2010-11-05 Miracle Springs, ID

The very first thing I discover when I get out from my tent in the morning is how beautiful is camping place. It’s located in footsteps of hills, which are covering me from winds and it’s next to the bend of small spring, which makes this place alive and cheerful.  It’s clearly now that those trees around couldn’t cover any big animal like wolf or bear.

I start my morning with a cup of hot tea and a little bit of exercises. It look funny to do jumping on camping trip, but it’s working - I’m warm and cheerful in 5 minutes.

 

There were few RVs at camping area last night. I came very late and had no opportunity to say hello to my neighbors. Now I have chance to say Hi to one of them. 15 minutes of pleasant conversation brings me to more cheerful state mind – Jay and his wife have visited many places across country and they give some pointers as for  what to see.

Jay is also Harley-Davidson rider, so I had opportunity to ask few bike’s advices. Wonderful people – meetings like this are making my day!

I spend more time exploring Thousand Springs area, before getting back on highway. Enjoyed again views of water falls and impressed by number of ducks covering surface of Snake river there.

It didn’t take me long to spot the cause for naming river that way. Small snake was taking sun bath on the side of the road when I noticed it. Naturally I stopped by to make few pictures. Simultaneously I had chance to learn a little bit of snake’s behavior. It was really small to do any damage for me. When you approach, it tries to escape by moving 3-4 feet away, then it spins into rings and starts making hostile moves with the head in your direction. It was sitting just in the middle of the exit to side road – not the best spot for the rest. I decided to scare it from the road to keep it safe – snake prefer to keep spinning rings instead of escaping, even when walked away.

At the end of photo session I had unpleasant surprise. Battery depleted and bike refuses to start. That’s my first technical problem on the trip.

I took precaution and signed for AAA membership to have road side assistance in the case of emergency, but calling AAA for help doesn’t seem as the fastest solution. It’s much easier to stop one of passing by cars. In country area, people driving trucks usually have jump cables in their trunk. After few minutes standing on road side, the first car to stop is local  police - sheriff's deputy had no jump cables. That’s bummer and surprise to me – police has already helped me few times before to jump start my other bike in Seattle. Okay. I said thanks and asked for the picture with flashing lights for my collection. No picture. Probably the officer was upset that he couldn’t help me with jump start. As side note (from the future :-)), he was the only one who refused to make picture in 3 weeks of my trip.

Anyway, I said goodbye to him and wait for another few minutes, when Bud Morris stopped and saved my day.
I made picture of him with Cheburashka to send it later to him with my repeating thanks. Met another good person today. It’s a great day!

I am stopping at another beautiful place – bridge over Snake river. That’s also significant milestone for me – I rode my first thousand miles on this trip. That’s already huge achievement for such newbie motorcyclist as I am. Seriously! I am not being too shy. I started riding motorcycle just in the March of this year.
My friends helped me to fulfill one of my most sacred desires – start riding motorcycle. I got my first bike as birthday present. There was big adventure in bringing that bike to birthday party in Seattle that day. We bought it with broken handlebar and Nikita, awesome friend of mine, rode it for 30-40 miles with only one hand. That’s the story to be told numerous times, but lets get back to the trip – I’m all excited – my first 1000 miles on new bike on serious trip across country.

Few additional notes about taking such trip on motorcycle. There are two obvious factors which it has compared to car – miles per gallon (~40 mpg for me) and maneuverability. Yes, snow or ice would be impassible obstacles for me, when car still can make it, but there is unlimited number of opportunities for bike because of its small size.

I can easily park between cars in the city, I can ride on walking path and pass next to closed gate to campground or park otherwise

closed for cars.
It’s late in the season and any camping areas are closed now. I can ride my bike from road into the forest to park it next to my tent and keep my location hidden (safety!). Sometime, I can even save money on toll roads :) Finally, u-turns take no space for bike. 

I’m riding late that night to keep my pace. My plan for tonight is to get to Salt Lake City, UT.

Utah’s sign say: “Life elevated”. That’s really cool. :-) Once I get to Utah, there are few surprises waiting for me. The number one – it’s rapidly getting very chilly after sunset. May be it’s because of elevation or midcontinent climate, but once sun light is gone, you will freeze and fall into hibernation unless you change for warmer cloth.

