Hello and Please Visit Posts on Facebook. You DON'T have to have an account!!

     Hello family and friends! Wow! If you have not kept up with the Inspired Journey on Facebook then a lot has happened that you don't know about! *Important* You DO NOT need a Facebook account or have to be a member of Facebook to view the content that I have posted there on my public page. There is a lot of writing content, pictures and even a few videos there. Please go visit, it would mean a lot to me! Even without keeping up on the website I have put in considerable time and effort to share my experience on Facebook. Thank you!! 

     I have been unable to keep up the website blogs. I'm sorry! The Journey has been so demanding and internet speeds have been so slow down south across the border that using the website platform is just to slow and challenging. Thus I have done my best to utilize Facebook where upload and posting speeds are possible with the amount of time I have off the bike and internet speeds I'm working with. I don't know if I saw any speeds even close to 1Mbps per second, mostly just kbps speeds(if that means anything to you) and that makes it really challenging and frustrating to utilize the website platform. I have taken very few layover days since I started this whole shebang almost a year ago and sitting around next to some pool, with good Wi-Fi and a day off to do a bunch of blogging has not happened, not even once!! 

     Here's the trip details: I have now ridden just over 30,000 miles total with 23,750 of those being on the KTM 690 through the Fall/Winter/Spring leg on approximately 60% dirt roads through 14 countries! Sweeeeet!! It has been an indescribably wonderful and challenging experience and I am beyond grateful to be fortunate enough to be one of the few who will get to participate in an adventure like this! I recently flew home from Uruguay where I am storing the bike to continue next winter since I was unable to complete the southern portion of my trip right now. It's winter and freezing in the southern hemisphere right now! 

     So, I have just started the next leg of the Inspired Journey where we are back on the Suzuki V-Strom and going big! Real big! Hoping to make it to the top of Alaska, across Canada to Newfoundland, down through the east coast for a fall leaf tour, down to Florida and then back across the USA to Arizona where I will do some work to recover the wallet before flying south again! Holy Moly! Just writing this down for you makes that sound even nuts/amazing to me! Well, Let's do it! 

     Now that you know you can keep up with me on Facebook, please do so. I am so thankful to all of you who signed up for the Adventure Blog. It means the world to me! It really does and there will be more content to come at some point through this Blog. I think my writing days are far from over and now that I'm back in the lands where I can use my phone as a mobile hot spot who knows what content might come about. 

Thanks again and lots of fun summer love from your adventure pal Jason!!!

  Instructions to view Inspired Journey content on Facebook:

1) Go to Facebook.com

2) At the top of the window there is a "search Facebook" box

3) Type in Inspiredjourney.life and hit enter or search

4) On the next page you should see my black and white circular sun/human with raised arms logo. Click on the Logo.

5) Now you are at my page. In general the page summarizes posts. In order to see the full post click on "see all" to see the entire post. 

6) Enjoy! And thank you for taking the time participate and be a part of Our Inspired Journey! 

11,000+ square kilometers of salt flats on the famous Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia. Epic! I camped out in the middle of this sucker and rode 78 miles to get across it to my exit. Amazing Place!

Happy! Real Happy! This picture is at 15,000 feet in Peru's famous Huascaran National Park. One of the most incredible experiences of my life.!

Backcountry Discovery Routes! Most of Washington, all of Idaho, all of Utah and most of Arizona with Jason’s creative routing to get to the official routes.

“The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.”

— Oprah Winfrey

“Adventure is worthwhile in itself”

— Amelia Earhart

This picture has been and hopefully will be the theme for this 9 month leg with thousands of miles of dirt road riding and dream come true days of challenging adventure! The only thing I’ve noticed is the GPS doesn’t’ say south as often as one might hope. Believe you me, it has said north, east and west all to often! Especially when we decided to ride almost to Canada before turning south to aim for the tip of South America. This way really is the Long way down!

     Well the completion of the first leg of the mostly dirt road trip to the tip of South America has been a Joyous success! 4,800 miles total with approximately 3,900 miles of that being dirt roads. This by the way calls for a hooray! The way this works out is that 90% plus of the actual riding time is in the dirt because whenever one hits the pavement we just blast that section out. I am going to insert a side note here;

 I will be using to term WE from now on! This trip is not about "I"! I can’t do this without the bike which is my friend and teammate in the journey. And, I certainly believe in the power of honest prayer and there are many wonderful people who are following, praying and thinking about the Inspired Journey, myself and the bike. Thank you! It is really happening, WE really are doing this big epic adventure!

     Ok, back on track. To be honest, I am riding pretty hard with a bike that is so loaded and even if the section is slow because of tight turns, rocks, etc. I am trying to keep up the pace because this really is the long way down. Many of you know the way I approach sports and that is to go big and ride hard with as much grace as possible. This is a gift to be able to dance this way with the various instruments(toys) I love to play with and this ride is no exception. I specifically bought and accessorized this adventure bike because it is the baddest, lightest and powerful off road adventure motorcycle in its class on the planet(in my humble opinion). And guess what? We have been a moving! This is not to brag, I promise! The reason I know the pace is grooving is that I have not been passed on the dirt by a single vehicle of any kind for these thousands of miles. However, we have passed many including other folks riding the discovery routes. Yeah, cool! 

