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Saguaro East Improv Loop

Sat, 12 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I felt like not getting my ass kicked with elevation changes and just going for a long walk in the desert this weekend. Saguaro National Park East has a network of very flat trails so I stitched together a randomly selected loop of about 10 miles.

It was easy desert walking as planned. Very pretty, perfect weather. The Mica View Picnic Area was a great spot for lunch under a shady pavilion.

The ‘Shantz’ trail did not agree with my easy going plans, however. There was a lot of soft sand formed into this weird endless V-shaped wedge. My feet slid into the center with each step and I became tired very fast. It felt like bicycling into the wind. I ended the hike exhausted into a zombie-like state unsure if it was caused by the sand, dietary choices, or a general lack of fitness.

Oh, and I was murdered by a Jackalope (seen here contemplating murder).

Popular spot, nice day, weekend… parking was a little crazy, this is the overflow down Speedway (spot the ‘burb!).

Wasson Peak via Sendero Esperanza

Sun, 30 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

GPS track

It’s been many years since I’ve been on Wasson Peak. A return is in order. A triumphant return? I guess we’ll see.

In the past I’ve done King Canyon or similar routes that start near the Desert Museum. This time I’ve come from the North via the Sendero Esperanza and High Norris trails. The final leg to the summit is the same no matter how you get there, visible here on the left. A familiar sight! Excitement is high.

The view from the summit. At this point I’m basically a walking dead body. It’s been an exceedingly long time since I’ve done a strenuous-for-me hike and the ass kicking to get here was intense. Bonk city. A good rest and some food improved things considerably and heading down I felt a lot better.

Golden Gate Road, the dirt route through Saguaro National Park West, is visible across the center of this image from the summit. The small blip in the middle is the parking lot where the day began. Not enough pixels to spot the ‘burb, though.

It was a damn cold day with temperatures mostly in the 40’s. I used my buff as a hand warmer which worked well. Just as one hand was getting cold, the other was plenty toasty and I just passed it back and forth every few minutes. Fiddling with it in my hands was a nice mental distraction on the Hugh Norris switchbacks right before the summit which were giving my fear of heights a good tickle.

Great day. Current status: excited to do more.

Halloween Camping

Sat, 28 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I rode out to an AZFJ Halloween pot luck and camped the night with some FJ folks I haven’t seen in a long time. Originally I declined doing a Box Canyon run with a bunch of trucks because it’s an easy trail for them and would be insanely challenging for me. Being in the area, I thought I’d at least explore near the trail. Like the famous Price Road rail bridge photo-op spot…

Where the sand is deep, the way is not straight…

I sort of just kept going and ended up in Box Canyon, oops. Did not go far, however. It was getting dark and up north by Mineral Mountain Road food awaited.

A welcome sight the next morning from my tent.

Parked by CeeFish and Bliss’s tent-majal…

It was about the most beautiful possible night for camping, about 60F with clear starry skies. Thankfully I survived the night without uh, being affected by the previous nights eating festivities. :o

Oracle Control Road

Sun, 22 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Riding the ‘backway’ to Mt. Lemmon via the Oracle Control Road was one of the things I had in mind as a must-do when I picked up my 700GS last year. It’s fun in a truck, it was fun on a motorcycle - great route.

Definitely the bumpiest stuff I’ve yet ridden. My technique sucks and I still struggle with feeling like I can’t get the handlebars high enough to stand in a comfortable position but overall I didn’t have any problems.

I still find changing biomes on a trail to be really interesting and compelling. Cactus give way to grassland, to a different grassland, then the sort of scraggly forest pictured below, before pine tree forests. Good times.

Willow Springs Road, Cochran

Sat, 21 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Why not pick up some dirt on the way to riding some dirt.

Dirt you say? How ‘bout sand… and more sand. There are a few stretches like this closer to the river on Cochran Road. I didn’t dump my bike but it wasn’t pretty. I played with the settings on my steering dampener and it clearly makes a huge difference, at it’s lowest setting I basically squirreled off in a random direction almost immediately.

I rode out here once before on an R1200GS. The circumstances behind that are a long story but it was fun to compare the experience of two very different bikes. The 1200 performed greater in every way but somehow I like the 700 better.

Tree tunnel by the Gila River.

How much sand is too much sand? This much sand.

I don’t know why there’s a tarp hanging up in the middle of nowhere.

