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| Where you going today Frank? She sits wondering... |
GENERALLY speaking, riding here in AZ is pretty safe. I think because there is greater awareness of bikes year round, drivers are less likely to cause us harm. The be aware rule stills takes precedence and you can never let your guard down. On every trip I have one or two close calls, not razor narrow shaves but reminders that as cyclists we must be aware of our surroundings at all time.
I see far too many riders that are paying little attention to traffic or road conditions around them, making me once again think back to my years teaching the Canada Safety Council program. As we all know, a day on the road where that happens is pretty much nonexistent!
That inattention works okay so far as nobody else does anything rash or stupid.
I can take pretty much anyone and teach them the basics of riding in a single afternoon. By the conclusion of a week end you would be able to do a rider's test and the chances of passing are excellent. When I see motorcyclists abusing the rules of the road, I shake my head. Even though I have ridden nearly 5 decades and 2 of them were operating CSC programs, I practice every single day. Quick stops, counter steering, shoulder checking, the whole enchilada amigo's. Staying alive takes luck, but mostly skill and practice, lots of practice. If you are the type of rider that gets on a bike 10 hours a month... I can tell you that 2 of those hours better be spent in a quiet parking lot or back road, practicing!
Anyway back to the story. I was looking for a day ride where I could do some quiet paved roads and some not too serious desert roads. I scanned Google and decided that I would put together a ride from bits of several previous rides and then to make it more interesting, I'd do it backwards. Well not sitting backwards Ron, just in reverse...
In the past you've been with me to Painted Rock, Congress, Castle Hot Springs and Vulture mines I would do a bit of all those and a couple more for good measure.
As usual I prepped the XT the night before loading the saddlebags back on, the tire pump and in the morning my frozen water bottles, food and snacks.
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| Castle Hot Springs, private. |
I headed north on 67th to the Lake Pleasant parkway and as I hit the Carefree highway that would take me to Castle Hot Springs, I rode by a solitary mountain that rises above the desert floor about 200 feet. I had ridden the trail to the top of that hill on my DR 200 around 2009 and the adjacent sand washes and gullies and even a small reservoir. Back then the city was a good two miles distant and the road was coarse black top. What a change! Wide blvd's, 4 lanes, houses on all sides... within a year, that hill will likely be in someones neighborhood.
They'll call it "Mountain Park Estates selling from the low 500's" or something similar.
I ride by very familiar sights, Lake Pleasant, the Cow creek turnoff, Champie road, the long dry wash eventually coming out at Morristown.
The day before I thought I would hang a left on route 60 til I got to Patton road turnoff and then bypassing the Toyota Proving grounds head cross country to the Vulture Mine road.
For some reason I turned NW to Wickenburg instead. I filled up with at the highway Shell on 2.45/G of regular only to find out that a half mile in the old town, the price had dropped to 2.25. I remember when Wickenburg was a sleepy hollow of a little town situated on the confluence to rte 60 that goes to L.A., highway 93that goes all the way to Canada, that's if you can make it past Vegas, 89 north to Prescott and Flagstaff. Crossing the Hassayampa river for the first time today, which of course is dry... I was approaching the traffic circle in heavy traffic passing through town slowing just enough to avoid a ticket. I take my lane well in advance and approach the circle. I Spot a white late model expensive SUV on the inside of the circle coming around. I am going to slow to merge in behind her, the reason I know the driver is female because I got a very good look at her as she threw up her arms in defiance, disgust, annoyance.. I have no idea.
You see as she was moving ahead of me she stopped, totally. Of course I have to brake hard now and a quick mirror check shows a car hopper of a pick up truck just behind me. With the lane now blocked, and traffic approaching at 50 mph, I have to do something fast, I pull alongside, she is stopped after all and I can stay in the lane and go around her. Except as I committed to my evasive maneuver, she pulls ahead about 6 feet and stops, cutting me off in the lane and forcing me wide onto the outside of her lane. I brush past her bumper as the pick-up goes by doing about 35 mph, with only a foot to spare in the outside lane. I didn't give her the bird but I did see her arms up in the air as indicated. The woman sitting in the passengers seat mouth wide open!
When I exited the circle I could see that she was still in the circle, hadn't moved and of course now there is chaos with traffic stopping from every direction.
I just shake my head as I pass below the overhead rail line and continue on. The whole debacle took barely a few seconds and had I not moved I think the pick up would have creamed me right into the passenger door of the SUV...like a little grasshopper, smeared onto the metal.
As is my habit I let the thought go and got my mind back onto the road ahead of me. My point is, if you ride, you have to be practiced in emergency maneuvers, you simply put, do not have time to think about it. With traffic moving at 90 feet per second, well you get the picture.
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| Not quite a ghost town, but... |
I passed the last of the city and followed 60 till I reached Aguila, now if you've never been in the desert but saw any 2nd rated B movie about running from the law or from your abusive husband... this is the place NOT to stay the night. Mostly abandoned now, there is little left of any comfort or convenience, besides the gas station (2.25/G) there's not much left in town alive.
I turn south out of town and after a short ride I pull off onto the gravel Aguila road. There is nothing remotely challenging about this desert road, it is mostly straight and wide and smooth, however with the sun on my right sinking into the west, it is dang purty!
There are no settlements only a distant power line, the odd large RV parked under the open desert skies and me and my XT. After about 40 miles I get to the intersection of Vulture Mine road and take that turn. The only traffic here is truckers by the dozens bypassing Phx for I-10 or I-8 to the south. I ride at a reduced speed, yes reduced, I had been traveling about 50 mph on the Aguila road, but I am specifically looking to find Whispering Ranch road. I have not been on that road before. I had crossed from the Toyota proving grounds a couple of years ago and had come out just atop the now working Vulture Mine, but wanted to see if indeed I could get back to 60 across country via this road.
If you zoom in far enough on Google maps you can see it as a thin little gray line! I took a breather, had some cool ice water as it thawed, and scarfed down a couple of snacks. Even though I would not be riding any mountains now, it can still be quite challenging riding cross country on these, ahem... desert roads! Maybe more so.
At one time this was laid out to be somebody's dream subdivision.
That was a long time ago and indeed seems this, like many desert dreams, evaporated into the air like the Hassayampa river off in the distance ahead of me. The track was undulating crossing dozens of dry washes that have to be taken carefully, they can be sandy bottom, or rocks or stuff dumped by someone too lazy to truck it to the local landfill. More on that later...
As I'd expected, street signs are ahem, a wee bit dodgy, read
non existent. They maybe painted by brush on an old tire, or perhaps on a stick, but even though the terrain is billiard table flat it is very difficult to see where you are in relation to anything else. It's slow going standing up all the way with only the setting sun as a guide to my direction.
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| Fixer... |
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| Uppers! |
Eventually after an hour negotiating desert trails in 2nd through 4th gear, I am making some headway. I come to a fence topped with barbed wire and warning signs which I take is the boundary for the proving grounds. I turn left and follow the boundary road which eventually gets me back to the pavement and from there I am but a short hop to route 6o and then to my home in Glendale.
By the time the bike is shut down in my back yard,
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| Glad to make it out alive! |
:)
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