    So, I rode 33 out of 36 days averaging 6-11 hours a day of on the throttle riding! Does that sound like a lot? Well, I can report that it is! This is as much time in a row in the saddle as I’ve ever logged! I got some calluses in weird places! HeHe! I am oh so grateful that the body is holding up pretty darn well. This whole Journey is pretty intense physically and of course the mental focus required is tremendous. There are many, I guess most places where we are talking about no mistakes or the bike and or I are not going to be okay. But hey, this is the nature of life in general and certainly the way most extreme sports are so this is the just the way it is! Good stuff! Helps focus and makes one feel alive and connected to the moment because it requires all of us and then some. 

This particular climb was the real deal! Just wide enough for a four wheeler, super rocky and yes, no mistakes getting bucked off! By the way this is the highest drivable point in Idaho. Trinity lookout, 9,500 feet and stunning! Put it on your adventure list! You can camp at the nearby camp ground and hike up here too!

See the bike left side of pic. So, the other reason for no mistake mentality is I have been in the middle of nowhere a lot! In fact mostly! That view there was mountains in all directions as far as the eye could see. We are looking north here and we have been riding through those mountains for hundreds and hundreds of miles for days and days. The Idaho route was a tremendous amount of super focused 1st, 2nd and once in awhile 3rd gear riding on single lane narrow twisty roads for you guessed it! Days and days!

“Adventure is innate, it is within all of us. The spirit of the universe is a marvelous expanding adventure of whirling energies that dance our lives into existence. Our lives are a gift of our adventurous universe! ”

— Anonymous

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”

— Helen Keller

     Just like on the first five week leg there is huge effort in making and breaking camp and tending to daily chores of gear, body and bike maintenance. I really need to get a photo of all the stuff I am carrying! I know one thing for sure, I know exactly why kids can make such a mess! It is far easier to pull all that stuff out than it is to put it back where it belongs in a tidy fashion. I'm not kidding when I say that just the daily unpacking and packing is really good for character building and the spiritual journey of presence and patience. It requires such careful and meticulous attention to put it all away in its little bags and pouches and back on the bike just right. If one didn't have the patience for this it would become annoying, overwhelming, frustrating and get old real quick! The other option I guess would be to make a quick sign out of forest materials, bang it it the ground next to the dirt road and write "yard sale" on it. The only problem with that is nobody might come by for days! Hmmm, I guess I'll have to continue my efforts in packing and paying attention to the quality of my participation with this never gonna go away task! Joking aside, I have grown to enjoy the process and believe it does contribute to the true essence of adventure!

Nice colors ehh!! Just to report I have not altered any colors on any of the pics I have posted. All natural baby! Anyways, here is an okay example of the gear involved. Truthfully theres more over by the bike and the pile by the tent has already seen a good thirty minutes of effort, but hey you get the idea! Now go load all that stuff on that dirt bike!

I utilized The Backcountry Discover Routes for a huge portion of this part of the ride. Check out there website at: www.backcountrydiscoveryroutes.com                                                            I wanted to say a personal thank you to the folks who have been developing these routes. This is hard work and my hat is off to there dedication and passion for doing this and sharing it with others. Thank you so much!

Washington Backcountry Discovery Route

     When I pulled out of the Driveway the feeling of "yep this is it" was flowing through my veins. It is interesting to put your heart and mind into something for so long and then actually realize that "vroom vroom", it's happening! It's really happening! I rode the old scenic highway towards Hood River where I hooked up with my good friend Dan. It turned out to be fantastic way to start the mega journey since I will be solo for the rest of the foreseen trip. Dan and I had three great days of adventuring together. He also took great care of me by supporting me for those days so I could save my buckaroos! He even got us a hotel and took us to dinner on the third night. What a guy, great guy! Thanks Dan, you da man!

     The was the second time I've been on the Washington route. It is amazing to be able to ride right out your backdoor and within 25 minutes be on a dedicated ride across the state. The first sections are nice and forested until you get outside of Packwood and start climbing up the mountain headed for Ellensburg. This is a relentless full day of rocky riding with tons of loose half fist sized to half bowling ball size rocks! It was truly a banging challenge and Dan and I saw one group who did not fair well in this section and there trip was over due to damages! We made it thru safely with a couple close calls, ya know where you say to yourself "I almost didn't make that", but alas you emerge upright with a little giggle of victory!

I pulled off here just to get a quick pic of the rocks for perspective, but the truth is on a scale of 1-10 this little section represents about a 2 on the rockiness and size that was involved. It was challenging enough that in the tough sections I never stopped to get a picture because getting going again after a stop on these marbles can be sketchy!

      As you climb out of Ellensburg on a groovy single lane paved road, the landscape turns surreal in a half lucious and tree burned zone with incredible views off to the west of the cascades and goat rocks. The route in general is running north climbing and descending ridges(mountains) that run east and west. Up and down and up and down! The GPS when I did the Route 2 years ago said 65,000 feet of elevation gain and loss when the route was completed. What this does for you is give you lots of incredible views and since much of the route is at the edge of the forest and desert. Certainly one nice component of the washington route is the great views versus being trapped in the green tunnel when your in the forest. The view as you come to Lake Chelan from above is memorable and always reminds me how much I love the water and being in it, so of course a swim was in order when we got settle in for the night. 

