In the mountains near Mexico

Holiday weekend = Get off your ass and ride! During my usual snooping on the beginnerbikers.org forum in the morning, I have noticed a distinct dropoff in traffic over the past few days. Hopefully that means folks will have pictures of their Memorial Day weekend adventures to post come Tuesday. We’ve got some, and we’ve even got another day left!

Day 1: Mountain Picnic
I took some of the guys from work to the Sierra Vista Range for some trigger time. One of the guys hadn’t shot anything since he was in Iraq last year, so he was sorely in need of a trip to the range. Those of us in the office who actually own guns were more than happy to oblige. We got done about lunchtime, and luckily for me, Amanda hadn’t planned anything yet. So, I took the opportunity to suggest that we do a picnic lunch… and that she’d need to put on some riding clothes to get there. After packing up some drinks at the house, I dropped her at the commisary to get some lunch material while I filled the bike.

And we were off! Back across the west side of Fort Huachuca, out the west gate, down Cimmaron Road and then south on 83 toward Parker Canyon Lake. Created when the river was dammed in 1966, it’s a little hideaway I had heard about, but not visited. Stupid, stupid me. Here’s why:

Nice shadetrees, some 60 camping spots in the campground, boat launch, fishing dock… all in all a pretty little place. Of course the lake is situated some 6 miles as the crow flies from Mexico, which precipitates the following:

Of course, the reason to ride anywhere on the bike is well, the ride. One of the other reasons it’s a shame I hadn’t gone out there sooner was the road. Good pavement, nice sweepers… except for the pesky speed limit, it’s pretty nice. I had been out Cimmaron road before, since I’d seen it on a map and wondered “Hmm, could I get to the intersection with 83 and back during lunch?’. Turning from 83 onto Cimmaron shows why it’s so nice:

DAY 2: Around the Huachucas
Having now seen the road from Cimmaron down to the lake, and having confirmed that the turn-off onto W Montezuma Canyon Road is indeed dirt… I set out to circle the Huachuca mountains. I went on the Ducati, mostly because it is the lightest bike we’ve got, and has the best ground clearance. I really, really wanted to get video with my helmet-cam, but Murphy showed up and I managed to snap off the latch that holds the protective housing closed. I had been smart enough to bring my point-and-shoot, so all was not lost.

Think of the worst washboard road you’ve ever been on. Now overlay that road surface onto the side of a mountain, with single-lane ‘bridges’, switchbacks, and no guardrail between you and a couple hundred feet of serious ‘ouch’. I would love to go back on a KTM or KLR, or maybe in a rally-prepped Subaru Impreza. Had the road been any worse, I would have had to classify it as a ‘trail’. I have driven some trails, and thus this was not the worst surface I’ve covered on 2 wheels, but it was close. And it was long. The ascent started without too much trouble (save the broken camera latch):

The canyon runs just north of the southern end of the Huachuca mountains, dropping over into the San Rafael Valley at Montezuma Pass. Looking back to the East from the pass, you can see the dirt road as it snakes its way up the valley below:

Continuing West, you pass a number of canyons on your right as you wind back down the mountain range. Towering over Copper Canyon, this pile of rock drew my attention with the bright green on the sides. The picture really doesn’t do it justice:

Past this point, there were a number of the aforementioned switchbacks and one-lane bridges. Due to all the washboarding on the road, entering some of those corners downhill had me feeling like Wile-E-Coyote riding a jackhammer. Having learned my lesson about front brake use in the dirt (short lesson: DON’T USE IT!!!), I did pretty well. By the end, I was rolling through most stuff in 2nd gear, and beginning to be able to steer with the throttle again. Basic concept is, as you are going through a corner on the dirt, if you spin up the rear tire it will slide to the outside of the turn, which can help rotate the bike and tighten a line that may (for whatever reason) be drifting wide.

I stopped for a water and snack break when I reached a crossroads about halfway between the pass and the lake. And yes, the mountains in the background are in Mexico…

I plan eventually to ride back down to this turn-off point and head down as close as the roads will take me (some 500 feet) to Mexico, but that’s for another day. Plus, knowing now that it would be much, much faster and easier to go by way of the lake than by way of the pass, I’ll go the ‘short’ way. I would be remiss to not mention that my convenient water-break location was near some trees, which it seems are a convenient water-break location for ot
he
r travelers in the area:

Anyone guess in what language the label is written?

Yes boys and girls, that’s Spanish. Also note the convenient carrying rope attached to the top. I had of course seen 3 Border Patrol trucks between the pass and where I stopped for a snack, so there was some presence there. Suffice it to say, I was not rolling around ’empty-handed’ as it were…

Oh, and the ride back up Parker Canyon Lake Road was a bit more ‘spirited’ on the Ducati than it had been some 24 hours prior 2-up on the V-Star.