Mar/Apr '14 Premium Content Little Switzerland, NC Shamrock Tour®: The Parkway's Hidden Gem Western North Carolina is a mountainous area where the Blue Ridge Parkway slices through the state on a northeast to southwest diagonal. An ideal setting of endless curves and fun in these mountains creates a natural playground for motorcyclists. Fifty miles east of Asheville, NC, right on the route, is
Jan/Feb '14 Premium Content Salem, Oregon Shamrock Tour®: Over the River and Through the Woods Dense stands of old-growth conifers line ribbons of smooth asphalt that climb from the crashing waves and rolling fog of the Pacific Ocean to the desolate lava fields and craggy peaks of the Cascade Range. Despite 30-degree temperature swings, the weather is perfect. Welcome to Oregon. Early on a July
Nov/Dec '13 Premium Content Huntsville, Alabama Shamrock Tour®: Rocket City Road Trip The Deep South is a region of rich history, agriculture, and charm. But there’s more here than you may know. One southern city has been reaching into the solar system for more than a half century. As motorcyclists go, we’re a bit of an odd couple. My good
Sep/Oct '13 Premium Content Lake Tahoe, California Shamrock Tour®: Gold Rush Country Lake Tahoe is best known for being a world-class ski area. Those rugged mountains also provide some of the best motorcycle roads in the country. Numerous passes, dense forests, and streams make this worthy of a Shamrock Tour®. Circumnavigating the Jewel of the Sierras Walking to our motorcycles, we can’
Jul/Aug '13 Premium Content Roanoke, Virginia Shamrock Tour®: Dirty Dancing Through the Curves As summer ends and autumn approaches, the days get shorter. While we get ready for winter by cleaning out the garage and servicing our motorcycles, trees use up the last of their food supply in a way that attracts millions of tourists. And what better way to see nature’s
May/Jun '13 Premium Content Longview, Washington Shamrock Tour®: Volcano Craters to Foggy Seashores Scanning my map, I quickly realize what an incredible motorcycling wonderland I’ve arrived at. There are not many locales where you can visit the ocean, the rain forest, the mountains, and the desert in a few hours. Oh, and did I mention that three national parks and one monument
Mar/Apr '13 Premium Content Exeter, Rhode Island Shamrock Tour®: Twisting the Throttle through the Ocean State Although Rhode Island is the smallest state, it offers lots of historic sites to make it a good Shamrock Tour® base. This tiny piece of America is only 37 miles wide and 48 miles long, so trips into neighboring New England are unavoidable and certainly well worth it. Some interesting
Jan/Feb '13 Premium Content Warm Springs, Georgia Shamrock Tour®: FDR’s Backyard It’s early in the season, the end of April, when we leave home on two very agile, comfortable, and fun-loving sport-touring bikes to go on our first long trip of the year. Christa rides a 2003 BMW F 650 GS, and I’m on my 2007 Kawasaki Ninja 650R.
Nov/Dec '12 Premium Content Bowling Green, KY Shamrock Tour®: Caves, Corvettes, and Cool Roads Millions of years ago, a shallow sea covered south central Kentucky. Deposits of tiny marine animals and plants formed layers of limestone. Over many millennia the sea receded, leaving thick layers of limestone. Rainwater mixed with carbon dioxide in the air and soil to form a mild acid, which dissolved
Sep/Oct '12 Premium Content Rhinelander, WI Shamrock Tour® Unlike most Shamrock tours, this one has a prequel. Instead of flying into the closest Wisconsin airport, I flew into Utah and then inaugurated the new 2012 Victory Cross Country Tour for a three day trip to Sturgis. There, I met up with Ken Engelman, and we enjoyed the Sturgis
Jul/Aug '12 Premium Content Edgar Evins State Park, Tennessee Shamrock Tour® Life’s a beach, but not after a hurricane. Our Atlantic beach trip quickly turned into a Tennessee camping tour after Irene scrubbed our plans along with most of the East Coast. It’s just as well, I suppose, since my memories of Tennessee involve blue highway “Trading Posts” stocked
May/Jun '12 Premium Content Hot Springs, Arkansas Shamrock Tour®: The Valley of Vapors The Ouachita (wah-shi-tah) River runs through it: the largest mountain chain between the Rockies and the Appalachians. The gentle folds of the ancient Ouachita Mountains offer some of the best motorcycle roads in America. We’re based in a place that Native Americans called the Valley of the Vapors, so
