Several years ago (3 or 4 years ago??) my brother brought the bike to me because all his kids that rode the bike were grown and gone. And he was sick of the bike taking up room in his garage. He called me one day and asked me if I wanted it. "Sure!! Bring it over." So he did. So long story short, I ended up with this fairly decent motorbike. It had been thrashed by his kids and my brother isn't known for taking care of his stuff. I eventually got the bike running and last fall I got the clutch replaced.
So a week or so ago I pulled the bike out, dumped the old gas out and changed the oil. I put new gas in and oil and dang, that thing just runs like the champ. So one of my neighbors also has a bike. I think he's got a 450 or something like that. So we talk. There is this mountain close by called West Mountain. BYU has their West Mountain Observatory. I tell him about the observatory and some radio antennas on top of the mountain. I tell him about my failed attempt to reach the summit several months ago. He's always ready for some fun and adventure. So we decide that today is the day we'll make our climb up.
I haven't ridden much since I was a kid. Last year I didn't ride much because the clutch on the bike was marginal and my oldest son toasted it. But we repaired the clutch and now it runs well.
So we go. And we go. And we go. And we climb. And we climb. And we climb. And we get near to the top of the towers. Check out some of the photos that I took below:
The picture above is near the top and I'm looking towards the east across the valley.
In the photo above, I'm looking towards the northeast with Provo in the distance. You can see the southern end of Utah lake.
These are my riding buddies. Jon was on a Yamaha 4 wheeler. Brian is on his 450. The towers (our destination for the day) is in the background.
This is BYU's observatory. Note: This is on the west side of the mountain, somewhat behind the mountain. I assume this location was selected because it is the "dark(er) side" of the mountain.
This is another shot of the valley, this time from the top where all the towers are and looking towards the south east.
I was wearing polarized sunglasses and some of these shots were taken far, far away from my eye (I have a DSLR camera). I really need to invest in a polarizing filter for my lens.
The total trip time from my house was about 3 to 4 hours. When I got home, dang, I was sore and stiff. But it was one heck of a ride It was a total blast. And I really needed that ride. I've toyed with the idea of buying another motorcycle or ATV and today cemented the idea. If all goes well, I'll end up with a Honda FourTrax Rancher 4x4 ATV. As much as I'd like to go out tomorrow and buy one, that really won't happen any time soon. So I need to save my spare change and buy one outright or finance a small portion of it and pay cash for the majority of it. I would actually like to get another bike, but an ATV is more "practical". I can put a snow plow on the front of it and push snow for people. And the kids could use it to drag their lawn mowing stuff around from job to job.
I'm hooked. I'm already planning my next trip up to the towers.
Well, it is late and I'm tired and I'm going to bed.
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