Cascades and Goat Rocks wilderness.

Looking east to Lake Chelan and the desert of eastern Washington.

     I parted ways with Dan and the discovery route here the next morning and used my own creative routing to get over to Idaho to start the next route where I'll finally turn south! There were a couple of surreal moments riding thru 8" deep silt pits in the middle of a bizarre mixture of farmland and wide open eastern style desert terrain. I ended up loving this combination of following the GPS and then figuring out my own routes. Navigation is fun and rewarding, but sometimes its nice to just follow the purple line on the GPS.  I ended up riding on some of the paved roads that I road when I was on The V-strom on my first five week tour which was kinda cool for memory sake. So, no trouble in Washington. Just good times, good challenging riding and sharing some of it with a good friend. Thanks Washington, what a beautiful state!

Some of that Jason creative adventure routing! Bizarre area with silt, farming and notice the basalt rock clusters. Shortly after this it crested a slight rise and looked off to the east with one of those forever views! I got off the bike and took a picture and sent it to mom with this question, "Is this the way to South America!?". It was a funny moment to realize the nature of adventure ;-)

Idaho Discovery Route

     Did you boys and girls know that Idaho is a really long state? Holy cow it's as long as Oregon and Washington combined with really rowdy mountains! The Idaho route went on and on and on! If any of you want an extended off-road adventure trip where ya follow the GPS this is it! I could write a book on the Idaho route. It is vast with lots of memorable moments. They make good dirt roads in Idaho and except for some sections where the road makers scattered there marble rocks on the roads. There was literally days and days of 1st, 2nd and once in awhile third gear riding. This does wonders for ones patience and balance on the bike so I enjoyed it!

Super cool fire lookout with great views. Ya see that road off to the left there? You see the nature of those mountains out there? The route goes through there for 100's of miles and so you can see why things might be slow going. 

Being by oneself in grizzly country with no car to climb in and no firearm was a little intimidating for me as this was my first time in grizzly country. But honestly, a lot of my travels this summer I've been in  black bear country and so keeping a clean camp and hanging food at night have become regular activities. I lost some sleep in the beginning of these travels being overly sensitive at night and so anymore I just throw in the ear plugs, say a wildlife prayer and sack it out! I wonder if a Grizzly knocked a whole in that sign trying to disguise his handsome mug?

     The other big highlights were celebrating my 40th birthday while riding the famous the Lolo Motorway, staying with my friend Ken in Missoula who took great care of me and helped me service my bike, Frank Church-River of no return wilderness, historic Florence, The Salmon River, Burgdorf hotsprings, making new friends while repairing my radiator in Boise, Trinity hot springs, and riding along so many rivers its hard to count! Idaho is beautiful, rugged and remote! Some of the little towns are as quaint as any I've seen in this country. This is where they build most things out of trees, not lumber!

I am so happy the sun has come over the ridge. It was 25 degrees on this morning and everything was covered with frost. I was painful on the hands to pack up and I remember wishing I can't wait till it warms up as I head south. If I think back to my idaho adventure experience this sums it up! Joyously challenging!

The lovely Salmon River. Put this on your adventure list if you haven't been. I can tell you it's going on mine because I would love to get back and experience more of this River.

Burgdorf Hotsprings, what a place! Snowmobile, ski, hike or fly-in only in winter. There was a cabin on the property from 1865. Wow! This was my only true layover rest day of the whole trip and I soaked until I could barely walk back to camp, got some food and then repeat the process as many times as you can! Good for the body an soothing to the soul! I had some great conversations here too. People probably swam away thinking" boy that guy likes to talk a lot"! Little do they know I don't talk to people for days on end and so when I get a hold of somebody watch out!

Another Fire Lookout at Trinity Peak. This is a quintessential shot of what the Idaho route was all about. Big, rugged, remote, stunning colors with vast differences in rock colors, water everywhere in lakes and rivers and hot springs galore!

     As you can tell I could go on and carry on! I took around 1,000 pictures in Idaho alone and I promise I don't go to all the effort to slow down and stop, turn off the bike, take my glove off and often dismount the bike to take a picture unless it is worthwhile. I still took a 1,000 pictures even though it involves this cumbersome process which means there's more beauty than imaginable. Thinking back the IBDR was an amazing ride and experience I will never forget and I highly recommend it even if you were to check out one of the roads for a little ways. I actually really enjoyed the last section from south of Lowman to the Nevada Border which is closer to home for the folks near the Columbia River Gorge area. Jump on my Delorme page so you can see the route and plan a trip to Trinity lakes area and stop in a trinity hot springs in paradise to enjoy the largest hot spring pool I've ever soaked in. Idaho, you Rock! What a place and I'm so grateful to have soloed that sucker! Life is good! Adventure is invigorating! Go get some!

“We live in a wonderful world full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.”

