A spontaneous motorcycle ride

While we were leisurely enjoying Sunday morning we decided to be spontaneous and go for a motorcycle ride. The big question:  where should we go? Last weekend we took a longer ride to Flagstaff, and wanted to go somewhere different. It was going to be in the mid-70's so we didn't want to go south to a lower elevation and more heat.

That left heading north to Ash Fork. Ash Fork is the kind of place that you go through; it's not usually a destination. At the intersection of Arizona 89 and Interstate 40, it's a spot to stop and fill up your gas tank on your way to someplace else. In our minds, there are two things in its favor:  it's on part of the old historic Route 66 and it is home to a fantastic BBQ restaurant: Lulu Belle's.

There's basically only one paved road from our home in Prescott north to Ash Fork:  Arizona 89. It's a straight, 2-lane paved road with no twisties, sweepers, or mountains to climb. It's a zen-like ride north as we watched the grasslands meld into pinyon pine forests, with the hint of mountains to the east, north and west backing up all the high desert grassland.

Because of the wet winter and spring, the normally brown grasslands flaunt bright green colors, making the grazing cows and horses extremely happy. One of things we love about riding the motorcycle is that we're closer to nature than riding closed up in a car. The cliffrose bushes are blooming, making the air fragrant with hint of sweet perfume. On a walk this morning before the motorcycle ride I sniffed each blooming cliffrose bush along our path but couldn't detect a specific scent. Yet riding along the highway, every breath was filled with their fragrance.

We had heard about Lulu Belle's BBQ from many of our friends, and this was our first time there. What a treat!

Most of the buildings in Ash Fork are old and crumbling, but Lulu Belle's is big, bright, airy and comfortable. The wooden tables are anchored with lacquered tree trunks and the high ceilings offer a lot of space for Western memorabilia.

Mike had the pulled pork sandwich and I enjoyed a BBQ chicken sandwich - both were spicy, hot, and incredibly delicious. The buns and bread even come branded!

After lunch we rode on the old Route 66 through Ash Fork, which was founded in 1882 as a siding for the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, which later became the Sante Fe Railroad. It takes its name from the confluence of three forks of Ash Creek. Ash Fork has a sad and tortuous history:  the original town burned to the ground in 1893 which wasn't uncommon in the West. The Sante Fe Railroad moved it's main line 10 miles to the north in 1960, and approximately half of the town's population relocated along with it. A fire known as "The Big Fire" in 1977 destroyed most of the downtown, Interstate 40 opened not long after and rerouted travelers away from the town, and another fire in 1987 destroyed most of the remaining buildings.

There are a few decaying buildings left in town, along with a building that was originally a Texaco gas station with an early 1960's Chrysler DeSoto on the roof. According to a Route 66 guide, this car was driven by Elvis at one point. Truth, local lore, or advertising? You be the judge!

We retraced our route home, enjoying the bright Arizona sunshine and zooming along with very little traffic to get in our way. Today's ride wasn't filled with exciting riding or an opportunity to explore new areas. But as Mike likes to say:  any motorcycle ride is a good ride!

230 mile loop to Flagstaff and home

Everything came together today for a gorgeous ride:  sunny skies, warm temperatures, and the pollen count was down. After a colder and snowier winter than usual, we've been waiting for a day like this! We were hungry for long stretches of road with no traffic in sight, winding our way through the mountains, twisting through canyons, and enjoying the sunshine on our faces.

We decided on a familiar and favorite route for our first day-long trip of 2019 to Flagstaff for lunch and then home. We started northeast from Prescott to Camp Verde, then east on AZ 260 through the pine forests.

Even though it was a beautiful Sunday, we had the road basically to ourselves as we climbed up into the cooler mountains.

We were hoping to see elk, but only spied the occasional hawk floating on the updrafts.

We turned onto Lake Mary Road, excited to see the higher water levels in the Upper Lake due to the heavier snowfall this winter. A dam built on Walnut Creek in 1905 led to the development of Upper Lake Mary, used as a water reservoir for Flagstaff.

You can see the snowy peaks of Mt. Humphrey's in the far distance, and as we road north toward Flagstaff the mountains loomed larger.

