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AZ COGer's CORONADO TRAIL-The Devils Highway Ride event summary photos and text

B

Bullheadbert

Street Cruiser
This will be a split state event, New Mexico riders are highly encourage to join us as is everyone.

October 26th, 2013 ride the Colorado Trial formerly designated as Hwy 666 hence the name "Devils Highway".  It's a high country, byway ride, through some scenic, primitive, mountain regions along the border between Arizona and New Mexico...definitely not for the faint of heart but I've heard it will make your heart soar and your pulse rate quicken if you're the adventurous type.

The loop begins and ends in Springerville AZ but feel free to join in or depart anywhere along the way.  Ride Central is the El Jo Motor Inn in Springerville.  Kickstands up at 9:00 AM.  From Springerville we'll ride to Alpine, head East to New Mexico and Luna, drop down Hwy 180 through parts of Apache and Gila National Forests, through the bergs of Alma, Glenwood & Pleasanton before heading east to Mule Creek on Hwy 78 and the AZ/NM border then through Black Jack Canyon.  From there it's up North on AZ's Hwy 191 towards Clifton, Morenci, Hannagon Meadow, up to Alpine and back to the barn in Springerville.

Reta and I plan to spend the nights of Friday the 25th and Saturday 26th at El Jo's. I've heard the accommodations are reasonably priced and clean from Mark B who will be joining us.

Since this area is high country and subject to weather extremes a caveat is in order.  This ride is subject to weather conditions.  If we can not do the ride I will reschedule it for late spring/early summer but before the monsoon season begins next year.

This event will be posted on the COG Calendar, Southwest section, month of October.

Hope to see you all at El Jo's Motor Inn.

Bert L.  -AAD AZ

PS: Before Jim Sim's untimely passing we had discussed this ride and others by way of email.  So Jim this rides for you my friend.

 
This event is now on the Calendar.  Those not familiar with accessing the calendar can register by clicking on the "Concours Owners Group", in white with a blue back ground on the top of the page.  Open up the calendar, pick the Southwest region from the drop down window, double click on the event and register.

Hope to see you there,

Bert
 
OHHHHH I've done this ride several times, on several different bikes. It's one of the best. We usually stay in Show Low or Pinetop and ride south to Springervile and back in one day. It is 100s of twisties.
Don't miss the ARROW TREE.
I will try to be there- October 26 is my BIRTHDAY.... 
 
shezonit said:
OHHHHH I've done this ride several times, on several different bikes. It's one of the best. We usually stay in Show Low or Pinetop and ride south to Springervile and back in one day. It is 100s of twisties.
Don't miss the ARROW TREE.
I will try to be there- October 26 is my BIRTHDAY....
Click to expand...
Love to have you join us on the ride.  That would certainly be a great birthday ride.  Good excuse to get out of the Montana cold...might be a real deep freeze winter.  I understand Casper got hit hard and early this year...but, but here in Arizona, "the cactus is in bloom".

Hope to see you there,

Bert
 
Enjoy, hope it goes well.

When I took a wack at 191 a few yrs ago, twas winter wonderland & over 1-1/2' of snow ON THE ROAD. Shoulda turned round, but nooooo. This dummy lo sided on the ice & got an ASSist from the 1st vehicle that came by after ~45 min...a humongous snowplow! And this was in late May!  :eek:
 
Yah, people don't realize that AZ has 9000 ft mountains. I'm a snowbird and been exploring, enjoying AZ for 15 years. Love the variety. Desert and snow within 2 hours....
I've had a couple accidental snow riding days. Crossed Lolo Pass March 7th on my way to Mexico, riding my St1100 with bald rear tire. I talked to my bike......scariest 3 miles I'd ever done.  There was about 3 inches of slush and only one set of car tracks since the  plow had been through at 6 AM.
A few yrs later,  i and a friend got caught in a blinding horizontal  snowstorm in northern Mexico  in March 2012. Trying to make the border on the way back from Copper Canyon. On my KLX250 yet.  Had to hole up in Janos and the next day there were 100s of trucks trying to cross that last pass.....  Backed up for miles. Much "lane splitting" that day.
Moto adventure!
 
Paulie said:
Enjoy, hope it goes well.

