Day 1, April 20, 2007 ~~ 575 miles
I hit the road around 6:30 on a crisp Friday morning.
The plan was for me to get to Odessa sometime around 11, have lunch with my brother, then hit the road in time to get to the campground around 6 or 6:30 where my two companions on this Odessey, Jim and Mark, would have set up camp. Notice I said "the plan was..." My portion of the trip went smoothly and I had a great lunch in Odessa with my brother.
From there I booked down to Marathon and on to the campground where I began to look for my compadres. The landscapes down there, especially around sundown, are out of this world.
The following pictures I snapped when I had to quickly pull over, take off my helmet, take off my jacket and track down the bug that had decided to take his revenge for the hundreds of bugs I had killed that day. Still don't know what it was but aside from a nasty sting and a little bump I was no worse for the wear. Besides, I got some great pictures in the process.
I drove around the designated campsite a few times before finally realizing they weren't there yet. Not wanting to lose anymore light, I went ahead and set up camp figuring Mark and Jim wouldn't be too far behind.
It was while setting up camp that I had a couple of folks stop in and say hello. On both occassions I was asked about where I had started my trip and where I was headed. They not only offered to help me with my tent but they seemed so genuine when they wished me well with the rest of my trip. It was really nice. After I had the tent up, I decided to lay down and get a little rest.
Next thing I knew I was waking up from a deep sleep to the low rumble of a V-Twin entering the campground. That had to be Mark. Sure enough, Jim and Mark finally made it. We got their tents up by flashlight and visited for a while. Seems they had decided to take the scenic route from San Antonio to Big Bend and to be quite honest who could blame them for taking a ride through the Hill Country. We called it a night and thus concluded the first day of our trek.
Day 2, April 21, 2007 ~~ 450 miles
Saturday morning I woke up to the wonderful smell of bacon. My back then slowly began to tell me that if I was going to do any more sleeping in a tent, I needed to make sure to sleep all the way on the sleeping pad. That small detail duly noted, I turned my attention to more important matters... coffee.
Apparently I was the last one up as both Jim and Mark were out and about. Well, Mark was up and about. Jim was sorta sitting there with that "I really need a cup of coffee" look that I'm sure I had on my face.
Like some stiff backed zombie I walked over to the bathroom to wash up and brush my teeth. I had to walk right by the people cooking that dang bacon too. Made me wonder if they might have caught a javalina over night. I bet if Mr. Benegas from El Paso were with us he would have caught us a nice wild pig to cook up for breakfast.
I'm not exactly sure how it happened but apparently we broke down camp and got everything packed up then followed our noses to the little store down the ways to find a cup of java. No bacon was cooking though... so it was a breakfast bar and a cup of coffee for me. Mark and Jim are much more hardcore and were ready to go after coffee and gasoline. I took a few extra minutes to wire up all the stuff to try and do our first video. I struggled with it for a while trying to get to record in color but eventually gave up and decided the stark landscape of Big Bend would just have to be recorded in black and white.
video footage
I was really looking forward to today's ride. Yesterday was all about getting to where the real riding would begin. Everyone talks about how boring it is to ride through Texas and if you stay on the interstates, I really can't argue that point, but if you're interested in more than getting from point A to point B, then you have to get off the main roads and look around a bit. Take this part of the state as an example. Its such a rugged region. Riding through the park I couldn't help but imagine what it must have been like to come through that area in the 1800's.
The ride all the way through Big Bend to Presidio was nice with lots of elevation changes and nice sweepers. We found a good place to pull over and take some pictures then rode on to Presidio for gasoline and breakfast.
Based on a recommendation from the attendant at the gas station, we stopped at a small cafe. Huevos Rancheros sounded perfect to me and Jim decided to give them a try as well. A decision he would later question.
From there we rode on to Marfa (didn't see any lights) then made our way into the Davis Mountains and up to McDonald Observatory.
We stopped by the gift shop and picked up some postcards and souvenirs and most importantly... shot glasses. The prior night, Jim's bottle of tequila had made an appearance but we really didn't make much of an effort. Now shot glass equipped we were ready for round two.
We left the observatory and proceeded on 118 to Kent, TX and Interstate 10. The stretches of highway once we were out of the mountains were flat and completely empty. The kind of highway that hypothetically would have been a great piece of road to go wide open and hypothetically see the speedo creep up over 145.
If I had been going that fast, I would have likely had second thoughts of maintaining that speed for very long and would have eased back down to about a hundred miles an hour. Funny how your perception of speed would change after a blast like that. Jim on the Beemer wasn't far behind and soon was riding next to me where he proceeded to snap a hypothetical triple digit FJR shot.
Once we got to Kent, the wind really started to pick up and by the time we fueled up and got back on the interstate the cross winds were so bad you couldn't see very far ahead of you with all the dust blasting across the highway. On the interstate, Mark fell behind. At first I thought it was because he got caught with a pack of 18 wheelers, but it turned out that the wind was making it hard for the Harley to even reach the posted 80 mile an hour speed limit. We rode for about 150 miles with the bikes in a constant lean into the wind. We reached El Paso around 5pm then fought through rush hour traffic to get through the city and on to Las Cruces. Needless to say, we were pretty beat up and worn out when we finally rolled into Las Cruces.
