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Thought I was making progress by Monday (Feb 12) as I could put my full
weight on my bad leg without any pain, although my knee was now swollen
and hurting a bit. One of our neighbours suggested that I should
try magnets. Turns out she sells these magnetic pads that are supposed
to do wonders for chronic pain sufferers. After about half an hour
of wearing this magnetic knee support, I had so much new pain that I stopped
using it and it took about two to recover back to where I was before trying
it.
By Thursday I was ready to try the bike for a first ride. We
loaded it on the truck and headed for the Cow Palace and Mt Hopkins,
about 30 miles south of here on the way to Mexico. Mt Hopkins is
about 8000' and has a Smithsonian Observatory at the top. The map
showed a little dirt road switchbacking up to the peak so we decided to
try it. It was a fun ride with great views but the observatory was
closed to the public for the winter. There was snow at the top so I guess
the road is sometimes snowed in. After the trip we had dinner
at the Cow Palace - the rack on the truck makes it convenient to have your
ride just where you want it and not to have to bother with heading straight
back home on the bike.
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Had an interesting ride on Saturday and felt I was in the middle of a "Cops" TV show. I was heading through the Aqua Dolce Ranch in the Waterman Mountains when I stopped to open a gate that's normally always open. I noticed a couple of police trucks pulled back off the road under some trees. I went over to chat to them (when you are in the middle of nowhere and haven't seen any one for a couple of hours you sort of feel obligated to go over and say "Hello"). I asked them why they were out in such an untravelled area and they said this back road gets used by smugglers, and that's why they had the gate closed.. Well, wouldn't you just guess, at that moment two trucks come barrelling down the track and skid to a halt at the gate, spot then Police trucks and try to do a quick escape. The police trucks go charging out and try to surround them. The occupants of the first truck take off into the desert with the police, guns drawn, ordering them to stop. The other police truck is chasing the other guys through the desert, smashing down cactus, trees, etc. I'm just about to whip out the camera when I wonder if the smugglers have guns and a shootout is about to start. Time to fire up the bike and get out of there FAST !!!
On a previous ride, just before I hurt my leg, I'd met up with a couple
of ATV riders and it turned out one of them was a keen motorcyclist (he
used to own Arizona Honda) and his friends still ride off road bikes.
He put me in touch with his friends and one of them, Gordon, dropped by
to see me on Sunday. He normally rides an off-road BMW (Dakar-type)
bike but decided to visit on one of his other bikes - a Yamaha R1 - this
was the fastest production motorcycle available until recently and probably
does about 180 mph - it's almost identical to the bikes they race in the
Superbike Series. Later in the day, we took my bike to Oracle and attempted
to ride up the old access roads on the 'back' of Mt Lemmon. There
is a regular road up the front which we've been up, but the back way is
really rough in parts but unfortunately was still snowed in - it's the
north side of the mountain and 11,000' high. We went up half way
and then looped around through San Manuel and back to Oracle.
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For more pictures taken during my bike ride on Sunday (March 4) check
out my Motorcycling pages - click
here for a shortcut.
This page last updated on March 6, 2001