— Jawaharla Nehru

Utah and Arizona to be Continued..................

"It's time to go to Mexico!"

Your friend and adventurer, 

Jason

Mexico Here We Come!

     This is a Heads up for all those who have signed up for the adventure blog! I'm back on the bike tomorrow after over 3 weeks in Tucson working and getting ready for the next leg! I am so ready to get outta Tucson and back on the Inspired Journey! Yay!! I never intended to spend this much time in Tucson but being a bit of a perfectionist with a limited travel fund is a challenging combination for a trip and guy like this! The bottom line is I am super grateful to have been able to make enough nuts to offset the costs of the huge bike service and final details for leaving the country. Super Exciting! What a lucky guy to be able to work a little on the road, see good friends and be warm. Really warm! Like it's been mostly in the 90's the whole 3 weeks I've been  here. I prayed when I was in Idaho that it would get warmer, but I forgot to include in the prayer the temperature range I was shooting for! 

     So, It's 11 o'clock pm and I am still trying to work on the blog from the adventure routes from the first five week tour! I've decided I need a roady blogger! The rules are simple, I do all the adventuring and you do all the social media! Deal?

     There have been a lot of good friends who have helped me out since I've been in Tucson. You know who you are and please know I could not do this without your help. Also, my Mom flew down to Tucson to see me and visit and so big thanks to mom for all her endless love and support! Thanks everybody!

      I wanted to say thank you too for all who are following along. Remember I am posting way more to Facebook because of the ease and speeds to upload information. My Facebook page is Inspiredjourney.life. Also, remember you can always spend 5 minutes going to the follow page on my website and looking at the blue dot and living vicariously through the map page with your adventure imagination.

     I'm gonna say it! I love you all no matter what and there's nothing you can do about it! This is where the adventure gets really adventurous. Riding a motorcycle solo through foreign countries is gonna be.........................exciting, intense and outrageous to say the least. Stay tuned!!!! 

Adventurous Love, 

Jason

Okay, front forks service, rear shock serviced, new wheel bearings in front wheel, rear wheel and sprocket carrier. New chain and sprockets. New chain guide and brakes. New rocker arms for the top of the motor, valve adjustment, fresh oil change, welded rack mounting point and lots of time going over everything tightening and buttoning things up. I wanted to say Thank you to Donnie at ZR-1 suspension in Tucson for his shock services, changing bearings and letting me save some money by pulling the bike apart and putting it back together. Great guy and great contribution to the Inspired Journey! Thank you

Here We Go!!

Two weeks at home, tons of chores, some fun, loved ones and here we go!

ADVENTURE BLOG HERE WE GO! COME ON JASON, KEEP EM' COMING DUDE! 

THAT'S MY OWN LITTLE PEP TALK! :-)

Okay, I'm writing a short blog on whats happened the last few weeks

           In on of my last blogs I was sitting in a basement in Denver Colorado and now I am at my parents place near The Dalles Oregon. I have actually been home for two weeks today. Holy moly time flies! There has been huge effort since I've been home. I'm going to use the word "we" because many people have helped the last two weeks in all the various tasks. We started by unloading, servicing and doing maintenance on the Suzuki after its 6,400 miles of toting me and all my stuff around.  We Finished the mega adventure build (Huge thanks to my dad and my pals both named Jerry for their efforts) on the KTM 690 Enduro R by installing the accessory gas tank and putting it all back together. Then I said a big prayer to the motorcycle Gods and fingers crossed while I fired it up for the first time after major addition of accessories, pulling stock systems off for conversions and truly lots of other parts and upgrades, etc.  Vroom, Vroom! She fired right up! (I guess i think of my bike as a girl! I don't usually walk up to it and say, "uh, how's it hanging dude?" I usually walk up and say "hey baby, hope your up for another adventure today!") Anyways, it was a huge relief that it started right up and minus a couple small details after a short ride it was a matter of several days of packing details to get it ready. Actually more than several! I gotta tell you all that this is the hardest adventure type packing of my life! Sooo many careful details!  I have less space on this bike than the Suzuki and way more stuff because of the need to carry more tools, lots of spare parts, extra tubes, hefty bike retrieval kit, etc, etc for this type of off road motorcycle and the nature of this next adventure being primarily dirt roads and out of the country! There was another trip to REI, motorcycle parts from Fun Country in The Dalles, multiple trips to Staples for printing maps(I stood at the printer for an hour and a half making paper copies of the Benchmark atlases because they are too bulky to carry all four states for navigating the discovery routes) and laminating important paperwork. Ok enough about chores and details!  Other events were spending time with friends, family and Courtney. We had a great gathering and send off party thanks to the hard work of my parents,Courtney, Raven and Richard and Tova! And thank you so much to everyone who helped out, took the time, brought some food to share and made it important to come and support the Inspired Journey. Truly, thank you so much! Their has been so much love, kind words and support from so many people. I am so honored and so thankful to have so many wonderful friends in this life! 

Here's a couple pics of the KTM.

This is just after installing the black accessory gas tank to up front to double my range to 300 miles. It would be hard for a non motorcyclist to tell but there has literally been hundreds and hundreds of hours of research and garage time to get it to this point where you see it in this picture. Oh yeah and thousands of buckaroos!

