Category Archives: USA

1700 Miles to Chickfest!

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The moment I caught word of a massive chick dirtbiker meetup, I knew I had to do everything in my power to attend. Google maps had it at about a 700 mile long journey from Tucson, Arizona to Central Colorado, but unwilling to do anything the simplest way, Sean and I decided to extend the trip to Chickfest into a 9 day journey encompassing some of the best roads and National Parks in Arizona, Utah and Colorado.

He plotted our trip out and loaded the tracks into his gps, declaring he had found another 1000 miles between here and Colorado! Sounds awesome, let’s ride!

We unfortunately put off packing until the morning of departure and started our trip off all wrong, chaotically throwing things together and hoping we didn’t forget anything important. Finally we were ready to leave!

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“We’re not trying to make you crash, we’re trying to make you good.” – Allyn

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In the early stages of planning, this was going to be a small group, noob run up the mountain, but it ended up quite different.

First off Sean and I met with Skip and Cathy for coffee and bike prep.

Sean isn’t featured nearly enough in my posts.  Unfortunately, his conflicting work schedules and taste in terrain means we rarely ride together, but he got the day off so we could do this one. 🙂

Back off girls!
We met with a few more guys for breakfast and then headed to the gas station to meet the others. 
I think we had 11 people all together.  Thomas brought his new ride…dang it’s pretty!  And far too shiny…but there are people willing to help him with that little problem. 😉
We start off and then Allyn suggests we split into two groups and some of us ride a “fun little bypass” and catch up with the rest of the group later down the line.  Okay, Allyn is being blacklisted with Brian in the ‘people who cannot be trusted at their word’ doghouse.  Apparently his definition of easy is just that it was something I have ridden before, or similar to things I have ridden before.  Yeah, but I like -barely- rode it successfully those other times and this particular day it seriously kicked my ass.
Takers on the mini-adventure included Skip, Cathy, Nigel, Thomas, Allyn and me.  Please note:  Everyone else is a total badass
This was one of the easier climbs:
The first descent was like a freaking stone staircase and I was trying very hard not to do an endo the whole way down.
I was talking smack to them for my own benefit, something like “You bastards tricked me!  Holy shit!  Hahahah I made it!  This is awesome!”
Going up one of the inclines I bounced funny off a rock, tried to blip the throttle and save, but ended up spinning the bike around fully, landing on my ass and smacking the back of my helmet hard on the ground.
I chose a poor line up another climb and fell over low speed.  Nigel helped me up and made fun of me for being young and totally exhausted already while all the old folks were just getting started.
Eventually we reconnected with the main road and continued on to meet the group.  Nigel gave me some pointers for taking the turns faster on the high speed gravel (that stuff makes me nervous, I get phantom pains from my side scar) and I thought I was doing a lot better, but he was sitting down in front of me, waving his arm to coax me faster still.  Oh well.
Eventually we caught up to everyone and took a nice long break.
We got going again up more easy dirt roads.
Sean and Mike taking a break to soak up the scenery.
We hung out at Peppersauce to regroup.
These two crazy kids did the whole thing 2-up on a DRZ!
Here’s John goofing off
At Peppersauce, Allyn and the group from the earlier detour tried to convince me to come on another ‘fun easy little loop’ and I was honestly about to go, even though I knew it was a tra, but I was so exhausted I dropped the bike turning around.  I took it as a sign and stuck with the slower group instead.  Thank you Zeb!
I was shocked we arrived at the top first, considering how slow and easy we were all taking it.  About an hour later these fools roll up bruised and dirty.
Apparently the ‘easy fun loop’ was more like a gauntlet run and it eventually beat our best riders into submission and sent them back the way they came.  Allyn and Nigel both got flats and I know there were some getoffs too.  Yikes!  I’m glad I dodged that one!
We had yummy pizza and hung out, with riders heading down at various times.  Nigel got a ride down with Mike to get his truck and come back up for his bike while Sean and Allyn set about trying to fix the other flat with a tube snagged from Thomas.
The tube got pinched and he ended up throwing it in the truck with Nigel’s bike instead.  Oh well, good effort!
And lastly, here’s a picture of Allyn trying to figure out how to use a cell phone to call for help.  Hee hee hee…
And of course, as much as I love giving people a hard time, I have to admit that first detour was my favorite part! 
My body dissagrees though and I am really glad I missed that second detour!

