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! :>
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