I woke this morning in a small town in the middle of Utah — Hanksville. This town served as a waypoint between “heavy riding days” and served as a day of rest.

After morning meditation, that looked like this ==>

I thought fondly of…

…Chuck and how much he would have loved to support me being successful on this ride and enjoy it. He knew me so well and what struck fear in my heart yet always supported me overcoming my fears with encouragement and plenty of “you can do its”. Bless Steve, he listened to my concerns and helped me immensely through his riding skill and kindnesses a lot on this ride.

I loaded up the Harley, met Steve, and we went for breakfast. There is a small restaurant — only restaurant — in this town that is rather good.

After breakfast, we rode 40 miles to Capitol Reef National Park. Steve and I visited this park four years ago, but it was raining (monsoon), so we only stopped there to put on our rain suits and ride on.

Today, we rode through the park’s scenic road and saw… a lot more rocks.

Both Steve and I are rather “rocked out.” But it was a nice ride and helped prepare me for what was to come; that is, riding on curvy, really curvy, roads.

We left the park and rode another 30 miles west to the town of Torrey where we refueled our Harleys and had a nice lunch.

THEN… my self-challenge began. We entered Utah Route 12, a National Scenic Byway, headed west. This is a world-class motorcycle road, well-known to the motorcycle touring community.

The road is deceiving at first — it rolls along gently, at first downhill, with smooth and easy curves. As the road enters the Dixie National Forest, the curves continue with easy turns left or right. You continue climbing in elevation. My ears popped several times.

I was really happy that there was very little traffic, so I could ride slowly and not feel “pushed.” The sun was bright, yet within the forest, it was cool, so we donned our riding jackets.

Steve also pulled over occasionally so cars behind me could pass and we could maintain a very slow ride and I could relax and enjoy the view.

We stopped at some view points, such as this one:

The road rolls on, climbs and curves, still gentle deep within a forest of pines.

Then we popped up above the tree line. We had reached the summit! 9600ft! Stopped for a photo, hydration, then remounted and rode on.After that… well, that’s when we entered the more difficult part of this road. Yep… the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument lives up to its name. Staircase? Tight turns and as much as 14% downgrades! Also — as much as 1,000 foot drop-offs just a few feet from both sides of the road. There were few guard rails, either. Yikes!Here I am at the Top of the Staircase:I tell ya honestly, if I didn’t have a death-grip on the bike’s grips, I would have bitten off all of my nails. We did have a very interesting view — the “Grand Staircase Escalante” geology is quite different from other geological forms we saw elsewhere on this ride.With the decline in elevation, it got warmer. Time to shed the jackets so we won’t roast.

We took occasional breaks for hydration and stretches (i.e., relieve “Harley butt” for a little bit. Stock Harley saddles are hard and uncomfortable after a while.)

We rode on some 40 more miles on (mostly) straight roads through empty, barren landscapes with a few outposts of towns.

We arrived in the small town of Cannonville and are staying at a nice little hotel that is comfortable and quiet. We had to ride to another town a few miles away for dinner as there are no places to eat in Cannonville.

Tomorrow we ride to Bryce Canyon National Park for a quick stop (we were there 4 years ago) and will stay the night near Zion National Park just down the road.

Life is short: overcome your fears and enjoy the ride.