We arrived in Tucson Friday afternoon and we have not yet rested. While Susan had new tires installed on her motorcycle I spoke with the dealership staff asking for riding recommendations. T.R, a salesperson at BMW Iron Horse Motorcycles, pulled out a photocopied map of the greater Tucson area including the Billings area, over to Mesa and up to Payson. He highlighted the fun stuff, the same roads formal tours enjoy.
Saturday morning we started out early for the southwest portion of the map. Our first stop was the Mission San Xavier de Bac on the San Xavier Indian Reservation. Continuing south we skirted I-90 on a frontage road until heading westward out of Amado. Things then got interesting. The weeks rain,including 97 mile per hour winds, had caused massive road washouts in the Tucson area. Riding blow the Sierrita Mts on dirt roads we faced lots of running water. Susan, as a new rider, rode marvelously! We managed many overflows until stumbling upon a fast washout being breached by a large 4-wheeler. Thinking of the quick current taking down one of our bikes and not being prepared with tools to pull plugs we decided to turn around, back to Arivaca.
Today, we followed our now trusted map up to the Tortilla Mts. In Wisconsin dirt roads are typically rocky gravel, rutted logging tails or sandy pine forest roads. Today, a hard packed smooth surface invited us onto roads which are traveled, by the experienced, in excess of 100 miles. Again, we rode up on washout after washout poking our way around the ruts and rocks to stay on course. Much of what we experienced today is why we are traveling to California and The Rawhyde Adventures class. Even after exhausting ourselves off-road, we hit the Apache Trail and rode to Tortilla Flats outside of Mesa. The area is full of mining lore and tourism. Hollywood studio style ghost towns line Hwy 88 leading up into the mountains. The switchbacks were auto and Harley filled. When we reached our lunch destination (after 3:00 pm) we realized it was too late for a meal since we had 140 miles back to Tucson. Hwy 88 out of Tortilla Flats, a dirt road, was closed and people stood around and took pictures of the flowing water. The day before we drove through much worse! Tomorrow, Charlie's last day with us before he heads home to Wisconsin, we will approach the same spot from around the back of the mountain, eventually reaching our now favorite dirt roads for some more play.
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