RIDING MY NINJA 300 TO YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

Oct 4, 2021

My friend, Jeff and I had this idea during Covid to visit Yellowstone National Park. We had some time, so we thought, why not ride there? We were not prepared, didn't do research and just winged it. We thought it would be fun and such a great idea! Here are 5 things we learned from that trip. 1. Even if you don't think it's going to rain, hail, thunderstorm, drop to 30 degrees all at the same time, prepare for it. Being from California, where we have almost perfect weather year round, we were accustomed to the weather we were about to experience in other states. It was all sunny skies in Idaho until we looked up and saw the most terrifying black cloud on the horizon in front of us. Of course we were in leathers and didn't bring any raingear. Soon we were freezing and being pelted with pea size hail. If you've been on the 80E/W, it's only two lanes going either way and we were going so slow because the road was so wet and slippery, we were riding 15 mph on the shoulder while cars and big rigs were whizzing past us. We didn't have a choice, there was nowhere to camp out on the freeway and the bridges had signs that prohibited us from hiding under them. So we sucked it up for an hour and rode in this terrible wet, windy weather. Lesson learned, bring rain protection gear and check the weather before the day's ride.

2. Idaho and Wyoming are beautiful and are incredibly underrated. The landscapes of Idaho and Wyoming are incredibly beautiful and peaceful. These states do not have the high density of of metropolitan areas and therefore, don't have the stressful traffic congestion. There are no cars honking, people being upset over being cut off by another impatient driver. It's just tranquil. If you get a chance, take a road trip through these less famous states, you won't regret it. We felt so at peace.

3. Ravens are smarter than you. We didn't know ravens were an issue in Yellowstone. We were so excited to finally arrive at Yellowstone National Park after a week and 1,000 miles, we immediately went to get front row seats to see Old Faithful erupt! We arrived just in time to walk over and get good seats. While we were away for 2 hours marveling at Old Faithful and walking around all the geysers, ravens smelled our oatmeal through 3 plastic bags and luggage and pecked through our belongings to their tasty snack. When we came back, the ravens were all over our bags. I ran as fast as I could in my leathers and stiff riding boots to chase them away. Lesson learned, take your food with you because along with pecking, ravens can open zippers too.

4. Allot time for rest We averaged riding 200-300 miles a day and learned it is extremely HARD on your body. Even if someone warned me, it would not have prepared me for how physically taxing this was. Plan a few extra days in your trip for unforeseen circumstances, weather and for physical exhaustion.

5. Don't say one day. Plan the trip and go. Here's a photo of Grand Prismatic Spring. Photos don't do it justice. You need to see it up close. Life is waiting for you on the other side of "some day".