Road Less Traveled - A Documentary by James Beatty

Day-25

July 31, 2006

Today, the White Rim Trail would be conquered... this time we mean it...

Today James, Steven, Michael and Britton decided to venture away from the Trans-America Trail to ride the Shafer Trail and then continue on to the White Rim Trail.

One of the first site they came upon As they approached the Schaffer Trail was a breathtaking 1,000 foot cliff - terrifying for anyone afraid of heights, but the sight was thrilling to the guys. “I’m a junky for this kind of thing” explained James of the cliff. “Apparently I’m not afraid of heights” said Michael as he held the camera steady just inches away from the cliff’s edge.

After they admired the beauty of the scenery before them, James noticed something leaking from his motorcycle. It was apparent that his bike was leaking gasoline. One of the two braces supporting his gas tank had snapped and gauged a hole in the gas tank creating a dangerous leak. With the nearest repair shop nearly 30-miles away off the trail, a trail-side repair was the only reasonable option. So, out come the tools, off comes the seat, off comes the gas tank and the remaining parts of the broken support pieces. After nearly two hours working on the repair in the hot sun, and with the help of some “J-B Weld”, the fuel leak was blocked and the gas tank put back in place with make-shift supports - hopefully strong enough to withstand the remainder of the rough trail.

To make the 2-hour repair operation even worse, as the guys completed the repair on James’ bike, the battery on Steven’s bike had died – perhaps because the helmet camera was left on, or as an on-trail debate came up, possibly the headlight left on. Would this end James’ dream of riding the White Rim Trail? With both bikes now up and running, the guys were back riding the Schaffer trail with the White Rim Trail within eye sight.

Everyone we’ve met on this trip has been so nice and wonderful up to this point but a couple of bizarre incidents had the guys scratching their heads. First it was the tour jeeps that drove past us every 20-minutes or so as we were working on the bikes, but not a single driver stopped to see if we were okay or to offer any help. Then a motorcyclist passed us riding in the opposite direction who wasn’t wearing a helmet, and had no protective gear on at all. Britton, disturbed by this, had a few choice comments to the rider as they slowly passed each other. The rider immediately went on the offensive and began to yell at the guys claiming that the pipes were “too loud”, riding too fast, ruining nature, and any other ridiculous claim he could think of. Britton counteracted, as did James, and a brief trail-side argument ensued. James explains; “He said he was only going 10 mph and therefore didn’t need a helmet. I told him to ram a rock into his head at 10 mph and see how that feels”. The exchange of words commenced and the riders continued their separate ways in a huff. James found the whole thing particularly bizarre because here they all were, all riders enjoying an amazing trail and beautiful scenery yet they were bickering over stupid things. Must have been because of the fatigue and the frustration of the on-trail repair.

Photo by Motorrad Media --

To finish the day everyone headed to Green River Utah. After a short stretch of off-road riding and the jumping of cattle guards for the guys, we all jumped on an old frontage road into town. Britton let James ride his KTM. “It’s lightening fast” said James. “No wonder they race it in the Dakar.” The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful except for a herd of rabbits that blitzed across the road in front of us and the deer that almost took out Britton. We arrived late at the Holiday Inn Express but had just enough time to scoot over to Ben’s Café for some much needed food before the restaurant closed for the night. Another day is done, but was it all we had hoped for?

Photography Copyright © 2006 Motorrad Media and Chris Rankin. All Rights Reserved.

<< Back to Travelogues main page