We found a Motel 6, unloaded, and walked to a steak place for dinner and a couple of beers then back to the hotel. After a long day like that, the shower that night was incredible. I had grit in my eyebrows, in my hair and other really uncomfortable places. Even with the grueling end of the day, it was a wonderful ride through Big Bend and all the way up to McDonald Observatory. Even the long stretch to Kent was a blast of a different sort.
Day 3, April 22, 2007 ~~ 215 miles
This might very well have been the best day of the entire trip. It was nice to get a clean start on the day after a good night's rest.
We packed up the bikes and started out the day by heading to the nearest Walmart and picking up a few extras we realized we'd likely need for the rest of the trip. After that we made the critical stop... Starbuck's. I could tell it was going to be a good stop when we pulled up and saw two CBR's parked in the drive way, a really nice limited edition Repsol and a 600RR. As I walked in it was easy to spot the pair of riders. Before I knew it we were talking and sharing our game plan for the day and talking about our trip overall. The rider of the Repsol, made a suggestion for an alternate route to get to Silver City. Turns out he really liked the FJR and had been thinking about getting one. I let him sit on my bike and explained some of the features. It was a nice way to spend breakfast and we really appreciated the route suggestions.
Based on the suggested route, we headed north essentially on a parallel track to the interstate and then cut off to take some empty roads leading to Hillsboro. The roads were fantastic with some great high speed sweepers and nice elevation changes towards the end. Hypothetically speaking... this would have been a nice area to really stretch the bikes legs on some of those long straight stretches.
We stopped in Hillsboro, a neat little town, for lunch.
At the place we fueled up, a guy in a truck stopped in to get gas and asked us where we were headed and where we were coming from. Before long, he told us we should stop by his uncle's house (gave us directions), tell the uncle that he had sent us, and ask him to tell us where all the great roads were out in that area.
I guess we still had big city mindsets, since it seemed a little odd to do that. Regardless, we had a great lunch at a place called The Barber Shop Cafe.
We took some neat pictures of the town then headed on to Silver City.
The road that took us up into the mountains was really nice.
Silver City wasn't all that exciting but we did run across an amazing mining operation. It was a good place for a break and some pictures before heading on through the mountains on the way to Arizona.
Before leaving New Mexico, we stopped for gasoline and ran into three guys on shiny cruisers. We visited for a while and told them how lucky they were to have this kind of riding right in their back yard. One of the guys made some suggestions on a campgrounds once we got into Arizona.
With a fresh load of fuel, we saddled up and set off to find Arizona and a campsite.
This is where one of the funniest moments of the trip occurred. We were on 180 leaving Silver City looking for 78 west. We were riding in a staggered formation (well, actually Jim and I were in a staggered formation. Mark was a tiny spec in the mirrors) with me in the lead to the left of the lane and Jim trailing in the right portion of the lane. We were zipping along when out of nowhere I spot the road and the sign for 78 west with not much warning. I flipped on the turn signal, while my head quickly calculated the odds of my bleeding off enough speed to make the turn. Glancing in my right mirror, I saw that Jim probably hadn't seen the sign as he was still coming on strong. I drifted to the center line and let those wonderful brakes do their job, while Jim went streaking by on the right. I leaned her hard and took the turn at a pretty good pace then slowed down to pull over. Jim was nowhere in sight. Mark pulled up behind me and was laughing his butt off. From his point of view it looked like I had purposely tried to evade Jim by making that quick left hander. After a bit, Jim pulled up and we set off again.
We rolled through Mule Creek then on into Arizona where we proceeded to find our intended campground. We soon started unloading, setting up camp and gathering wood for a fire.
It was nice to get to a place with a decent amount of daylight left. As the sun started to go down we took inventory of our supplies and enjoyed a dinner of jerky, nuts and tequila.
The temperature started to get a little cool, but seemed like it would be a great night. Did I mention that at our last stop the owner of the gas station had pictures out of a mountain lion that someone had recently bagged? Well, let me tell you, after a little bit of a tequila buzz, you can't help but wonder what that noise in the distance might have been.
Day 4, April 23, 2007 ~~ 275 miles
Day 4 turned out to be the other day in contention for best ride in my opinion. Though to be honest... I absolutely hated the prior night. No it wasn't the bottle of tequila we put away. It was the cold. Temperatures, dropped, dropped and dropped some more. I was wearing two long sleeve thermal silk shirts (one heavy, one light), a fleece vest, and a windstopper pullover along with jeans and long socks. Then I was zipped into a mummy sleeping bag with a fleece liner with only a few inches around my nose exposed and I froze my butt off! I don't mean I was really cold. I'm talking so cold I woke up around 4 am to answer the call of nature and decided that there was no way I was going to venture out of the little warmth I had built up.
