Trip days: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8-9 | 10-12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20
Up early our motley band of BMW riders loaded up and headed south out of Springerville, AZ towards Alpine. Halfway there we pulled off into a small state park and Charlie pulled out his cooking gear. These guys, Charlie and Al, have been perfecting the art of camp cooking for over 20 years. Fifteen minutes later and ham omlette burritos with warm crispied tortillas, coffee, and orange juice abound. It was really serene sitting in the woods kicked back with early morning sun casting down on us, the sound of birds singing, and a light breeze whistling through the woods. I was paying close attention to the cooking routine as I was obviously in the company of some well weathered BMW motorcycle campers. An absolutely great way to start a LONG day of high speed touring. After breaking down the breakfast gear we headed south to Alpine, and east on highway 180 into New Mexico. This whole area east of Phoenix has some great roads. South on 180 to the 78 back into Arizona and we were greeted by one of the best set of twisties I've been on during this trip. Very much like the roads found in northern California, specifically highway 1 and highway 80. Everything from tight sweepers to hairpins and banked slalom sections solid for 25 miles or so. Emerging in Guthrie, AZ we headed north to Clifton. Clifton is a really interesting town. It's one of the largest, if not THE largest, copper mine in Arizona. There seems to be an old mining town section with houses that must have been built 80 or more years ago, most of the empty. And then there's newer sections smattered in and above the old town. The old town section runs through a canyon with red rock walls looming high above. Really rustic sort of ghost town feel to it. Up above Clifton we fuelled and pointed our way north on highway 191. Highway 191 winds it's way through the copper mine and then gets REALLY twisty for about 70 miles. I was told by Al that 191 used be arizona highway 666, the devil's highway, but was changed to 191 because there had been so many fatalities on it. I can see why... The road snakes along the side of a long mountain range with 500+ foot drop offs down into the forest below, no corner markings for the really tight ones even, and no shoulder on either side of the road. Our group of BMW nuts grabbed the devil by the horns, so to speak, and raced our way north back to Alpine. Man... Al really rides that BMW R1150GS fast! Granted, he used to race Moto Guzzi's and definitely has the race line thing going for him, but he can really get that bike to perform. For those that don't know, a BMW R1150GS is BMW's large motored dual-sport motorcycle, meaning that it is made to go on road and off road comfortably. Al's bike was shod with the semi-knobby onroad/offroad dual sport tires too, and he was still cooking through the turns with them. Pretty suprising when I, on a fast street bike, am working a bit to keep up with a glorified dirt bike in the fast turns. After 30 or so miles of serious abuse to our motorcycle tires Al and I pulled in to a little picnic area and kicked back, waiting for Shannon and Charlie to show up as they had lagged behind, which was probably smart considering the risk of the terrain. They arrived and after a short bite and some mileage calculations we got back on the move and wound our way to Alpine, Springerville, back through Hon-dah, south on 73 again, and back down 60 through Globe and Superior to Phoenix. Back at Shannon's we were both shot mentally and physically from the heat and amount of travel over the weekend. We both kind of vegitated for a bit, and then shuffled out to his car and went to get some food at the local hole in the wall mexican place. MMMmmmm, good carne asada and guacamole. Back to his condo and I did a quick scrub on my bike to remove the ga-jillion bugs of the frontal area of the bike, and then loaded up my gear. My friend Ben Varco-Merth got back into town around 10:30 and called to give me directions to his place. Thanking Shannon for his overwhelming hospitality, I departed and rode down to Ben's apartment near Arizona State University. Ahh, home sweet home. Video games, beer, whiskey, digital cable, high speed internet, DVDs. Great. Absolutely perfect.
Total Mileage for Day: 520 |
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©2003 John Meloy <jam@nas.com>