The Apache Trail

Date: 4/10
City: Springerville, Arizona
Miles ridden: 291
Cumulative miles: 12631

In the morning we had a great breakfast with Jeff, Judi and Tim with fresh and warm bread rolls! I talked to Jeff to get a bit more info about Baja and Costa Rica and marked some recommended places on our map. Jeff offered yesterday that I could use his tools to grind brackets that hit our tank and to put some holes into the lid of our tube to fit a gun lock through the lid. It took much longer then I thought. Jeff also took a picture of his garage with 7 bikes in it. It looked impressive but I couldn’t convince Sigrid that we need a similar size shed in Adelaide J

We were invited to stay longer, and we really thought about it, but we had booked the bikes in on Saturday and the next day the workshop was open would be Tuesday, so we would lose 3 days. So we took a couple of pictures and said good bye. I would really like to say thank you to Jeff and Judi for making us feel really welcome!

 

On the ride we passed the Trinity site – the site where the first atomic bomb was ignited.

Other than that, the road was straight, not much to see. So at one break, Sigrid had a power nap and I started to get a bit arty 😀


Just as we got ready to leave, another motorcycle rider arrived, Adam from North Carolina, riding his BMW F650 ST across the country. We had 200 boring miles in front of us, so we decided to ride together until Springerville.

Just 20 miles before our destination, we left New Mexico and entered Arizona.

We found a nice accommodation, and said goodbye to Alex as he had another 200miles to go and it started to get dark. Tomorrow it would be an easy day for us.

 

Date: 5/10
City: Phoenix, Arizona
Miles ridden: 220
Cumulative miles: 12851

Not much happening on the ride, had a lovely long break at a place that looked like a small western town.

They had certainly a Saloon, but Sigrid didn’t allow me to go inside :/

The last 120 miles we did in one hit. We came down from the mountain into a flat range, it got warm, really warm (95…100) and then we started to see huge cacti. We couldn’t find any view point to stop so we rode until we arrived in the hotel. The Hospitality Suites are great; they have happy hours (free drinks for 90min at the pool), three pools, a hot tub, breakfast (if you book direct with them). We booked over an internet booking site, so to get the breakfast, Sigrid shortened the stay booked to one day, so we didn’t have to pay a penalty and booked the remaining days with the hotel directly, so we get free breakfast for the next 3 days. =)

Date: 6/10
City: Phoenix, Arizona
Miles ridden: 10
Cumulative miles: 12861

In the morning we dropped the bikes off, and Mike the workshop manager was very helpful. He took care of all the request that I had (drill a hole in a lid, have a look where the oil on the sprocket comes from…). We walked around a bit and were waiting for the call that the bikes were finished. On our way we passed through a technology area which had a nice shady place.

We walked into a shopping centre and strolled through the shops. I like palms in the street


When we walked through the side streets we found this front yard.

In the afternoon we picked the bikes up. Mike did let us know that they found the source of the oil leak, it was a grommet on the alternator cap, they fixed it under warranty =). We ask Mike about a route for a test ride and he gave us direction for the Apache Trail. It is a nice ride with a bit of dirt in the middle. He was also showing us some of his photos of different cacti.

Date: 7/10
City: Phoenix, Arizona
Miles ridden: 0
Cumulative miles: 12861

Relaxing day, nothing to be done, just lying at the pool and sleeping. I made some BBQ for lunch, Sigrid put the Australian flag onto the BMW Velcro and then we had a nap after all the strenuous exercise. I guess we have to make sure that we don’t overexert ourselves.

Then I looked up where we were going on our test ride, and when I looked closer at a national monument, just south of the highway 8, I found these signs

Luckily Mike from the motorcycle workshop was suggesting the Apache Trail and even gave us a map. He loves the desert and he promised we would see huge cacti. He told us that a cactus would start to grow an arm only when it was 50 years or older. Since we are not into drugs or human smuggling, we decided to visit the Apache Trail tomorrow. Apparently there was only a short section of dirt road, which was not a single trail but supposingly windy, how bad could that be?

Date: 6/10
City: Phoenix, Arizona
Miles ridden: 165
Cumulative miles: 13026

In the morning we had breakfast and settled on our bikes ready for the test run. So we went over the highway to the Apache trail. The first part was easy, nice paved roads, a bit broken by the weather. We arrive at Tortillia Flat without any problem, the cacti were incredible, I would guess some were as high as a two story building.

Then the challenge started. First the sealed road turned into a straight wide dirt road, just a bit of sand from time to time. In the picture below you can see the road disappearing into the middle of the valley and disappears into the mountain to the left.

Then the road started climbing, the corrugation got deeper, the road twistier, the corner sharper and narrower and then the road had no side barrier any more, but having said that, the view was amazing.

The dirt was only 24 miles, but it was good enough for us to see if something would fall off the bike and that the bike was ready for the next leg. After we had a look at the Roswell Dam – in 1901 it was the highest stone dam in the world – we road back on the highway just to make sure we’d arrive in time for happy hour. What a day!

2 comments

  1. Hi Ihr Weltenbummler!
    Schön mal wieder so viel von Euch zu lesen. Allerdings bin ich etwas überfordert vom Englischen. “to put some holes into the lid of our tube to fit a gun lock through the lid” – warum müsst Ihr Schusslöcher in den Deckel machen???
    Ansonsten habe ich ziemlich lachen müssen über die Ausserirdischen. Weiterhin so viel Spaß an der Reise wünscht Euch
    Ria
    PS: Auch in Berlin ist es toll. Gestern ist das Festival of Lights zu Ende gegangen. Aber wozu gibt es Internet?!! Guckt einfach mal unter http://festival-of-lights.de

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