We did a little adventure ride through Box and Fish Canyon as part of a benefit for Diamond Children’s Medical Center. Was a nice easy ride and Fish Canyon has these great little jumps I am now obsessed with.
Yeah, so the ride was great and no spills…then I dumped it in the gravel parking lot at finish line. Smooooooooth…
Somehow the stars aligned and I got a three day weekend off of work -and- school! It’s a miracle! I’m going to ride my butt off! I asked my ADV friends to find a ride that will kick my ass. I usually only have one day off a week and so I try to take it relatively easy, but now that I had recovery days at my dispense, I was going to take full advantage.
Raven suggests Sibley Mansion Click for sweet pics of trucks attempting the trail, Thomas and Jeremy agree it sounds like fun and we head out Sunday morning in high spirits.
The weather and scenery were fantastic!
The trail started off with lots and lots of loose rock, but it’s fairly flat and we powered through it, standing on the pegs, without much trouble.
Eventually the road smooths back out and there are some cool mining remnants to look at. We’re moving at a relaxed pace, taking pictures and taking lots of breaks to chat and hang out.
Fall colors.
Mining remnants
Raven on her NX250
Jeremy
The first real obstacle appears on the road, with a rocky face on one side and a steep drop on the other. The road is wide enough for a car, but it’s just big, sharp, bumpy rocks sticking up everywhere…except a wheel width path right near the ledge. It wasn’t difficult so much as it was paranoia inducing. You’d try to pick a line and then visualize yourself bouncing wrong and off the cliff. Or see yourself putting up the line near the ledge and tipping right off. As we are standing around contemplating the best plan of action, Rich appears, surprised we hadn’t made it further and joins us for the rest of the ride. We opted for a line over some of the lesser rocks just in from the ledge (the rocks got worse the further from the ledge you got) and sort of paddle over them.
Rich takes on the rocks (pictures never do justice to these sorts of things)
Jeremy and Thomas zip off to try an alternate route, they return stating it is much worse and we continue on our way. It’s nice moderate road with some curves and rocks, but nothing too bad. We chatted up some ATV riders with cute dogs and Raven decides to head back. The trail is looking rougher and her knees aren’t up to it today. I briefly consider heading back with her, but decide to go on. I wanted a hard ride, I’m sticking it out! If I’d only known…
We rode on a little further…
Then the trail goes to hell. Steep. Rocky. Mountains.
The first set of up and downs is not that bad. Loose, but not too large of rocks, so you can hold a decent line. But I’m having trouble keeping my speed up, my bike doesn’t like plugging uphill so slowly, it wants to stall, even in first gear.
Then there’s a way steep uphill. Jeremy and Thomas plug up on their smaller bikes and I try to hold a line and charge up on my Beast. The rocks are bouncing me off course and I end up next to a dirt and rock wall, trying to keep my tire on the smoother area right next to it. No good. I bounce and veer just enough to the right, that the bike stops and tips over into the soft loose dirt of the hillside. The boys run down and help me pull my bike up. Thomas offers to take my bike the rest of the way to the top and I am more than happy to let him. I hike up the last bit and we all rest at the top. He explains to me my bike isn’t really geared for that stuff and teaches me how to slip the clutch to avoid stalling.
I’m a little shaken up from the challenging terrain and it’s getting late. We discuss how much further it is to the mansion and decide we took our time a little too much today and may not make it out before sundown if we don’t turn back now. (I later find out we were almost there…d’oh)
Now here’s another newbie hint, if you just dumped your bike and your adrenaline is spiking at all time highs, don’t get right back on the bike and try to go down. Sit and rest until you recover and can think coherently.
So Rich goes down the mountain first and waits at the bottom, so he can help me if I need it near the end, while Jeremy and Thomas watch from the top. I debate for a long time if I should turn the bike off and use the clutch to control my speed, but opt for on in favor of engine power at the ready if I get stuck on a rock. So I start down in first gear, but I give it a little too much gas. I start panicking and I’m sure I must have pulled in the clutch because my bike starts flying down at an insane speed. Now my eyes are as big as saucers, I have a death grip on the handlebars and I’m just trying to keep some semblance of control and turn right with the curve of the road. I’m bouncing off of rocks so hard my bike is catching air and I am catching air out of my seat. I land a little off center and the bike goes down hard on a rock.
Rich took some pics of my high speed descent, but nicely stopped photographing when he realized this was probably going to end badly. It makes for a cool action series though and I kind of wish I had the grand finale included.
WHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah that was a scary moment. Everyone’s running over expecting serious carnage but I’m standing next to my bike dusting off. Jeremy points out a razor sharp rock just next to where I went down and tells me I was damn lucky.
