Arizona Backcountry Discovery Route

October 10, 2014

Well, not only is it our oldest child Christopher's 31st birthday it is also our last day in Arizona. We've had such a great time here. Grand Canyon twice, local dirt rides, met the man standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona and also visited the meteor crater but the funnest of all was today on the AZBDR. We wanted to ride as much of section 5 that we could and we started it at Rd. 417 a little bit south of Valle, AZ. off of Hwy 180.

RD 417

We followed this road for quite some time. Beautiful!!

One of the many cattle guards we crossed.

The road here gradually turned to gravel from the red dirt. We rode along in beautiful surroundings, just us the cattle and the horses.

We had already been lost and a couple of Native women stopped and helped us figure out the way. I wish I had gotten their picture, they were so sweet. We still managed to get turned around at some point and went straight instead of turning on a road that said Arizona Trails and ended up coming out on Hwy 89 north of the Wapatki National Monument. If we had gone the correct way we would have come out just across from where we would start the next section on Rd. 546. We finally found that road and continued on.

Stopped here for water and jerky break.

Once we got started on this road it quickly turned into volcanic cinder. At first it was solid but as we continued on it became soft, deep and a lot like what I figured sand must feel like. I kept saying three things...soft hands - when in doubt throttle out - I hope to hell we don't meet a car along this road! The first two definitely got me through the deep stuff and luckily we never met another vehicle.

Rd. 546

We got back up into the pine trees and it smelled so good! Like sweet vanilla and cinnamon. There were even flowers blooming!

As the road went on it was getting softer and softer. Jay came back to me with the map and it looked like it was going to be going straight up and down so we thought we might want to turn around. But....as usual the farther you go the less you want to turn around so we continued on.

Almost to the top. We had come about 2 miles up a fairly steep hill squirreling around in that soft cinder.

From here it was a gradual downhill grade back to Rd. 545 where we then hit Hwy 89 to Flagstaff and then back to Williams where we are staying. What a great ride!! We would have loved to continue on the route down to Winona but that will have to happen another day. 

Red Dirt

October 9, 2014

We've been able to ride a couple of dirt roads here in Williams, AZ during our stay. I was excited to finally get on to a red dirt road and we were going at a good little clip when we met this guy....

Well you said you wanted dirt!!

This road leads up to a lookout on Bill Williams mountain but we only got this far. I decided to take a few pics and head back down the road.

This was the view from where we stopped, not bad! We continued on to find a little more dirt and then called it a day. Before we leave here we hope to do one part of the Back Country Discovery route if the road dries out by tomorrow we will. We had quite a bit of rain last night and the map states the roads are impassable when wet. Stay tuned!!

Catch Up!

Let's see. My last post was in June....hmmmm 

The Touratech rally has come and gone and we did have a great time there. We made some new friends and had a lot of good laughs with some old friends as well. I chose not to do any of the group dirt rides due to the fact I'm a big chicken! Instead Jay and I did a few of the rides on our own which is just fine by me. On our way home we had a little adventure of our when our paved road turned into gravel and then snow.

I've done a couple of gravelly road rides locally and we've been trying to get the bikes ready for when we hit the southwest and possibly Mexico this winter. 

Our first stop on our way south will be Yosemite, CA on September 24th where we will attend the Horizons Unlimited Travelers Meeting. I'm really excited about this because travelers come from near and far to share their travel stories, tips and tricks so we will be soaking it all in. I'm hoping to get as much info. on Mexico as I can before we head on down there. The more I hear about it from others who have or are doing it the the more I want to get going, heck we may just keep going south!! haha 

Well, until I get some more great stories to post here I will see you on a gravel road somewhere in the near future. 

Racoons and things...

WHAT?? 

All packed up and ready to roll.

Jay and I left home Monday morning, June 2nd, after a rush pack job. I had been under the impression that we were due to leave Tuesday until I got home Sunday and looked at the calendar, I let a few choice words fly and then started throwing stuff in bags.

We caught the 12:30 ferry out of Coupeville and headed for Hwy 101. We stopped for the night in Warrenton, OR. It was getting late, cold and starting to rain so a good time to get off the roads.

We woke up to beautiful sunshine and headed south. Our next stop would be Carl G. Washburn state park on 101.

I pulled in and told the guy we needed a tent site. He said there were some nice walk-in sites and we would be the only ones there. Walk-in? I asked him just how far we would need to walk in and he of course replied - not that far. AND, there are wheel barrows there to haul your stuff to your site. Hmmmmm, well OK. So off we go to check out the walk-in sites. Just around the corner I see this bright yellow sign.