When I took a wack at 191 a few yrs ago, twas winter wonderland & over 1-1/2' of snow ON THE ROAD. Shoulda turned round, but nooooo. This dummy lo sided on the ice & got an ASSist from the 1st vehicle that came by after ~45 min...a humongous snowplow! And this was in late May!  :eek:
Click to expand...
Unfortunately we had to set the ride up late into the season.  If the weather closes in we'll reschedule for late spring/early summer.
 
Forecast for 1-3" snow tonight in Flagstaff.  But it's supposed to warm up by the weekend so we'll see.  Mark
 
Looks like a great ride. Wish I could go. Make sure you get registered on the calendar to help with the planning. :great: :motonoises: :beerchug:
 
The rides on according to AccuWeather.  :great: Saturday the 26th looks "bright and sunny" high of 70, low of 34 in Springerville.  Ride central is El Jo Motor Inn in Springerville.  Kickstands up at 9:00AM.

Unless we get a surprise guest, the long distance acknowledgement award will go to Maren R, aka. Shezonit from Montana.  She is on winter break traveling around AZ and socking up the sun in her RV...left the Connie at home under a blanket & brought a lighter weight machine.  It's also her Birthday on ride day.  Sooooo! Don't forget to wish her a happy, happy,  :happybirthday3:

Mark B. from Flagstaff will be there.  Ron L. is coming and threating to bring up some riders from Lakeside and Show Low...way to go Ron.  Oh yeah, and Reta is threating to bring me up  :motonoises:

Join us on the Devils Highway, it's an early Halloween treat...no sugar high, no cavities, just a great time.

Bert
 
Hi all.... I don't know if long distance counts if I drive my RV, does it? But THANK YOU for the nice wishes.
I'm gonna try to be there. Have an RV motor repair to look at tomorrow. Argh. Too many motors?
I'm carrying the KLX on the back.
 
:-\  NEWS FLASH  :beerchug: Received an email from the "Exalted Pontentate"  :)  SW Area is picking up the lunch tab...free "grunt & grog". Now we just need to figure out where    :103:

Bert
 
Dang it, I'm not gonna make it. Missing a free lunch! And meeting all you cool people.
I had to get my RV looked at-- turned out to be nothin'
My riding buddy got a day behind getting his bike out of storage. it all started to feel rushed.
I also got invited to stay at my friends vacay house in Sedona and soak in a salt water pool and hot tub.......  So whiles you guys and gals (?) are shivering in the high country..... I'll be soaking in the hot waters of Sedona

Hoping to meet up somewhere after the new year....  Then I'll have until May.
 
A motorbiking tryst on the Camino del Diablo

Reta and I arrived Friday evening, after dark, at the El Jo Motor Inn in Springerville.  Tom Taylor was already there having arrived 30 minutes earlier from Buckeye AZ. There were some other bikes with Canadian plates also parked nearby.  It had been a long ride so after dinner we called it a day.  The following morning peering out the motel window I noticed a Silver C-14 was added to the Connie stable and Rodney Westphal of New Mexico was standing a few feet away socking up the warm morning Sun. Seems Rodney had spent the night camping out near Luna and had ridden in through the early morning chill.  We all had breakfast at the Safire Restaurant.  Coming out through the doors we noticed a blue C-14 added to the stable and Ron Lewis looking around like...hey where is everyone.  It was almost 9:00, time to saddle up and ride.  Since Ron lived in Show Low, just up the road and was very familiar with the road he would lead.  Tom and Rodney both had some familiarity with the highway, as well as, being one up so they would be the meat in the COG sandwich.  Reta and I with no familiarity and riding two up would be the caboose...it's far better than being a rolling chicane impeding the progress of those more nimble at leaning and twisting the throttle.

We left Springerville and the base of the plateau heading south on AZ 191, the Devil's Hwy, climbing up to Nutrioso and peaking Escudilla Mountain some where around 9,000' elevation.  Thereafter dropping into Alpine then onto Hannagen Meadow and a lookout point where we took pictures from the edge of the Mogollon Rim.  The Hwy. was in great shape with long straights and generous turns.  However, there after, the nature of the road changes as the turns become more abrupt, the straights shorter, requiring a more attentive riding style.

