Motorcycling to the Stars

This is part two of a journal entry about a recent overnight trip to for Phoenix to Tucson which include some moderate terror and some great joy. As I stated in the previous entry the mechanical problems and change of schedule on Saturday night had put me in a funk and I woke up pretty cranky the next day. However, I really wanted to get my mojo back so while the Wrench Wench slept in a little I was up before dawn hoping to catch some great "sunrise over the mountain" pix. Some reading in the local literature in the hotel room told me that Catalina Mountain Park was just up the road a ways. So in the pre-dawn hours I took my tools and flashlight down to the bike, wrenched on the starter a little bit, which seemed to help, and headed off toward the park.

Because we had not planned for any real early or real late riding there was not a lot of warm stuff packed in the panniers. So, it was pretty chilly ride to the park. I turned off on the exit and drove into the park. A few hundred yard in I encountered the ranger booth. At the booth was a stooped over, elderly woman who regarded me, dressed in full black riding gear, and my motorcycle with profound distrust. I told her I just wanted to come in the park and shoot a few sunrise shots. She was clearly trying to discourage my interest by pointing out that is was yet a ways 'till sunrise. Not swayed by this argument I told her I would need time to set up so that would be OK. Her next tack was to lay the six dollar charge on me which I would be subject to if I was in the park longer than 15 minutes. She made an obvious show of checking her watch and telling me "exactly" when I had to be back. No problem, I handed over six buck, she reluctantly gave me a pass and off I went.

Navigating the narrow, unmarked roads by high-beam it very quickly became apparent that the paved portions of the park were very short and led to RV parking spots and the heads of hiking trails. No way to get any elevation for the shots I wanted. Checking the clock on the bike I noted that there were 3 minutes left of my alloted 15 free minutes. Quickly motoring back to the small, dimly lighted haunt of my nemesis I reminded her of the time and asked for my money back. After another bit of unpleasant exchange I returned my pass and got my six bucks back. I watcher her watch me leave in the rear-view. It was obvious she was happy to see me go.

It was still dark when I arrived back at the hotel so I made do by taking some shots of sunrise over the Santa Catalina Mountains from the window of the hotel room.





Sunrise over the Santa Catalina Mountains from a thid floor hotel window

Patti slept in kind of late and we lazed around the room for a bit, went downstairs for the free breakfast-which was unexpectedly excellent, then had to make a decision on what to do that day. The working plan was to go visit Tombstone, but after a bit of research it became apparent that, in spite of its colorful history, it was merely a tourist trap and we wanted something less touristy and a bit more interesting. So, we opted to drive out into the Sonoran desert and visit the Kitt Peak observatory.

In order to get to Hwy 86 we had to travel the length of Tucson from north to south. Given our newly acquired sensibilities gained by living in Phoenix for six months we assumed an hour and a half drive at least. It turned out to be more like 20 minutes.
Turning west on Hwy 86 we headed onto the Tohono O’odham wilderness.



Riding west into the Tohono O’odham wilderness

Not too far on down the road we came to the intersection of 86/386 which turns roughly north.



Looking north from the 86/386 intersection..probably not visible at this picture scale but you can see the dome of the 4 meter telescope dome at the far upper right



From the same vantage point, but with a bit of zoom

It is a fair distance down 86 to the bottom of Kitt Peak, but the road is reasonbly well pave with a minimum of rock and sand patch hazards to be avoided. Once you start climbing the peak it goes from 2000 feet of elevation to 7000 feet in just under 12 miles. Quite a ride. Because the mountain is made of granite there are none of the hazards of rock slides on the road or patches of blowing dust that have characterized so many of our other mountain rides, very pleasant.







A couple of views ascending Kitt Peak

The tempature began to drop dramatically as we rapidly gained altitude and the wind also picked up considerably. Enough that once we had reached the top and parked in the visitors lot we needed to dig out another layer of clothes.



Red at the chilly and windy top of Kitt Peak

Note-In order to get a scale for this picture, the four-meter telescope pictured in the upper right is ten stories tall from it's base to the bottom ring of the dome. The actual dome towers another several stories above that.

Places of this nature, observatories, etc, have always fired my imagination and this was spectacular. Having been a regular visitor to such places as Griffith Observatory and Mount Wilson with their few attraction, the scale of this instillation was amazing! The four-meter optical telescope in the upper right of the above photograph towered over the parking lot with other mysterious and magic structures stretching into the distance.





Ok I have been working on this post now for quite a while...the best is yet to come, but also some very detailed work to do on it. I am going to publish this one and get to work on part 2. Keep your eyes open for that. In the meantime...keep your eyes on the road and your thoughts in the stars...

