Great Basin National Park, NV, to Green River, UT

*** Written Monday night, July 26th. ***

Today was a moderately okay to mildly crap day. I got up at the relatively early (for me) time of 8:30AM. I haven't quite got my "system" down to a fine art yet, so by the time I made some coffee, ate the obligatory granola bar, had some more coffee, and did that other thing I do in the morning, it was time to pack up camp and pack the bike.

I like camping, and it was good to get all the old compact pots and cups and miniature stove going again. Packing ot all up and fitting it back onto the bike took me longer than I thought. By the time I rolled out of Great Basin National Park - an extremely remote place - it was 11:15AM.

The weather was very unsettled today. Fairly early on I pulled over beside an older (60-ish) guy on a big Honda who had been visiting his son in Washington state. His name was Mike. Like me, he was eying the big thunderstorm ahead and thought, "I don't feel like getting wet." Of course the weather was also very warm and muggy, so pulling on the rain gear makes you fairly hot. It also sucks when you end up not hitting the rain - these storms blow through - and you end up riding in your hot gear under the baking sun. The day before I had dodged the rain gear and the storms. I didn't think I would be so luck today, and I wasn't.

Myself and Mike rode together for a bit through the rain. I pulled over once or twice to adjust things, and so did he. We'd give each other the thumbs up to make sure we were ok. The touring bikers, especially BMW and KTM folks (and Mike on his Honda!) really look out for each other. After a while though, we were going separate speeds, and myself and Mike parted ways.

I got to Delta, Utah, and decided to get some gas. It was at this stage that I noticed my bike was covered in what looked like oil. This could be very bad. I had just got it serviced in BMW San Francisco before I left - they are expensive, but they check and do EVERYTHING. I was upset and slightly resigned. However, the weird thing was, the bike was running ok....

Just then, another BMW dude pulled rode by on a 1200GS Adventure - same as my bike but with a few extra bells and whistles. It must have been a bad day for bikers because he (John, I think his name was) had just lost his wallet, credit cards and everything, somewhere between Delta and Grand Junction, Colorado, where he lived. He was on his way to California, but was about to abandon ship. I asked him if he needed cash. He had managed to remember enough of his numbers, that he was able to get cash at the bank down the street, but he thanked me for my offer.

John had a look at my bike and thought it looked a bit strange. We both thought that there was a possibility it just *might* be oil and dirt from the road. There hadn't been much rain in the area in the last few months, so these fresh storms were kicking up a lot of gunk.

At that point I noticed that the gas station had no gas. John had been to another one in town, same deal. I told him about one I'd seen earlier down the road at the edge of town, and it looked like they had gas. At that point we parted ways. I think he was going to go back to Grand Junction.

I needed gas myself, so a few minutes later headed back down the road. I saw John coming bacxk the other way and we waved. I was still kind of worried about my bike. I filled up in the station at the edge of town. I was examining the bike when a bloke pulled in on a KTM 950. Basically, anytime a BMW "GS" rider and a KTM rider meet, there is an immediate camaraderie. His name was Jeff, and after assessing the bike with me, he also thought it looked like oil was leaking from somewhere (where?) but at the same time thought there was a *slight* chance that it could have been just road gunk - but leaning towards a leak.

By now, I had my friend and fellow BMW biker, the great and enormously helpful Don on the phone. Don had me go over a few things, and again it looked ok. It ran ok. By now Bridget who worked in the gas station, and who was extremely nice and helpful, had got me the name and address of a guy in the town who would take a look at it. Don was leaning towards diverting up to Salt lake, and Jeff had already offered me a room in his house! I have nothing but good things to say about the people of Utah. Everyone I met was kind and friendly, and offered to lend a hand.

Myself and Jeff duly rode down to Delta Motorsports, a motorcycle and ATV dealership and service center. The main mechanic there...I can;t recally his name...initially looked at it and thought it might be the rear shock, but then after checking a few other things declared - IT'S JUST DIRT AND GUNK!

We all had a bit of a laugh about it - the Irish guy from San Francisco who got his bike dirty! Still, it was better than the alternative.

Don called me back, and as I was heading east on US 50, recommended that I head to Grand Junction, Colorado, and check in with BMW the next day, just to be on the safe side. I concurred.

Jeff was continuing north-east towards Salt Lake. He kept his offer open room for the night if things took a turn for the worse. In fact, he said if I was ever passing through to look him up, and I could stay. Very cool and nice guy. He has a sister in San Francisco, and we figured he had been not far behind me most of the way the last couple of days.

The rain was picking up, so I pushed on in full rain gear for Grand Junction. However, the day was getting late, plus I was now on Mountain Time and had "lost" an hour, so I didn't want to arrive too late. It was probably 5:45PM by the time I left Delta.

After the previous night's encounter with the deer, I was very leery of riding in the dark in these remote areas. However, I knew that Hwy 50 would soon join Interstate 70, and those roads arfe well cordoned off from animals.

I-70 is very remote, and it is amazingly spectacular. This part of the world, the red canyons of Utah, remind me of my father and how much he loves the area. We'll all be travelling near here again in a month or two with him and my mum. The red rocks and canyons were now looking spectacular as the sun was breaking through the thunderclouds as it set, with lightning flashing all around (yes, I forgot to mention that!).

As, I continued along I-70 between about 8 and 9PM and it was getting darker, I saw a few of those "deer jumping" signs, and I realized that parts of this *extremely remote* interstate were NOT cordoned off. I decided at that point to get to the next main town - the only town for 100 miles - Green River, Utah, and call it a night there. Grand Junction was another two hours, and didn't want to push my luck. I checked into a little motel in Green River, got myself a pizza, and decided to update my blog.

A VERY SAD NOTE: As I was wrapping this up tonight, I got the very sad news that my friend Brian Black has died. I will write more about Brian later. I am very distressed at this news. I just shook hands with him on Saturday as I said goodbye. R.I.P. Brian.