Travels By Trike: 2 Month Update and Epic Summer Plans

Camping View

Blooming desert cactus

This experiment with keeping a YouTube channel and a blog isn't going as well as I had hoped. I feel like I have a handle on making and publishing videos on a reasonable schedule and am hoping I can start to incorporate blog postings in a more timely manner. I've got an epic summer of travel planned and want to find the time to document everything along the way. I love having my blog and Youtube channel but it is a lot of work. Unfortunately, my blog seems to be suffering - at the moment.

A quick update of where I have been over the last 2 months ...

From Palm Springs, I headed to Arizona to camp near the Saguaro cactus. I camped at a couple of cool boondocking spots on the way. The 1st one was a wonderful surprise. This was Fortuna pond outside Yuma. I stopped in Yuma to take care of medical stuff in Los Algondones, Mexico. I saw a dermatologist and picked up a few months worth of meds. Fortuna Pond is just a few miles east off I-8 and I found a beautiful spot in the trees. This was in April and temperatures were climbing. The shade really helped with the higher temperatures. From there, I stopped at the Petroglyphs BLM campground that I have stayed at before. The winds were very strong and loud.

Fortuna Pond near Yuma, AZ

Camp spot at Fortuna

I continued east to Tucson where I had a reservation at Gilbert Ray campground very near the Saguaro National Park. This is a fantastic campground where I stayed for 4 nights about 12 miles from Tucson completely surrounded by saguaro cactus. Here too, the winds were fierce. I was able to go out for one trike ride up nearby Tucson Mountain to Gates Pass and back down. I then rode into the Saguaro National Park before doing the impressively beautiful Mc Cain Loop. This ride was fantastic.

Birds perched on a saguaro cactus

Forest of saguaro cactus

Timely sunset shot

Sunset in the saguaro cactus

After leaving Tucson, I slowly made my way to Las Vegas for a Bennington College reunion. I stopped and camped a few days at Lake Mead. I did a very fun ride from the campground on Lake Mead to Hoover Dam and then some of the local trails. I stopped at the visitor's center near the lake to get directions to a sculpture garden that had been recommended. While there, another triker showed up. Cliff Green is a local, also riding an HP Velo Scorpion, who offered to show me the way. This was a fortuitous meeting and I always appreciate being with people who know the way.

Cliff Green escorted me on a very nice ride

Red Rocks

Red Rocks with my Bennington College buddies

Main Street Station Casino RV Park

Downtown Vegas

Used stove tops hanging off a fence that look like dice

Red Rocks hike

I spent a few days parked at the Main Street Station Casino RV park which turned out to be much better than I imagined. The RV park was centrally located to where all my Bennington College buddies were staying in downtown hotels. There are alumni living in Las Vegas who are involved in the arts scene and we got tickets for a variety of shows as well as explored the blossoming arts district. There's a lot more to Las Vegas than gambling.

Triking through St. George, Utah

Desert sunset

Cathedral Gorge State Park, Nevada

I love the clouds

Blooming cactus

After Vegas, I spent a week in the St. George, Utah area. The winds were, again, ridiculously strong which made trike riding difficult. I did some dirt riding where I was camped on BLM land in Hurricane, Utah. I also did a fantastic ride on the Virgin River trail around St. George as well as another ride through Zion National Park. I loved riding in Zion and can see doing that again.

Triking on BLM land

Triking through Zion National Park

Full moon in the desert

Zion national park

Interesting flower

Cactus colors

Camped in a desolate desert

Leaving St. George, I made my way to Springville, Utah to visit Utah Trikes. This shop is the biggest trike dealer in the world. I camped in a beautiful area called Sheep Creek which was a boondocking area that actually had strong phone service. The trike shop tour was very impressive. The shop is 50,000 sq ft and they have 40 employees. Shane gave me a tour of the large facility and I had a nice conversation with the owner, Ashley Guy. They are bullish about the trike market and expect substantial growth over the next few years. While I was there, they were doing a major remodel and I hope to return to see the results. I used my Insta360 One X2 camera which should have been a good choice. The camera had lots of problems with the lighting and black ceiling. I'd like to make another video which gives me another reason to go back.

Utah Trikes tour

Visiting Utah Trikes

Trike showroom

Lots o trikes

More and more trikes

I am now back in Portland visiting friends, triking with the tribe and taking care of various errands before I leave on an epic summer trip. From here, I'll be going to the yearly triking event in Kellogg, Idaho - Tater TOT for a week. From there, I'll be traveling with 2 triking friends, Leslie and Paula, who also have a similar truck and trailer set up. We will be driving across the country to Prince Edward Island on the east coast of Canada looking for places to ride our trikes along the way. The trip will be a few months long and we will return to the Pacific Northwest by September in order to attend the Recumbent Retreat.