Mar/Apr '12 Premium Content Taos, New Mexico Shamrock Tour® The Sangre de Christo Mountains tower like a wall above the Taos Plateau. This will be my playground for the next few days. The sceneis particularly impressive when approaching the range in the late afternoon, when it is lit by the sun from the west—a beautiful sunset is almost
Jan/Feb '12 Premium Content Tour of the Week: Rockville, Indiana, Shamrock Tour® A horse-drawn buggy moves at a trot along a gravel road walled-in by regimented rows of verdant green cornstalks. The driver slows the horse to a walk before entering the dark confines of a red covered bridge, gracefully spanning a laconic stream’s slow-moving waters. The buggy emerges on the
Nov/Dec '11 Premium Content Ellijay, Georgia Shamrock® Tour I knew that Florian and I were in for a great Shamrock Tour® when I woke to the softly layered Appalachian mountains stretching out in front of our hotel, with a twisting two-lane highway cutting an inviting path between them. Four days later, parking our Harley-Davidsons for the last time
Sep/Oct '11 Premium Content St. Marys, Pennsylvania Shamrock Tour® The Allegheny Highlands, in northwestern Pennsylvania, are a world away from the heavily populated environs of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Our home base in St. Marys, PA, is in the heart of the state’s rural elk country. The elk are so plentiful here that it’s one of the few
Jul/Aug '11 Premium Content Frisco, Colorado Shamrock Tour® It's all down hill from here - literally. Squatting next to the Continental Divide, Frisco, CO, is the perfect base for exploring some of the most elevated highways in America. I pull into Leadville, CO, with a dry mouth and a parched throat. I'm parked outside
May/Jun '11 Premium Content Killington, Vermont Shamrock Tour® "Long ago, the Great Bear wandered freely throughout the sky. His massive paws took him far across the unlimited ceiling of the world. He hunted and fished, finding food there in the many rivers of the sky. All throughout the first spring he did this, until his belly was
Mar/Apr '11 Premium Content Skyline Drive, Virginia Shamrock Tour® The Great Appalachian Valley is a gigantic trough that stretches 700 miles from Canada to Alabama. The eastern boundary, for most of its length, is the Blue Ridge Mountain Range. Skyline Drive threads its way along the top of these mountains in north central Virginia for 105 miles; it will
Jan/Feb '11 Premium Content Shamrock Tour® - Hannibal, Missouri Designate a pivot point for the Midwest and it could surely be Hannibal, MO. Located on the Mississippi River north of St Louis, MO, and south of Quincy, IL, it's darn close to dead center. It's the bastion of Midwest "manners," a mix of
Nov/Dec '10 Premium Content Shamrock Tour® - Bristol, Virginia A late spring tour in the southern mountains often brings rainstorms along for the ride. On the way to Bristol, the dark and ominous clouds chase us wherever we go. Then, finally, in Jefferson, the rain gets a hold of us and doesn’t let go until we get back
Sep/Oct '10 Premium Content Shamrock Tour® - Greenwood, South Carolina When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road."Blue Highways" by William Least Heat Moon ..."Amersham 2411. I still remember her phone number." His
Jul/Aug '10 Premium Content Shamrock Tour® - Death Valley, California and Nevada The roads between Nevada's Amargosa Desert and California's Panamint Valley are as much about big sky and land as they are a connection to the area's historic past. It's a place where myth meets reality and the remnants of that union-abandoned mining
May/Jun '10 Premium Content Shamrock Tour® - Mountain View, Arkansas We race toward the setting sun, darting from curve to curve along Arkansas' Route 14. A glance at the odometer verifies that the miles have really piled up since our departure from North Carolina. But the welcome climb into the foothills of the Ozark Mountains is reenergizing a couple
Mar/Apr '10 Premium Content Shamrock Tour® - Wheeling, West Virginia Day 1: Bodacious Buckeye Backroads Steve and Sharon Mauk, on their red Suzuki V-Strom, and Karen and I, on the Kawasaki Concours, whoosh west on the I-70 Bridge over the Ohio River. It's a beautiful summer's morning in August and we're ecstatic at the