Is that outrageous or what!? Holy modern iron horse! That their my friends represents one of the lightest with good torquey engine power adventure motorcycle's on the planet earth! I don't know what their riding on other planets but this one is neato! Technology these days is pretty impressive considering the first motorcycle was invented in 1885. They've come a long ways! Remember I am truly self contained and living off this sucker.  And I'll be able to ride some pretty challenging terrain with all that gear on there and of course when I get somewhere and I can unload the gear, I really have a lightweight adventure machine. 

So, I am off! I left yesterday to start the next leg of the Journey, THE BIG ONE! This will start in Washington state and be mostly dirt roads to the tip of south america if all goes well. Stay tuned and remember you can alway go to the website and click on the FOLLOW to see where the blue dot(Thats's me) has been and where it is currently blasting along! Thanks for your support and following along! 

2nd half of the first five week adventure!

ADVENTURE BLOG

“Go confidently in the direction or your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”
”

— Henry David Thoreau

I am not a big real early morning person, but here I have been up since 4:45. I'm already packed up, geared up and have ridden up the road to watch what turned out to be one of the epic sunrises of my life on Windy Ridge near Mt. Saint Helens. Words cannot describe how happy I am here. This is the last morning of my 5 week tour and I'm so glad I rallied and got out of the warm sleeping bag to experience this. You know, "going confidently in the direction of our dreams"!

         Where were we? Yes, yes I left you hanging three weeks ago in Colorado! Sorry, but I have a feeling that like many americans lives you have been busy busy and not too worried about blogs! So, let us enjoy a few rare quiet moments together to breathe and read adventure. I am going to keep reminding people about the FOLLOW button on the website. This is where you can experience vicarious adventure through me by viewing the blue dot(that's me) as it blasts around. You can also use the route that has been laid down to plan your next trip along the roads I have taken or simply use them as a guide. The 5 week tour was truly epic and of the 6,400 miles I'm guessing I was on the interstate for less than 75 miles and a good chunk of the that was going into Denver to visit a good friend. Instead all routes were two lane highway, scenic byways, single lane roads with pullouts and 500 miles or so of dirt roads. The roads in countryside America are fantastic and we are fortunate to have high quality road systems that take us to so many incredible places for adventure!

This is Lands End Rd. You can catch it just south of Grand Junction Co. This was one of the epic dirt roads of my life! Keep in mind I have been fortunate to ride tens of thousands of miles of dirt. Right here I am standing at 10,000 feet on the area they call the grand mesa and the views were stunning. Also, I love birds and there were some falcons up here that were playing around with the wind lift. The would rise up several hundred feet in a matter of moments and then tuck and dive down the cliff at their insane 100+ mph speeds. It was so awesome up here it was hard to leave and there was hardly anybody around. Also, off in the distance across the valley is the road that leads to Gateway. Traveling thru here was liking jumping into totally different terrain and reminded me of the grand canyon only instead of rafting you were floating the pavement. Super Great! Can you see it out there? It's right out there! Maybe you'll just have to go check it out yourself. ;-)

I left Colorado out the backdoor on beautiful dirt road 129 north of Steamboat Springs. This dumped me on the "closed in winter" scenic 70 in Wyoming which was a gorgeous run over 10,000 ft. and across the continental divide again heading east. This led me to Riverside, then north to the I-80 for a few miles to Sinclair where I turned north onto Seminoe Rd. Amazing road, part dirt and on this evening was one of the most amazing experiences of the 5 weeks. Nobody around, no wind, stunning geography and the quality of the light was of a Pixar animation quality. Life suddenly becomes surreal and dream like, separation ceases and the beauty of the moment melts the mind, interpretation stops and all of the sudden with out any effort it is quiet and graceful beyond words to be human. The colors in this photo have not been altered. Pure mother nature magic and it was an adventure gift to be out here this particular evening!

“The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.”

— Henry David Thoreau

When I left Denver I used the toll highway($4.76 for 30 mins of driving i think) to get to the groovy town of Boulder. I grabbed a cup of coffee and walked around the nice area where there are no roads and lots of cool shops and art. When I left boulder I was feeling good and headed for Estes Park, happy, easy cruising. And then, I know that feeling! Another flat tire and this is where adventure challenge begins. I am not a man of gossip and so I will simply state the facts for what happened next. I'm on the main road if you will. I get pulled off safely to the side, put on my hazards and start unloading gear so I can lighten up the bike to work on it. I unload everything which is quite the process. I try multiple attempts with all my might to get the bike on the center stand but I am in the gravel and Its too low and too heavy. I've been at this for at least twenty minutes, lots of people have gone by and no one has stopped. I have to fully two arm wave a guy down and talk him into 30 seconds of help to get the bike on the center stand. He says "Good luck" and takes off. Over the next hour+ of repairing and reloading I'm guessing a few hundred cars went by, 40 motorcyclist and gangs of road bikers. Not one single person asked if I was okay or needed help, let alone stop and actually get out of there car to come see if they could do anything! Hmmm, selfishness, fear, indifference, lack of care. I don't know and the reason doesn't matter. I know one thing for sure. Human Beings suffer when we don't take the time to take care of each other. Period! I made it a point on the 5 week tour to stop and check in with every single person that I saw on the side of the road where I could tell something was up. That's right, I turned around, crossed the road, took anexit and came back, or whatever it took to check on my fellow travelers. Guess what? I have two new friends in my contacts and the other people I took the time to check on all said the same thing. "You are the only person that has stopped to check on us, thank you so much we really appreciate it!" Two new friends and the others maybe had a small seed planted that helped restore their sense of humanity. I will make it a point and a practice to stop and check on everybody(with common sense in mind of course) for the rest of the Inspired Journey and I can promise that helping others on the trip will end up being one of the highlights and I will continue to share about it here or in the Recovery/spirit blog. I will add something of my own to Henry's quote above. "Be a friend to someone you don't think is your friend". We wouldn't leave our friends stranded on the side of the road for Petes sake!!

