![\"IMG_5891\"](\"https:\/\/daverand.com\/ride\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/IMG_5891.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Along the way I made some Japanese friends. A high end tour bus had pulled over to view the Tetons. A curious bunch, not a lick of English.\u00a0Our only communication was make shift sign language, reminding me of the movie The Tribe.<\/p>\n She was beautiful<\/p>\n He loved the bike.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Children at play are the same everywhere.<\/p>\n I would pass then on the road to Yellow Stone several times, and each time the whole bus would wave and I’d blow the air horn.<\/p>\n I was off to Old Faithful. It was more out of duty than interest at first. I’d seen it on TV ..didn’t seem all that interesting but another Japanese friend back in Los Angles was doing an effect for a film that would look like a geyser so at least I could get some reference footage that could be useful.<\/p>\n I had no idea how beautiful Old Faithful really was ….<\/p>\n <\/p>\n https:\/\/vimeo.com\/138623094<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sadly after seeing all that beauty, I have to transition to a terribly scary story.<\/p>\n So brace yourself.<\/p>\n The guards were kind enough to allow me to park the bike close by. \u00a0Right before Old Faithful went off this giant black raven decided it was time to attack the Harley. I glanced over and witnessed it landing on the seat and violently pecking at the bags. There’s no food there, there never has been, this was a hate crime.<\/p>\n I ran to the bike and the thing wouldn’t stop or move, it had absolutely no fear of me. I actually had to take the back of my hand an give it a shove. The thing was as big as an eagle and tried to nip at my hand. I stood my ground and was ready to take a real swing at it, when it finally flew off.<\/p>\n I went back to the geyser viewing area and kept an eye on the bike. At some point though it swooped back in an left me a “gift”.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Right on my gloves! \u00a0This thing has intelligence and purpose. There’s probably a crow contract out on me now. \u00a0 I’ll be checking the skies, checking them often.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ..but that’s not even the scary story…<\/p>\n Little did I know that was a mere foreshadowing of far more dire animal contact.<\/p>\n Read on….<\/p>\n I left the park about an hour before sunset. I was going to try and make Cody Wyoming. \u00a0The road narrowed as I rolled into country as\u00a0beautiful that what I’d just left.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I pulled up on this lake and logged into Orbitz on the handlebar iPad. \u00a0 The connection was weak so I shot this pick while waiting for Orbitz to display the choices.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I got a place in Powell just north and east of Cody. \u00a0It was going to be a dark ride through the woods. \u00a0A good test for the new Haymaker LED headlights.<\/p>\n I decided to go with the scary skull death mask look.\u00a0I never liked skulls on bikes but my indian friend told me, and Mr. Rocket my mechanic confirmed, \u00a0that they are actually very good luck. Well on this night I just wanted to be the scariest thing on the road.<\/p>\n https:\/\/vimeo.com\/138640881<\/p>\n Man it was dark. Really spooky, especially because I was the only traveler in the forrest. \u00a0I had a couple hours so I settled in, keeping my eyes peeled for critters.<\/p>\n Lighting was flashing in the distance. One thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three….The boom of thunder was welcome actually, I had not heard that for a long time being in the drought of California. \u00a0Flash….one thousand one..one thousand two… \u00a0It was getting closer.<\/p>\n I decided to keep moving until I found some sort of clearing where I could pull over. The narrow road barely had a shoulder.<\/p>\n I rounded a corner on a down slope and being careful not to scrape out on the sharp corner my mind traveled from my eyes to my pipes when..<\/p>\n Flash\u00a0!!!<\/p>\n Looming dead ahead was the a giant elk. I grabbed a handful of front brake and stomped on the back brake. The anti-lock system kicked in and the bike pulsed like giant racing heart, skidding in pulses and releasing. \u00a0Everything came to a scream in my mind.<\/p>\n I stopped three inches from the beast and managed to stay upright.<\/p>\n It didn’t move.<\/p>\n It just turned and looked at me, and holy crap I had the scary skull death mask on! I tried my best to remain calm, no fear here big guy…just lonely old scary biker mask.<\/p>\n The thing had a rack that could take my head off.<\/p>\n Slowly, very slowly is walked over to the side of the road. I swallowed the fear and got off the bike..easy.. easy… unsnapped the camera bag took the camera out, and took this pick.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It was actually pretty dark this is at 3600 ISO and boosted in post.<\/p>\n His one eye just kept looking at me but otherwise he seemed unfazed by my presence.<\/p>\n So naturally, \u00a0I got closer. Like in the horror movie when the girl goes down into the basement to check out some freakish noise and the audience screams:<\/p>\n “Don’t open that door!”<\/p>\n I took this<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I got closer. Then he raised up quickly and stared at me. You can see the motion blur on his snout and antler.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I stopped. Then he put his head back down and began grazing again.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I got closer<\/p>\n ….and he snapped up with a vibe that screamed. FREEZE pal.<\/p>\n So I froze. I was about three feet from him.<\/p>\n Then, after all this time another motorist cruised up slowly. \u00a0Providing me with some light<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The guy rolled down his window and in a thick cowboy drawl he screamed:<\/p>\n “WAY TOO CLOSE BUD!” \u00a0which scared the Elk off, and it ran into the woods.<\/p>\n I turned into his headlights and his wife was now screaming :<\/p>\n “AHHHH !! \u00a0GO! GO! JUST GO!!”<\/p>\n He peeled out and the pickup swerved almost hitting my bike! \u00a0He roared down the road. I turned to see if the Elk was charging or something…nothing….<\/p>\n Then it hit me<\/p>\n I HAD THE SCARY MASK ON, I WAS THE SCARIEST THING IN THE FORREST!<\/p>\n BOOAHHH \u00a0!<\/p>\n I rolled on, hit my first rain of the trip right after getting the bike prepped and my rain gear and heated jacket on.<\/p>\n Cruised in comfort, rain all around.<\/p>\n King of the woods.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Woke up late, after waking up at 2am and writing\u00a0for a couple hours, feeling somewhat panicked that I’ve only come this far East so far. \u00a0It’s just such beautiful country all the way up on Pacific Coast, the Redwoods, the Salt Flats, the High Country…absolutely stunning on a motor bike. I had charged the new\u00a0GoPro … Continue reading Day 7<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-255","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/daverand.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/daverand.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/daverand.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daverand.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daverand.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/daverand.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":364,"href":"https:\/\/daverand.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/255\/revisions\/364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/daverand.com\/ride\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n