Somewhere around Rose Peak you get to shake hands with the Devil holding his trident as the road takes on an ominous appearance.  The generous width of the Camino Del Diablo suddenly shrinks to a mere pittance of its self.  The shoulder at times is non existent or so marginal as to be useless with tree trunks next to the ribbon of road.  The straights decrease to short chutes, to very short chutes, to "Oh s***" then to "Holy s***"...hopefully you don't get to the point of "Oh no!".  Pitching into a left hander in 3rd gear I suddenly realize I'm in the wrong gear, "Oh s***" within 3 bike lenghts the road will pitch hard right with a heavy downhill camber.  Now I'm downshifting into 2nd, under heavy braking, deep into the apex..."Holy s***", we're two up and I just lost all the drive to upright the bike with the throttle.  As we look ahead there's no short chute, no very short cute, just an immediate up camber change, up hill into another abrupt left hander. "Oh NO!", please don't let this bike fall to the low side of the camber...we'll never be able to pick it up.  I stand hard on the outboard peg and shift my weight far to the outside.  Chug, chug, chug the bike is tractoring slowly up to the shoulder of the left hander. The "Oh f--k" moment has be averted.  I may have been born at night but it wasn't last night.  I'm not going to make that mistake again.

The precession of left, right, left, down, up, down turns gives way to right, left, right, down, up, down turns on the other side of the ridge then followed by some rest break straights.  The process repeats its self again and again.  Going uphill would have been so much easier as we could compression brake the bike going into the turns and still have drive to come out of the apex even if you pick the wrong gear going in.

When we got to Chase Creek Lookout to regroup with the rest of the bikes my mind was toast and the neck mussels were a tad tight...like an old school clock who's mainspring was wound way too tight.  Thankfully we were only one canyon short of Morenci and lunch in Clifton.

Clifton's no megalopolis.  We fueled up in Morenci and said goodbye to Rodney as he needed to be in Silver City New Mexico before late afternoon. Then we headed downhill towards Clifton and PJ's for lunch.  PJ's is a local hangout that serves a good "grunt & grog" at a reasonable price and, as an added benefit, they have good homemade pies.  By the way "old man" thanks for lunch.  After lunch Tom headed back to Buckeye to take care of some chores.

Ron Lewis and the Luontela twosome planned to ride Hwy 78, Mule Creek, into New Mexico, catch 180 through Glenwood up to Luna then west to Alpine AZ and back down to Springerville.  Ron would lead.  At Four Corners we turned Northeast and headed up Black Jack Canyon into the Gila National Forest and the Big Lue Mountains.  Ron had mentioned his average miles per gallon and the fact that he could eke out about 10k on a set of tires...I was a little dubious.  Following him up Black Jack Cyn. and up into the Big Lue I started to consider the possibilities.  Ron was a retired DPS Motor Officer who had also taught riding skills in the department.  He was incredibly smooth and efficient running a line vastly diffrent then mine but at a brisk pace.  I held to my own lines but studied his...school was in for Mr. Bert as we climbed up a major canyon in the Big Lue, crested and began our descent on the New Mexico side.

Ron's lines were interesting, a little perplexing and at the same time ambiguous.  Obviously he was seeing and reading something very different to what I saw.  And in so doing his technique was fluid, very efficient and smooth in transition with good drive coming out of the corners, brisk and well controlled.  As we worked the turns down toward Mule Creek I noticed Ron would look down at the forks and front wheel repeatedly. Coming out of a descending short cute he activated his turn signal and glided off the pavement onto a small turnoff .  We followed him and pulled parallel to a stop and asked, "what's up".  "A flat front tire" was his response.  The display had shown a lose of pressure and Ron had had milked it for a short distance to the turnoff.  El Diablo was demanding tribute for our motorbiking tryst on his ribbon of real estate.  Neither of us had a flat repair kit with us...there's an object lesson to be learned here folks.