The number two surprise – towns are located 30-40 miles apart and many of them has "No services” label next to the exit sign. That night I learned about undocumented limits of my gas tank – 5.2 Gal. Manual says 4.8 Gal. :-)

 

Mileage: 23520

2010-11-03 Oregon to Idaho

 

I am riding riding big distances of desert looking eastern Oregon. There seems nothing to do – no scenic views or places to visit. It gives me plenty of time to think about literary everything. Starting this trip and its purpose, finally about some future plans back in Seattle. Later part doesn’t go as good as the first one. The “other life” feels so distant at the moment. Right now and right here I’m in Oregon in the very beginning of my travel across United States.

 

“Again, why I’m doing this? What exactly my travel plan is?” Those questions are naturally occur in my head on that day. It may look strange to hear such questions from person who is going to spend more than a month on 10k+ miles long trip, but that’s how it goes in my story. Initially my plan was to put checkbox on “visited all states”, but now seems a little bit shallow for a goal. I’m too limited on time to have good quality visits at every of 48 states. 

 

The real purpose of the trip comes to me only now. After visiting few smaller towns along the road, after chatting to few random people on gas stations, rest areas, on small city streets..

Meeting new people - that’s real value of that trip. Also, I decided that there is no need for me to go to every single state, better enjoy more and learn about those which are being visited. There are so much to see in this country that anyway I’ll be travelling around United States again and again.

That day, I spoke to my friend (Nikita) to share my first experiences about the trip and hear his thoughts on his trip. He has been on the road already 10 days and he understands me better than anyone now. Talking to people is his biggest highlight. He tells me about his friend Kamilla, living in the middle of Idaho, and suggests to drop her call. I’m kind of hesitant, but after talking to her I’m amazed by her hospitality and now I have destination point in that state – Boise, ID.

Windy roads in the narrow mountain valley keeps reminding me one of the benefits of motorcycle trips – vigilance, you stay alerted all the time, you can’t fall asleep as I may happen behind steering wheel in warm car. 

Another thing about motorcycling – you smell/sense/see/hear all around as if you are actually hiking in the forest/mountains or take jog in the middle of the city. It’s hard to explain, but you are kind of dissolved in the air. You feel much closer to surrounding environment, while gliding above road on a motorcycle, while people are sitting in the cars as fish in aquariums, fully isolated from outside world.

The last, but not least thing about motorcycles – people are much more open towards guys riding motorcycles. If riders look approachable (I need to shave at least :-) once in 5-10 days), then people will be saying hello and asking about the trip on their own on any your stop. Especially in the smaller cities or regular traveler’s locations (rest areas, camp grounds,..). Also, people are more willing to help whether you need advice about locations to see, or finding place to sleep. I get invitation to stay in their houses/garages or simply pitch tent in their backyard.  I meet just wonderful people all around.

Even police officers are more friendly to adventure riders, folks who travel on motorcycles. I decided to make pictures with all friendly policy officers from all around the country. Seems as funny idea for collection – pictures of me or my bikes with police cars with flashing lights(!) from all 50 states. I just hope to get those without getting ticket ;)

 

Finally I’m coming to Boise, ID. There was wonderful reception at Kamilla & Polina‘s place. Later I was introduced to Artem. We had great tea time that evening, talking about everything. I also got few suggestions what to see in Idaho, which I’m going to check on the next day. They are awesome folks to be friends with me. I glad that Nikita gave me this pointer. I really hope to see them in Seattle one day and be their host.

 

Mileage: 23075

2010-11-02 Oregon

I was pushing it as far to the east as I can. I was eager to go outside of known world and see new places. Somewhere in the middle of the country, there were two of my friends doing similar trips. I was late on my schedule and I wanted to catch up with them. So, I’m trying fly through familiar Washington and Oregon.

I was still adjusting myself to riding this bike. I’ve never ridden it fully loaded or more than 40-50 miles for one trip. So, I was very focused on engine sounds and on feeling it’s behavior on the road. Simultaneously I was trying to recall if I had forget something important to do from the last minute preparations.

As distance between me and Seattle was growing, I suddenly noticed that happiness starts overwhelming me – finally I’m on the road, when I am able choose any direction I want and to go to any place I wish. There is no need to worry about project status at work or spend time at endless meetings to get confirmed plan for something simple to do. There is no need to be on time at some friend’s event or worry about forgetting to pick a gift for birthday party. There is even no opportunity to do most of those thing which used to take my time in Seattle. Try to go for movies in Northern Utah, where towns located 20-40 miles apart and not all of then even have gas station.

