Phoenix to Michigan on a ~306cc build (lots of pics)

Most of this is copy/paste from my blog and ADVRider but thought I should share here as I am a new member..  Bought this bike off from fellow member 4play

I've always wanted to ride the South West, especially the Moab area.. getting the bike there from Michigan would be a long endeavor and really cut into vacation time.. so when I saw an already farkeled WR250R for sale things came together.  4Play and I made arrangements for me to ship my riding gear to him and set up the bike after I arrived.  4Play was such a wonderful seller, picking me up at the airport, treating me to lunch, letting me use his garage/tools, and even suggestion some awesome routes along the way.

Bike is built to I believe ~306cc using the Thumper Racing 280cc piston in the Athena Head, Stroked Crankshaft, Ported Head, Tuned, etc etc  Frankly was a lil bit nervous of embarking on such a long trip with an oversized engine but had no issues beyond a bit of oil consumption during freeway use the last 2 days.  I changed oil after getting home and albeit dirty everything was perfectly fine.


Some of the photos from my recent trip to Phoenix and back via the 2008 WR250R dual-sport motorcycle.  


Did my last minute packing, Luna has discovered she has a VERY slight ability to jump so she plomps herself up on the new couches.


Before leaving my aunt’s cow’s had some baby calves so went to visit and check out things around the farm, my dad decided he wanted to ride “shotgun” on the Ural.









We took a nice ride around the fields and well the old tractors that have been sitting for ages just intrigued me..




Pre-Departure leaving from Grand Rapids, Michigan:


Flying over the mid-west


Short Layover in Denver


Arrived to my Uncle’s house near Phoenix.. no grass to mow.





My bike loaded up and ready for the adventure!  Was picked up at the airport by the seller of the bike, we went to his place to prepare the bike for the trip.

Yellow bag contains tent, sleeping bag, sleeping mat, and clothes.  In the black side bags were bike tools and food items.



Old Gas Station





Some roadside sculptures










-Pete

Camps were full inside the Grand Canyon but the ranger I spoke too informed me a free off the beaten path location so set up for the night here. It’s actually a nice location, only about a 5 minute ride into town!

Camping the 1st night just south of the Grand Canyon, also took a picture of the funky carpet at the local Wendy’s.. temps were super high so stopped in for a Frosty





Arrived at the Grand Canyon ~630am on a Monday (park is actually open 24 hours) and very few visitors.

















Desert View Tower







Between Utah & Arizona, no jumping from the bridge allowed.









Camping spot for the 2nd night, just west of Zion National Park Utah



My view in the morning.



After packing up camp I stopped for breakfast at a German Bakery and tried their apple Danish.




Zion National Park, a VERY awesome place, highly recommend visiting.




Some mountain sheep doing their thing



The winds have carved some pretty unique patterns into the rock over time.


Monster Dandelions


Baby Godzilla!!


-Pete

A very scenic route out of Zion to Eastern Utah is Bypass 12, it’s a great road and goes right by Bryce National Park, part of the route is the road is on the top ridge of a small mountain with deep fallouts on each side.



Stopped for lunch in Torrey, Utah.. had the Chipotle Lime Pulled Pork with pasta salad.



Red Canyon Park, pretty remote but nice road.



Natural Bridges State Park





Camped at Natural Bridges State Park the 3rd night.





Canyon Lands National Park



It’s a VERY long drive into the park.. near 40 miles and no buildings.



On that note.. get fuel otherwise you’ll end up like me and having to resort to this at the outpost just outside the park.. yes that is $6.50/gallon.



Sun tan time.




The road to Elephant Hill







“Newspaper Rock” where natives (and some early Europeans) have added to this wall over a span of ~1000 years.







Leaving Canyon Lands a massive storm started rolling in.

Closer to Moab, tourist stops start appearing, inside this place was 5000sq ft home.





Lunch time! He wouldn’t share :(





In Moab it was getting pretty hot, so instead of camping I found this place. $12/night and the staff was really friendly. Was nice not having to look around for a shower facility as well.



After unloading at the Hostel, went to visit Arch National Park, this was one of my favorite destinations during the trip.







This structure was called Windows as there were many arches you could view out from.



After the park another hostel visitor and I split a local pizza, New York Style.



The Hostel Community Cat.



From Moab I took some back-country roads/trails including Onion Creek. The storm the day before caused some flash floods and the creek made the road quite a bit more of a challenge. This Onion Creek Trail followed right across this winding creek. There were creek crossings of nearly 20 times before being led back out to a main road.



Free Range Cattle



Leaving Moab I told Google Maps to skip Free Ways.. well this was the only option…. Starts off fairly easy.



After about 15 miles on roads like the above it turned into very sand washed trails like below.



Parts of the sand trail were still wet and VERY slippery quick-sandesqe mud. Tried going on the sides in sections like this but here it wasn’t much better.. It doesn’t look as bad as it actually was. It was slippery type clay mud so hard to get a good stance and even so once I did get the bike up once (340lb with gear on it) it slipped back down on top of my legs. It was in short a nightmare getting it out.. Next time I may just listen to the suggested Google Maps route!!



The tires are just LOADED with the mud.



Rode ~50 miles and cleaned up at a RV Rest Area

Stopped at an previous co-workers place in Glenwood Springs to wash up and crash for a night. She just got a new cat.. went out that night for Nepalese food and to work out a route for the next day.





The route chosen was Independence Pass going through Aspen, Colorado.



Making Snow Angels.



Twin Lakes, Colorado



Stopped that night in Pueblo and ate at Bingo Burger, this is their Pimento Cheese Burger. High temp of this day was 95*F in Pueblo, the temperature at the summit of Independence Pass was 37*F




The next day I made the loooooooooong trek to Wichita, Kansas.. all in all this day was 495 miles, quite a feat on a 250cc bike. Stayed the night at a fellow ADV rider’s place I messaged through the “Tent Space” community here on ADV. He invited me to stay in his guest bedroom, we worked out some routes for me to take that would be scenic and the next morning we went to a private airport that does a Sunday breakfast brunch/bike event.

Eating breakfast in this hanger





The runway is lined with huge houses and HUGE garages that are hangers for their private aircraft. I peered into a friends of my host’s hanger and was full of classic planes and such. Must be the life…



Into Missouri I went by Mark Twain State Park and the Onondaga Caves State Park. Helped a turtle cross the road.



Relaxing in the river looking for Geodes, found a couple J



You could walk 25 yards out into the river and still only be about knee deep.



Camp site, this place actually had some modern facilities such as a shower!!!! The people camping next to me was a small group from Finland and were pretty interesting.

The next morning I went to the Visitors center to ask about the caves, no one was there but some staff members but they took me on a private tour of the cave. The picture below was the old entrance into the cave, only accessible by boat.. The water was only about 5ft deep but they have added a new entrance via some stairs.



Random pictures and rooms of the Onondaga Caves.











On the last day I tried making it home but just ran out of steam (and daylight) and spent the evening in Kokomo, Indiana. G/f came down to visit me since I was close to her work place by this point.



Finally made it home, in total of time on the bike was 3042 miles. Luna wanting to go for a ride!



Overview of the route. Most days averaged ~200 miles, with a couple 400-500 mile days once east of Colorado.



Until next time,
-Pete

Wow great fly and ride, great pic`s also, cheer`s on ya, love the sponge bob squishy pants shirt hahaha

Awesome trip Pete! Best way to buy a bike!

Great pictures .. enjoyed the posts!!!

Fantastic report!

Great pictures :)