BMWeerman

It's A Tough Road to Tucson

Greeting from "The Old Pueblo" as Tucson is sometime referred to. Arguably the oldest continuously inhabited city in the U.S. Tucson was probably first visited by Paleo-Indians, known to have been in southern Arizona by about 12,000 years ago. This particular entry though has more to do with the particular trials tribulation of getting here on this particular trip.

Because we have been working 10-11 hours days there was not a lot of time to prepare to we had planned to get up early and pack our bags, do a bit of maintenance to the bike, unfortunately my early inspection revealed some things that made me extremely uncomfortable. So I had to break out the tools and and ended up spending 3 hours disassembling and reassembling the bike which got us off to a late start. Unfortunately, it kind of wore me out and got in a bad mood. Once we got going though my mood improved and we had a beautiful day to go riding.



Above it the map from yesterdays ride from Phoenix to northern Tucson

Fortunately we were able to miss the spring break traffic by avoiding the slab of I-10 taking the back route which was suggested to us by some of the locals.




Dairy Queen in Superior, AZ...Doe not look like much,but it is a popular biker spot and the hot dogs are good

We had been puzzling over a recently purchased guidebook trying to decide the best,and most interesting, way to get to Tucson and were fortunately given some guidance by our new-found Harley friends. We had headed east out of Phoenix on highway 60 then turned south on 177 in the Pinal Mountains.



The Wrench Wench pauses to ponder one of the smaller copper mining operations along 177



One of the Anonymous copper mines..actually the one the Wrench Wench is contemplating in the above pic.




Looking to the north from same spot one sees a fabulous road cut...one of my favorite roadside geology features that make this part of the American Southwest one of my favorite places to travel



The initial southbound portion is a beautiful set of set of sweepers with not much debris on the road to worry about.



Further on down the road, so to speak, the landscape flattens out, but the desert still remains close

Unfortunately as we traveled along a nagging starter issue kept raising its ugly head. The three hours I had spent in the morning doing service and alignment had not touched the starter. I though I had fixed that a week ago, but as we began making stops for gas, drinks, sightseeing and the like the starter/flywheel was making an increasingly alarming sound, which unfortunately, sucked some of the joy out of the ride for me.

Yet, like what I like to call "real motorcyclists" we persevered without too much diversion towards our goal.

Finally rolling into the outskirts of Tucson, Oro Valley in this case, we began to ride along the Santa Catalina Mountains which are magnificent!



Traveling south on 77 with the Santa Catalinas to to the east

Once we rolled into Tucson proper we had to find our hotel and we realized no one had the address or directions. Fortunately, the was a Barnes and Noble parking lot nearby, and we were able to get our email and direction using the handy Blackberry.

Turns out the motel was only .7 miles from where we stopped and we arrived in due time. Our original intention had been to check in and then meet up with the Wrench Wenchs sister, but due to our late start that didn't happen. Also, the starter was really grinding by now and so while the Wrench Wench tried to make the best of it, I spent most of the evening sulking. Not the greatest way to finish off a days run.

Things did get A LOT better the next day which I will detail in the next blog post.

The Flat Tortilla

Click on the Blubrry Blueberry to listen to PodCast------------>





A couple of weekends ago, the lovely Wrench Wench and I took a half-day trip to a popular biker destination near Phoenix called Tortilla Flat. Tortilla Flat is an authentic remnant of an old west town, nestled in the midst of the Tonto National Forest, Superstition Mountain Range. As well as being home for six adventurous people, Tortilla Flat has a charm that has surpassed time.

Once you get out of the blob the is Phoenix metro it is quite an fun ride. SR88, AKA The Apache Trail, winds up through the Superstition Mountains past a series of man made lakes.





Above a couple of views shot by Patti from the back of the bike of the initial ascent up the Apache Trail



Canyon Lake just coming into view



Overview of Canyon Lake from Apache Trail





And, or course, my favorites, "The Bridge Shots."


Overall the actual experience of visiting Tortilla Flats proper was interesting for about five minutes, although it did yield some interesting photographs.









For a brief history of the area follow this link







Probably the most interesting, or infamous, part of this little jaunt was on the return. Coming back on the Apache Trail I had an earplug start to come out. Looking for a place to stop, I thought I saw a good patch of shoulder with hard pack dirt with a light dusting of gravel. As it turns out the surface their was about four inches of gravel packed with sand, and, well, you can guess the rest. No major damage was done except for some scratches to a cylinder head, and my pride of course. Naturally, when you need assistance, people will blow right by you. But in this particular case four other bikers were right behind us and saw the whole thing happen and pulled over to assist. This was actually very kind of them, but just made the whole incident more embarrassing. Also, on that particular day, I thought I would be really cool and wear a half-helmet which bought me a nice face plant in the gravel, hence the title of this post, which took a couple of weeks of explanation. Oh well.



"Helpful" bikers examining the damage to "Red" and explaining to me that maybe I might not have wanted to stop their...Thanks Guys! :>