All that brings me forgotten feeling of freedom. All that makes me live right now and right here. Listen to sounds of wind, look on beautiful autumn colors around, breath fresh mountain air.

Live as you have nothing to worry about. It seems natural and enjoyable thing to do, but it’s so forgotten that you should go onto trip like this to recall it.

Mileage : 22790

2010-11-01 Leaving Seattle

Mileage: 22290

On the Monday of November 1st, 2011, I left Seattle for what is going to be the biggest adventure so far in my life. I’m planning to come back home one month later, in the beginning of December. When I do say “home”, I mean Seattle and the circle of my friends there, because I left my apartments just before the trip and I’m going to stay at my friend’s place (thx Dima) when I come back.

I had delicious farewell lunch with another good friend of mine and set my course on east. It was raining in Seattle for two weeks already. This day was as cloudy and as rainy as all others, but still the rain felt so special as like whole Seattle weather was saying good bye to me.

Last few weeks were spent on preparations for the trip. It was still hard to be sure if I’m prepared enough. What should I carry with me to be able travel 10-15 thousand of miles and go to places I’ve never been before? Camping tent, warm sleeping bag, flashlights, first aid kit, waterproof bags.. That’s just starting point. Is it really necessary? It’s another important question to ask for every item. I have very limited space for packing my gear compared to regular road trip on the car. There is no concern about weight of your gear on motorcycle trips as when you do backpacking, but the size is the most crucial parameter for all items.

I’m also taking GPS tracker with me on the road, this way my friends can see my progress and I’ll be able to call for help in the case of emergency if there is no phone coverage.

Finally, I got new bike which was able to make the trip through whole country.

Suzuki V-Strom, DL 1000 – that’s technical name for this mighty and elegant machine. It should carry me through forests and deserts, snowy mountains and windy plains. Day and night. Rain or shine. This iron horse is going to be my companion for the next month. As soon as I left from Seattle, I figured out that it deserves some nick name and it came to me few days later into the trip. Pegasus. It seems like as almost you are flying mystical winged horse, when you ride my motorcycles.  

Wish me luck. I’m on the road now! :)

History about the trip

One day, my very good friend (Nikita) shared with me his desire to do big adventure on motorcycle – travel around the world. He told me about other guys who are traveling all around the world on motorcycles. Those stories inspired me and since that moment I knew that I want to go for motorcycle trip across the country.

I’ve been to 10 different states before that and I was hoping to visit other 40 states eventually. The idea to do it on motorcycle was so exciting, that I immediately started preparations and told my friends about that.

Initially, Nikita and I were discussing idea of going for 48 states trip together. I had no idea what to expect on such trip and it seemed safer and easier to ride together. My preparation were taking longer time and when Nikita was ready to depart – we agreed meet later on the road.

Eventually, my new bike (V-Strom DL 1000, Suzuki) was ready for the trip. All gear was packed. I had wonderful farewell party with my friends in Seattle and departed on November 1st, 2010. Since then I had plenty of enjoyable moments on that trip – visiting interesting places and the most of all – meeting many wonderful people.

Nikita and I are taking turns in pushing my first bike to jump start. Riding bike with depleted battery isn’t fun, but having good friends to help is just great!

Seattle: I hope to see everyone soon again!

About me

I had secret passion for motorcycles for a long time, but there was no real opportunity to start. I got my education in Moscow and I was living in there for 8 years. Moscow's roads are dangerous for driving and it would be suicidal to ride there. The situation changed when I moved to Seattle, WA – great roads, pleasant weather and main of all – friends of mine, who are riding as well.

In the beginning of 2010, I got my motorcycle endorsement and my first bike, Korean machine with hard to pronounce name – Hyosung. I was riding it whenever I had an opportunity since then. There are big group of Russian riders in Seattle and it’s easy to find company for a ride.

One day, my good friend shared with me his dream to make motorcycle travel around the world. The next moment, I have already decided for myself:
"That's great idea! I want to ride across United States."

I’m ready for adventures!

History about the trip: here.

Wish me luck. I'm on the road now!