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