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COPYRIGHT 2001 Ehlert Publishing Group
A Canyon Country baptismal.
A welcome silence enveloped us as we switched off the engines at a hastily chosen campsite in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. After 12 hours in the saddle, hellish heat, missed turnoffs and more sand than I ever want to see again--let alone ride through--Kail Wathne and I were letting the stillness of Utah's canyon country seep into our weary bones for a moment before unpacking. I was ready to curl up in the dust and sleep, but Kail was asking, "What's for dinner?" and unloading his bike as soon as his feet hit the ground. Ugh, I thought, more work, but I rallied enough to get the canned chili on the stove while Kail poured refreshments and raised a toast to our long, hot--and most excellent--day of riding.
This was Kail's first trip to Utah so we'd mapped out a wide-ranging dual-sport route through several national parks and monuments, starting in St. George. I've been preaching the gospel of adventure touring to my friends for years now, and Kail was the first to see the light. Before his new Kawasaki KLR650 was even broken in, he wanted to know, "When are we going to Utah?" The answer was early June, normally a warm-but-hospitable season in the canyons. We hit a hot spell though, with triple-digit temperatures much of the time, but even the extreme heat couldn't melt out enthusiasm for this trip. Rolling into Zion National Park on the first day, I swear I saw Kail's jaw drop out of his helmet as the soaring cliffs wrapped us in a warm sandstone embrace.
By a fluke of traffic control, we had Zion's mile-long tunnel to ourselves, our single-piston exhausts thudding a syncopated drumbeat into the tunnel walls. Later, the road sliced through...
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