It's hard to see the date under the bear but it was about 1 month ago there had been a bear siting. We get to the walk-in sites and they are a bit more of a walk than we both wanted so we go back down and tell the guy we need a regular site. I told him he had me until I saw the bear sign and the fact that we would be the only ones there! HA

This was a much better option and the beautiful beach was only a half mile walk away. 

Unfortunately I had left a pack of gum in my tank bag. I know, I know...but there are bears in the area!! So around 2 a.m. we had a visitor. I heard a scraping on metal sound coming from the bikes. I jumped up and grabbed the light, unzipped the tent and pounded on Jay. Of course our first thought was that it was a bear so Jay started yelling to scare it away. I then saw the two eyeballs lower to the ground and realized it was a racoon. Once Jay got a foot out of the tent the little rascal ran away. It didn't get my gum but it did make quite a mess on my seat and tank bag with it's muddy, sandy feet. 

The next day we said goodbye to the coast to head inland to ride a nice twisty road my friend Jeri had recently found while we were mapping out our ride to the Redwoods. 

We rode south to Florence then headed east through Eugene and a few more miles to The Aufderheide - a great motorcycling road.

The Aufderheide or Road #19

We decided to stay in Oakridge that night at the Best Western. It was getting late and a bit chilly so instead of carrying on to highway 97 to head south to Klammath Falls we decided to hang out there a night. 

Diamond Peak on our way to Hwy 97

The next day we got up early and took off Crater Lake. We wanted to take the road that goes around the west side of the lake and then down into Fort Klammath and on to our condo at Klammath Falls. This was where we parted ways for 2 nights while Jay did the Adventure Camp at Fort Klammath. 

Jays aunt and her partner came over from Brookings, OR to spend a couple of nights with us. We had a great visit and then off we went headed for John Day, Oregon. 

This was where I was suppose to take a one day off road class. Well, we stayed a night in Redmond and then we were suppose to make our way to John Day and the closer that day came the more anxious I was becoming. If you remember from my last post I took a pretty hard fall on my right side while at Adventure camp. I still have lingering pain from that fall and apparently lingering anxiety because I really did not want to take this class. I talked it over with Jay and we both decided it was find if I didn't do it. So, we had a lovely ride to the Painted Hills.

We made it up to the flats where there are miles and miles of these...

Any time I see turbines and they are spinning I know it's going to be 'one of those' rides. Basically you lean into the wind and hope that the gusts do not push you the wrong way. We rode about 30 miles in this wind and made it to the Columbia river where we decided to call it a day and got a camp site. It would have been great but I counted 14 frieght trains from 4 p.m. when we arrived to 6 a.m. when my alarm went off. Needless to say, the alarm was not needed. Jay always gets up first and makes us coffee. This day would be different. I heard him say, "Kelly, you have a flat tire!" Oh man. So luckily he paid attention at Adventure camp and we were able to get the job done. Patched the tube, put it all back together and off we went, in search of coffee. 

We stopped in Goldendale for gas and decided to find the town and some coffee. We found Koyote Coffee on main street. It was a sweet little shop with good coffee and conversation. If you ever get the chance you should stop in and visit with the owners - we would have stayed longer but had to get on the road to make it home that day. We stopped in Gold Bar to have dinner with a friend we had not seen in over a year and then made the last stretch home and even got here before dark on June12th. 

My next adventure will be at the Touratech Rally towards the end of this month. I will have some good friends there who will continue to mentor me on all things gravel. 

Adventure Camp

Where Does The Time Go?

Well, Adventure Camp has come and gone. All in all it was a good experience. I learned a bit more about riding my bike off road and met some really nice people. 

We arrived at camp around 3:30 on a Friday, I had reserved a tent and cot so I just had to pull up and unload my stuff. The tent turned out to be large enough for 2 so I told my friend Claudette to just bunk in there with me. She got another cot and unloaded her stuff. It's amazing how much 'stuff' we can haul on those bikes! 

They fed us dinner, we met the instructors and then we hit the hay excited to awake to our first day of training.

Training Begins

I'm now realizing that most any training involving these large dual sport bikes is going to be slow speed maneuvers. The whole first day was non-stop action. We learned an aggressive stance and rode most of the day in that stance. We went through a muddy ditch, over small logs (some went over large logs) and we learned how to turn the bike around on a hill after stalling it going uphill, we did a single track trail which scared the bejeesus out of me and we did stops and starts. I'm sure there was more but it's all kind of a blur at this point. It was a long day and we were pretty tired after we ate so we all hit the sack again in great anticipation of our 2nd day of training.

