Phx,Az ride report (ongoing)

Gentlemen,


As day one is drawing to a close let me report on the groups status.

Day 1 by sandskipper (Keith):

4:30 pm 1/31/06

Yesterday evening, I arrived at the Bradshaw Mountain RV resort about 4:30pm to find Ned37 (Ned) and cheeseberger (Colby) hanging out at the grounds and shooting the breeze. After a brief intro, I inform them that berger (Ken) and schwim (Json) are about 30 minutes behind and should arrive shortly. After Ken and Json arrive up comes Lubbz (Andy) and Mr. Lubbs (Jerry)... this is Lubbs father duel sporting the BMW. After a little bit of unloading and securing the gear and bikes we all head to the outdoor recreation room/pool/jacuzi for some cold beers, pizza, chips.... munchies! After a tire incident on the outskirts of Phoenix, DaleEO (Dale) decides he will grace us with his presence and shows up a little upset with his tire situation but otherwise in great spirits. A few hours of everyone meeting & greeting & eaten it was time to start getting settled in for the night. Most everyone retired back to their quarters/tent/Rv/Hotel with the exception of Ken and Json who had to make the 45mile trip into downtown Phx to pick up Parsko (Luke). Shortly after midnight the three arrive back from the airport and after a few minutes of greeting once again everyone retires for the night.

7:15 am 2/1/06

Reveille sounds and everyone jumps out of the bunks. Shower and shaves and everyone is at the Amish Kitchen for breakfast and conversation. After a relaxed breakfast we muster in the parking lot for role call before starting the 40min drive to the MileMarker 11.5 ride area. Well Ken is doing a great job of hosting this thing. Everything is in order, well hosted and time schedules are being made because we arrive at the MM11.5 area precisely at 10:15 just like planned. Splat (Brian) & son are there and ready to go. Also is Logjump (Rick) and LeFrog (Nicolas). After about 30minutes of more greeting, getting suited up and stuff we split into two groups of riders, Group A is single track and more advanced trails, Group B is a C/B ride with a little bit more room. A short riders meeting is held and we're off! Gone for about two hours on some spectacular trails with great views before we end up back at the rally point were DezDuster has arrived and waiting for everyone to return. So again another round of introductions and greetings before I have to load up and head back into town. The group remained at the Mile Markers and continued to do some more riding.

Tomorrow will be another day at the MM11.5 area before swinging eastward over to the Pima & Dynamite area on friday and Rolls OHV area on saturday.

I will try to update everyone with whats going on as I can, or others may put in their comments also...

The force is incredibly strong in Az right now!!!

Regards,

Keith and I happened to have posted a report at the same time in two different threads, so I killed my report and piggy-backed his report to avoid having two threads on the same subject.
_______________

I just wanted to let everybody know that all went fine for the first day.

I was with the C group, led by Berger, then me for some reason, then Parsko on Berger's Husky, Lubbz on his 550, Sandskipper on his FC550, Schwim on Berger's 300EXC and Ned37.

The other group took a more competitive approach on skinny trails and I remember Splat, Logjump, DaleO, and a few others joined that ride.

No injuries, all is fine. I will not join tomorrow, because it's a bit far from my house and I got W to do but we will have 2 or 3 more days to ride after that.

Sandskipper split at noon and Dezduster joined us at that time.

Everybody seems to love the scenery and the AZ riding.

I guess Berger will post a bit later himself. They have WiFi at the campground, so I don't know who will end up posting from there.

Gentlemen, I am unable to post any details about day two at this time. I could not make it out for the ride due to other arrangements so you will have to wait for an update from one of the ride members. I hear from the others that I missed a great ride up to Crown King, which I have done before. The scenery is great and it starts at about 2000ft in the desert and transitions over about 35 miles up to ~6000ft in elevation.

Day three, Pima & Dynamite:

