10-30-09
Axle, Snow, South

When I took off headed south, I didn’t get far until I almost hit two deer standing in the road. I have never had brakes on this trailer as it is so old it had the hydraulic brake system and it isn’t used anymore and is probably illegal too. Not that illegal stopped me but almost hitting the two deer along with the wheel coming loose again, I went back to town and took the pod to Wayne who is THE trailer guy in eastern Montana. He put a new straight 5500# axle under it with 12” electric brakes. The old axle had a 3” drop, so now I have 3” more clearance which sure dose help when I drag it some of the places I tend to drag it that are made for high clearance rigs.

Wayne comes from an old cow ranch family over near Baker. I liked this sign he had over his workbench.

When I headed south I was just on the edge of a huge storm that pounded eastern Wyoming and plugged up Colorado for three days. I made it into Rawlins and the town and roads were lined with big semi’s as the freeway headed east was blocked and I think it was closed for three days. I headed south and missed most of the really bad weather but the roads were a touch slick and I had the truck in 4x4 a few times. I just went along very slow as I think it is better to go slow then just sit in the ditch waiting for a tow truck.

Here is a big rig that didn’t make it. This was out on the little stretch of freeway I went down. it was kind of nice that he laid it down across the divide strip so traffic could still travel both ways.

I put this photo in here for Bob so he will know that I am taking good care of my bikes…….

I stopped in at a little store gas station and got an ice-cream cone and really liked the wood grain sidewalk that they had out front. It really did look like boards at quick glance.

I camped up on top of the Canyon Lands National Park. They have a small ten spot camp ground up there and it was my birthday. I had taken from home, a batch of my doghouse pizza dough in my cooler, and took half of it to make a chicken hot sauce, pizza in my little stovetop oven. What a nice birthday meal eh?

There were a couple of gals camped on down the way and I stopped in to say hello. It turns out that the older one (mom) rides a BMW R1200 GS and her daughter is a river rat (river raft guide). They were about to take a backpacking trip but there was this huge storm so they decided to go camp for a couple of days until things warmed up. The daughter has rafted all over the US and was going to be the main pack mule on this backpacking trip. I asked how much she packed and she said this trip about 50 lbs. Mom on the other hand only had to carry her food and clothes. She said it was the only way to travel, having a strong younger person along……

Morning view from the top.

From up top I was looking down at the White Rim Trail and you might be able to see the little jeep traveling on it down at the lower left. This trail is about 100 miles long and it is something I have always wanted to ride. Every time I have been here it was Jeep Week and the roads were all just dust clouds and streams of jeeps everywhere. I would have done it this time but I think it is best to do something like this with another bike, just in case something bad got broke, like ME, and the other person could go for help. No cell phone in this area or up top either. They say it takes a day to travel around it and the days are getting short. Maybe on my way north I can find someone to ride it with.

Some of the sheep chute trails going to look out places, were really nicely done with cut rock steps.

Serious erosion problems here.

This is Shafer trail that I took as a back road into Moab. It is mostly a good well-traveled road but it did have it surprise sandy spots and some rough rock places.

The road starts up on top and somehow they cut a road down the steep canyon wall to get down below.

The sun was just right to make it look like they had sprayed metal flake paint on the rock wall.

I stopped at a spot in the road to look around and saw this rock formation that looked like a sphinx, in that light.

It was a surprise to see the nice river with green edges after seeing nothing but red rocks for miles.

Along side the road I came to a collection of rock climbers.

I stopped and ate my lunch and watched them along with several others who even brought chairs.

I took a ride out to look at the Arches National Park and was amazed to see this guy way up on this rock.

I left Canyon Lands and headed across the Navajo Nation and made it to the Grand Canyon Park about night fall. There is only one campground open and I spent the night there. It was about half or less filled and I got out of there early before the ticket booth opened. Ah, nothing like a free government campground.  This rig is a ‘bus’ that the guides take tourists, like this pair, on tours of the park. It is a pretty cool unit for passengers, and light weight too. The guide said they rolled up the windows when warm and rolled them down after dark or when cold.

Jeez, more trailer problems. I had a flat on the trailer and ruined the tire and tube. I had the old split ring rims and it didn’t do that rim any good. I was just south of Sedona, AZ and unhook the truck and went back to town when I found out that the spare tire wheel wouldn’t fit the new axle. It worked on the old axle but this new one is bigger and it wouldn’t fit. Damn…… Any way the little tire shop has an old Mexican guy that mounts tires and he just happened to have two, six bolt, big hole, rims out back. So, I now have two new tires and rims, and a spare tire. What else can go wrong? I hope to not find out.