Day Two

This day started out with a bang. I was in a group that started the day on a crazy single track trail, up and down and round and round. Needless to say, I was the second to the last to come in. The last one had turned off somewhere along the way and the instructor couldn't find her. She was fine, just decided she didn't want to do the trail. I felt the same but by the time I would have turned around there was no way to do it so I just kept going at my own pace. 

We then met up with the whole group in the large field and started doing off set weave around cones and this is where my fun ended. I was doing great, I thought. Really trying to lean the bike on the tight corners while getting my body offset to balance. It was the same tight right turn that bit me. Down I went and this time it was a bit painful not to mention knocking the air out of me. I landed on my right side with my bent arm under my right rib cage. My ribs were on fire and I couldn't get a breath in. Now just having one of these would have been bad enough but both at the same time was a bit disconserting. Lucky for me there were two instructors nearby who were able to get me to relax, catch my breath and assess the damage. I knew my ribs were not broke as I know how extreme that pain is but I wasn't sure that if I had cracked the ribs so we took it slow. Ended up having the paramedics come out to check me over and we determined it was just bruising. So, lucky for me one of the gals had driven down and towed her bike and she had room on her trailer for another bike. And she lives by me! So my camp ended with me riding home in the truck. 
By the next day I was feeling a little sore but nothing like I had been told would happen. Not much bruising and not much pain. Apparently this granny has strong bones and bounces too! :)

Overall the camp was fun and informative. The instructors were really helpful and the camp site itself was good. If there was a down side there were a lot of us who felt like there were too many people in the class itself, at times it was a bit chaotic. We were suppose to be broken up into groups but that never happened so it was 26 or so bikes going every which way most of the time. I guess that is good skills for riding in a parking lot. 

After having done this camp I look forward to seeing what others have to offer. I'm pretty sure I won't do this one again. I've heard of another company starting up in the area that has great reviews and will be looking more into that one for future training. Hopefully it will have smaller classes for more one on one.

Future Plans

In the mean time, I'm signed up for one more training this year. It is next month and one day only with a man named Coach Stroud. I've heard wonderful things about him and I'm hoping he will be the one to be able to figure out what I'm doing wrong. I'm going to get that damn right hand turn if it's the last thing I do!! 

New Shoes

One of our BMW club members offers to change out tires for $20. That is a great deal!! We took my new tires over and it took him and hubbs almost 4 hours because the tires on the bike were sooooo hard! I felt really bad and offered to pay him more but he wouldn’t take it. He said it would be $30 next time. HA What a nice guy. So my bike now has new off road tires. I went with the TKC 80’s on both front and back. So far I’ve taken it on the local gravel roads a couple of times and they seem to be working great. On the road they also feel very good, a little squirrelly feeling for the first 10 miles but I got use to them quickly and now they feel fine. Jay is going with Metzler Karoo 3’s. 

I’m really looking forward to getting some good training. Right now I’m good with riding on the forest service roads but when I hit loose or smooshy road bed I get a little tense and I know the more relaxed one is the better things go.

Here are some photos from our recent off pavement rides.

Baker Lake

This is where I turn around.

Beauty in the Woods

Jay and Kelly's bikes taking a break.

Stopped by a big orange gate.

On our way to find some dirt roads.

Claudette and her TW

My bike - BMW F800GS

PLANS…

In May a couple of girlfriends and I will be taking the off road training offered by PSSOR here in Washington state. After that Jay and I will ride down to Klamath Falls, Oregon where he will be taking the same training. Then we have the rest of the summer to play until we head south to our new job with Amazon.com in Nevada. We have the Touratech rally in June on the east side of the mountains and then once we get settled in down in Nevada we can find some roads around that area to play on until our job starts. After the job ends in December we will head to the Yuma area where we plan to leave MARV while we do a Baja Mexico ride. Although most of the roads in Mexico are paved there will be some areas of sand and gravel while we make our way to the beaches where we plan to lay around and drink Cervesa’s while we enjoy the sunsets. 

I have to say, I have met so many wonderful people in the world of motorcycling. I would have missed out on so much if I had never started riding my own bike. Sometimes fear keeps us from doing the very thing that will open new doors and allow adventures to begin.

My next post will be all about Adventure Camp so stay tuned...

First Real Off Road Training

Well, I am feeling all of my 54 years today. Jay and I did a day at RawHyde Adventures in Castaic, CA last Saturday. It is now Monday and I'm finding it increasingly difficult to move. Not in a bad way - just in that way when you know you had fun but now you are paying dearly for it. The actual training was really only about 4 hours long but I have to say they were able to cram a lot of good things into that 4 hours and I came away with a bit more knowledge that will hopefully keep me safe while riding off road on my motorcycle.