Today was a mixed day. Meeting time was 10:30am and all were present and accounted for by 10:45. After a little chit-chat and boot lacing we were ready to go and on the trail by 11:30. Again there were two groups, one more technical group and one B/C rider group. We all rode for about an hour and a half or two hours before we all meet up again at a pre determined destination and then rode as a group over to Brians (Splat) staged RV for fuel top up, water, and snacks. After a brief rest we all mounted our bikes again and headed on what was to be a very beautiful and fun ride to the Verde river.
We leave on about 6 or 7 miles of trails and single track until we all spill out into this sandwash. Brian lets us know that the wash is about 11 miles long, and unless we take one of the goat trails off the sides of the wash, we will end up in the same destination. So what happens next is just pure excitement!!! 14 Husabergers all trying to negotiate 11 miles of sand wash, twisting and winding through gorges and wide open spaces, to see who gets to the river first.... You should have seen it, it was great! After we all muster at the end (I don't know who was first, it wasn't me) we take the opportunity to take some photos and a few fellow friends even took a quick dip in the river.... brrr. It's starting to get late now, 4pm, so we all gear back up and same thing again... 11 miles of blazing speed trying to get back down the sand wash.
Well this is where things start to go bad. One-by-one people start making it to the end of the wash and after about a half-hour everyone is there that is gona get there. We wait and wait and wait for about an hour still missing 5 people. So we send a two man sweep team (Splat & Cheesebeger) back to see if they can find the others. 3 minutes after they set out in a blaze of glory, DaleEO & Logjump ride up and spill the bad news... LeFrog went down hard and broke his arm. Now we know that one of our fellow riders is down and we have two sweep riders looking for the rest of the team. So all we can do at this point is wait until Brian & Cheeseberger return. At this time we see a sheriff driving by so we flag them down and explain whats going on. The sheriffs dispatch some help and drive off, really they were pretty concerned but I'm not gona explain every little thing. So we wait for about another 30min or so until our sweep riders show back up. They let us know what we already knew.... LeFrog has a broken arm. Now that the group is back together, minus schwim, berger, LeFrog & froggys son, we head on back to Splats RV for a fuel top off and water and head back to the trucks. We arrive back at the trucks just as the sun goes down. Meanwhile during all of this, Berger rides back to his truck via short cuts and then goes back for schwim, LeFrog and son with his truck. It sounds as though they were able to get Froggy out ok as I called berger and he informed me that all is well and Nic is on his way to the hospital. They were just finishing getting all the bikes loaded and heading back to the camp site for some of Bergdudes famous brisket, beans, and salads....Mmm mmm good!

Well this is a short recap of day three, first real injury was sustained by LeFrog but I will allow him to post up details.

This has been a great experience meeting new friends and sharing stories. I would hope that everyone will make a ride like this at least once in their lives. I have some memories that I will have for a lifetime.

One more day. A few people will be leaving tonight or in the morning to start their treks back home. The group will be a little smaller tomorrow.

More to come soon...

Regards,

i shouldn't laugh, i mustn't laugh i must control myself and tell myself that this could happen to anyone he was on the limit of adhesion, the wind in his hair, the new home-tune suspension working in harmony with his talent, yes his new found talent, unleashed on us all.

whatdya mean he was holding dez up and he knocked him off! blasphemy! :roll: :roll: :roll:

regards

Taffy

dez would only do that if someone got at him and paid him rather large amounts of money! :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:

I am typing with one hand so it will be "short". I was not going very fast, I made a stupid mistake. I have been getting more and more confident on the tight trails and actually started to get in control of the beast, but the WOT stuff I never liked. The 11 Mile Wash is fun for who likes that kind of riding but I have definitely decided to not venture on that type of stuff any more. I'll be back on the bike but it will only be tight and skinny stuff from now on. Challenging, slow but fun.

Taffy, the suspension is fine except that it is set for the tight stuff. Bike is actually quite awesome on single tracks, but not for WOT stuff. I was tired and should have slowed down. Well, that's one way to learn: the hard one.

I think I was going at 25mph, took a side way jump, landing was fine except the front wheel was at 45 degrees and I could not save it. After that it was the usual slow motion stuff and I knew I was going to break something, but not too much you can do when you're a projectile.

Taffy I laughed at Berger about him breaking his hand on a jeep trail and I guess Karma got me bad on that one, so you be careful about what you type, friendly and free advice.

Besides this incident, we all had an awesome riding day yesterday. We nee to compliment Berger and Splat on their organization.

I'm sorry to hear about your arm Frog. Hopefully you'll be back on the steed in not too long. No surgery right?

Sounds like a fun time, I've been through that wash, when its as dry as it is now that sand gets deep and treacherous. I wish I could have been their, just too busy to get away.
Enjoy Sunday! Hope you feel better soon Frog.

I will know Monday for the surgery. Hopefully none.

I have posted some photos in my gallery. Sorry if I messed up some names, let me know and I will correct!

Sorry to hear about the arm LF... Hope things go well on Monday and your healed up and back on the bike soon.

ELEVEN 11 miles of sandwash. 8O 8O 8O

Nic,

There is one pic in the gallery that you have labeled "Parsko" when it is actually "Lubbz" (Andy). The pics look great and I've been looking forward to seeing them. What happened to the group photo that we took along the river? Also Nic, I hope you are feeling well and monday brings good news about the arm. Get well so we can go do some of that ST.

