Embedded Files
Three Step Hideaway is a little piece of the Old West.
The rustic town-like property is owned by the personable and welcoming Scott and Julie Stevenson. If you get a chance to stop by, or stay, it is well worth the trip. Our MotoDiscovery adventure training started there.
Jen and I signed up for MotoDisovery Adventure Training that began at Three Step. We were filled with excitement but also with concern as we pulled down the dusty gravel and dirt drive. Although we knew that Bill Dragoo would be doing the training sessions and we already knew Bill, we also knew that this time we weren’t going to be alone with him. Instead, as we learned from the pre-ride communications, our 7 day adventure training would start and Three Step, but eventually, would cover 850 miles with a guide and five other bikes all smaller than our "Sally," which is an R1200GS. Three of the other bikes were DRZ-400s, one an F650GS and the last an F800GS, all had solo riders.
We arrived first -- the only 1200, the only two-up. And Jen was the only girl.
One at a time, the other riders found their way to Three Step Hideaway. Before dinner we took a 30 minute “warm up” lap in the dirt to get the lead out. It was not unfamiliar to us as we had just spent a day in the dirt with Bill, so that uneasy feeling of it having been a while was not bothering me. And it wasn’t too difficult. Fortunately, Sally (our affectionate name for our R1200GS) neither fell nor held up the group. So far, so good. Then we had a great meal and as good a night’s sleep as you can get in what we were told was unseasonably warm weather.
For the next two days we would eat, sleep and ride on site at the Three Step Hideaway. We trained on the grounds, frequently in a large dirt field but also on surrounding trails and rocky hillsides. As we practiced principally low speed maneuvering, Bill focused on four things: balance, control, judgment and attitude.
While I have done some off road classes before, this was the first time I did the drills and exercises with Jen on board. I can say for sure that we both got a new appreciation from doing it together. It was different than just trying to work it out in the field, we were learning and participating together. For two days, Jen and I worked together through all the drills, we braked, turned, climbed, crossed trees, rode sand washes and even towed other motorcycles. I can’t say enough about the value of drilling together if you want to ride together, two up, off road. Barak, our Motodiscovery tour guide noted that although he takes his significant other off road, they sit. In fact, he’s never ridden with anyone doing the two up, both standing thing (2-up2).
Our concerns about being on the big bike and being two up lingered as the tour itself was upon us. Now we’d be leaving the confines of Three Step Hideaway and heading out on the road, and trail, and two-track.
The tour itself was designated as a fully supported ride. In other words, a support truck follows the group and totes your food, water and luggage around. As we prepared for the ride, and after a bit of discussion, Jen and I agreed to ride unsupported. In other words we would load Sally with all of our gear (we were on the road for two weeks) and ride heavy. Sally was already the heaviest bike in the bunch but we decided to ride with tools, snacks, water, clothes, rain gear, med kit … everything. Our goal was for our training to prepare us for our future world travels -- where there will be no support truck.
So after breakfast, with our guide in the front and Bill Dragoo in the rear, the 7 students riding 6 motorcycles left Three Step Hideaway heading for Bullfrog, UT. We headed West on a mix of improved gravel roads and pavement and stopped brieflyto see an historical monument, Newspaper Rock. Newspaper rock is covered with petroglyphs that date back as much as 2,000 years.
37°59'17.5"N 109°31'05.3"W
We soon left roads in favor of a long trails section up and around the Manti La-sal Abajos mountain range.
After some climbing we got to a pine forest on a mix of dirt/gravel roads.
Then we stopped for lunch and rest among the pines
After lunch our route to Bullfrog was covered by increasingly deep sand. Under full load, Sally got squirrely and eventually went down at speed. I remember everything going dark when we fell -- but that’s only because my visor filled with the deep sand. We got up and shook it off - Jen was a bit shaken but overall we were fine. And Sally was fine. So we continued on. Of course, as luck would have it the deep sand ended within about 100m of where Sally took her fall. Oh well, I will have to get better at sand.
After lunch our route to Bullfrog was covered by increasingly deep sand. Under full load, Sally got squirrely and eventually went down at speed. I remember everything going dark when we fell -- but that’s only because my visor filled with the deep sand. We got up and shook it off - Jen was a bit shaken but overall we were fine. And Sally was fine. So we continued on. Of course, as luck would have it the deep sand ended within about 100m of where Sally took her fall. Oh well, I will have to get better at sand.
We returned to the pavement and raced to catch the 4 pm ferry to Bullfrog, which, thankfully, we made.
Then we and had a great dinner watching the sun set over Lake Powell’s Bullfrog Bay. A good night of sleep was had by all -- thanks, at least in part, to the AC.
In the morning we gassed up and headed for Hanksville, UT, population 219. We headed North out of Bullfrog on the Bullfrog-Notom trail. We turned off the Bullfrog-Notom trail onto Burr Trail and climbed the famous Burr trail switchbacks. Sally seemed sure-footed even in the rocks and sand at the turns.
At the top our guide told us that we climbed the switchbacks “just for fun.” After a brief rest at the top we descended the same switchbacks to get back on our route.
We continued North and then East in Capitol Reef National Park and stopped for lunch (38°04'20.6"N 110°50'59.0"W) before the long and rocky ascent up Henry’s mountain range. As we made the late afternoon rocky descent, and maybe due to her load and finding just the right rock, Sally got a flat rear tire. I popped Sally up on her centerstand, got out my tools, and started to remove the tubeless rear tire in the blazing 100 degree+ sun. It wasn’t just a puncture wound however, it was a pretty good inch-long gash. I have always thought it fortunate to have tubeless tires on which, in the past, I easily performed field repairs with a tire string or mushroom and my portable compressor. This time because of the gash, I could not. Fortunately, one of my riding companions had an 18” tube that would easily work with my 17” rear wheel. We got the tube in, put the wheel back on and we were back on our way to Hanksville! (Note: I now carry an 19” inner tube as standard equipment, which according to Bill Dragoo will work in an emergency for my 17” rear wheel or my 19” front wheel.)
Bikes dirty but spirits high, we arrived at the Whispering Sands Motel in Hanksville in the late afternoon. When we pulled in there were a perfectly clean pair of GS’s ridden by a father and his son. They were really interested in our offroad adventures but they themselves had not yet ventured off road. I briefly pondered how I would ever get Sally clean again but the thought left me as we headed out to dinner.
After a great night of sleep, and breakfast, we turned toward Moab. We rode open, fast, hard packed trails
and one seemingly post-apocalyptic and forgotten highway on the way.
We then took an amazing and somewhat wild ride descending towards the Colorado river.
At a bend in the river, Bill and I stopped to have some fun with trick photography.
Still on the way to Moab we got a good photo of Jen and I standing on Sally as we passed a potash pond. The water in the pond was a variety of striking blues. The land in the near distance just over our heads is the windy outlook over Hurrah Pass where we had been a nearly a week earlier.
As we neared Moab, we stopped for lunch and Bill grabbed a quick snooze as he was known to do.
Once back in Moab, Jen and I went to a local motorsports shop. While we had our wounded Anakee WIld rear tire replaced with a new Shink e805, Jen took the breather to call the kids.
It was truly fun getting to know our MotoDiscovery guides and group. As different as we each are, we share so much in common. Our last dinner together was a sweet reward. Bill reminded each of us of how much we learned over the week by presenting details of our how we rode on our first day together. On that note, I’d like to take a second and commend Bill on his remarkable ability to watch a half dozen bikes do the same thing over and over, and recall how each person did on each of their last attempts. It makes Bill a really special coach.
Google Sites
Report abuse