There were 7 of us in the class. I chose to ride the F800 GS since it is what my bike is and I thought what better way to learn to ride my bike. The huge difference being when I dropped the bike, it wasn't mine.
Jay was riding a larger bike, the R1200 GS - he did really well on it. He went for the older oil head even though there were brand new water heads. I should have tried one of those because my friend Cindy has one and I'm sure I will never get the offer to ride hers but I figured if I liked it there would be hell to pay. So I stuck with the 800. :-)

One of the training grounds was a large dirt area with a slight slope on the top section. This would be important for me later in the day.

One of the training areas.

We started off riding around in a large circle standing on the pegs and going as slow as possible. It is fairly difficult to balance and go as slow as possible, I mean REALLY slow. Standing straight up, eyes always looking forward and not at the ground in front of the bike, keeping the body relaxed. Uh huh....yep...OK. We all did pretty well at it, of course two of the riders were seasoned dirt bike riders so they were probably bored but they didn't complain.

Jim decided to take us up and down the driveway after that. I went second and of course held up the group. I have decided that men just don't have a built in fear gene. They just go for it, balls to the walls. Needless to say, I was the last one to go back up the driveway. LOL I'm OK with that, who needs pressure anyway.

Jim Hyde leading the demo rides.

The driveway that goes up to the camp is really an adventure in itself. In fact one of the fellows wife who dropped him off that morning told him she would wait at the bottom of the hill for him that evening, she would not drive back up that road again. HA I actually was becoming quite relaxed with the driveway by the end of the day but I was so exhausted I couldn't stand on the pegs or really focus much more.

Our next drill would be starting off fast and locking the back brake when we got to the instructor. What??? Who wants to lock the brake??? Especially in dirt???? Well, we did it. Of course the guys were all a bit faster than me. Just as in my road riding class the instructors kept telling me I needed to go faster. I go at my own pace!! When I'm comfortable I go faster. So, I went as fast as I could, slammed on the back brake and came to a skidding dusty halt. Well, that wasn't so bad after all. Next...stop while mostly using the front brake. Apparently you use the front brake 90% of the time on dirt. Really? No way!!! Unless you are turning a corner you will use the front brake. OK - wasn't really too bad. Although it was during this drill that Jay took a spill and did a somersault, landing in a flurry of dust with the bike upside down. He was fine, I was afraid we had just bought a bike! :-)

Then came the serpentine. Turning really tight corners, in dirt with 2 of the corners on an uphill slant turning back downhill while moving your body to the left or right depending on which way you are turning. I hit the dirt twice in this drill, both on the uphill corner. I really need to perfect my dismount, it was not pretty! But, I jumped (crawled) up and got back on the bike finally finishing the whole course without a spill. It was after this one I took a break to get some water and do some body part inventory. OK, nothing broken - all is good. The others went off to do the sand and more corners. I was happy to just sit there for a minute.

We had a great lunch and conversation. In the afternoon you could demo ride three bikes both on and off road. By this time I was really too exhausted to even try to hold the larger bikes up. I decided to just hang out, take some photos and enjoy the scenery. By the end of the day their were only two of us who didn't drop a bike or pitch themselves off in the dirt, this would be the two with prior dirt riding experience. I know it sounds odd but I was actually glad when I did my first dirt bath. It wasn't fun but it also wasn't as bad as I had imagined. I wasn't so glad when I did it again but maybe next time I go down I will be able to just jump off gracefully. Or like one of the other riders told me I need to get the running dismount down like he does. HA

Jason who does the running get off and Audrey who works at the camp.

Yes, they have their own wine label. 

I was soooo happy that I had my new boots on. I ended up with a tiny little scuff on my upper shin area. If I had not had those boots on it would have been a quite larger area. I believe in All The Gear All The Time (ATGATT). I always have and always will. There was suppose to be two women in the class but unfortunately the other one had a crash on her way to the class and found her knee cap staring back at her. She didn't wear protective gear. It may be really, really hot at times but as many have said - it's easy to sweat but it's not so easy to put skin back on body parts. I also believe in freedom of choice - to each his own but I hope that if and when one of my fellow riders go down they will be as protected as possible.

My next training happens in late May. Between now and then you can find me doing squats, lifting weights for upper body strength, doing the core strengthening exercises and continuing my walking routine. Of course this is when I can move again. Even with the unintentional get-offs I really do enjoy this new style of riding so I plan to do whatever I can to make it an enjoyable experience.

As soon as we get back to the Pacific Northwest I will be able to practice the moves I learned last weekend. Stay tuned!