dear traveling biker
great travel log
nice highlights ...
i will refer to this later on in the next couple of years when i want to
make that same journey
yours

On Sat, Oct 11, 2008 at 6:54 PM, Don Hanson <dhanson@gorge.net> wrote:

>  I just returned this morning from another fun Vanagon outing, from the
> Northwest down to the 'almost' Southwest.  The Vanagon, an '84 semi-Westie
> (has all but the pop-top and the rear cabinets) with a '92 Golf/Rabbit 1.8L
> Digifant II gas motor..5sp tranny from a diesel)
>  I did 2111 miles, from the Columbia River Gorge down to St. George, Utah
> with a side trip over to Zion.  I took three bicycles mounted on a Yakima
> rack that is hung on the rear hatch and my gear for camping, as well as
> spares and extra wheels for four days of bicycle racing around St. George.
> With that load and traveling at ~65mph average my fuel mileage was 23.7
> mpg.
> The van worked perfectly.
>  I headed east on I-84 through the Blue Mts, and overnighted in Ontario,
> Or.   I "camped" in a lot behind a Pilot Travel Plaza right in "downtown"
> Ontario.  Pulled in there at 11pm and found the regular lot full of semi
> trucks.  Using my roof mounted spotlight as I left, I spied another truck
> yard with a few stored trailers and some tractors, stacks of pallets, etc.
> and decided I could safely tuck in for a few hours of sleep amongst them.
> The roof mounted spotlight is very useful for scoping-out potential
> campsites after dark.
>  Then a long day through one of my favorite areas in the world, the high
> northwest desert of Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Oregon.  I cut south at Twin
> Falls,
> Idaho and headed through what they now call the Great Basin, down Hwy 93.
>  I
> choose this route over the MapQuest route down through Salt Lake and Cedar
> City on the interstates.  Through Jackpot, Nv..Wells, Ely, Pioche and
> another overnight at a small state park called Cathedral Gorge in
> southeastern Nevada.  Very quiet there, with about half the spots (about 10
> sites) filled, a great half moon with owls in the trees and coyotes at
> night.
>  From there, I turned east across another range of mountains, scheduled to
> arrive at my destination, Snow Canyon State park just outside St. George,
> by
> 3pm, where I'd reserved a site for the duration of my 4-day bike races.
>  The first day's race ran right up the road through Snow Canyon St. Park,
> so I could just ride to the start from my campsite.  There was a couple in
> a
> very nice white Westie who also were camped there and doing some of the
> bike
> races also.  I only talked to them briefly,  all of us being pre-occupied
> with the cycle racing (The Huntsman World Senior Games)
>  The second day, our race was run from the west entrance of Zion Nat. Pk.
> about an hr east of St. George.  There, as I went on my bike down to the
> start line, I saw another turd brown Westie, this one with Wyoming county
> 22
> plates (my former home in Jackson Hole, Wyo)  The next day (too busy racing
> to stop and chat then) I found out the Westie belonged to a couple I'd not
> seen for years.  The guy built my very first custom race bicycle back in
> the
> 70's..He's recently decided to race bikes again and found the old Westie
> for
> that and for camping with his small family.  He'd just had it redone by
> GoWestie for around $6k and was quite happy with it.
>  After 4 days of one bike race per day, and camping in beautiful Snow
> Canyon St. Pk, it was time to head out for home again.
>  Left S. Utah at around noon after a ~45mile road race on the bike, back up
> Hwy 93.  Hit snow flurries in Jackpot, Nv and headwinds (very strong) from
> Twin Falls west...Spent another 'short' night in the Ontario parking lot
> spot, then into the Columbia River Gorge and home at 10am this morning..No
> fuss, no muss.
>  I recently installed some H-4 headlights...a great improvement across the
> cold dark night drives.  Still need some refining with the aim, but much
> nicer than my sealed beam halogens that I had before.
>  Sorry for the length of this..but this kinda trip is exactly what the
> Vanagon is best at...
>   Don Hanson
>

--
roger w
There are two kinds of jobs in the world:
Picking up garbage and telling people things.
Successful people do both, with the same good attitude. (riw)
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