Overland Expo 2010

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As a member of the staff at the Overland Expo I worked hard…and played harder!

I met so many awesome people and had such a great time, I don’t even know where to begin.

I was working the HQ booth so I started the day off busy, but eventually made it out for a look at some of the vendors and exhibitors.

viking

I thought the Disabled Explorers were a really cool group.

kickass wheelchair!

There were lots and lots of bikes!

beemer

Sherpa

Mmmm Super Enduro

SUPER!!!

tiny bike

Orange juice stand:

KTMs

This belongs to Gabe. He’s partway through a round the world trip and stayed with us for a bit with his girlfriend. I don’t know why I didn’t manage to grab a picture of Gabe himself, it was great running into him again, but you can check out his website HERE.   He and Charlotte were wonderful guests and really fabulous people!

Gabe

I wandered around and recognized Nicole from her ride reports on ADVrider (She makes some nice DRZ accessories over at Rugged Rider) and she was really cool to talk to.

rugged rider

This rig belongs to Ara and Spirit

sidecar rig

Sean and Ara got chummy right away when they discovered they were both Armenian!

Armenians

Spirit got his own VIP badge

Spirit

We worked the booth a bit more and then jetted over to listen to Austin Vince and Lois Pryce talk about their trip across America in a Ural sidecar rig.

Lois and Vince

It was a really fun presentation and of course made me kinda want one. 😛

After that we ran down to the vehicle recovery area where the guys from RawHyde were teaching techniques for getting your bike out of tough situations. People swear buy their training camp and I see why. All the guys on their staff were very amiable and did a great job demonstrating and explaining techniques. Also, they can manhandle a 1200GS like you wouldn’t believe.

Oh no it’s buried in sand!

Sean to the rescue! He got the bike out easy. 🙂

nice shoes Sean

Next he demonstrated what to do if you dropped your bike halfway up a steep hill. (remember this hill and that sandpit, because they return later in the story…)

You stand on the uphill side, lean the bike towards you and wiggle the handlebars back and forth until you slide the front tire pointing downhill. Then you jump back on and ride off!

hill

I did it on the GS 🙂 I’d like a picture if anyone got one?

We went back to booth working until closing time and then ran off to happy hour and watched Mondo Enduro at the Austin Vince Film Festival. Eventually we wandered back to Aaron’s where we were staying the weekend.

I was really looking forward to the Overlanding from a Woman’s Perspective seminar on Saturday because there were some really cool chicks who did some really cool trips.

awesome chicks

That lady with the hat is Roseann and she put together the whole expo and also runs an awesome organization called Conserventures which is responsible for a number of different conservation projects.

And the lady talking is Lois Pryce, who has ridden a motorcycle from Alaska to South America and also from London to Cape Town.  She is largely responsible for getting my into dual sport bikes. 🙂

During the presentation where they let the audience ask questions and talk about their experiences, this girl Nikki got my attention. I spoke to her afterward and found out she rides with an Indian motorcycle club called 60KPH and has been in a movie called One Crazy Ride, which I had heard of and been meaning to check out. Well, we got to talking and I find out she’s been riding a Bullet for all her adventures and never been on a true dirt bike. I rolled Zeb out for her to take for a spin and once she got used to how incredibly tall he was, she really liked it!

Nikki

I love finding other chicks really into riding and Nikki truly is. If you think people are shocked by girls riding here, try being from India! She was an awesome chick and now I really want to visit India and go ride with her club haha!

After some more booth work we wandered out to the beginner rider course. It was nice to see Marisa on a bike again, she hasn’t been out on the TW much since Death in the Desert. I think that bike is just not the right fit for her, but she managed to borrow this NX250 and did quite well on the drills.

Marisa

We broke off into two groups (with Marisa and Sean in a different group than me) and my group practiced bike lifting techniques. If you are going to ride off road, you need to know how to do this. Trust me.

Then we did some cone drills.

Wheee cones!

CONES!

I was a little advanced for the beginner course, but practice is always good…and if you need to challenge yourself, just do it faster! Brian told me to do it in second gear and I did! Without slipping the clutch. I felt like a badass.