Eventually we started to defrost and come out of our tents.
Jim was the first one up and got the fire going. He was also determined to have a cup of coffee that morning and broke out the mess kit and started some water going. When it looked hot enough, he added some coffee and we all stared at it for a while. Eventually he took it out of the fire and gave it a try.
The fact that he spit out his first drink wasn't a good sign but that man doesn't give up easy. I think he finally managed to put away a few drinks of the stuff. I passed on the coffee and finally went to answer the call of nature. Despite how miserably cold the night had been, the morning really was just gorgeous.
Before long we were packed up, loaded and ready to go find a decent cup of coffee and some breakfast. According to the map, Clifton seemed like a sure fire bet... watch out how much faith you put in maps. We slowly rode through Clifton, AZ, an active mining town looking for a place that might serve up some breakfast. Before we knew it we were leaving town with not a cafe to be had anywhere. We pulled over, quickly confered and decided we should double back to the Circle K and at least get some gas and convenience store coffee. Turns out that in Clifton, the Circle K is THE happening spot. We fueled up then went inside to get some coffee. While poking around for a cookie or muffin for breakfast, I asked a clerk if there really wasn't a cafe or someplace in town to get breakfast. She suggested we go up the road about 5 minutes to Morenci to the Copper Kettle. I passed on the info to Mark and Jim and we finished up our coffee and saddled up.
The pancakes at the Copper Kettle were decent but I can't believe how long it took us to finally get our food. Just a word of advice that if you stop here, be sure you're not in any kind of hurry. After what felt like a 2 hr breakfast, we loaded up and finally got started on what is supposed to be one of the curviest pieces of asphalt in the country.
Of course karma wasn't quite ready to let us have a smooth start. On the way out of town, we ended up getting stopped in traffic behind several trucks while who knows what was going on around the corner. All I know is that we just sat there and sat there and sat there while apparently some truck or something was blowing water out onto the road ahead of us around the corner.
After about 15 minutes, they finally flagged traffic forward and we started to roll out of the area.
We stopped at an overlook spot to take some pictures of the big mining operation and to give me some time to hook up the video camera. Pretty soon we were saddled up and finally started the real part of the ride. At first we did run across some traffic but as we continued up and deeper into the mountains this thinned out to the point that it felt like we were the only ones in the mountains.
Here is some video of the first part of that run.
video footage
As we gained elevation, the turns got tighter and tighter and the temperatures went lower and lower. The FJR just loved those tight switchbacks. I set pretty conservative entry speeds since often there was nothing past the edge of the asphalt except a couple of inches of dirt and then a couple hundred feet of straight down. Even so, the road surfaces were smooth and predictable so the sidewalls got quite the workout. The cloudcover slowly increased which together with the increasing elevation, really cooled things off.
This portion of the trip really had a zen quality to it for me. The high elevation, the empty roads, the varying level of technical challenge... all of that just put me in that rider's zone where you're almost outside of yourself. It's a really hard feeling to explain. In some ways you're really fused to the machine and feel like you're an extension of the bike, but in other ways you feel so disconnected from the whole experience, almost like a third party observer. Of course this is the way I feel when I'm in that zone. I'd be curious to hear what Mark and Jim think on the matter.
Regardless, we saw some great scenery and took some great pictures.
Around a hundred miles later we rode into Alpine, AZ. This was probably my favorite town from the entire trip. It had a "Northern Exposure" meets Norman Rockwell feel if that makes any sense.
Probably helped that we had such a great meal at the Bear Wallow Cafe. The people were so friendly there and the food was outstanding.
We had a slow late lunch as we tried to plan out where to proceed from here since we kept hearing how cold/snowy the weather was getting in Northern AZ/NM. We decided to continue north on 191 up to Interstate 40 then play it by ear.
The ride up to about Springerville was still scenic and nice, but before long the winds kicked up and the roads straightened out. The clouds grew thicker and it looked like we would probably get caught up in some rain, but through luck or good karma we managed to slice our way between some of the heavier clouds and only got a few sprinkles here and there. To be honest though, the wind did a more than adequate job of making that last part of the day a chore. Nowhere near as bad as the wind going into El Paso, but still a pain. When we finally got to I-40, we decided to head west towards the Petrified Forest and look for the first cheap motel for the night. We finally ended up in Holbrook, AZ where we checked in and got some dinner at a place next door. The storm clouds kept getting darker and Jim said he heard on the news that rain and hail where headed our way so we checked with the front desk and got permission to put the bikes next to the rooms under some cover. I don't think we ever got that hail, but it sure was nice to get a good nights sleep in a bed.
Day 5, April 24, 2007 ~~ 500 miles
Day 6, April 25, 2007 ~~ 490 miles
Day 7, April 26, 2007 ~~ 220 miles
My overall daily mileage totals are slightly off since my ending mileage for the whole trip came to 2,837 miles.
