Jim's home | Motorcycle home | Van Trip home
Drove for an hour or so early next morning and found a pull-off in the Capitol Reef Park to unload the Svart. Then headed to Torrey, then up to the 9,600 foot pass leading on towards Escalante. I nice lady from Switzerland took pictures of me at a scenic overlook. Scary, dark clouds were forming over the mountains just to the west with bright flashes of lightning. The map showed the road skirting those mountains, so I forged on, up and down the linked twisties amongst the aspen groves on the mountainsides. Eventually I realized dark clouds with virga (visible streaks of rain) were on 3 sides of me, the only bright skies being the way I came from. I turned around and started high-tailing it back to the van. Up and over the 9,600 foot pass, and on the descent I hit very hard rain that turned into heavy hail. The road turned white. I was scared of slick hailstones and pulled off into a camp area. Waited a bit and then checked the road after the hail turned back into rain. There were tire track strips of no hail on the road. So I rode slowly until reaching lower elevations with wet pavement and no ice. Rode about 30 miles in cold rain back to the van. Dried off, warm clothes.
After drying off I heard the sound of Harleys decelerating and pulling into my pull-off. I got out of my van and asked the Harley people nearest me if they're headed up into the mountains. They spoke in a foreign language that sounded a bit like French. I asked "Parlez vous Francais?" in my high school French. "Oui oui!" they said. I told them about the rain and the hail, they called their group leader over, a nice young guy who spoke English. He said that happened to him last summer. He was riding in a lead car (some econo-sedan), and the Harley people all followed him. What a thing, a bunch of French people renting Harleys to ride through the American southwest. But that's what the Europeans do, come to America to see landscapes that don't exist in Europe and to ride big American cruisers.
The nice Swiss gal took this picture of me near the 9,600 foot pass:
Scary dark clouds to the west:
Beautiful aspen groves near the 9,600 foot pass:
During the hail storm:
Close up of the hail:
The French Harley riders I spoke with:
The French Harley group. Note the flag: