10/1/09

The Crown King Weekend, Day 2

After laying in bed for at least 30 minutes debating the intelligence of going on another ride, I bit the bullet and got out of bed and on the road again. I was late (surprising I know) but there was some maintenance being done on a KTM carb so I got to the meeting point in plenty of time. I missed the memo that this was a little bike ride! Oh well, I didn't want to load up the Jetta anyway.
It was the same route as Saturday but with a right at the ck rock. I'd ridden this a year or so ago on the 990. It was much more enjoyable on the 690! We all gathered up here in the shade and waited... One of the bikes was having starting problems. Eventually after a pull start we were on the trail again
The technical level of this section of trail was similar to the route from Saturday, possibly easier. However the last three miles of the route are suppose to be the most trying.
I was third from the end of the group and I hadn't seen the tail end for awhile. I stopped for a potty break and still no bikes... might as well back track, the group in front should miss three bikes just the same as two. And this is what I came upon. It's never a good sign when you have to get this far into a bike. X-Challenges didn't have a great run of luck this weekend.
Seamus, the owner of the non-starting X-Challenge, hit a bump in the road and the bike died, not to begin again... After putzing and wrenching and general head scratching we decided to wait till noon for a kind 4-wheeler with a truck bed. Noon came and went so we hid the bike. Jim is modeling the lovely side panels from the stranded bike, very in this time of year. The group in front didn't appear, they assumed that we had decided to take a bypass to miss the last three miles.
So now we were down to two bikes and three riders. Guess who has buddy pegs? Added benefit of carrying an Irishman, I can touch the ground on both sides! We made our way up to Crown King (because it and food were closer that way) carefully. There were some walking sections for Seamus, the rock gardens. He was a good sport through all of it and Jim had plenty of entertainment watching our antics on the way back.

Of course we did bypass the last three miles, instead we chose the 10 mile bypass that had a minimum of rocks.
By the time we rolled into Crown King we were more than ready for food and drink. There's a reason I stand a lot when I ride, it's uncomfortable to sit over rocky terrain! There was a tip over or two but all in all we made it unscathed. Seamus tried to drum up a tow from someone local but there were no takers.
Gas in Crown King, it's a classy affair. You should notice my luggage ended up on the XR650R to give use more room on my bike. It's nice having that flexibility to toss it on almost any bike.

With no other options left open, we headed down the front side back to Lake Pleasant. Thankfully this time there was no flat tire on the route. As it was we didn't get back to the staging area at 6pm. After two days of eventful all day riding I fell into bed that night completely spent.

Filling in the rest of the story, I'm still waiting for the diagnosis on the bike issue but it was retrieved by a towing service on Monday.

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The Crown King Weekend, Day 1

I've discovered that if I stay at home I end up watching too much TV and eating too much junk food. To prevent that I decided to go riding this past weekend... a lot. Two different groups were planning to ride up to Crown King, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. Generally this is the path for both days.
A couple of us staged and one of the riders houses to start of Saturday. I was late (it's pretty much a given) but they were still buttoning things up so I refuse to feel guilty.
We picked up a couple more riders along the way and headed out to Lake Pleasant. Crown King is a mountain town with two restaurants, a convenience store, a vintage gas pump and a candy store. Back in the day a lot of mining was going on in the area so the remains of the mining roads are the playground of off-roaders today. There's still individuals that have claims around the Crown King area but nothing very large.
The previous weekend was wet and cold but this weekend was dry, dusty and hot. We lost one rider early on that had work responsibilities. The rest were more than happy to carry on. (The salute is a very standard ADVrider greeting)
These are the other degenerates on the ride. A good group of guys, all very capable riders. It's interesting getting back into group riding after riding by myself for those two weeks.
GPS units are useful but there's nothing like folding out a map and being able to see the big picture. And then having to fold the map back up again.
The first real issue of the day, a missing bolt replaced by a strap. Really an elegant solution but the pipe wouldn't have lasted the whole way to Crown King without cracking. Lucky between all the toolbags we had fasteners to tighten the pipe hanger back in place for the rest of the ride.
If you're familiar with the area we took a left at the CK rock expecting an easier route than the imfamous "Back way" to Crown King. We were all surprised by some of the challenging rolling rock climbs on this route. Of course I don't have any pictures of the tough parts because I was too busy keeping the bike upright but I did manage to catch some pictures on easier sections.
Some remnants of the mining history. It's amazing the equipment that has been abandoned at these old sites.
The fun part of dual sporting is there's always time to stop and explore and stand around and talk. It's pretty low stress which is my style. Singletracking is usually much more purpose driven, go go go! I love singletrack but it's nice to try the lighter side of riding. Not a lot of time to stop and chat unless there's a problem. That came later on this trip.
Lunch at the Mill was hearty and greasy, just what a day like this calls for. For some people it also calls for an icy beer. Definitely earned it today! We all worked up quite a sweat on the rocky hill climbs in the heat. This was probably the last hot weekend before beautiful fall weather arrives.
Time being what it was we decided to come down the front graded road out of Crown King. Dust dust dust. Glad I installed the foam air filter before this trip!
Of course the fun wasn't over. A deck screw took out the rear tire on the X-Challenge part way down. He limped it along to a spot in the shade because none of us were looking forward to changing a tube, let alone in the hot sun.
Flat tires are great when you can watch other people fix them. I could have used these guys when I was doing the tire switch up in Portland. It's all about getting your whole body into it.
After the fun and games we called it a day. All the wrestling the bike through the rocks was a work out but I was looking forward to another day of riding on Sunday.