We break for a while to assess the damages. I have a bruise on my right thigh, a tiny scrape on my right wrist and the bike’s right radiator shroud is obliterated. (Thomas retrieves these bits for me on his next ride up there and returns them to me at a meet up. Now every time anyone finds bits of plastic on a trail, they ask if I’ve been there first… )
Bruise and odd little scratches on my wrist
We head back up the next hill, and I sit looking down at the steep rocky descent home. I opt to turn off the bike and roll down using the clutch. I still fall over once, but at least it’s at very low speed.
My mind is not in the right place, I can’t think straight and on the next uphill, I pick a bad line and dump it in the loose rock. Thomas helps me lift the bike again and offers to ride his bike back to the parking lot and return with his truck for me. That just feels like giving up. I tell him if I dump it one more time, we can do that.
I keep it vertical after that.
At the trailhead there’s some great piles of sand where ATVs were playing. Thomas and Jeremy play around on their smaller bikes.
Rich and I hang out for a bit and then head home as the sun sets
I think I got my asskicking alright!
This post is mostly a ton of pictures from when a group of us got together to ride around the supermoto track. Who knew riding in circles could be so enjoyable?! I was the slowest one there, but I did manage to scrape my kickstand on a turn, so I still felt pretty badass.
There’s a dirt area on this track too and after some laps on the track we decided to head over there and play around. The track itself is a bit tight for a larger bike and the dirt area was downright silly, especially with my lowering links in. I managed to lumber through the whole mess of whoops, table tops and berms without dumping it, but it was sketchy. I bottomed out on everything, crawling up the table top and plopping off the back while the smaller bikes popped up and over gracefully. Someone said it looked like a wildebeest among gazelles.
This experience and other bottoming out episodes convinced me I needed more ground clearance and I soon stumbled upon a dished Corbin seat and put the stock links back in.
They have tiny little bikes you can rent!
Me riding in circles
Alan shows us how the supermotos do it.
Sean riding (yay we finally got to ride together again!)
Look at that hair fly!
Sean again
James on his sleek DRZ (he dominated the dirt area)
This track has some great S curves and nearly 180 degree turns.
Mike and Will
Only Alan can start this bike.
Seriously?! How do I turn it -on-?!
James
Alan on my bike and Sean.
May not be the prettiest bike, but Alan kicked some ass on it!
James
Serious pose.
ADV salute
Mike approves!
No dirt riding here, but my first overnight bike camping trip!
I overpacked like such a girl.
A group of us have formed a loose plan to meet at Parker Canyon Lake for beer and camping. It’s a couple hours away from Tucson on Hwy 83 and my friend Jen accompanies me in her car.
We head out and the temperature is dropping. It starts to sprinkle on us as we pull into the gas station in Sonoita. Alan and Will are already hanging out, having ridden an alternate dirt route. They have no waterproofs and are trying to thaw and wait out the rain.
At least my overprepared packing had one advantage, I have waterproofs at the ready!
“I ride motorcycles to look cool!”
We continue up the mountain in spite of the cold and sprinkles. We are rewarded with a perfect rainbow.
What a badass biker gang we are with a Miata in tow.
The lake is looking beautiful as the sun goes down.
Aaron had arrived earlier and starting a nice fire. He brought enough firewood and beer for an army.
More pretty lake pictures
Settin’ up camp.
This picture cracks me up.
Mike and Jen.
The sun goes down…
We drank Aaron’s signature “Apple Pie” beverage and partook in general merrimaking until it started to get too cold. I probably should have tried staying up and drinking in front of the fire all night because I was freezing my butt off trying to sleep. It got down to 27 degrees that night and a couple of us only had 40 degree sleeping bags. My parents live nearby and brought us breakfast burritos and coffee in the morning which was nice.
I headed back with Alan. His rear tire was completely bald and showing metal. He decides at the last minute to veer off onto old Sonoita highway, hit some gravel bits and high sided. Luckily, he wears as much gear as I do and he’s fine.
Twisty highway home.
All in all a successful trip!
Someone once asked me what it was like being a chick and trying to learn to ride. I have thought about it quite a bit and I don’t think it’s really that different than being a guy learning to ride. You’d be hard pressed to accuse my riding buddies of going too easy on me or being afraid to damage my ‘fragile female feelings’. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that we have a few ladies in our group who ride and ride well. I imagine any misogynistic types would be shamed back into hiding fairly quickly.
If anything, fellow riders seem more apt to tell me I can do something, even if I’m less sure of myself. I’m not positive if it’s because they really have so much faith in me or if they just like watching me dump my bike trying things that are over my head.
