Grand Canyon 1st leg to Kingman AZ -09222011 by clanmoran 2011-09-22 United States California Fallbrook Sightseeing 59 Views Like this Adventure Unlike this Adventure 0 Likes

Hi all glad you decided to join us again. Today is mostly riding and I did a lot of highway until March AFB then I headed out on 60 to 10 to 62. Through 29 Palms and Amboy.

We got started a bit before 9:30 gassed up in Escondido about 9:37 and headed out. I had mapped out a route and loaded it my Garmin but when I selected the route it wanted me to take all the back roads to 29 Palms. Electronics, they are great when the work and suck big time when they don't. I pretty much knew the route so I shut the thing off.

As we headed up the hill on I15 from Fallbrook it was getting hot. The bikes thermometer read 88. I was getting concerned because I knew we had to cross the desert and heat this early wasn't a good sign. It was like hitting a thermocline, it was that drastic. We rode on pretty uneventfully. Before the turnoff to 62 the temps got to 99. Terri was glad we made a quick stop in Temecula to remove layers. towards and in 29 Palms it hit 102. We had a quick lunch and continued on on the way to Amboy the temps topped out at 104. Then they cooled to 94 for a short distance and it was noticeable. I started to ride and ignore the temps. Then as we got into AZ we had about 80-90miles left to get to our destination. We decided to gut it out and get out of the heat permanently for the day.

As we continued the ride my shins started to feel like they were on fire. On the Goldwing the cylinders from the engine are right there heating the already hot air. It go so uncomfortable I thought I was going to have noticeable red and brown areas. I decided to look at the temps again, it was now 108 degrees F. I was wearing shorts under my MC pants. I was now wishing I had long pants on. The only relief I could find is if I reached down and put my hand over my shin, it kept the hot air from blowing directly on me, thank goodness for cruise control so I could occasionally cover either shin.

When the temps got back to 104-102 it was fine. I was happy that Kingman was only about 97, it damn near felt cool after 108. Well heat should pretty much be behind us. More tomorrow.