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9/20/09

Big Bike Friendly trip

A friend talked me into joining an ADV ride this weekend. The bike was sitting ready to go so I decided to tag along. Now, the meet time was 7 am and I ran into some issues getting geared up. Namely my riding kit is partially scattered on the west coast. Well, between that and my attitude to waking up early I missed the group. I had a rough idea of where they were going so I figured how fast could a group of 20 people move?


It's a very easy route of mostly graded roads. Every now and then I passed a vehicle but otherwise I had the place to myself.
I thought I knew where the ADVer's would be but I didn't see hide or hair of them. Up on this view point I looked back in the distance to see if there was a tell-tell dust cloud from a pack (herd? brood? swarm? battery?) of ADV riders. No dust... hm. Oh well, just keep moving.


I got to the end of Bloody Basin road and still no drove of ADV'ers. Well, I had no real plans (other than camping later that night) and I prefer to eat meals with other people so I found a spot in the shade and curled up with a book. The book "The Art of Racing in the Rain", I highly recommend. It's a story narrated by a very eloquent and observant dog with great insights on racing and life. Eventually I heard the roar of a lead party of KTM twins. And the rest of the mob descended over the next half hour.
Lunch was provided by... a gas station. It's a beautiful sight seeing this mess of motorcycles all in one place. Terry was trying to direct traffic, more power to him. After lunch the group settled down to 11 riders and the real fun began. Rain gear was called for at this point... guess where mine is? Either Sacramento or Portland.


Ahead of us it was dark and dreary. Oh boy! We headed up the road to Breezy Pine which is a fun dirt road. Now after Breezy Pine it gets a little rocky! And the rain officially came so we lost two more and the group was down to 9.
Our fearless leader stopped to take pictures, and unbeknownst to me one of the riders decided to make for home... guess who followed him? Well, after he passed a couple of turn off's I decided to stop to wait for the rest of the group. Another rider had followed me (poor misguided person) so we sat around and waited... and waited. A couple of trail workers from ATR stopped by and we chatted but still no group.
After some backtracking we found tracks from a bevy of dual sports. The trail led to a brilliant trail with lots of rocks and an unfortunate mud hole. Unfortunate for me because today I'm sporting bruises on my left knee and thigh from a sudden slip to the ground. At the end of the trail we caught up to the main group and we all headed home.
I was all packed up for camping out but between all the riding and a proposal of mountain biking on Sunday I decided to head back with the group. Dinner was in scenic Wickenburg with the final four until the lights went out. But with the rain come rainbow's (out of Terry's head)! I arrived home around 8:30 with my Odo (I can see though the haze in the dark with the backlight screen) reading 330 miles for the day!
All in all, it was a great day even if I'm feeling it today. It was fun to put the 690 through it's paces in the dirt. It faired very well and I felt much more confident on the challenging sections than with the 990. I could have ridden them on the 990 but it would have been a lot more work. And the repercussions of a mud slight would have been much larger.

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