I do have a couple funny stories regarding gender and motorcycling though, with people outside my riding group:
When I first went to look at my bike, I brought my friend Dwayne with me. He has been riding motorcycles longer than I have been alive so he seemed a good bike buying sidekick. We were both outside talking to the bike’s then-owner when his wife comes out. The guy starts spouting off that it’s a ‘Mans bike’ and I’m laughing that it’s going to be a girls bike soon! His wife turns to me with this weird expression “Wait a minute…it’s for YOU?!” … “Ummm…yes.” Then she just laughs at me and goes back in the house.
Knowing someone found the idea of my riding a KLR so ludicrous only made me more determined to ride the hell out of it and I’m not going to lie, sometimes I think of this conversation while riding and a smug little smile creeps across my face.
The other one was when I was riding solo and stopped at a gas station. A young guy comes over, walking really slowly, as one might approach a wild animal, with this look of complete wonderment. He introduced himself and we talked a bit about riding dirt, but the entire time he sustained this posture and expression of absolute amazement. Like he had just come across a unicorn and it spoke to him. We had a pretty nice conversation, but I was trying hard not to laugh at how surprised he seemed.
Some ADVers take me out for what they promise to really be an easy, quick, newbie friendly ride…and Sasco is exactly that.
Smooth, wide dirt roads winding easily along. I’m still slow as a tortoise, but they all put up with it.
I got to do my first river crossing!
Note to new KLR owners: Those rubber coated pegs get slippery in water! I still need to switch them out…
Group shot
I’m intent to get better at this dirt riding business and have resolved to ride some dirt every weekend. This particular weekend I had a ton of schoolwork, but I figured if I start out early enough I could get some good practice in and still be back around 1pm. I ask Marisa and Brian if they are up for a short, easy, newbie ride and they say sure.
The sun climbed higher in the sky and the temperature was heating up. We had been out quite a while now and were starting to get exhausted. My water supply was looking dismal, so we took a short break. Marisa and I joke that this is “Brian’s Dirt Riding Boot Camp”. The terrain gets a little more difficult with some rocky climbs and larger washes.
“Neither one of them took a nap in the wash (although Becky hit the last corner in a damn impressive two tire drift and blew out the back side like an AA rider (of course, she had a death grip on the bars and was screaming at the time.)” – Brian
I know now that Brian has no concept of the meaning behind those words and I am now skeptical of any time he calls a trail “easy” “noob friendly” or “fast”.
Since we were not going to be out long, I tossed a couple small water bottles in my tail bag and hit the road. Brian hauled Marisa’s TW200 on his jeep to a trailhead and led us out.
Things started out well. The terrain was exciting, starting out as nicely groomed dirt roads, but eroding into a rougher jeep road with enough rock and sand to keep things interesting. Marisa and I chugged along at our noob pace, while Brian drove ahead to take some sweet pictures.
I had discovered momentum was the best way to get over most things and zoom up a rocky climb only to completely blow the turn at the top and fall over.
I almost picked it up fast enough…
We discussed a lunch break and Brian says he’ll pick out a good spot with some shade. I’m zooming along with my momentum technique only to find Brian parked in the middle of a wash. Yes there is shade there, but my whole ‘speed through the sand’ plan isn’t very condusive to quick stops. I decide to go around him and park on the other side. I was going a little faster than I realized though and did a pretty sweet but petrifying manuever to get out of there.
“
I don’t even remember why I fell over here. Just a random sand nap I guess. That’s Marisa trying not to run me over.
She continues past me and starts chugging up the hill out of the wash. It was too steep for second gear and the bike stalls and falls over. She tries to grab it up right away and burns her hand on the engine.
There aren’t any pictures after this point because we have stopped giggling about Brian’s Boot Camp and moved on to jokes about how he’s drug us out to the desert to kill us. After a while we are hoping it’s still a joke…
It’s over a hundred degrees out now. I’ve drank all my water and Marisa is miserable in her non mesh riding jacket. When she removes her glove, sweat pours out like a water faucet. There are holes in her glove from the engine burn and blisters are forming. We stop for a while and Brian offers to load her bike on the trailer.
Now, I have to give Marisa a ton of credit. She could have stopped riding at any time, but she wouldn’t leave me on the battlefield alone and did the whole track like a trooper. She’s one tough cookie.
Brian assures us it’s not much further and we press onward.
At one point I get caught up on a large rock in a wash and dump the bike yet again. While lifting my bike up for the third time that day I nearly pass out. Reality sparkles back from the blackness but I’m feeling strange. Everything is in high contrast, sounds are buzzy and I’m starting to feel a bit delusional. I mooch some water off of Brian, but he’s low too and before long, there’s no more water to be had.