I convinced myself I was more badass than I am I think because I decided to go ride the recovery course (remember the hill and sand pit…), well I sped toward the hill and soared off the top of it!

Chris supposedly got a picture of me in the air and if I manage to get it from him I’ll post it up.

I landed a little sloppy but energized and made the turn, popping over the whoops while fantasizing I was a motocross racer…I got some air of the last one and then realized I was about to land, at speed, in the freaking sand trap. I landed hard, tried to throttle out, but in the end the bike dove and I flew over the handlebars, ass over elbows and somersaulted across the ground a couple times.

I jumped up and someone else came over and turned my fuel tank off because the fuel line had pulled loose and the bike was dumping fuel (remember this for later too). I checked myself over and decided I was okay before riding back over to the onlookers who gave me an applause.  I’m glad I was at least entertaining.

Sean had apparently dumped his bike as well and I went back to the booth to check on him. We were both pretty knackered and decided to ease our pains with some home remedies back at Aaron’s place.

APPLE PIE! Or is it pancake drink?

I had purchased One Crazy Ride, Riding Solo to the Top of the World and Terra Circa and we put on a little film fest of our own. A few other people came over to hang out and we had a good time. Such a good time that I need to rewatch all those movies and Sean couldn’t get up in the morning.  Those little jars contain a demonic and tasty beverage known as Apple Pie or Pancake Drink.  It’s -evil-.

I do remember though that Sean would yell “Hi Joe!” at the TV every time Joe was onscreen in Terra Circa. We were absolutely stunned to see him there. You see, we weren’t working the booth alone. Joe and Lara were our awesome boothmates and we spent a lot of time joking and poking fun at each other. Joe would often ask me for riding tips and I would share what I knew and then make fun of him for riding a Rokon (there’s nothing wrong with them, I kinda want to ride one but my joke was that you can’t be ‘good’ at riding a Rokon, it just plows over everything like a tank) so then we’re watching Terra Circa and Joe pops on the screen riding a DR350 on part of a round the world trip! What a punkass! Joe and Lara are also featured in Lois Pryce’s book Lois on the Loose…Lara is the chick who curses like a sailor. I got them to sign my book and Lara put some expletives in to make up for how well behaved she was at the booth.

Here’s Joe looking studious

Joe

And Lara modeling her kickass hoodie!

Lara

These two really made booth work a blast and were honestly two of the sweetest and most fun people I have had the pleasure of spending time with. I can’t wait to run into them again.

The other cool part about booth work was that Lois Pryce, Ted Simon and Austin Vince were set up right next door so we could chat with them when they weren’t busy. They were all really super folks.

I managed to snag a bunch of my heroes together for a picture. 🙂

AWESOME
Lorraine Chittock, Lois Pryce, Austin Vince, Me, Ted Simon & Gaurav Jani

My knee had turned funny colors from the previous days accident, but with coaxing from Joe, I decided to go out for the advanced ride and I’m really glad I did. It was a beautiful day and a nice trail I hadn’t ridden before.

This off camber curve was absolutely awesome!

There were a ton of wildflowers

We had a good mix of bikes

Cool people

Beautiful weather and a beautiful view!

Sean finally stumbled up around 4pm and we had some delicious barbecue, said our goodbyes and headed home. Sean took off on the ride to Aaron’s to pack up our stuff and I ran out of gas. I flicked it to reserve and continued on. My leg was starting to feel wet all the sudden. I pulled into the gas station to find my fuel line had popped off again and I was positively bathing in gasoline. I popped it back on, refueled and went over to Aaron’s to get myself. I grabbed my stuff apologized for smelling up his place and rode home for a nice shower. All in all a great weekend in spite of minor injuries and fuel leaks!

Full photo album HERE

Redington Ride

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I’m behind on my posting! In an attempt to catch up, I’ll keep this mostly pictures. 🙂

The crew:


Cathy


Dave


Allyn


Mikey


Skip


Cathy gets two for being photogenic.


Allyn looks tired out after manhandling my KLR

Action pics!


Sleepy bike.

A nice challenging ride with a little waterfall for the reward!

Cha-cha-Chiva!

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I maintain that this ride was a carefully orchestrated conspiracy between Skip, Cathy and Aaron. They took me out “to play around Redington Road” and next thing I knew, we were on the way to Chiva.