Lower Lake Mary often has less water than it's larger sister, but today the lake was a beautiful blue color due to the higher water levels.

We stopped at The Tourist Home Cafe in Flagstaff, a favorite lunch spot for the homemade bread and huge dessert display. Skip the chain restaurants and fast food places, and check out the funky south side of the train tracks in Flagstaff for great food.

Our route home led us through the 12 mile long scenic drive on 89A through Oak Creek Canyon, a 2-lane paved road that twists, turns, and snakes around hair-pin turns with steep red rocks on both sides on the way to Sedona.

Oak Creek Canyon is 2000' deep, and the popular Slide Rock State Park. This land was once an apple orchard homesteaded by the Pendley family in the early 1900's and became a state park in 1987. In the summer hundreds of people come here to slide through the water on the slick rocks.

We enjoyed sweeping through the canyon without much traffic until we came to an abrupt stop. For the next mile into Sedona it was stop and go traffic, giving us time to look out over the canyon and search for the elusive wildflowers that bloom in the desert. Sedona is always crowded, and what seems like hundreds of roundabouts and the slow moving traffic make us anxious to get through town as quickly as possible.

We continued south on 89A through Cottonwood into the historic old copper mining town of Jerome, perched high on the mountain ahead of us. We were lucky that there wasn't much traffic on the steep and narrow streets in Jerome, and we quickly left the quirky town behind us.

Coming down 89A from Jerome toward Prescott we got stuck behind a few slow-moving cars, and once they pulled over Mike took advantage of the open space, leaning into the twisties and zooming our way down the mountain.

Our 230 mile ride over 5 1/2 hours today made us hungry for more motorcycle riding and the opportunity to savor familiar routes plus explore new territory on the BMW.

Here's a map of our ride today. Have fun!

13,000 miles in 1 year!

Today was a banner day for several reasons:

- It's our first ride together in 2019, with the weather finally cooperating. We've had a rainy, snowy (28" in one memorable storm a couple of weeks ago), and cold winter for Arizona which has meant no motorcycle riding and more shoveling than we anticipated.

- The mountains south of our home in Prescott are still topped with snow. The temperature at home was 65 degrees and it feels slightly out of kilter to see snow on the mountains.

- The bike will be 1 year old on March 23rd, and today the odometer rolled over to 13,000 miles as we pulled into our driveway.

We rode one of our favorite twisty loops through the mountains into the valley, starting south on White Spar/89 through Wilhoit to Kirkland, then north back to Prescott on Iron Springs/Yavapai County 10 through Skull Valley.

A sunny day, twisty 2-lane roads with very little traffic, and long views over the high desert mountains turned a familiar ride into something special.

Over the past year we've ridden the BMW 130,000 miles on small day trips as well as a 5 1/2 week trip around the United States. Where will the next year take us?

Here is today's route

Sand, hawks, and starry skies in Joshua Tree California

Friday was a gorgeous day in Arizona, with bright blue skies that I call "Arizona blue" and temperatures in the mid 60's as we headed south and then west toward Joshua Tree, California. Fall is a wonderful time of the year for motorcycle riding in the Southwest as the daytime temperatures range from the 50's to mid 80's and there's rarely any threat of rain.

We started our trip down familiar roads through the Weaver Mountains in Yarnell where we enjoyed the winding, twisting curves that are one of our favorite motorcycle rides.

We rode out of the mountains and into the Mojave Desert that covers over 25,000 square miles in Arizona, Utah, Nevada and California. U.S 60 took us through tiny, isolated, dusty, sandy former mining communities like Aguila and Salome that oddly enough and due to irrigation are also centers of agriculture. It was a bit of a shock to see the blue Colorado River running through the desert in Parker, AZ and then we were back into the sandy desert.

We have been this way before and knew that it was 109 miles from Parker to the next town, Twentynine Palms so we stopped for gas before heading west on CA Route 62.

Everything looks dusty and grey, and for good reason because the annual rainfall is about 5". There aren't any trees in the Mojave Desert, but there are a wide variety of small, spindly bushes that dot the sandy landscape to the mountains that rim the desert.

Mike had to be extra cautious along the 2-lane paved road because much of the way there is no paved shoulder, and the 'shoulder' is typically deep sand.

