BASH IN THE BUSH II 2007 - DAY 2

Morning broke early in T or C on Sunday, Beem and Croz had to go home because their wimmenfolk were expecting them for dinner, but the rest of us remained and were to head out in ONE group for a mellow day of riding. Like that was gonna happen.

We bade our goodbyes to the riders from Phoenix, fueled our steeds and our bellies and had a plan to ride nothing but streets. They did not say a thing to me about them not being dirt streets too.

When you head out 52 westbound it rises up over a range heading to Winston and Chloride.

Me and Betty zoomed ahead to catch some shots of the group.

TXEditor aka Rob handling the corners

Keith from Alaska paired up the Steve from SATX

Following the stragglers up the mountain

If you had not already noticed, this was the way we rode out the day before. Who was I to argue, in a group mentality there is no I, that is to say until there is a turn off on dirt road.

Thumper decided to go up the hill to take our picture as we passed by, something went sour, and he just picked up the bike in time for me to miss the shot

Rob likes to smoke and does each time we stop, and this gives a good vantage at just how little Anna can actually touch when she stops her red F


With the group behind me I led the way into Chloride


This is Al Gore's favorite, an electric H3 that only goes 25mph with a full distance of 70 miles

Dunno whether Steve really liked it or was just trying to make time with the little old lady who owns it.

Chloride makes a cool place for a rest stop (after all we had ridden almost 50 miles). There is a little art gallery / gift shop where I procured some real tasty buffalo jerky. Nice and not too salty. Next door to the gallery resides a very interesting museum that houses artifacts from Chloride's heyday when over 3000 hardscrabble folks resided there. Most of them were silver miners.

Various pharmaceuticals and some spices

Handtools

A beautiful cast iron stove

The proprietor spinning tales of times gone by


Edison often visited friends in Chloride

This is the good stuff

Almost like new

No, it's not a Nazi padlock, anyone know the story?


A representation of the town in the boom times

Local historical information

Deedledums place


Wanna ride some dirt Casey Jones?

There were some purchases made and a whole lot of shutterbuggin', then it was back to Winston for some BBQ sammiches. For most of them that is. TXEd and myself took a short side detour to a working mine on the way back and just made it in time for Heath ice cream bars.

Rob haulin' ass

After everyone got their feedsack on we headed northbound on 52 and hit some more dirt. Having studied the map earlier in the day I had a route in mind but several folks were skeptical about time left to git er dun.

There was a whole lot of map studying


This nice young lady kept her hounds at bay whilst her male companion told us about the local routes

After several minutes of pontification and regal posteuring Steve and Keith almost went with us on the backwoods route, that is until the kind young man said, "That road was good, but it's been about ten year since I was up over that pass". At which point those two's easyrider fate was sealed. They stayed on 52, while Thumper, TXEd, BMWGSRider and myself headed into the pineywoods.

The first thing we passed was a road closed washed out sign with barriers which I completely ignored. The surface had been freshly graded and we descended quickly into Bear Trap Canyon in the Cibola National Forest. The going was soft with a lot of rocks that were turned up by the grader's blade. The view was magnificent, however I neglected to stop and shoot the scene. It was about a 10 minute ride down into the canyon.

Amazing rock formations that photos can never do justice to

The group stopped here to drink in the energy of this wonderful spot.

As we motored along taking care on the soft surface it became apparent why the road had been barricaded and marked closed.

Several non severe emergency get offs where documented along this section

There are more shots of this section over here

After taking an hour to repair a flat on my bike we made our way back over to 52 and some smoother sailing. It was getting late and the consensus was to head north and catch the interstate back to T or C.

Of course my way of thinking is to take the "as the crow flies" route whenever possible. Being around 5 30 ish this thought pattern made my fellow riders nervous and agigtated. They succumbed to my will in the end and we rode a very rocky forest road where I broke my kickstand. As the bike spluttered and died my initial thought was, "SHIT, where am I gonna stash this bike overnight, and who's wants me to ride bitch on this rocky road. Luckily a blue bungee slung in a manner as to hold the stand in the up position and I was moving along again in less than a minute.

