Mac's Big Lap: Southwest Quest

Log Entry #19
The Cortez to Castro Valley leg of my tour was hot, cold and wet.
Not necessarily in that order but luckily I was outfitted for the conditions.
I was sure happy to be rounding the corner for home and with that in mind I seemed re-energized for this segment of my journey.
Wednesday morning the 23rd of September I got an early start and headed through Navajo country on my way to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
Taking advantage of the K-1600's awesome top end speed and the complete lack of traffic I was able to eat some miles across the early morning desert.
Great time to travel these roads cool and clear. Very beautiful!
Made it to the 4-corners right as the gate opened at 8:00am on my way to the Grand Canyon.
I always wanted to visit this site and it happened to be right on my path!
This is not a National Park so I had to pay the ransom money to get in and view the monument.
My National Park Pass is fully amortized at his point and I am looking to go negative into dot.gov territory soon!
Lucky for me I was early and missed the local vendor traffic that sets up here every day.
Back on the road and looking for breakfast I pulled into a Navajo run local restaurant in Kayenta Arizona that served up a great breakfast burrito!
With both the K-16 and me re-fueled, I headed through Tuba City and onto Marble Canyon to view the Navajo Bridge.
The west side of canyon is the best place to park for viewing but make sure you have drinking water as this place is completely without. Crazy to set up a viewing site with bathrooms but no water!
By this time the mercury is reaching the century point and luckily I am headed up towards the North Rim with temperatures dropping to reasonable limits.
Heading into the Visitors center for the Grand Canyon I was told that the park was booked to the brim and that it would take at least 1 hour 45 minutes to drive up to the the North Rim with thundershowers likely!
Ok whatever I'am going for it, see you on the other side lady!
Made it up in 40 minutes no rain and a pleasant 76 degrees, pretty much perfect!
The views were beautifull and the crowds were light.
The ride back into town were the visitor center is located was just as quick with no traffic or weather issues.
From that point on down the mountain was another story with thundershowers and thermal variations making things unpleasant.
The ride into St. George was looking directly into the sun again. Gotta do something about this problem soon! Oh did I mention HOT!
With the sun going down fast I called it a day in St. George which put me in pretty good position to get home the next day.
Thursday morning September 24, 44 days into my tour I was headed home from Utah.
The route I picked ran up the Extra Terrestrial Highway into Tonopah and on into Lee Vining California were I stopped for a late lunch.
Taking the scenic route through Yosemite was nice but filled with traffic.
I arrived in Castro Valley at 7:05pm!
So this brings Mac's Big Lap full circle. Back in one piece and ready to start the plans for the next Moto Adventure! Viva USA!
The trip by the numbers,
13,610 total miles traveled.
28 US states visited.
4 Canadian Provinces visited.
340 plus gallons of gas used.
0 - sick days!
1 - flat tire.
1 - set of tires purchased on the road.
1 - oil change on the road.
0 - bear encounters.
4 - successful border crossings.
1 - real close call fuel issue.
1 - domestic issue.
2 - weekend visits from beautiful wife Katherine!
17 - on the trail blog entries.
2000 - plus photographs.

1 - major forest fire.
6 - major rain events.
14,110 feet - Highest road traveled!
Stay tuned for the epilog entry which will highlight the trip seen through the K-16's eyes.
Keep on Truckin people!

Couldn't get my bike in here!