In the above pictures I’m stuck going North, below I’m stuck going South. Hilariously I put my front wheel in the huge hole dug up by my rear wheel when I passed in the other direction. I think I did one of those slow-motion ‘nooooo’ things as I got sucked in.

The bike is on its side here on purpose. The sand is extremely soft and rotating the bike on its side is easy especially when compared to any attempt to lift a near 500lb object out of a hole in the ground. A lot of tips I picked up from YouTube were helpful here.

On the way out, I ran into some two-dimensional desert pigs (don’t tell them I said that).

My boots started out black…

185 miles in about 6 hours door to door from Tucson.

AZNC: Chicago

Sun, 20 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

AZNC 8/16/17 - Rever
AZNC 8/20/17 - Rever

I stayed a few days in Chicago to visit my parents and go to a post-wedding party for folks who couldn’t make the wedding I’d just been to in North Carolina. As it happens, I went to both. The groom’s family is good friends with Black Hawks announcer Pat Foley which resulted in hilarious remarks at the party (including a mention of the time he came to speak to my 4th grade class many years ago) and this endlessly sweet Pat Foley selfie.

Of course while in town I had to take out my dad’s roving Harley edifice.

Preparing to leave. Interesting to depart my childhood back yard on a motorcycle from across the country. Visiting home is complicated and I was glad to have come but definitely ready to go.

Spotted in Iowa City, had no idea these things were so huge.

AZNC: Tail of the Dragon

Tue, 15 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

AZNC 8/15/17 - Rever

The hype for this ride is enormous. It did not disappoint. The ride itself, the surrounding areas, visiting places I’ve seen online a million times, getting action pics of myself - the whole experience was great. The weather even cooperated for the most part.

And I didn’t crash! Bonus.

After an out-and-back-and-out-and-back-and-out I head towards Chicago, stopped for the night near Louisville, KY.

AZNC: Wilmington, NC to Hendersonville, NC

Mon, 14 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

AZNC 8/14/17 - Rever

Rain and more rain. It rained overnight and into the morning. Once stopped, the rain was replaced by an outrageous fog. Unfortunately this fog extended onto… my glasses! This made seeing, uh, problematic.

As buttons on the left side of my handlebars continued to degrade, I had a fear in the back of my head that the horn would ‘stick’ and starting honking randomly or continuously. And yea, that happened - continuously. Not imagining an alternative, I pulled over and removed the horn.

Tomorrow morning I’ll hit the Tail of the Dragon and the weather looks reasonable… fingers crossed.

AZNC: Ocean

Sun, 13 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

AZNC 8/13/17 - Rever

It was important to me that I visit the ocean on this trip. Being so close compared to Arizona it seemed ridiculous not to spend the extra few hours plus I’d visited the other ocean in preparation for this. Once there, I wandered around checking out a carnival, houses on stilts, and definitely people before finding this cool spot for a picture. Success!

My original plan was to check out the area pictured below, a beach you can drive on near Carolina Beach, NC. I wasn’t sure if it would be a great idea to take a motorcycle out and once I saw it that was definitely a big nope. Here my bike is right at the end of a boardwalk before the soft stuff started.

AZNC: Blue Ridge Parkway, Graylyn Estate

Wed, 09 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

AZNC 8/9/17 - Rever

Finally covering some decent ground yesterday left me with a short day and some extra time to spend on more scenic routes. Blue Ridge Parkway is pretty famous and along the way - perfecto.

With the exception of getting stuck behind a 125-year-old man in a Subaru going 15mph in a lengthy no passing zone, the day was fantastic. The road did not disappoint.

Eventually I arrived at Graylyn Estate, my final destination for this leg of the trip and wedding venue for this weekend. Some crazy fancy butler-looking guy came out of the front door, “will you be checking in, sir?” Uh, no just popped by for a picture, thanks!

I stayed a couple nights at the Historic Brookstown Inn which was great - barely more expensive than cookie cutter hotels in the area and much cooler. By Friday it was time to move over to Graylyn for real. The wedding party was staying in this sweet huge stone cottage. It would also become the site of our raucous nerdy bachelor party. Good times, good times.

Susan and I ended up in the ‘bungalows’ right across the street for whatever reason. Great accommodations.

With the happy couple after a delicious post-wedding brunch Sunday morning…