A railroad runs along the north side of the road for a few miles, and the sandy bank along the sides of the railway are lined with rock and railroad tie graffiti, such as a heart outlined with white rocks surrounding initials and names spelled out in black rocks or old railroad ties.

I can't imagine the amount of time someone put into painting rocks bright blue, deep red and white and then hauling them out here to make this statement.

We stayed at the High Desert Motel in the town of Joshua Tree, on the edge of the Joshua Tree National Park and where the famous Joshua trees are just about everywhere.

Saturday morning started off just as the sun was rising as we rode 10 minutes down the road to meet with Lorrie Agnew, Master falconer of JT Falconry Adventures to learn about his birds which include three Harris's hawks, two peregrine falcons, and a kestrel, the smallest of the falcons. Lorrie explained falconry and about the birds and we even were able to pet the Harris's hawks soft feathers. It's amazing that these fierce birds of prey with long sharp talons and even sharper beaks sat quietly on Lorrie's gloved arm as we stroked their backs. Lorrie then took us into the desert with the Harris's hawks to watch them hunt.

Lorrie Agnew, hunting dog Sara, and Skippy the Harris's hawk

It was fascinating to learn about the birds and how much time, effort and love for birds falconers put into their hobby.  Here is a short clip of Skippy, Lorrie, and Mike.

We ate a late breakfast at Larry's and Milt Western Cafe in Yucca Valley, saw the new Bohemian Rhapsody movie, and then I ran the Joshua Tree half-marathon that started at sunset. I was the only one of about 3000 runners who arrived on the back of a motorcycle! We started the day at 6 am and ended back at the motel about 10:30 pm and packed a lot into that time.

Sunday morning we retraced our route back home to Prescott, where the BMW's odometer rolled over to 12,000 miles while we were riding through the sandy Mojave Desert.

We traveled 640 miles during our 3-day quick weekend trip into California on little-traveled roads that allowed us to zoom along the mostly straight roads with the sunshine on our backs. We're still smiling.

https://goo.gl/maps/r85v3CApDEK2  for a map of our route

A BMW ride in search of aspens

It's the end of September and we thought we might see the changing leaf colors of the aspen trees in Flagstaff. No Fall colors yet, but we had a beautiful ride through the ponderosa pine forests along the Mogollon Rim.

One of our favorite rides is on Lake Mary Road into Flagstaff, and today didn't disappoint. A dam on Walnut Creek forms Lake Mary, named after Mary Riordan, a daughter of wealthy lumber barons who built the lake in 1905 as a water supply for Flagstaff. There wasn't much water today in the reservoir, and no water at all in Mormon Lake. Unfortunately, Mormon Lake is the largest natural lake in Arizona, and the fact that it has no water today, at the end of the rainy monsoon season, says a lot about the drought in the Southwest.

As we rode closer to Flagstaff the San Francisco Peaks, the highest mountains in Arizona, started to come into view.

Our goal today in search of changing aspen leaf colors was the Flagstaff ski area, the Snowbowl. Skiing started here in 1938 at 9,200' elevation at the base lodge with chair lifts taking skiers to 11,500'.

We saw plenty of aspen trees on the climbing, twisting 7 mile road to the base lodge.

The view from the highest point of the road to the ski area is incredible, and a perfect spot for a photo of the BMW.

Today was the first time I wore the new Viking Cycle Ironborn women's textile motorcycle jacket on a ride, and overall I liked the comfortable fit and all the pockets. On the trip home from Flagstaff the temperatures rose to 98 degrees and even with the jacket vents open I was hot and sweating. However, in those temperatures I most likely would have been just as hot wearing my old Olympia jacket with mesh panels for ventilation. Thanks to Viking Cycle for sending me the jacket to review!

We spent 5 hours on the road and covered 267 miles in a large circle in north-central Arizona. Check out our route here. Even in this relatively small area we experienced a wide range of terrain as we traveled from the high desert in Prescott, through ponderosa pine forests, climbed to the higher elevation in Flagstaff, wound our way up to the Snowbowl in the San Francisco Peaks, then descended 6,000' into the green Verde River valley until we finally climbed back to Prescott. What a fun way to spend a Sunday!