2011 Arizona/Grand Canyon Ride Report

Pablo's Story. . .

 

Thursday morning my wife, Lis, and I were up by 06:30 and getting ready to leave for the Bar-10 Ranch on the Arizona Strip.My son came over the night before and helped me load my KTM and gear into the Tundra.We were onthe road shortly after 07:30 on heading south on I-15.We had 330 miles to go to reach the Bar-10 Ranch; sixty-five miles on dirt roads beginning at the Arizona Border.

 

After fuel stops and a burger in St. George we were on our way taking theRiver Road.We were soonout of pavement on River Road and were on dirt at the Arizona Strip border.This section is called ‘Main Street’ all the way to the Mt. Trumbull Schoolhouse Museum.

 

After passing by the Schoolhouse we stopped to check the bike in the back of the truck on a smooth section of road.As I got out of the truck I noticed the LR tire going flat.I commented to my wife about our state of affairs.She got out on her side only to exclaim that we had another flat on the LF tire!

 

We changed out the LR tire and plugged it.I attached the portable air compressor—it held air and we rejoiced.Just as was going to disconnect the air compressor from the tire, the tire fell over breaking the sensor stem and letting all the air out.Bummer!

 

We put the disabled tire in the bed of the Tundra and put the spare tire on, then put our attention to the RF tire.We jacked up the tire in place, put a plug in it and it held air.And we were soon on our way again.

 

A couple of miles down the road I commented to Lis where she might have placed the air compressor.Forget the discussion, we turned around and found it sitting in the middle of the road.No traffic on the road today.

 

We arrived at the ranch and greeted Greg and Lis Jerome who had arrived earlier in the day and had already driven their pickup down to the Whitmore Canyon Overlook.Lis and I took a room in the lodge as she has a cold and didn’t want to stay in a Conestoga wagon.Soon thereafter the other riders in vehicles arrived including Carl and Judy Nielson who would riding ATV’s, Tony Terry with his friend Tanya who would ride on the back of his bike, and Don Gibbs.While riders were coming in, I dealt with my disabled tire and soon made the decision to send it back to St. George with the Bar-10 Ranch van and have it fixed at Dixieland Tire.The tire would be back tomorrow with the Ranch supplies.

 

We got a lot of visiting in while waiting for the six riders to come in from Mesquite, Nevada.They soon arrived just in time for supper at 6:30PM and before dark.Bill Enos and Bruce Rucker had guided Dennis Hamp, his son, Austin, Park Sorenson and teenager Sampson Nelson safely in from the desert.However, it took them 10 hours to make the 140 mile journey with a stop at Butch Cassidy’s cabin!We also found out that the Hamp group didn’t arrive in Mesquite until 4AM.They got less than three hours of sleep before leaving Mesquite.Seems Sampson had received his LDS Mission call to Argentina that afternoon, Wednesday; this event delayed their departure from Salt Lake.

 

Before dinner, Tony and Tanya, Don, and the Nielson’s on their ATV’s rode down to Whitmore Canyon Overlook.When they got back at supper time, it was learned that Tanya had had enough of riding on back of Tony’s bike.She was offered a quad by the Neilson’s for the return trip which offer she accepted whole heartedly.

 

Supper served from Dutch ovens was wonderful as usual.We had a short rider’s meeting afterwards with introductions and a riding plan for tomorrow, Friday. Afterwards everyone went to bed.

 

This morning, Friday, we were up by 06:30, showered, dressed and ready for a hot, delicious breakfast.Lis, Tanya, and Lisa would stay at the Lodge and watch the myriad of movies my wife had rented for the duration of our ride.And Austin would not move from his bed long after our departure at 08:30.

 

So, eleven riders were on the trail and headed for Hell’s Hole Overlook with a view to the west, 11 miles.The vista view was incredible—not much haze to dim the distant scenery.It even appeared we could just barely spot the San Francisco Peaks north of Flagstaff.After spending time here, we rode for less than a mile to the Valley View Overlook and a view to the north.

 

From the overlook we rode to Nampaweap Indian petro glyphs trailhead via a shortcut that Bill suggested—it worked.However, Mr. Government Guy decided that the once useful road leading to the petro glyphs was not to his liking, one has to walk over one-half mile to see these beauties where as one used to ride right to it.Thanks but no thanks government dude!

 

We opted to ride over to Toroweap overlook less than 20 miles away.We had 8 riders take the challenge.“Challenge” you say.Well, the last four miles are in the Grand Canyon National Park and so our illustrious government folks require a license plate of all things.We were happy to enjoy Toroweap sans any other folks in site at the Overlook. We did pass vehicles coming and going.

 

The quads turned around and went back to the Nampaweap where the Neilson’s walked about to the petro glyphs.And, Greg got a rear flat.Sampson took a wrong turn and ended up coming back to camp early with Greg who spent the entire afternoon working on repairing his rear tire.Why the entire afternoon?Well, the rear axle was frozen and had to be pounded out with brute force rendered by Rucker.Next, the TubeLiss Tire System was shot and had to be removed from a Desert Maxxis tire.Wire cutters were brought to bear on the TubeLiss system.Then, when the axle was re-inserted after the tire received a tube, the axle nut was buggered up.But a ranch hand found a cure in a brass nut that seemed to fit.Greg would be riding on Saturday.

 

Lunch was served at 2PM consisting of yummy sandwich makings and potato salad.After lunch there wasn’t too much activity to rush back on the trail.The supply van arrived from St. George and soon there were new ranch hands packing in supplies.The supply van brought the old-timer, Garth Bundy and his daughter, Ana Lee.Garth would supply a lot of history and conversation that afternoon and evening and into the next day.

 

Pablo retrieved his repaired rear tire and put it on the Tundra.The RF tire on the Tundra had lost air, so one of the ranch hands fixed it with another double plug without taking the tire off the vehicle.That same ranch hand also fixed the Nielson’s flat with four plugs!Oh, did I say we had yet another flat in the group!

 

The Nielson’s, Terry, Don, Bill and Bruce headed out to Pa’s Pocket just before 17:00.The Nielson’s enjoyed seeing the old Bundy cabin and Pa’s Pocket while Bill and Bruce went to the end of the road.

 

All made it back just in time for a wonderful Dutch oven dinner.

 

It was an early-to-bed evening again.

 

After a delicious breakfast Saturday morning, riders were ready at 8:30AM for another day of riding.The Nielson’s decided to leave first thing this morning for home.They had had a nice ride and wanted to take it easy with a bum spare tire.

 

The group of six from Mesquite took route >1063 down to the head of Parashant Canyon.They ventured down the canyon on route >1230 to where there was a washout from spring flash floods.While there they encountered a couple on ATV’s who were attempting to go around the washout after having dug a small, primitive trail in the dirt on the mountainside.They were going down to check on their ranch.The riders witnessed the husband get around the washout, but his wife’s ATV slid into a ‘life-saving’ small tree while maneuvering around the gorge.The six of them jumped in to save the day. The ‘helpful six’ decided to opt out of the Parashant Canyon portion of their ride.

 

The four remaining riders rode from the Bar-10 Ranch up to the >1063 trail, then on to the >1264 trail which intersected the >1263 trail leading to Whitmore Point and Parashant Canyon Overlook on the >1265 trail. They were looking from above for their compadres on the Parashant Canyon trail, but didn’t ever seem them.

 

So, after enjoying the Parashant Canyon Overlook and Whitmore Point views we took >1263 route down to >1063 and to the head of Parashant Canyon, >1230.We rode down the trail a ways passing by a pickup with a large trailer for ATV’s.We stopped at the washout, took pictures, and figured since there were no motorcycle tracks past the washout, the boys had abandoned the idea of riding down Parashant and back up another route on their way to Mesquite, Nevada.

 

We came back out never seeing the quads and boogied back to Bar-10 Ranch on >1063.Upon arriving, Pablo loaded up all his stuff and was ready to go home after a quick shower.His wife was right behind him with her luggage.We bid farewell to the remaining group of riders who were waiting for lunch at noon.We traveled slowly up to the Mt. Trumbell Schoolhouse, then on to the Utah border where we were greeted with oiled road and safety of sorts.It took us two hours from the ranch to cover 65 miles of dirt roads.We gave one another a ‘high five.’

 

We fueled up and got lunch at Pollo Loco. We stopped at Pro Cycle Shop to see if they had parts for Greg’s KTM just like mine—they did.I visited briefly with Tad Goimaric, the owner.I have known Tad since Logan where my son worked for him in his shop, Cycles and Sleds.

 

We were on the highway, fueled up and anxious to get home sans more flat tires.However, just south of Fillmore, the RR tire went.We pulled over on the freeway and did a quick exchange with the spare tire in the bed of the Tundra.We had just passed another vehicle with a flat and my wife had commented that she hoped we would be fine—no such luck!

 

We stopped in Meadow at the Chevron Service Station.It was closed, but there was a teenager mopping the floor.He agreed to fix our tire.When he got it tore down, we discovered to our amazement there was an Allen wrench that had caused the flat; the tire was ruined from running it the short distance flat.

 

So, it was back to the ‘trash’ pile to pick out a 25 buck spare.We got it mounted and put in the bed of the truck.After giving the kid payment and a tip, we were on our way. Monday, we bought four new tires.Yes, we got the 10 ply BF Goodrich All Terrain.End of story!

 

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