Commuter duty

Decided it was time to put the pig to use for one of the things I said I was going to do - commuting.

So I left the grizcave this morning
and decided it was windy enough I shouldn't take any pictures while actually "doing" the commuting

So here's my route, all 16 miles of straight and very boring, watch your butt highway.



I spent the highway section going over my road skills inventory. Situational awareness, potential problem avoidance, you know - all the cool things you forget when you haven't ridden on the street for any length of time over the past decade....

But eventually I ended up at the right place. Received the proper greetings: "Dude, you rode in today, you're hard core!" "Is that your XR I saw in the parking lot, you look like you're getting ready to go to Alaska" (I said maybe in two years) "You better take that jacket off, you're gonna roast"

Flopped around the hallways the rest of the morning, overpants zipped open, jacket, lid and textbook balanced carefully. It was nice nobody called me a dipshit

My study partners also said I can't get out of a weekend project meeting because it appears I have fed the monster during the week and therefore, should not use "I'm going for a ride" as an excuse to avoid weekend classwork.

Needless to say, my addiction followed me into the classroom:




Poor guy in the background had a corrupt file directory. He'd pull up his file and get a bunch of jibberish data or error messages. Finally took pitty on him because it was interrupting my peace and quiet. Let him copy my clean files off a flash drive. Fixed...

So before you say or ask if I am having a attack, I should get on with my "adventure" report (zerbert sounds inserted here).

On the way out of the building I had the most interesting conversation with one of my instructors. Keep in mind this lady is a certified accountant and is pretty much can make you say thank you, may I have another colonoscopy without the lube please in the classroom.

I parked my bike outside her office window and she was surprised it was me. She stopped me to ask if my bike was an enduro and that she had one in college. I was so dumbstruck that she would have been the type to ride, I didn't know what to say. Just said yes it is an enduro (well we all call them something else today) and thanks for asking.

So another testimony how riding a motorcycle can open doors you would otherwise never know were there. She offered some tutoring on subjects I was too embarrassed to ask help with. Go figure... And I'm interested in finding out what kind of bike she rode in college.

(BORING - Cont.)

Then as I was leaving, a buddy came up and got all excited. Normally, with this guy that would make me nervous. But he said he has a old XR or XL that quit running a few years ago. He said he was riding when the fuel bowl started overflowing and killed the motor. We talked a bit and I really think its just a float and seat issue. So now I have another project to help him rebuild the carb and get his old Honda 250 running again.

What an interesting day..... AND THEN I RODE HOME IN THE REVERSE DIRECTION

AND THEN I DECIDED TO TAKE A DETOUR



And why my internetty friends is this important?

Because in the Great White North, we should still be snowed in. My driveway should still have 8" of ice on it like last year



But not today my new best friend

Oh yah, why is this important? Well lemmee bore you some more.

Because two weeks ago I could only get three miles up this road. Around 3,400 feet in elevation everything was still snow and ice. But today I was able to ride the motorcycle all the way to what I call the "four corners."

Here's the catch: Four corners is at 3,500 feet elevation, so the melt has started to go up the sideroads which in turn means we might be seeing some more out of the valley riding opportunities.

Today's little spin has me wanting to hit the Old Forte Steele Trail to see if its defrosted (and its 100ft lower with exposure).

The snowmobiles are using the dirt to get behind the gate (behind my bike)



And my portal to nirvana is still a solid sheet of ice behind the gate:

From this point, a person can go North West up into Big Mountain, North into the Northfork and East to loop back into CFalls.



Funny how the last 1,000 feet of road was ice but this one spot is dirt. (Open the gate!) Actually, our good friends at Stoltz Lumber allow people to recreate behind closed gates as long as the vehicle/OHV is less than 600 lbs or some such thing.

So that's pretty much it. My saddlebags worked great, nothing tore loose going over a few miles of potholed dirt road or 32 miles of commuting. They have about 10 lbs each worth of textbooks in them right now. Sure hope to swap the books out for camping gear pretty soon.



Riding alone sure has limitations on taking pictures of one's self. I'll have to read the instructions on my camera to see how to use the timer and the little stand thingy.

But here's a closing shot while I risked getting off the bike to stand on sheet ice. I could have slipped and fell out of reach of my clapper! But I didn't (this time)



When I got home, the wife said "you're all muddy" and all I could do is smile and draw a mud splatter face to close the deal.

That's a great day Griz.....

You've inspired me to get the gear out to start making the commute on the bike again.

Today's commute was a real drag


Spring brown will turn to green in about 6 weeks

Today's commute route for the record books

Looks like fun... what kind of saddlebags are those? I have been tempting the idea of riding to work again but 1hr in the rain doesn't sound fun.. you inspired me though

n16ht5 wrote:

Looks like fun... what kind of saddlebags are those? I have been tempting the idea of riding to work again but 1hr in the rain doesn't sound fun.. you inspired me though

Fieldsheer expander series - I got mine on clearance, but many other places sell them too.

http://www.newenough.com/parts/closeouts/luggage/fieldsheer/expander_motorcycle_saddlebags.html

Nice.

*I need a close up of the GPS mounting plz. That looks suspiciously like mine (that i ziptie on)

Inspector wrote:

Nice.

*I need a close up of the GPS mounting plz. That looks suspiciously like mine (that i ziptie on)

Yah, I think we've had this conversation before