“Friends...they cherish one another’s hopes. They are kind to one another dreams.”

“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.”

— Henry David Thoreau

So, I had to ride stressfully and tentatively on that leaky repaired rear tire for a day and a half. I even rode thru Rocky Mountain National Park with it which was a strange adventure of beauty and stress. I had stopped at one point to make phone calls to the various towns and I finally made a call to an unsuspecting place to buy a tire, a mechanic shop, but I was out of options. The guy answered the phone, it told him the size tire I was hoping to replace and he came back on the line and said this. "Ya, I got one that a fellow took of his bike and left here. I wasn't sure why he didn't want it because it is more or less brand new and it happens to be your size. It's a Metzler Tourance. You can come haul it off". I said "like haul it off how?" he said "come get it man! I don't have time to install it, but you can have it". Yes the motorcycle gods have hooked me up with the guy to recover my sense of humans looking out for each other. And so I rode to his shop, he wouldn't accept any money for it, we shared a few stories and he said "get out of here and have a great trip". Awesome! I tied it on and headed down the road the Steamboat Powersports and they took great care of me too! Thank you to the people who do go out of their way to help others!

The team here was nice enough to let me find some shade so I could some of the work myself to keep costs down and they remounted the new "free" tire for a discount to help out the inspired journey. The whole project cost $24. Thank you so much. I wanted to give a shout out to the guy who gave me the tire at "The Motorcycle Shop" in Steamboat. Thanks brother!

I made it a priority to go and visit some dear friends on this leg of the journey. I am going to call this "Adventure Visiting". This was a really fantastic way to journey around. I would do my thing out in the woods and roughing for several days and then right about the time I needed some personal maintenance a friendly visit was set-up. This does a couple things for you. When you roll into your friends looking pretty hammered and scruffy it gives your friends no option, but to offer you a shower. Then when you emerge clean shaven, smelling good and bright eyed they say wonderful things about how great you clean-up and how good you look in general which does wonders for ones sense of youth and vitality. Then what they'll do for you is cook you a kick ass meal and insist that you just sit there and enjoy yourself while you get caught up on each others lives! Truthfully, giving people a chance to take care of us is a lovely opportunity to break out of the norm for all. Certainly one of the highlights of my trip was making time for old friends, breaking bread in the sharing of a meal and of course there is nothing like looking into your friends eyes giving them a hug and telling them you love them! Good stuff this "Adventure Visiting"! 

This here is one of my long time friends in life Brian. We were best pals in high school. Here his son Ryker is trying out my new Helinox camping chair. 

The highlights for the rest of the trip were...............hmmm...............everyday! You know this kind of adventure is out of the norm even for a motorcycle guy like me and so every day feels big and epic. Sometimes when I finally get in the tent and take a review of the day, I find myself saying "holy cow was that this morning that I started back there and saw that" We are talking huge days of adventure that I was having and often on the bike for 10+ hours a day. It was certainly amazing to ride through Rocky Mountain National Park, Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. These place are a must see especially if you can catch them on the shoulder seasons. Some other highlights were Beartooth pass as you exit Wyoming into Montana. This area and road is not a national park but it could be. Also, I had never been to flat head lake in Montana. The night I got there it was doing the super storm with 30+ mile an hour winds that were blowing liquid smoke off the water and complete with lightning and thunder. I love weather and this is one of the reasons I love to adventure on a motorcycle and camping because you are right out in it! I was in a crazy lightning storm type situation in Wyoming that I had to turn around. I watched this bolt of lightning touch down and start a fire. I turned around a bailed out a bit scared and by the time I got to the beginning of the turn-off their were fire trucks galore on the way. Let's see what else? Oh yeah after all those miles of riding and crossing through Montana and top of Idaho which was very nice, when I entered Washington I suddenly realized that my home state has some killer roads. I'm not sure what it is but Washington and Oregon seem to make great twisty roads that have good speed limits to really get you groove on and put the hammer down a bit. So after all those miles as I was finishing up by coming through northern Washington and then taking the 12 from Yakima towards Rainier it felt good to be in my home state. Right out our backdoor from home is so beautiful with as gorgeous of pavement and riding conditions as anything I rode. The rode out to windy ridge I caught on a quiet evening and then watching the sunrise the next morning was also one of the highlights of the trip before I rolled down my home road of highway 14 into White Salmon to get a great cup of coffee at our local shop. Life is good! The universe also hooked me up with a motorcycle traveler at the Rowena Crest lookout just 5 miles from my parents house. He was as stoked and excited about the Inspired Journey as any strange I came across the whole 6400 miles. This reminded me that the best adventure is the one your paying attention to and the one that inspires others even if its just out your backdoor a few miles. Adventure is a way of life, a way of being. It is the sense of wonder that keeps us enjoying each moment no matter the challenge or the beauty. That's it for now! Thanks for being here!

