as the highest form of compliment ;-)

[trider143]

Posted up a bunch of Pics on Photobucket...
http://s232.photobucket.com/user/Duc...20Sport%20Tour

Nice eye for framing your photos!

[DucDave]

That looks awesome! how do you find out about such roads? How long does it take to plan a trip like this?

There are a ton of roads like this in Moab. Shafer Canyon Trail is quite popular. If you're visiting 'Canyonlands' you go right by it on the way to Grand View. The planning for this trip actually started for me 3 years ago. My wife and I and another couple flew to Denver and rented an SUV. My wife did several months worth of internet exploring and created a route that took us through 14 National Parks/Monuments/Forests and ended in Portland. Including Shafer Canyon Trail. The whole time I was thinking, "Shite...on a bike...right?!" So, the first 5 days (to Moab) were very similar to that trip. One day at Seacoast I was talking to a couple about the trip and the told me about the IceFields Parkway from Jasper to Banff. So, as I planned this trip I opted to take a direct route north to experience the Canadian Rockies. (And gave up the '...touch the Pacific' via Oregon possibility). I decided after doing the Trans Lab that I'm too old to do a route or ride just so I can say I did it. I've been to the Pacific plenty of times...nothing to prove there. Same for an Ironbutt. If I do a 1000 miles as a result of a long day of great roads or getting to great roads then great. But it's not a end in itself for me!

I booked the first 10 - 12 days of hotels ahead of time. After that we'd usually make the next days reservation the night before. The final route ended up very close to the planned route. The principal exception was a day long stop in Minneapolis for tires and brakes (for me) and tires and a chain (for Tom).

It was an epic trip and the weather just had us giggling the last few days....!