by Gary Inman

Day 11: Santa Cruz, CA to Ridgecrest, CA
Day 12: Ridgecrest, CA to Las Vegas, NV

Santa Cruz, famous for the eponymous skateboard and bicycle brand, had some of the counter-culture vibe I was craving. I met a photographer friend who used to live near the town and was back visiting relatives and we visited a bar full of roller derby girls. One day wasn’t enough, but waking to a shroud of Pacific fog made leaving town that little bit easier. I rode another 200 miles on the legendary, but busy Pacific Coast Highway before turning inland for a thrash into the baked interior of California.

We were supposed to be camping in Yosemite National Park but an outbreak of a killer virus had been traced to lodges in the camp, so we detoured to a night in the unmemorable town of Ridgecrest and an Italian meal no Italian person would recognise.

Death Valley was on many riders must see list. It’s another desert with another opportunistic gift shop in the middle of a great big nowhere. The Yamaha’s temperature gauge reached 40˚C at Badwater, the lowest point in the USA, 282ft (85.5m) below sea level. I’m glad I took the liner out of my Gator Evo jacket.

Gary is riding from New York to California and back to New York with www.nicksanders.com

by Gary Inman

Day 6: Hill City, SD to Yellowstone Park, WY

What do you know about Wyoming? If you’re the same as me, nothing. The state capital is Cheyenne. The whole population is little more than 60,000 – a decent Serie A or Premiership football crowd, but the news is, from a motorcycling point of view, the roads are amazing.

I’d only heard about the Beartooth Pass, for the first time, two days before arriving in the Cowboy state. One of my friends in Des Moines mentioned it. Two of the guys in the group I was riding with had been told about it too, so we made a detour, from South Dakota, over Wyoming’s fantastic Bighorn Pass, down to Redhorn, Montana and the start of the Beartooth. This mountain pass has been called the most beautiful road in the USA.

The pass climbs from about 1600m to 2400m in 19km (that’s 5200ft to 8000ft in 12 miles). In crosses into Wyoming, then back into Montana, before ending near the north-east entrance of Yellowstone. The highest point is 3337m (10.947ft), with glaciers at the road side.

I reckon the Bighorn is a better ride, thanks to gorgeous sweepers, but the Beartooth is mind-blowing. We spent so long on the mountain we had to race through Yellowstone, past the mean looking buffalo, to put our tents up before dark.

*******

Day 7: Yellowstone Park, WY to Logan, UT
Day 8: Logan, UT to Salt Lake City, UT

It sounded so romantic, camping in Yellowstone National Park. The outdoors dream. When we arrived at the entrance to the campground, the rangers warned us to not even leave a bottle of water in camp, in case it attracted bears. What, I wondered, they can smell water through plastic? Anyway, we did what we were told, then huddled round the campfire, told stories and drank weak beer.

The sky was so clear we could see the Milky Way.

After a couple of hours I crawled into my sleeping bag and was asleep in minutes. Then the temperature plummeted. I wasn’t prepared for -2 degrees C. I woke up every hour to put on more clothes and try to get comfortable on the rough ground. I endunded up wearing my Dainese Gator Evo Gore-Tex jacket.

Very few people slept well and when Ian, who I’d ridden with the day before said he was riding towards Salt Lake City and getting a cheap room for the night, I decided to join him.

Ian, on a 1998 Triumph Sprint, and I rode out of Yellowstone, through the bottom of Wyoming, a little of Idaho, then into Utah. Another incredible day’s riding with a great motel at the end of the day. Those who stayed to camp for the second night had to suffer temperatures of -6.

The next morning we rode the 80 miles to Salt Lake City to have oil and tyres changes. Both the Super Tenérés tyres should have been changed 3000km before. The new rubber transformed the bike.

Again, I split from the group for the night this time to visit a young custom bike builder, based in SLC, called Andy Carter of Pangea Speed (http://www.pangeaspeed.com). I checked out his workshop, the great cast and fabricated parts he makes, his turbo Harley Evo chopper, then went into Salt Lake’s city centre for a pizza and one of his friends fantastic restaurants, Este. This is what road tripping is all about.

Gary is riding from New York to California and back to New York with www.nicksanders.com