From there over to another flat smooth dirt highway (79?). 55, 65, 75, 85mph wiggling and twisting on the gravel mounded here and there, I was just happy to be out front because those guys were guzzling dust by the bucket behind me.

When we re grouped at I-25 and aired up there was a simple matter of blasting southbound for about 30 minutes at WFO to reach base camp again. I have to tell you that this section was the most difficult of the day and when I got back to the hotel I was completely knackered. Sitting here I cannot even remember what we ate that evening.

Here ends day two, thanks for riding along.

BASH IN THE BUSH II 2007

Last month Thumper, The Prof and I scouted around Truth or Consequences, NM to see if the area was suitable for a rally location to help usher in the tenth anniversary of the Chaingang. What we found was a state where a motorcycle enthusiast can ride and ride roads that make the Tail of The Dragon get tucked between its rear legs. Trails that make Terlingua Ranch look like an acre motocross track someone built out back. Those that made the journey this year will attest to my claim, New Mexico may have some of the best rides in the U.S.A.

From SATX it's a 10 hour truck ride, yes we trailered our bikes. Who wants to ride 650 miles of flat straight interstate 10 across TX? So yes we are trailer queens, and yes we arrived ready to ride the next morning, not tired from the road and wind like our pal TX Editor.

Besides it's more fun riding along in a truck with Professor Pat Pending and the Great White Grackle Hunter.

T or C NM was renamed from "Hot Springs" back some time ago. Something about a gameshow and a contest. It's a 'campy' 'shabby chic' little place with a left wing twist. Main street is full of holistic healing shops, used books stores, with a few cafes and bars thrown in. We learned from speaking to one of the locals that the place used to have 28 houses of ill repute (whore houses), now it just has 23 churches (houses of the holy?). You be the judge which ones cause more problems.

The main attraction for tourists for over 1000 years has been the natural hotsprings that the town was more recently built upon. With many lodgings, from downright cheap and nasty, to affordable and clean, to expensive and fancy there is something for everyone in T or C (except no Starbucks for you CrozB you lilly livered city freek). One of the main reasons I chose this town was for the healing waters. It was sure nice soaking in that 112 degree water after pounding along the back trails in the forest all day long. Some of the attendees were too 'civilized' to make it into soak, what a bunch of weirdos.

All but one of the ralliers stayed at the Charles Motel and Spa. It's a clean place with kitchettes in all the rooms. Nice mattresses and all the free soaks you want are included with the price of the rooms. Massages and such cost more but are also affordable. Don't forget to come with your hair long and get a buzz cut at the onsite barber shop.

clicky for more info

As usual the first evening of arrival is full of anticipation. Meeting old pals face to face in person that you have belittled and cajoled on the internet, wondering if they might just clean your clock for all the funny names you called them from the safety of your home sitting behind the iron curtain that is the world wide web. Luckily only one of us seemed like they might want to pound somebodies face in.

It seems we pounded a bunch of beers, Jagermeister shots (thanks Beem), some kind of fancy pants spiced rum was passed on around too, and I know I ate entirely too little to soak up the alcohol. We were all dragging ass the next morning but still straining the reigns and ready to ride.

As usual nobody had a coherent plan of when, where or what. So we split into groups of two and went on the same loop in opposite directions. This happens completely by chance, but nothing happens by accident......

Beem Dubya, CrozB, BmwGSRider, and DAM (that's me) set out on highway 52. It never fails that when you follow somebody with a route planned on a GPS that you have to do a U turn. No surprise to find out that our yooball came within a few minutes of departure where the road deadended.

Heading out west on track on highway 52 up through Winston, past Cholride, and onto 150 into the Gila National Forest the road begins fairly straight for 20 miles, and as you begin climbing on come the curves. The temperature drops and the altitude climbs as you blaze past wild horses running along beside with no fence in between them and your speeding machine. Exhilarating and frightening at the same time.

Where's the dirt Beem?

Moving through the National Forest we could not go too fast as the road was nicely dusted with gravel. Each curve beckoned the throttle, but at what cost. All of us recognized the danger and took this chance to motor along at a mild velocity and breathe in the the thinning air and magnificent visuals.