What to do, oh what to do when you're in the middle of nowhere and somewhere in either direction is a long way off.  Repairing the flat was not an option so that only left recovery.  Silver City was 60 miles to the South.  Being late Saturday afternoon there was little to accomplished there.  Ron lived in Show Low four hours North.  He had a truck and a bike trailer, as well as, a buddy.  But we had no cell reception being in a large dead zone.  We offered Ron our bike so he could ride back towards Morenci, find an active cell, call his buddy and put the plan into action.  When Ron returned it was going on 5:00  He would wait for the recovery vehicle, load up and drive home to Show Low.  Reta and I would complete the loop through New Mexico, the safest way back to Springerville at night.  Ron told us about the areas we needed to be concerned with regarding roving elk, deer and other critters of the night...I sure hoped the Devil would retire early this evening.

We fueled up in Glenwood at twilight.  Looking at Reta I said, I hope the upper part of Gila National Forest is nice so we can enjoy the ride down to Silver City tomorrow.  But tonight we're going to tippy-toe up those mountains and laugh about this adventure tonight when we're warm and comfy in bed.  We reached Alma as night descended and engulfed everything but the road in front of us.  Soon we began to climb.  The center strip and the reflective signs moved around our bike.  It was as if we were still and stationary while the road moved past us twisting, bending and stretching like a living creature.  Past the Reserve turnoff the temperature began to drop as we climbed the San Francisco Mountains.

At Luna the temperature was 30 degrees as we stopped at a small outpost store that was closing.  Reta went inside to warm up.  I closed the leg gauntlets on the overpants, put on winter gloves and turned the grip heater on hi.  Alpine lay ahead then the short climb up Escudilla Mountain to 9,000' and the long drop into Springerville.

In Alpine, just before the turn off, the lights of the Foxfire Restaurant glowed warmly and the smell of steaks grilling in the kitchen filled the cold night air.  It made us hungry and eager to get out of the saddle.  Thankfully as we started to climb towards the high point of the road we caught up with two cars heading North to Springerville.  Life was good. Let them find the road kill we'll just safely tuck in behind them.  The long downhill ride past Nutrioso to Springerville was uneventful...the Devil must have turned in early this evening.

Ride photo's. Click to see the slideshow

http://s1326.photobucket.com/user/propertyalchemist/slideshow/Devils%20Hwy%20-%20Coronado%20Trail

The following morning we ate a late breakfast, fueled and headed up the mountain past Nutrioso to Alpine then onto 180 heading for the New Mexico border.  My how things look different in the daytime.  It's a very different road by day but still a lonely place with very little traffic.  But the Sun feels warm as we ride South towards Silver City.  It's an easy relaxed ride along the mountain passes.  A time to limit the work load and enjoy the scenery.  It's also time to think back on the ride with Ron up the canyon on Big Lue, his riding style and the lines he prefers.  What did he see that I didn't see and why?  It's also a time to experiment, retrace and duplicate his lines on the road ahead in a relaxed, unhurried, manner. 

The road drops down into the mouth of a narrow, winding, canyon along a well worn asphalt section.  There at the end of a small straight just before a descending left turn I think I see something for one brief moment.  It's almost imperceptible, a slight shading difference in the worn asphalt.  My mind scrambles to understand it but there's something vaguely familiar about it.  "Winner, winner, chicken dinner", as my mind decodes the data.  It's from decades ago, back in the dirt days.  The shading difference is a slight shadow cast by a minute elevation change.  Overtime the auto traffic has beaten down two continuous tire ruts into the asphalt road bed.  Within the rut, the center being lower than the sides has, in effect, created a gutter and two berms.  If I ride the gutter into the turn, put the front wheel into the banking of the berm I can carry more speed into the corner and generate greater drive out of the corner while effectively having greater handling control.  It may not be what Ron sees but it's something I'm beginning to see and play with on the way to Silver City.  If it worked in the dirt it'll work on the road.

Photos of the post event ride to Silver City.  Click to view the slideshow.

http://s1326.photobucket.com/user/propertyalchemist/slideshow/Post%20Event%20Silver%20City%20Ride
Bert & Reta



 
Another wonderful carving from the wood shed of the wordsmith. NICE!  :great: Great to hear we had some folks from the NM area. Very Nice Job folks. Sounds like you all had a great adventure.  :beerchug: Rock On SW!!! :motonoises:
 
"Mea culpa mea culpa mea maxima cupla", I screwed up  :mad: on the photo link and all you saw were two pics.  Now that JP has shown me the light, no not a Bud Lite, the slideshow light, you to can see the photos in a different light.

Sorry about that,

Bert
 
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