The journey has began. On the road from Tenpe AZ at 7:15 and headed north to meet up with my traveling compadre, John Ashurst. 170 miles later I am in Flagstaff refueling the White Donkey. I called John and he was still at Marsha's and I hadn't seen her for several years so I met John there. Fifteen minuets later we were on the road headed toward Page with a planed overnight in Richfield UT. Thirty five miles before we got to Page John pulled over and I stoped, he said to do you want to go through Marble Canyon and Jacob's Lake. My reply was "I am following you and I haven't ever been there". We take the 89A cut off from 89 and we are on our way to Jacob's lake for lunch and fuel. A lot of you have driven from the Phoenix area to Flagstaff and know that the first half of that drive isn't really a Kodak moment kind of place. The last half of the drive is much prettier. This morning it was actually a bit cool and windy, but a nice change from the valley. Some of you have even driven through Flagstaff and on towards Page for a trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon or to Lake Powell for house boating and water fun. John said that area of the reservation north from Flagstaff has it's own beauty, but I have a hard time seeing it. Once we headed down 89A that all changed. Crossing over the bridge at Marble Canyon with the water way below was awesome and then the road of the next few miles has sage brush to the left and the tall cliffs to the right, as we progress a little farther the cliffs become darker and much more vibrant, they are called the Vermilion cliffs and that is a great description of the color. A few miles later we began the climb from the valley to the top of the plateau. This road is a bikers dream with lot of nice curve and a really fun ride. Half way up the hill we are back into the pine trees and before long we are at Jacob's lake, the elevation is just over 8000 feet. After refueling our selves and the bikes we head north still on 89A and it is even more fun that the road up and the views are unbelievable. This road goes through Fredonia crossed into Utah and the next real town is Kanab.From Kanab all the way to Richfield where we are now was beautiful, the road is through a valley that is very green with a lot of farming / ranching. Most of it is irrigated and to make it even better for us desert rats there is a stream running along side the road or in close proximity and getting bigger as we descend. We eventually pick up the Sevier River and in many places it is right along the road. At one place we were riding along the river but we were in the shadow of the west wall of the valley and 30 feet away on our right is the river picking up all the sunlight, such a pretty ride and I guess part of the reason I am so impressed is that I didn't expect any thing like this until the second day when we were past Salt Lake City and getting close to Teton National Park. That is my story for today. A little too wound up to sleep much last night and 540 miles on the odometer today so I am off to bed. Tomorrow night I should write a bit more from Jackson Wyoming.
Cactus Don and the White Donkey
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