We met up with Emerson and his son for some easy but fun roads off of Redington first. It was nice riding with another noob, especially a kid. Everyone pars it back a notch and it’s just pleasant, fun riding.


The gang chillin’ at Chimney Rock

After a while we split off from Emerson and headed ‘across the street’ (code for ‘Becktastic pummeling grounds’).

The beginning roads to Chiva are twisty with some decent rock parts which were good practice and I didn’t feel intimidated…until the rocks and climbs started getting a lot bigger. Good line choice became paramount and it’s still something I really need to work on. A couple times a picked a crappy line, right at a big rock and tried to force the bike up with a handful of throttle. The little Zeb is a wheelie monster though so he just reared up like a wild mustang and dumped me on my ass. Two of those incidents on the way in, but otherwise okay even though I was all wide-eyed under my helmet on that steep downhill.

Finally we arrived at the falls!

I went down to wade in the pool while Aaron hiked to the top.


View from below.

The water was -really- cold, so I ditched the swimming idea and hiked up to join him at the top.


Those little dots are our bikes! And Skip and Cathy making out.

We hiked back down after giving Skip and Cathy sufficient “alone time”.


The crew and the falls


Cathy heads out on the KTM to get some pictures.


Do you believe Aaron rode that crap on a KLR? Didn’t go down once, but somehow dislodged his license plate (luckily another rider happened across it, so he’ll save a trip to the DMV!)

I probably should have relaxed more instead of hiking. I think I may have been a bit fatigued from the ride in or just letting the climbs and spills get to me…because I was just dropping the bike left and right on the return trip. So many of them there was just -no- reason for it. I started to get really pissed off at myself.

We came to that big downhill I had been all bug-eyed about, but now it was time to go -up-. Since I had just dropped it on a climb half the size, Skip kindly escorted Zeb up the mountain while I hoofed it.


Thanks Skip!


Cathy does the hill (you can see Skip and Aaron’s bikes at the top already)

I don’t know what got into me, but in spite of pep talks from the group, I just wasn’t getting back in the groove. Finally I tried pep talking Zeb. I told him he was an awesome bike and I knew he could it. A little loco I know, but it worked!

We had a kickass time after that!


A little climb.


Skip crossing the river.


Zeb crossing the river.


It was a beautiful day to be riding! (This and a bunch of other pictures stolen from Cathy)

Thanks for taking me out guys and for helping me pick up my bike a million times! Even though I wasn’t planning to ride Chiva yet, I’m glad I know what I’m up against and I have a new obstacle to guage my skill level on (since Death in the Desert has been conquered). My next hard ride should be a re-ride of Sibley, but then I’ll be down for another Chiva attempt!

A couple good close-ups:


I found out afterward that Emerson’s kid was having a tough time too…and it was even caught on film!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-HDHTIbTvk

Powerline (un)Ride

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That icy ride back from Dragoon really knocked me for a loop. I came down with a wicked cold and wasn’t up for doing much of anything.

So it was almost two whole weeks before I jumped on the Zeb yesterday, oh my what fun that bike is! I had almost forgotten.

I rode down to Aaron’s house where Alan and Mike would be joining us later to ride. I showed up early so I could try riding his Gixxer. Bikes with that much power intimidate me, but he was insisting that I could (and should) ride it, so I finally worked up the courage.

I had horrible butterflies in my stomach as I went to get on the bike. I was convinced it would rocket off and do back flips as soon as I kicked it out of neutral.

In fact it was totally smooth and completely manageable and now I kinda want one. Though I would feel like a poser owning a bike like that and riding on the street all grandma like.

So we return back and Mike shows up on my KLR (poor guy doesn’t have his own dirtbike yet) and then takes the Gixxer for a spin while we grab some tacos. At the taco joint we all got to talking about dragging pegs on corners and on the way home Aaron tried to prove some kind of point by dragging the whole right side of his bike.  Dragged the peg clean off!

So Mike and I hang out and chat while Aaron runs to Ace and tries to reattach the poor peg. Alan finally arrives after taking a scenic tour of North Tucson by accident and we all eventually head out to ride.


The guys and the bikes

We played on some sandy trails and then hit the powerline trail for some nice ravine action.

