22 Miles in First Gear.

The Apache Loop, and certain stops along the way, are popular destination among Phoenician motorcyclists. Wanting to check it out ourselves we so we happened across an seeming reasonable local travel guide and borders and began using it to explore




Day Trips by Sheila Stein has a partiulary useful quality to this author. The trips dont require and planing, one just gets up and goes. The Wrench Wench and I were quite pleaesed this format because it fits our traveling style so well, One major detail this book has though is lack of detail, particularly in the area maps.. This has gotten us into an adventure situation a few times.

The following narrative is but one of those adventures.

This ride actually turned out to be an attempt to connect with one of the local BMW riding clubs. As these things often work out for us there was no real connection with the people. We did make an effort to go along with the plan though, but the ride captain for that day was too aggressive and I soon let us fall back and lose the crowd and then ride our own ride. This had two advantages, first, we could ride our own pace and enjoy it more. We got to turn down a road and play "where does that road go?" And in this case it was very, well interesting little exploration.

Following the group leader for the first part of the ride had put us well into The Apache Loop, or as it is known in the local vernacular, The Apache Trail Circle Road




Without the proper details on the map, we did make it to Roosevelt Dam, and we had to decide whether to go to some of the further possible destinations, or finish the Apache Loop.



Because we were both feeling a bit beat up that day we decided on the shorter route...which finishes the loop. Unbeknown to us the rest of the trail from Roosevelt Dam onward is 22 miles of fairly rough dirt road. And the lovely travel guide we had failed to mention this particular bit. Needless to say it was an interesting 22 miles.



There is a whole lot more story to tell here...but for now I hope this video keeps you entertained.

Thanks!

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.

Motorcycling Around Pheonix - South Mountain Park

At the risk of offending some of my new friends and nieghbors I have found during our first six months here in the Phoenix, Metro area that is is not a great place for motorcycling. Even compared to LA, which boasts of the Angeles Crest Highway, PCH, and the great canyons. Or compared to the stark, but vibrant beauty of New Mexico, southern Arizona is a dump. Once you start getting north of Phoenix toward Flagstaff, Sedona, and the Grand Canyon it is a different story.

However having said all that, there are a few places of interest in and around the Phoenix Metro Area

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The red Marker on the above google map marks the location of South Mountain Park, which as it turns out it the largest recreational park within a metro area in the U.S

It's quite a ride to get there from where we live in northweawt. One has to go to the end of I-17 which is not so bad, but then their is a fair distance one must drive on surface streets through the ghetto to get to the park entrance.



Beginning the ascent into South Mountain Park



A wide view of Phoenix metro looking north



And a slightly tighter view


Following are some random shots in basically sequential order, ascending.