Flathead lake just before the storm and rain started really kicking in high gear.

I had never seen a storm quite like this in my life. As I got closer out their to that sucker it was blowing really hard, and hairball bizarre lightning and huge banging thunder! Since I was the tallest thing around I bailed out chose to live over storm chasing!

The final morning of the five week tour. This sunrise at Windy Ridge looking at St. Helens was a sunrise I will remember for the rest of my days.

Mom and Dad's home sweet home is just a few miles down the road! The first leg of the Inspired Journey has been loaded with incredible adventure, people and moments that I will cherish!

“Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Till next time my adventure friends!

Jason

Colorado, Colorado and Colorado=Thank you, thank you and thank you!

FOR THOSE WHO SUBSCRIBE:

Hey Friends and family! I believe I have finally figured out the technical aspect of getting my website blog content to sync up with the mail chimp delivery system. It has been challenging for me to problem solve this as there doesn't seem to be any personal support via phone or computer. I have to read, read and reread much of this before it sinks in and following the instructions can be like going down a challenging rabbit hole.  If you have ever picked up a true medical journal and tried to read an article about disease for example it would be nearly impossible as the medical language used would be beyond most lay people. This is my analogy for my learning some of the computer language used when building the website, mail delivery service and all the various computer based platforms I'm using to build InspireJourney.life and share the trip. Thanks for your patience and support!

COLORADO!

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn”

— John Muir

The weather in Colorado is about as radical as any place I've ever been! I love weather and so this has been a real treat for me and also quite challenging at times!

Just before I got here it was raining so hard I could barely see! I almost wimped out and got a room but there was no one at the front counter and it was too expensive for this gypsy's blood!

The adventure Blog!

Well the first idea I want to address is the fact that I have not been blogging. Guess what I needed a vacation! I have been charging out there, so my vacation has not been from adventure or physical output, but from the computer and techy work. I have spent more time on a computer in the last year and a half getting ready for the trip than all my previous computer time over my whole life! Well maybe not quite, but you get the idea. I actually I have spent time continuing to problem solve foundational and functional computer website, domain, e-mail delivery system stuff and so on. However you followers have not been getting content so I will try and rebalance the equation. Facebook has made it so easy to share that I've been posting pictures there pretty regularly. For instance, I can load around thirty pictures to Facebook in about the same time it takes me to load one picture to the blog and sometimes with poor signal I can't get a large file to load to the website at all! There is a reason why 2.2 billion people use Facebook! The platform is brilliant and insanely fast for pushing content and sharing. What I have realized out there in the world talking to people though is that I need to continue to focus on the sharing of the story, not just images. I think I will try to blog more often with less content than I originally planned so we can start enjoying this process. This is all a learning lesson for me and I have much to learn and also finding the balance of my sense of responsibility with sharing. So, Onward we go!!

Cottonwood pass, just over 12,000 ft. This is like driving over the top of Mt. Hood ;-).

 Since the last blog, much adventure has happened! The road out of Grand Junction east to Mesa and then up the mountain began my adventures through, over, around, down, up and back and around a few more times thru the San Juan range of the Rockies. This is the largest mountain range in Colorado by area. They are tall,  rugged and wondrous and truth be told I love it here! It is hard for a literary laymen like myself to put this kind of beauty into words. In fact I think it has to be experienced! As I first climbed out of Mesa past Powder Horn ski resort to the area they call the Grand Mesa my mouth was hanging open! The Aspens, high mountain lakes, myriad of shades of green and golds, deep blue sky's with white puffy clouds and mega views of distance are astounding. It has been challenging to get the camera to capture the enormity of this landscape! 

Nearly 10,000 ft looking north from where I came. Huge View!

A guy from Italy took this picture of me. He had rented a motorcycle after he finished his business for a colorado tour. He was super nice and we shared a few moments and stories together. Hope to see him again on the journey of life.

I had a 6 day conference to attend (I'll talk about this in recovery blog) in Crested Butte. So, while I was roaming around a bit and taking more remote highways on the first part of my trip. I had a deadline to meet which kept me on the move. I was fortunate to have time to enter Crested Butte from Kebler Pass which is a dirt road passing just over t 10,000 ft. It winds thru the aspen groves and high meadows as it drops into the backside of town. I remember when I rounded the corner and looked down on Crested Butte, the valley and surrounding mountains I was stunned in mind and warm and fuzzy inside. One of those places that feels like home! The conference was amazing and touched me as deeply as any event has touched me in this life. I did some amazing activities while here! Even traded in my iron horse for a few hours for the real flesh and bones horse! I remember I kept think those cowboys and cowgirls have strong backs and tough booties! After the experience I realized I am grateful to be a modern cowboy riding an iron horse with all the cool camping amenities available these days!

