At 6:00AM, Mike B. met us at our place and we headed out for another epic adventure to Superior. The weather has finally gone down into the 90's and the bikes are ready to go outside. After an excellent McDonald's breakfast, we motored our way through Coolidge and onto the Florence/Kelvin Highway towards Superior.
Today was all about winging it. Once the bikes were topped off in Superior, we jumped on US60 towards dirt road glory. A short ways down, we found what we believe was the old road - pre US60. It was a beat up, single lane road that wound its way around a mountain.
And then it stopped. Abruptly. The 60 consumed our road. The boys walked to the top of the hill to see if it continued after, but no luck. At this point, our road was within feet of the 60 and we could see traffic. A helmetless Harley rider glanced up and gave us a quizzical look...a la, wtf are you doing up there in helmets?
We wound our way back to the 60 and found another turn off that promised a longer ride. A much longer ride. Mike has as tendency to just follow his GPS and hope that those little roads still exist. Not too far into our next venture, we were again met with a dead end - ranch hell.
Jerks. Back around, another turn, and another locked gate. Strike three.
Back around again, another turn and oh, this time we get to keep going!
We stopped to see an old mine. We'll the boys wanted to see the mine.
Motoring on the road kept degrading. Full on road to two track, to jeep trail, to ATV trail to ....does the road still exist?
We wound our way to a wash.
Oh look, a rock filled wash. Joy. Mike just loves to wrestle the Space Shuttle through this crap. The road - if you can call it that - wound in and out of this mess until we ended up in someone's ranch. The woman seemed more surprised than annoyed that we were there and graciously gave us directions towards Globe.
At this point its noonish, hot and I'm getting tired. I know Mike is sore and done, and Mike B. has to work a midnight shift tonight. But no, lets detour up to Pinal Peak. Hell we rode this far, what's a five mile detour?
The temperature dropped and I got to smell the pine trees. 7900 feet is nice..
20 miles later, we made it back to the slab, hit Globe and got much needed lunch at Jerry's Restaurant.
A long and grueling ride back to Casa Grande put us home at 5:00 PM. My butt has seen better days, my head is pounding, but the ride was fantastic.
Fall is approaching, so I envision much more riding in our future..
Click here for the entire photographic journey on my SmugMug account.
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