From Sedona I took the road to Jerome and over the top to Prescott, and now wished I hadn’t. wow, what a steep, twisty narrow road that is. It was just a very slow grind up that grade and no place to pull off to let the string of cars that piled up behind me. I don’t like to be that kind of a guy on a road like that but there was nothing I could do for miles. When I did finally find a little dirt strip I pulled off and quite a few of the cars and trucks biped their horns as a thank you and waved.

Prescott is a really big town and evidently this is the big tourist season around this part of AZ. The weather is perfect in the mid 70’s and at night it is down in the 40’s. I found a small campground just south of town that is about ready to close down for major repairs this winter. The word is that it is in the high 90’s down in the low country so I have decided to hang out up here at a mile high for a few days. There are a huge number of roads and trails in this area and the bicycle shop gave me a really nice map of trails and I also have a huge map that the forest service gives out. I think you could ride for a year here and not do all the roads and trails. They seem to encourage it too which is nice. This is a sort of resort play area for all those folks that live down in Phoenix. They come up here to play and the folks up here are ready to take their money….

I met a guy at the bicycle shop who plays music and does something with music at the college here as well. He said there is a super blues band that would be playing down on whisky row. What? Yeah, whisky row, right across from the courthouse is a string of bars from the old times and they call it whisky row. Anyway one of those bars, the Bird Cage, I think he said, was where his friends were playing. No cover, and good music Friday and Saturday night. My camp is only about three or four miles from there, so it will be almost like home on Friday night. Blues!!! Terry Hanson, wish you were here…..

The sign out on the highway (89 south) has this sign on it and I decided to go check it out to see if I could take that road out of here and over to Quartzite when I leave. I like these kind of signs when on a bike, and this one was no exception. I don’t think I will have a problem pulling the train on it either as it is almost all down hill.

When I got back I decided to ride back up and over the pass to Jerome.

 Wow, it sure was a lot nicer on the bike then pulling the train. Jerome is built on a hillside and reminded me of Bisbee a lot. It is a major tourist bullshit deal too so I didn’t even get off and look in all those ‘STUFF’ shops. The stuff shop thing is really a big deal here. I wonder how the slump in the economy will affect these shops that sell stuff you don’t really need. I did ride down to something that the sign said was the historic park. It was closed but there was this wood head frame outside.

It sure isn’t a very big head frame compared to a lot of other old ones.

The trees are all in color here but you can tell it froze pretty hard.

I took a ride out north of town on one of the many back country gravel highways and ended up in a town called Seligman which is off the Freeway on a little old road know as Route 66…..

The town is a complete tourist trap but I was hungry and stopped at the restaurant across the street from the “Road Kill 66 Café”. That is a huge pile of chiliburger and fries. I couldn’t eat the whole thing but I made a good try at it. damn, if they didn’t put poison pickles on the plate with the food.

A couple of Highway Patrolmen/women came in for lunch too. I had to ask him if he had to wear that while he was driving the car. Yup, he said and it sure isn’t good on the back…. It is hard to see in this photo but he has a big radio, handcuffs, baton or flashlight and pistol plus other stuff on the front. It is no wonder they are in a bad mood when they stop you. Actually the girl goon was kind of cute but  in a an armed, uniformed, kind of way. Not my type….

there are small stretches of 66 and I took a few miles of it to get back down to Prescott. The road used to go from LA to Chicago I guess before the freeways took over. I think there was something on TV about it a long time ago. Oh yeah, GET YOUR KICKS on Route 66……. I can tell you it was a lot better on that dirt/gravel highway I rode up there on. I only saw two pickups on the road and they were stopped in the middle of the road visiting. No traffic, and no dust, perfect!!!

Do you remember seeing these signs? My dad knew everyone!!!! He could remember anything that rhymed if he read it or heard it. When we were driving along and we saw the first sign, dad would always tell us what the whole thing was before we got a chance to see it for ourselves, but we all yelled “Burma-Shave”….

As I was going along the highway I noticed this sign and I figured it must be THE gunsite that I have been reading about. It is a major gun training facility. I decided to ride up and see the place.

Yeah, this is the place for sure. I liked the guard dog out front. I got the literature on the programs offered but I doubt if I will take any of them at this time. One of the guys hanging around there said that the next courts wouldn’t be until the first of December.

It is a high dollar deal as can be figured by the little Bambi camp trailer parked in their RV area. I looked at one like it down in Tucson and it was $62,000 for the basic unit. I like my pod better…..J