Houdini was the name of the horse I rode.  I wanted to mention his name as he was a good horse and I was thankful he took me for a ride!

I'm going to sum up my time after Crested Butte. Diverse beauty, solitude, amazing little mountain towns, good coffee, good friends, never ending twisty paved and unpaved roads, incredible camping, gorgeous sunsets and sunrises, true beauty again and again and.............. you guessed it! Again! Colorado has really touched my heart and soul and I hope to return here time and time again. The next time I come back I will be with Car, camping gear, hiking gear, and a dirt bike to really get deep into the mountains. 

My first moose sighting! It was prime time because we were super close, but safely above on the road. Watched him for five minutes hang out and drink the creek. 

Independence Pass on the way to Aspen.

The Mines of Creed. These folk were hard workers and the structures they built in these remote dangerous locations are impressive.

Just south of gateway!

Sunrise! Found this big awesome piece of Granite to camp on. The night sky and shooting stars were off the hook here.

I want to encourage the people reading this blog to spend time on the Delorme map page. All the routes I have ridden are in the field of epic! If you planned a trip and followed some, part of all of the paths I have done so far your trip would be amazing! I promise! I have given tips on how to use the map page on my website at the Follow page. In the map page use the Aerial tab to view the page in a google earth style image. Sit down with your favorite beverage and let your imagination go as you wander down the route. My parents use the aerial view page everyday and follow in a somewhat real time experience. They can report that this type of viewing really leads to and experience of living vicariously thru the imagery. Imagination and wonder is a great human gift that we often leave behind as we exit our childhoods. My hope is too help flower peoples imaginations and wonder again so they become inspired to follow there dreams and get out and experience our gorgeous mother earth that we live on. It is outrageously beautiful and touching to get reconnected with Gaia, our living and breathing planet that supports our lives every second of everyday!

““Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity”

— John Muir

“I am losing precious days. I am degenerating into a machine for making money. I am learning nothing in this trivial world of men. I must break away and get into the mountains to learn the news.”

— John Muir

Thank you, Jason

The Adventure has definitely begun!

FOR THOSE WHO SUBSCRIBE:

Hey Friends and family! I believe I have finally figured out the technical aspect of getting my website blog content to sync up with the mail chimp delivery system. It has been challenging for me to problem solve this as there doesn't seem to be any personal support via phone or computer. I have to read, read and reread much of this before it sinks in and following the instructions can be like going down a challenging rabbit hole.  If you have ever picked up a true medical journal and tried to read an article about disease for example it would be nearly impossible as the medical language used would be beyond most lay people. This is my analogy for my learning some of the computer language used when building the website, mail delivery service and all the various computer based platforms I'm using to build InspireJourney.life and share the trip.

So, I realize that many of you may have already read this blog, but it being sent out is simply a result of my finally figuring out how to get the content connected properly to the retrieval system and the blog subscriptions being fulfilled. So, hopefully this is the beginning of the blogs starting to flow properly! I love you all and thanks for taking the journey with me!

I have ridden 1400 miles this week thru absolutely stunning scenery.  I will try and update this blog with more information about roads and the adventure from the first week. I've had to push pretty hard this week because I have a destination in Colorado at a specific time. Also, it is difficult to do technical things when you're clear out in the middle of nowhere camping and there's no service to do computer style work and continue my education with all this! So bare with me friends and loved ones. I promise I'll get this all dialed in! The truth is I'm standing out in the middle of Colorado right now in my underwear leaning on my bike in the dark at 11:00 p.m after a huge day of riding trying to problem solve this because the blogging (or I should say lack of) has been on my mind all week. I'm up high enough here that I have good signal coming from Grand Junction to do some work. Another thing to remember is I am an adventurous little bugger and I like to go travel and camp in the middle of nowhere and there's still a lot of places that don't have service at all let alone 3G/4G and LTE networks have been rare.

    So that's enough for now, it's 9:30 and it's time to set up my tent and try to get some rest for the final push to crested Butte where I will stay for six days. I'll include a few pics and so thanks again for your patience with the blogs. 

Eastern Oregon! What a Place and not many people home :-)

Stanley Lake Idaho

This was the road to slate creek hotsprings just outside of Stanley

Camp and garage for tire blowout that I had. Hopefully not too many of these on the adventure!  

Just into Wyoming and looking down into the valley where Jackson is.  

So many dirt roads!! So little time! 

Welcome to Colorado! Beautiful golden grasses and evening of thunderstorm clouds. 

8,000 ft in Colorado. Huge view down towards Grand Junction.  

I am happy and very dirty and pretty scruffy! It's been hot, real hot! Like riding thru a heater and then when I stop its nuclear with all my gear on!

This is where I am the very moment I update this blog. Only now it's dark and I'm sneaking glimpses of a thunderstorm off in the distance as I write this! Good times!