CrozB cruizin' past


Black Betty Idles at the lakeside

Beemer Anna snaps a few

Beem astride his pristine 02 that never sees the dirt


Anna, is she standing on sitting?

Let me talk about Anna (BMWGSRIDER) for just a moment. There are always one or two folks who stand out for me when I ride along for a few days with them. Anna is that person from BIB II.

Anna is tiny, maybe stands 4'10" and possibly throws 90 lbs dripping wet in full ATG. For this trip she spooned some TKC's on her red F bike and rode dirt for the first time in her life. Let me say that all you fellows that think they're big brave adventure riders just try taking an Electroglyde offroad and see how you fair, even then the weight to weight ratio of rider to machine probably would not balance. BeemerAnna has bigger balls and more heart than anyone I know when it comes to going for the gusto. First of all she cannot physically pick her bike up if it does fall. Would you ride offroad if that were you? She managed the entire day with this group without even falling off.

As a side note; her bike is factory lowered and she can only touch one tip toe when she stops. Anna you are my hero and most deservedly so, you are an inspiration to me, and women and men all over the globe should be proud to know you. You have the heart of a lion.

CrozB looking for the perfect shot



The road ahead

Our foursome stopped off by a river and started to snap away with our digicams. Then as a nice surprise CrozB broke out some bagel sammiches and passed them around to everyone for a quick repast.

Nice view from the bridge

CrozB got a great shot of us from above

Continuing along after our short break we climbed elevation and broke out of the forest to rejoice in this magnificent vista (click it)

There was about eleven more miles motoring along the dusty park road until we met up with the other four riders. Earlier that morning all rally participants were going to ride as one large group, as in all highly planned events something gets SNAFU'd. The pod that split off was heading in the same loop as we were but from the opposite direction. Comparing notes and stories about road conditions, scenery, points of interest and length of male member while airing up and airing down tires was the usual barrel of laughs.

From this short rendevous we bid our farewells to the other half of the group (counter clockwise persons), mounted up and rode south on 35 to a great local store in Mimbres, one of the few gas stops in the area we rode. Be sure to plan your fill ups out here!

The ladies in the store greeted us on more than one occasion with smiles and some good local information

got spelchek?

Fully fueled up machines and sugared up bellies our little group cracked on southbound 35 and met up with 152.

If you did nothing else but ride back and forth on this you would be happier than a pig in slop all day long. One guy said "Dragon, eat your heart out.... Either go slowly or be a good rider. This road is unforgiving."

In my short experience on the streets and backroads I have not ridden such a great road. It runs up and down over 3000 feet and there are at least 40 miles of hardcore twisties on a good clean road surface. Don't tell anybody, just go ride it for yourself.

Honda Dominator, not something you see every day or even once a decade in America at anyway


No chickenstrips left on that rear

klic above

showing off

The group all made it back to basecamp with no spills, obviously we were not riding hard enough. Again, being Anna's very first dirt ride we were all proud of her. Arriving back in T or C with a couple of hours before dinner to relax was a blessing as most of us were dragging ass from imbibing too heavily the previous evening. A nice half hour soak in the healing mineral waters and I was ready for some chow.

Dinner was scheduled at 8pm out at The Damsite. We handed out door prizes, and collected donations for the local kids. 'Everyones a winna' as we all received at least a few door prizes thanks to donations from the group.

The Prof sez, dig deep

CFS with green chili gravy on the side

Quiet falls on the night as we rest up for the next adventure, this ends day one

Steve Johnson (aka The Prof) is inmate number one of the Chaingang. Without Steves help in organizing none of my rallies would ever be as successful, so thanks Prof. I appreciate you and your friendship.

If I forgot to mention this earlier, we all ride with the Chaingang, and this year the club is celebrating 10 years of spreading orange love, giving, and riding throughout the entire world. With membership just over 2500 we are growing steadily. Our club raises money for childrens charities where ever we hold our own rallies or attend other events around the country. If you have a business, advertise with us. Our website is extremely busy with visitors from all around the world who are looking for information on the BMW F650. We donate a percentage of all proceeds raise by any
means to children in need. Recently we have opened a new section for the G series too, so come by and post up your thoughts and comments, even donate some money for the kids.