XC Trip day 9

The next day's route would take us south out of Idaho past Bear Lake and into Utah. Another very pretty ride that continues on Rt89, that funnels you down through mountain passes and National Forests. I lost track of how many National Forests we passed through on this trip, probably close to a dozen anyway. Once we reached Brigham City Utah, the road became more typical freeway, and not quite as scenic. Our destination was the Bonneville Salt Flats, where the AMA was holding a week long Speed Trials.

We stopped for gas and lunch just outside of Salt Lake City on RT 80. As we got back on the highway we had The Great Salt Lake on our right. Last time I passed this way I didn't stop to look at the lake, but this time we had the time so we pulled in at a marina. There was a long stretch of "beach" before the water, it was hot, we'd just gotten our jackets on etc. so I just took a couple pics and we rode on. As we were passing the lake there were some roadside pools, and I saw several American Avocets standing by the water. Another life bird for me, seen on a motorcycle at 70 MPH. There would be more "lifers" later on this trip.

The Salt Flats go on for quite a while, and you don't get to the actual speedway until you're almost at Wendover, so we pulled in to the speedway sometime late afternoon. We had already decided that we'd come back in the morning, but I still wanted to see what the place looked like. We spoke with the guy at the ticket booth, who was very helpful and friendly, and said we were welcome to get off the bikes and look around. One of his helpers was a British bloke named James, who was there for an attempt at a record in the Vintage Production 100cc class with a British bike called a James "Comet". A very pretty little scoot, nice enough to make it onto the event T-shirt this year. It was great meeting him and talking about the bike and the salt.

We also met a guy coming off the salt with his BMW K bike, it was clear he had entered in the "Run What Ya Brung" class, and he was very entertaining, another British dude. He was still pumped full of adrenalin, he had gotten up to about 130mph or so, but was losing track of the course, or trying to zip his leathers or put on his sunglasses, I don't remember, and wound up taking out a marker flag, which DQ'd his run, but he didn't really care too much, he was pretty thrilled with the whole thing.

After a while we got back on the bikes and headed into Wendover, found the Super 8 and checked in. We walked into town for refreshments which we brought back to the room, and had a quiet night.








The Great Salt Lake...


James, with his "James"




Run What Ya Brung dude