 
Alan hill climbin’

Mike did great for being a dirt noob, didn’t drop my bike once! It was nice riding with him, good to see how I’ve improved. The last time we rode was Mt. Lemmon and he was leaving me in the dust, this time I was faster (of course he was at a disadvantage being on the KLR with me on the DRZ, but don’t burst my bubble!)


The KLR happy to get some more dirt action

I did trade back for a short bit and I was surprised how much easier that bike felt to me too. Damn it feels good to be getting the hang of this.

Well, Aaron banged his newly bolted footpeg on a rock and off it popped. We decide to head back with him to the main road and then maybe explore some more. We stopped at a crossroad for Alan to catch up. It’s odd he has fallen so far behind. I drop my bike from a standstill trying to turn around and go back for him and Aaron asks if I’m qualified for a search and rescue…hurm.


Aaron and Alan hanging out

Before I can pick it up and finish turning, Alan comes over the hill and declares he needs gas.

A funny thing about those XRs, half their gas is trapped on one side of the bike. Whenever he runs out, he has to throw it down and flip it over. Quite a sight.

So we all decide to call it a short day and head back for gas and repairs. By the time we return, the forks on Aaron’s KLR are badly weeping.

We decide it’s too much to think about fixing now, Sean stops by to hang out and we all settle in for beer and pizza.  Not much of a riding day, but good times none the less!

Dual Sport Desert Daze 2010 (Part 3)

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Sunday:

We had stayed up pretty late roasting hot dogs and chatting the night before, but when we ducked into the tent the sky was a clear blanket of stars. We had heard a winter storm was coming in our way, but thought maybe we had lucked out and it blew over.

I awoke in the middle of the night after dreaming our tent had flooded. In reality, the air mattress had just partially deflated to feel like a waterbed and I could hear the rain coming down hard.

I went back to sleep and when I reawakened it had calmed to a relaxed sprinkle. Sean and I packed all our stuff up in the tent and went for another awesome breakfast.

The rain ceased as we finished up and we ran out to take down the tent and throw our stuff in Raven’s truck before the rain started up again. (Big thanks to Raven for carrying that stuff for us, planning and promoting the whole event, getting stuff to raffle, doing everything and just generally being awesome!)

Wet bikes all packed up.

Just as we were finishing gearing up, it began to snow!

We wanted to say goodbye, but opted to get out while the getting was good and booked it to the freeway.

I don’t know why I didn’t pack my waterproofs, but I will not make that mistake again.

Riding down the freeway in the freezing rain, in dirt gear was among the most uncomfortable experiences of my life. It was more or less waterproof for about 20 minutes and then I was soaked to the bone. I had pulled my Buff bandanna thing over my nose and mouth and I was thinking it was nice I had that or the rain hitting my face would probably hurt.

Then it fell down off my mouth and the rain felt like needles.

It took us about an hour and half to get to Vail. By that time I was shivering violently, my fingers were frozen to the bars and I was alternating cursing and whimpering pathetically in my helmet. I was truly misearable and on the verge or tears, but as they say “There’s no crying in dirt bikes.”

I ran into the gas station in Vail and worshiped the hand dryer in the bathroom for an eternity. Eventually I dried out enough to crawl back on the bike for another 20 minutes of cold, wet riding home.

A long, hot bath later I was feeling about normal.

But geez, what a day.

Dual Sport Desert Daze 2010 (Part 2)

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Saturday:

The ranch included breakfast with tent camping and it was deeeeelicious!
Nothing beats a massive hot breakfast before a long day of riding.

We stuffed our faces and then played around waiting for Aaron to roll in from Tucson and a few other people to finish eating.

I was really excited about riding over this rock.

I think I need a trials bike.

I really liked the casual way the rally was put together, there were gps tracks made available and maps laid out with routes color-coded by difficulty. You picked your route, found some buddies and explored at will.


Riders plotting a course.


People starting to gather in front of the saloon.


I thought this bike was really cute.

There were -a lot- of KLRs


KTMs were well represented too!


Karensa, another badass ADV lady. I also met Maren, who owns a green ’08 KLR. I suggested the three of go for a ride sometime, a whole rainbow of chicks on new model KLRs!


Aaron’s bike posed by some cool rocks.

We took a few minutes to crawl up them.

