Jane and I just returned from a week long trip to visit friends in Star Valley, Wyoming and Three Island crossing, Idaho. We thought we had found a window of opportunity to ride in hot, but not excessive temperatures. Unfortunately, another heat dome settled over the area while we were in Idaho and had to ride home yesterday to our place in Utah (over 300 miles) in what we knew would be excessive (i.e. over 95 degrees) temperatures and extremely dry conditions.
We thought we were prepared for it. We had plenty of water with us and planned to stop frequently to cool down and drink more water. Our first stop was after 90 minutes, with temps hovering around 95. We gassed up, enjoyed a light meal at Perko's in air conditioned comfort, and set off again feeling fine. By then, ambient temps were slightly over 100.
Almost an hour into the next leg of the journey I was feeling a little overheated and parched, so we pulled off at a highway rest stop and sat in the shade with helmets off, drinking water. Even in the shade, though, temps were at 100, so we were unable to cool down our cores, just our heads a little. Knowing it was just going to get hotter the longer we stayed there, we continued, feeling a little apprehensive but having little choice.
About 30 minutes into this leg, with temps between 105 and 108, I started looking for another place to stop and hopefully cool down and lucked out finding a McDonald's where we were able to drink a lot of ice water and cool down in the air conditioning. After 30 minutes, we were back on the road, feeling a liitle tired and overheated, but a little better than when we stopped.
At this point, with temps hovering around 110, nearing the heavy traffic of the Wasatch front, we gambled that we could endure the Valley temps long enough to get into the relatively cooler mountains where we live and so made no more stops until we were home about 90 minutes later. We were both exhausted, had headaches and some nausea. Jane's face was very flushed. But we were able to crank up the ac and take cool showers and gradually get our heads and core feeling somewhat normal.
It's beginning to look like the summer ahead is going to be dangerously hot for riding, so we're canceling our planned motorcycle trips until October.
We thought we were prepared for it. We had plenty of water with us and planned to stop frequently to cool down and drink more water. Our first stop was after 90 minutes, with temps hovering around 95. We gassed up, enjoyed a light meal at Perko's in air conditioned comfort, and set off again feeling fine. By then, ambient temps were slightly over 100.
Almost an hour into the next leg of the journey I was feeling a little overheated and parched, so we pulled off at a highway rest stop and sat in the shade with helmets off, drinking water. Even in the shade, though, temps were at 100, so we were unable to cool down our cores, just our heads a little. Knowing it was just going to get hotter the longer we stayed there, we continued, feeling a little apprehensive but having little choice.
About 30 minutes into this leg, with temps between 105 and 108, I started looking for another place to stop and hopefully cool down and lucked out finding a McDonald's where we were able to drink a lot of ice water and cool down in the air conditioning. After 30 minutes, we were back on the road, feeling a liitle tired and overheated, but a little better than when we stopped.
At this point, with temps hovering around 110, nearing the heavy traffic of the Wasatch front, we gambled that we could endure the Valley temps long enough to get into the relatively cooler mountains where we live and so made no more stops until we were home about 90 minutes later. We were both exhausted, had headaches and some nausea. Jane's face was very flushed. But we were able to crank up the ac and take cool showers and gradually get our heads and core feeling somewhat normal.
It's beginning to look like the summer ahead is going to be dangerously hot for riding, so we're canceling our planned motorcycle trips until October.