Regards,

LeFrog said:

I will know Monday for the surgery. Hopefully none.

I have posted some photos in my gallery. Sorry if I messed up some names, let me know and I will correct!

Click to expand...

Sorry to hear about your injury. Wish you a speedy recovery. When a person is tired and rides over your head is when injuries usually happen. Good luck

yeh but he moved his head just in time bill :twisted: :twisted:

regards

Taffy

Parsko's Regular Camera Pics

Parsko's Camera Phone Pics

A report will come soon. Wanted to get the pics done first.

I had an awesome time!!! Very tired, must go to sleep now.

-Parsko

Just got back to the old homestead here in Texas, what a great time in AZ. Bigbob, Yes 11 miles although sandskipper's OD had it at 10.6 going down and 10.5 coming back(to be precise). And not just sand,BB size gravel, baby-head boulders, GIANT boulders, solid rock canyon walls and not just one big wash sometimes three different washes one all sand one all rocks and one a mixture. Coming back up was the highlight of the day for me, just Cheesebeger in-front,staying just out of his dust but at times being able to see him helps set up the next turn, or change of line,that dude is fast. My top speed in the wash was 62 mph a bit scary thank goodness for my Scott's stabilizer. Oh yea I forgot bushes with thorns,cactus with thorns and Dale &Rick roosting me with gravel on the way down. (my fault both hands went numb holding on to tight and did not pull over far enough to let them by).I am sorry I was only able to ride the one day, but I've spent enough time at the Dr. because of this DAMN knee it would just not work on Saturday mourning. Big thanks go to Berger and Splat for everything going so well, as jason sez "YOU GUYS ROCK" :salute: Frog sorry about your arm, get better soon.

The trail (berger insists that is was a jeep road) up to the town of Crown King at 7000ft with big rocky uphills and neat rocky washes was great. Having a flat front tire for the last 12 miles of it was a bummer though. That trail and 11 Mile Wash made the price of admission well worth the trip.
Thank you Ken and thanks to Brian for the pit stops.
Dez

thanks to ken for organizing the "funnest" ride i've been on in awhile. having the opportunity to sweep the c group gave me the unique advantage of being able to ride relaxed (just out of jsons dust) or fall back and blitz for a short time (short time- the way i like it). i think everybody got a taste of the different types of az riding.
i especially want to thank nic for agreeing to fall at the 11 mile wash so i didn't have to ride it back (the older i get the less i like washes- or is that washing- whatever).
good group of guys...glad you all had a chance to meet me. :wink:

ned

Thanks Ned.
I just want to thank you and Brian for all of your help. You guys were key componants to making this event run as smoothly as it did (not that it was perfect mind you).
One or two more of these rides and I think we will have it all figured out :wink: .

Thanks to everyone else for showing up and trying to have a good time. I think you all played very well together. I think one of the keys was having the groups split up by ability. Just a little something for anyone.
I want to thank Randy Gilmore for taking time off work to lead the A/B group. Randy is not a member of the site but was a long time Husaberg mechanic at Premier in Phoenix.

Thanks to everyone for helping out. I think everyone brought something to the table (no pun intended bergdude, that was great Bar B Que)

It was a great mixture of riders, young to old, fast and slow, east coast to west coast and everything in between. It really opens up alot of options for future rides.

Last but not least, thanks to his eminance(shwim) for making an appearence and keeping the site up and running all of these years. Thats what really makes everthing possible.

Cheers everyone!!

P.S. Get well soon froggy!!

Well I have to agree, we were blessed too, just like for the Moab ride and I wish I had ridden the last day and tried the harder, "B" ride this time to test the new and improved Froggy skills... or maybe just relaxed on the road to the 4 Peaks.

Anyway, here are the news about my fracture. I walked in the ER at 7pm and waited there in pain with the rest of the crowd until 11pm, when they realized I truly was in pain because I fainted in the X Ray room. They also did not understand that I fell with a dirt bike (motorcycle) and kept thinking it was a mountain bike accident, which made them wonder how I managed to get beat up so badly. Because I had extensive bruises all over the left side, they gave me all sorts of X-Rays and CT-Scans.

Now for the good news: I will not need any surgery or even any cast. The fracture did not go all the way through and is already healing, the pain slowly receding. In 4 weeks I should be able to do most basic stuff and start running and do more physical stuff in 8 weeks. I just have a nice "big fat bad bruise" to show off:



Sorry, you were at lunch? :lol:

:eep:

DAMN THAT HURTS! just looking at it....