Trial and Error...

 
Much of life is simply a matter of trial and error..  Take breast milk for example... you try it, you like it or you go on formula.  Later on, there's that little red headed girl sitting in front of you.  You pull her pig tails, she likes it or she swats you.  Still later... you ride through knee deep sand and it either turns your crank or you go back to formula.

  


I resist riding on pavement.  Not that I dislike it but to be honest, it's dangerous.  It's no secret among motorcyclists that every time we ride our XT/Ninja/GS/HD/CB/VTwin/Inline, on a city street, we are taking our life in our hands.  As a Dad, each time Holly was going to ride, I secretly cringed. 

Now, mind you, she's well trained, after all I was twice presented with Outstanding Chief Instructor awards, but nevertheless, I feel more comfortable on the back roads with her than riding in Calgary. The first line I said to every new class during my near twenty years of motorcycle training was...



"Ride like you are invisible!"

Even in a place like Phoenix, where biking is year round, where signs are posted throughout the city and state warning drivers to be cautious of motorcyclists, you have to be 'ON' continually.  Surface streets are posted at 35-45 and the various freeways from 55-75 in the state, but as is typical, traffic flows at a higher rate.  There are lots of cars/trucks/buses and there is no difference between PEI (pop ~140,000) and Phoenix (~4.5M) when it comes to distracted/stupid drivers.  People will do all kinds of things while driving; from eating overloaded burgers, to reading the paper, putting on make-up, texting or just plain catnapping.  Riding in Canada, where many places have a limited 'season' means we have to go through the hardship each spring of dead-brained drivers killing us because they are well, brain dead behind the wheel!  

In my riding career, I've raced motorcycles with studded tires on ice, dragged my knee at a hundred sixty kph around a race track, moto-crossed and trail ridden. 

Everything you do in life poses a hazard to one's health and well being.  After all... I was married for fifteen years and I barely survived that intact!

North of the valley is a small city named Prescott.  In reality, if you took the Interstate, you could daddle during breakfast, leave at 10 am and be seated in a restaurant at noon having a burrito.  On the other hand, you could pour over Google maps and attempt to get there by stagecoach across the Bradshaw mountains.

I'm joking of course... the stage coach is long gone... but the mountains are still there.

What I have is a road legal, single cylinder, air cooled kick start Yamaha with 21 cubic inches of raw horsepower and torque.  Wet weight with fuel on board to ride 190 miles or so, and what gear I carry, is most likely little more than 300 lbs.  The Hamilton Tiger Cats have linemen that weigh more than that!  I bought this bike specifically to ride from my home in the city of Glendale, across as little pavement as possible, to get to this back road maze of trails and tracks that once upon a time, were used to get from Payson to Phoenix or Gila Bend to Glendale. 

Riding back in them thar hills is an experience most riders will never have.  Back in my old hood Alberta, years ago I wrote a story about the Forestry Trunk Road that thousands cross each year totally oblivious to that 1500 km off road (but street legal) north/south highway.  As with most people and many things in life, we tend to choose the easy vs the hard.  We don't look for the out of the way or difficult.

 

For whatever reason that is, the easy doesn't tend to push our envelopes.  As a result we become  lazy, lethargic, lacking confidence and experience and when life throws us a curve... many people haven't a clue how to deal with it.  Isn't that the truth?  If you never push your personal boundaries, how in the hell are you going to know what to do when Murphy shows up?



I've known people that panic at the slightest situation that occurs outside their comfort zone.  The very term "pushing the envelope" came from test pilots reading their orders... and then attempting to exceed them.  Had they chose the easy, we'd still be riding buckboards instead of Boeing's!



Anyway... here I am... planning on riding my skinny little trail bike to Prescott, but across a formidable mountain range.  Then back again.  Sure sure, some parts of this route I have ridden before but of course back there, things change seasonably.  A heavy snow melt will wash out that downhill or stream-bed you thought tough last season.  This year it's not even recognizable.  Others, I'm on virgin turf for me.  Back there place names include, Crown King, Horse-thief Basin, anything followed by 'mine' or 'canyon' and even a Copperopolis!

People including friends sometimes question my sanity, "why do you do it."

Years ago I answered this way; "I do it because when I am 65, I may not be able to."

put it another way... my old buddy MJS says;

"Rock and Roll today, tomorrow you may only be able to Roll."

PS... picked myself up a compass!