We only have about eight miles left, according to the GPS.
We climb a steep hill of baby-head rocks and find ourselves with an obvious road block. Brian suggest we turn back and take the longer, but possibly easier route. This road is blocked for a reason. I look back at the baby-head climb and deduce there can’t be much worse ahead and I don’t want to go back down than crap. We skirt the blockade and press forward.
There are rusted out abandoned vehicles decorating the trail. Miraculousy, no one drops their bikes for the rest of the trek. At one point I have a close encounter with a tree…but the bike stayed up, supported by its crunchy little branches. I launched myself up and out of a rocky wash without paying enough attention where I would go on the other side. When you get dehydrated you stop looking ahead and start picking bad lines. The good part is, you are too out of it to be scared and I found the whole thing hilarious.
At last the GPS states we are right at the road! But there’s one last wash out and it’s a steep one with a tricky turn. Marisa and I park and stare at the obstacle. Brian can tell we are beat, he takes pity on us and walks the bikes over the last wash while we remove our gear and lay out on the ground. We’ve made it!
Well, sort of. There’s a fair bit of pavement left and I’m so out of it I crawl along at maybe thirty miles an hour. I keep visualizing myself flying off the road for no reason. I’m distrustful of the pavement, everything looks like sand traps and loose rocks.
At last we arrive at the Coffee House in Arivaca and drink a million gallons of water.
Brian buys me a smoothie and all is forgiven. No one died and we get to say we pioneered a tough trail as one of our first rides. He is hassled relentlessly for trying to kill us and the ride becomes known as Death in the Desert.
Beast’s previous owner took me up Redington Road on the back of the bike before he signed the title over to me. The desert is spectacular at night. He has a spotlight mounted on the handlebars and used it to point out wildlife. We spotted tarantulas and a family of ring tailed cats. There’s a great lookout point away from the pollution where the sky becomes a blanket of stars. We layed out there on the rocks talking about life and motorcycles. It was a really lovely send off.
———
I’ve owned the KLR for a while now and I’m a little bummed out that even though Sean and I now both have badass dual sport bikes, due to his crappy work schedule, we haven’t ridden dirt together once! I resolve to fix this and when he gets home from work, I tell him to keep his gear on and come riding with me! We go up Redington and lay out on the rocks.
I have a special attachment to this place now and just thinking about it makes me want to head back up soon…
Sean and my dad help me install my lowering links. Oh man, reaching the ground is an amazing feeling! The bike is much more forgiving of my newbie mistakes. Brilliant. Let’s ride!
Marisa is up for another round and I am excited to take a nice slow ride with another new rider after being back of the pack on Mt Lemmon. Brian leads us out to Box Canyon via I-19. I was a little freaked out riding my bike on the freeway for the first time, but eventually convinced myself to relax on the basis that being paranoid wouldn’t really help me in the event something bad -did- occur. It wasn’t that bad, but I must say I prefer secluded twisting highways and dirt roads immensely.
Box Canyon is a great newbie ride. Nice graded roads, gentle climbs and smooth turns. The day goes well, except at one point where I believed the road came to a fork…when it actually intersected with a wash. I wandered into the wash a little bit before I notice Brian at the top of the road where I am supposed to be. I come to a complete stop and decided I can make it up the embankment. I turn the handlebars sharp left, give it a little throttle and fall over. The bike is much easier to pick up once lowered though and I have it upright before he can even take a picture.
Brian comes down and talks me through slipping the clutch to escape my sand trap.
Victory is mine!
Ohhhh the road is that way!
Brian -loves- having his picture taken.
At last the title had arrived! I handed over the rest of the money and took keys in hand. My confidence renewed after the practice sessions on the TW200, I got on my new bike and rode it home on side streets with a friend following behind.
Sean acquired a KLR of his own and our garage reaches new levels of awesome.
I got a gig house sitting for some people up in the foothills and we decided the ride up there would be some nice practice for us. Not too far, but with some nice turns. He led the way and we headed up the mountain. The last part before their house presents the only real challenge. The rode dips left and downward before curving right into a steep ascent finalized with a tight u-turn to reach their driveway. I’m keeping my distance, but as I approach the u-turn I see Sean had tried to turn too sharply and dumped in the middle (it slopes upward mid u-turn). I knew I should have continued through the u-turn and stopped on a straigh flat place to dismount and help, but I couldn’t just leave him laying there! I tried to stop mid-turn mid-slope and –you guessed it- I dump right over next to him. What a sight! We help each other wrestle our bikes up. He broke his radiator fan, I broke my clutch lever and we both felt a little discouraged. I decided to order lowering links.