Here I am sneaking behind him like a ninja!

Or trying not to fall…whatever. Those MX boots aren’t too great for rock climbin’.

Thomas joins us on his GS with street tires.

We decide to join another group of bigger bikes planning a route of easy dirt to the border road.


The whole gang at the first rest stop.

One of the KLRs decides it doesn’t really want to go again.

Aaron, our resident KLR whisperer; diagnoses, dissasembles and repairs the bike in no time.

There’s your problem, dirt where it doesn’t belong. A couple grains of sand on the float needle were all it took to take the pig out.

We proceeded down long stretches of graded dirt and gravel roads. All the big bikes were flying up at 70+mph, my bike didn’t really want to do that and at 50 it got a bad wobble going on, so I plugged along around 45 to meet them at the top. The last bit did get nice and winding though.

We let a little air out of my tires and it felt much better on the gravel after that.

It also got a little rougher, so I stood on the pegs and the bike just feels better to me like that. I was finally keeping up with the group as we hit the border road.

That part was really fun for me. It was pretty well graded, but rough enough to be interesting and had steep, smooth hill climbs and descents. It was like a roller coaster!

I recalled our guide Bret saying there was a very steep one “You’ll know it when you see it!” where we would stop to regroup. My eyes widened as I approached a very steep climb. I throttled up and realized there was no one waiting…that means there is a -bigger- one!

I continued along, pondering how much steeper it could possibly be and then I saw it, the mother of all steep climbs. I wasn’t going to stop and lose momentum, so I just throttled over and then used all my concentration to stop on the top and not to launch into the stack of bikes waiting.

Sean was nice enough to make this elevation profile though to give you an idea.

We waited for a while and discovered Thomas and James hadn’t been seen for miles. I was worried about them, but the group decided there were plenty of Border Patrol to help out if there had been a problem and it was most likely the GS was struggling on its knobless tires and they just turned off.

I tried to restart my bike to leave, but it would just stall. Aaron pushed me down the hill to bump start it. It stalled again further up the road when we stopped and we figured out it was just the clutch lever adjustment, it had jiggled loose and wasn’t engaging properly. Just as we fixed it, Thomas and James rolled up!

Apparently James’ rack had given up on him and they abandoned it in the desert.

We then did a bunch of zip tie repairs to a KLR rack and my license plate, which has started splitting in half.

From here the group split up, several heading back to Tucson while the rest of rode some twisty dirt and pavement back to the ranch.

I took a long hot shower and watched the sunset.

Dual Sport Desert Daze 2010 (Part 1)

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Friday:

I had hoped to get an early start Friday, but one of my classes had a mandatory quiz, once I finished that up I met with James to head out to the Desert Daze Rally


Riding Buddies

He had google mapped a route to take us all the way there almost completely by dirt. Genius! If you are going to ride a distance like that, may as well make it fun!

It started out on some familiar trails Southeast of Houghton and Sahuarita Rd. We popped up over my favorite hill jump (didn’t stop for pics this time) and onto the ‘lake’.


This pic and some others by James
From there we rode in the wash under a bridge/culvert thing. Here’s the mouth of the wash where it spits you back out onto a road again.



Takin’ a break under a tree.

You can see how reflective my stripes are in this pic!

We rode some twisty dirt that turned into a ribbon of twisty pavement.

Really nice views and cool rock formations.

The road was nice and varied, not just in texture, but color.

The road signs are no help when all we have are waypoints…

James consults his GPS.



We missed a waypoint.

Oh well, let’s ride…uh, that way!

We started following a gasline road and it crossed these deep, steep and rocky gorges. Ever since the Sibley Mansion incident, these things have made me a bit squeamish, but the first one wasn’t too bad and they got just a bit worse one by one.  James asked if I was comfortable continuing and I said “yeah, it’s not completely absurd yet.” I had just gotten my SPOT back from recall and I was feeling pretty good about attempting somewhat risky terrain.

…but then I came across this one:

Pictures always flatten things out, but I think that tree in the middle gives you a good sense of how steep that drops off.
“Okay, now it’s absurd.”
We just passed a fork and I declare we should try that way instead.
Then I drop the bike turning around.

The other fork took us on some very loose rock with twists and climbs.

James coming down a hill where he was scouting better options.

