Tire Time again!

Yeah, it was an interesting ride... 😉 

For those of you not on ADV, here is the rest of the day:

A quick nap, a little supply sorting and packing, and an early pre-dawn start at 4 am:

I loosely mapped out a route that would get me up to 7,500 feet (2,300 M) in a couple of hours, then I could lolligag all day at higher elevation, and return after dark:

Google apparently had a little trouble tracking me in a few of the remote places, even with an offline map of the area downloaded. Total of 347 miles, 12.6 hours of riding, and a little lollygagging shooting photos, collecting dirt samples for the boy's science project, and dining at Antlers, in Young AZ.

First gas stop in the pre-dawn. Temps still in the 90's F.

to be c't'd

c'td from above

Got up north of Strawberry, AZ, and ran across a half dozen cow elk grazing peacefully in the dawn, fraternizing with a few mule deer. They were not too concerned about the rig gliding to a stop on the shoulder and me taking a few pics. Later I ran across a couple of magnificent stags with large racks, but there was not a good place to stop... so no photos.

So pulled off the 87 North, onto one of my all-time favorite little roads, the 300 Rim Road that follows the Mogollon Rim for about 60 miles. Mostly coniferous forest with many places to stop and look out over the valley to the south. The road has many signs that say "sharp curves ahead, next xx miles."

Road conditions vary greatly as you go west to east, starting with dirt, huge embedded rocks, gravel, pea gravel, and finally some fresh asphalt at the end, so the tourists off the 260 can get their rental cars to the first few viewpoints past a visitor center.

Temps had dropped into the low 60's with just a few sprinkles of rain. I had checked the weather for the areas planned, so was clad in my old Aerostich rotten banana suit:

enough fooling around, the road beckoned!

One thing I love about this road; it is generally passable by most with an appetite for a few rocks, but there are any number of off-shoots to be explored by anyone with a little more sense of adventure, that lead to spectacular views.

To be c't'd.

c't'd

Yeah, there were a few power-slides involved in the making of this picture! (more on that later.)

to be c't'd

c't'd

I had not taken the detour off to Knoll Lake, before, so decided to check it out. It was a very pleasant little fresh water lake, pretty far off the beaten path. Nice place to stop for a snack and a nap!

Back on the Rim Road. It gets a little wider and smoother as you go east. However, just when the fun begins, you get a stretch of "submerged volkswagen beetle" sized rocks embedded to make it interesting. Diligence is important!

Finished the RIM road, and headed down to Young AZ, for Antlers restaurant's world class Reuben. I like this place, even if it is cash only. They use locally grown grass fed beef for most of their sandwiches and burgers. The owner is super nice and generally stops by to chat.

Also had another visitor at the table; a little old lady, whom I had passed with extreme prejudice on the curvy dirt portion of the 512 south. She had noticed my tracks where I had almost biffed it into a ditch on a left hander, 15 mph curve where I was maybe doing 45. I got a little aggressive with chopping the throttle, then nailing it, to form a right angle around the curve. Things went sideways (literally), and I had hooked the hack wheel into the ditch, before a little traction caught and I was able to power out of it. She said she thought maybe I took the turn a little acutely, from the looks of my tracks! A new fan?

I spent some lunch time trying to make some sense of the rat's nest of ranch roads east of Young out to about the AZ BDR route. I have made several attempts at this in the past, with limited success. I mapped out a route that should have taken me from the 512, north of Young, in a big, squirrelly loop that would dump out on the 288, just north of Lake Roosevelt. Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men...

I went back up north on the 512 (and inspected the aforementioned tracks with a little amazement at how bad that maneuver could have worked out) to catch the 202NF off east. My route was working perfectly, even with opening and closing a few ranch gates, up until it wasn't.

There are a few little plastic sign posts on those roads, but unfortunately, the roads can have up to three names that only one of get's displayed.

I picked what I thought was the most likely of three at an oblique intersection, and found myself on a road that I had traversed in the past (and broken a shock on). It was a little more technical than I had really planned on for a solo adventure, but I decided to take it, rather than back track, since I knew where it came out.

Yeah, it was a lot steeper than it looks. I had to adjust all the settings into more of and off-road environment for the first time of the day. I was rather pleased to have a new rear tire on, though.

Fortunately, one of the ranchers had been through recently, and cleared a few of the downed trees across the little track.

Ok, so one of the prominent features of this little jaunt is a large set of power lines that run more or less north-south. These are the 370 KV DC lines they use for long distance transmission. Why is this relevant? Well what had been a few casual sprinkles of rain, on and off, up to this point, turned into a brewing storm, complete with giant lightning strike on the one of the large steel towers, maybe 200 yards away.

There were zero seconds delay from the lighting bolt and the sound of thunder at some large decibels. Made me think of a Flying Simian and his experience. I was kind of hoping my luck would hold a little longer.

One of the advantages of riding in the early stages of a hellacious lightning storm, is that you get to see a whole lot of wild life, scrambling for what they think is better ground. This included deer, elk, turkeys and javelina.

A mule deer doe and a couple of fawns sprinted across the road, in front of me (don't worry, I was doing about 3 mph in this section) and the doe out ran the fawns. It was interesting to watch their strategy of "drop and freeze" to avoid being eaten by the large beast. The fawn on the right did not twitch an ear, for the time I sat there watching, while doing it's best rock impersonation.

Last photo, as I came back out onto the 288. What had been light rain and a little lightning turned into sideways sheets of rain with a little sleet mixed in to make it sting a bit through the Gore-Tex.

I will just need to use words to describe the next 20 miles or so.

Visibility went to about 20 meters, and the pavement turned back into hard packed dirt with lot's of twisties and ups and downs. I decided a prudent speed was about 30 mph on roads that normally I would be sailing along at 70+.

How did I come to this conclusion, you might ask? Well any faster and fear took over. The layer of grease forming on the top of the hard packed dirt made it a mostly zero traction environment. Steering could be accomplished with the throttle mostly, and a little brake input if really needed. However, going up steep switchbacks required momentum. Anything less than about 30 mph risked a complete stop on a slippery hill, that would have necessitated a turn around.

At about this point, I was wishing I had closed ALL vents on the suit, and thinking bad thoughts about the couple of chilly water trickles down my left leg. I sucked it up and turned on the grip heaters, rather than stopping. It seemed like the proper course of action.

After an hour or so of this, things let up, and I came down the hill to Lake Roosevelt and sunshine of all things. Temps rapidly escalated from the low 60's up into the triple digits.

For a brief moment, I had delusions of the hot, dry air drying out the inside of my suit, if I would open a few vents. I did this, and it worked wonderfully for about 5 minutes, then back to sweating my ass off, and the inside of the suit drenched again!

The rest of the ride back to Skunk Hollow was uneventful and unphotographed.

I decided to take the heat (114F 46 something C) rather than loiter around Globe. I was feeling it, and decided that I was tired enough for one day.

Came home, slept about 12 hours, and now am reflecting on what a fine day it was! (Oh, and even though I am beat to shit, nothing broke or fell off on what was a high shock bit of riding over the rocks.)

Cheers,

Ben

Right On!  What a beautiful area! 😎

Seems like you've got Black Betty (that sweet girl) dialed in well.  

Good to see you posting here for those of us that can't take the ADVRider ads or mods