I was super excited about attending Desert Daze again this year. I got to play a bigger part putting on the event, designing the t-shirts/stickers/posters and helping gather raffle goodies (Thanks On Any Moto!)

I had wanted to ride dirt down to Dragoon on Thursday, but school obligations kept me late, so I trailered down with Alan instead. I had a quick beer before the bar closed up and called it a night.

Went for a little walk in the morning. I love the crazy rocks out there.

The neighbors.

I recognized George from last year, his bike was being fussy to start in the cold, but he smiled for a picture anyway.

After breakfast, Alan and I teamed up with the aptly named Fast Phil and some other riders to go exploring. None of us had any idea where exactly we were going, but somehow Phil got chosen to lead.

Some of our posse. We joined up and split off from other riders several times during the day.

After a little rocky climb, we stopped at this vista near Cochise Stronghold for a snack.

We all marveled at the view.

We rode down to the entrance to the stronghold and met up with some other riders.

Photo op by the sign.

After that we hit the great plains.

I was doing my best to keep up with Phil (who wasn’t even going anywhere near full speed) when we came across a large deteriorated section. He galloped across and I…panicked and grabbed a handfull of front brake. Once I picked my bike up and took a second to look at the obstacle, I realized there was an decent line off to the left and bumped across. Then I got to wait and watch all the guys behind on big bikes freak out. 😛

Never looks as bad in photos…but I think the guy on the right expressese in his body posture how much he doesn’t want to go through that.

Back across the plains!

Then things -really- deteriorated.

Uhhh…even Phil didn’t want to try this one. So we found a way around.

I wish I got a better photo of this, but it wasn’t a cake walk, we’ll just say that. It made an s curve down a steep and loose descent into a narrow sand wash before you had to climb out the other side, which was also steep. Alan and I both failed to carry enough speed through and Phil helped us drag our bikes up the other side. Our other two riders opted for another way across, so I felt good for at least trying.

I think our original intention was to go to Tombstone, but we got a little…sidetracked.

We called it an early day and went back to camp. Phil crawled around the rocks a bit…

Then we decided it was beer o’clock.

Ponies at the hitching post.

Eventually the party moved fireside and we cooked some hot dogs.

I decided to take it easy on the drinking, we still had at least another day of riding ahead of us (the weather reports for Sunday were looking not-so-good).