Drifters Newsletter August 2017
It’s been a strange weather month for us here in Southern Utah…unbearably hot, too much rain, and even a bit of hail on a couple of our rides! Fall can’t come soon enough for me!
We had a nice group of 10 Drifters mount up for the ride last Friday to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We left McD’s in Hurricane promptly at 9am, in 80 degree weather, and headed out. The ride up was picturesque and we all enjoyed the fantastic riding weather! We made a stop for gas and leg-stretching at lovely Jacob Lake, where it was in the 70’s. There, we held our Drifter Member Bonus drawing for $25.00. Don Quayle was our lucky winner! After the drawing, we headed on to the North Rim Lodge for lunch.
I managed to be first in line for the North Rim Lodge Restaurant opening, so was able to reserve a big round table for all 10 of us. Lunch was great – about half of us ate the fish & chips, it was excellent, with the Club sandwich and Elk Chili being big hits, too! John Marshall was our official photographer, so I’ve attached a couple of his shots. Be sure to see the Drifter Diversion portion of this website for the entire selection of pictures. Thank you John!
The ride home was a bit challenging! We left the Lodge about 2pm and were surrounded by towering black clouds. Being a bit OCD, I was the only one that put on rain gear. Hence, I was the only one that was still warm & dry when we arrived back at Jacob Lake. 🙂 Not only did we get about 10-15 minutes of pretty drenching rain, we got about 5 minutes of hail!
As we departed Jacob Lake, there were still a few clouds, but it looked like the worst was behind us, so I removed the rain jacket and continued on. We made another stop at Pipe Spring for those that needed gas. Since things were starting to heat up, I added a big cup of ice to my Camelback water bag and donned my cooling vest for the last leg of the trip. (If you don’t have a cooling vest, I highly recommend one!) My guess is that in the two-plus hours that we rode our return trip, the weather fluctuated about 50 degrees! So glad the saddlebags are large enough to hold the variety of gear needed in this neck of the woods!
Looking ahead to our upcoming August events – Western Days in Kanab begins August 24th, and our next Drifter Dinner will be at Rusty’s Ranch House in Cedar City, on Saturday, August 26th at 6pm. Rusty’s Ranch House has my vote for the best restaurant in Southern Utah! I hope to see you all there.
In the meantime, we continue with our Wednesday meet-up ride, our Friday Golden Corral Breakfast/ride, and the burger lunch/ride Saturdays at Zion HD. See the Events calendar on this site for more detailed information.
Keep the shiny side up!
Dawn – Drifters Webmaster
SaveSave