We did a seemingly endless string of loose rock climbs and descents before hitting this gorge.

I wasn’t going back, so I just plowed on through.

That little dot is me!

When the going got rough, we decided I should lead. That way I could set the pace and James would be right there if I ran into trouble. Well I was zipping along happily and came to a good hill to wait for him. I briefly felt proud that I got up there so far ahead, getting out my camera to catch and action shot of him riding through.

…then I realized I didn’t even -hear- his bike and got worried.
I rode back down and found him trying to fix his homemade rack.


(This picture obviously taken at another time…there were no trucks out where we were…or any signs of life for that matter!
It’s just a prototype. 😉

Eventually he got it secured enough and we carried on.

I got my photo!


Stopping to rest on a hill.

At this point we decided we had truly turned ourselves around backwards and high-tailing it to the interstate to slab it down to Dragoon was the only hope in making it to the rally before dark.

After more twisty, rocky, secluded riding we finally spotted civilization!


The interstate!

We popped out on the side of the freeway, with semi-trucks flying past and no on ramp. We looked at our little 400’s and then at each other, agreeing this would be far scarier than anything we attempted all day!

We somehow made it to Benson without getting squished, ran into another ADV rider at the gas station and the three of us made our way down to the ranch and set up camp.

I actually had to move the tent because I couldn’t put stakes in here, but dang it looked cool nested in the rocks. The rocks in the Dragoons are truly fantastic!

Sean rolls in after work about the time I’m done setting up…how convenient.

We hung out at the Saloon, cooked hot dogs over the fire and talked about bikes!

There were a ton of people there, I was pleasantly surprised by the turnout!

Death in the Desert Take 2

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Since acquiring the DRZ and improving my dirt skills, I had been dying to retry the treacherous Death in the Desert route.  I had a feeling it would be a lot easier than I remembered it, but I had no idea it would seem so much easier I would barely recognize it!  That’s even with all the rain we had creating some large mud bogs… 

I had asked for a late start this morning, thinking it would be nice to sleep in, but I ended up waking early and I couldn’t wait any longer. I decided to roll up through Gates Pass again.

I’m a little bit obsessed with riding through here, but look at it! It’s fantastic!

Then I went to the gas station and made circles in the dirt lot next door until the crew rolled up. 

The crew (in no particular order):

Brian, Aaron, KB, BobM, Stephanie and me.

There aren’t any pictures for most of the ride. We were really caught up in just going and took very few breaks…until the giant mud bog slowed a couple of our riders down. 

Aaron was way too fast picking his bike up, but we got a couple shots of Brian’s GS taking a little mud bath.


My favorite picture ever (by KB)

I should probably not laugh too hard at Brian, he did help me put on my new knobbies the night before. (and by help I mean…put on my new knobbies…with some actual help from Sean)

The new Desert Maxxis IT’s worked awesome!

Not sure how much I can attribute to the tires, how much was the rain packing down the loose stuff or how much was riding skill improvement and the new bike, but the ride went amazing! I struggled to recognize the obstacles that posed a challenge before and I didn’t drop the bike once! Not even in the mud bogs!

The last little washout that Brian pushed our bikes through on the original Death in the Desert trek was a bit of a challenge to Aaron…only because he was trying it without a clutch lever!  Apparently it busted loose in the mud bog and jiggled off somewhere after that…

KB and BobM wandered back in search of the fallen lever, but unfortunately didn’t find it.

We arrived at the coffee shop early and hung out for a while. Most of the crew returned via dirt, but I had stuff to do so I headed back on pavement with Aaron and his gimped up bike.

As we were hauling butt up I-19 home, I ran out of gas (I thought I could go further, but I guess my mileage wasn’t so good up all that dirt stuff). Aaron saw me and crawled along slowly til I switched it on reserve and got going again.

I guess he spotted a gas station and dove off an exit at the last minute. I missed the exit and stopped a little further up the road. The exit was a steep downgrade from where I stopped, but I just looked at the embankment, with its weeds, ruts and decorative cement and decided it was no worse than anything else I’ve ridden across and did a little urban enduro!

What a thrill! The whole day really. I just had an awesome time. I’m in love with my new bike, it handles everything so well and it’s just so damn fun to ride!

We had a great group, great weather and a fantastic day!