fudgypup
Pack Dog
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2013
- Messages
- 226
- Reaction score
- 8
- Bike
- BMW R1200GS Adventure
A few years ago, Touratech USA and Butler Maps did this route across the state of Washington (located in the Pacific Northwest of the US) that attempted to cross the entire state mostly on back country dirt roads. Of course, Touratech was hoping it could sell a bunch of protective after market parts for fat old white guys like me (I'm "big boned") who dreamed of doing an adventure like this. Needless to say, it took off quite well and became a popular trip to take.
Since then they have embarked on creating new BDR's for most of the spacious Western US states that still have lots of open space like Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Arizona, New Mexcio, etc... You can check out their site (backcountrydiscoveryroutes.com) and see for yourself. I did Colorado last year and can post a report of that one later.
This time it was the state of Arizona, where I actually grew up. I was born in CA but raised in AZ (like the movie title). I lived there for 15 years but never really even saw the places I saw just a few weeks ago riding the route. It is set up as a six day route but we did it in five.
This German guy I used to ride with moved up to the Seattle area and told me some of his riding friends there were planning this trip, so I hooked up with them. Six of them from the Seattle area rode their bikes to AZ, which at 1400 miles, is a very long way. It's only about 385 miles for me.
Arizona is known for being VERY hot in the summer. I recall one day growing up the temperature got to 122 (50C). This is why we went in the spring.
I had been looking at last year's COBDR video I did and saw from the number of views my video got that this next one was likely to get quite a few eyeballs as well. I thought why not use that for good, so we decided to do a fundraiser for a charity called "Lost for a Reason." They assist children and families of the Navajo Nation. They are also kind of the official charity of the BDR series and a lot of us riders know who they are and what they do. They have some cool stickers they offer for sale you might be interested in, like their logo with the South African flag. (lostforareason.org). JJ Lewis (headshrinker on advrider.com) came with us as well.
We met at my sister's house in Scottsdale on a Saturday night (May 3). It's funny with adventure riding in that you have never met someone before in your life but if you met to go adventure riding, then there's an immediate bond and it doesn't matter that you were strangers the day before. We had quite a time that night getting to know each other, having some great bbq, swimming and downing a few bottles of wine and beer.
My mom even addressed Ronald's sunburn with some aloe vera
Ronald (Dutch) and Jesper (Dane) enjoying the pool
I changed my rear tire there at my sister's house (because I'm a man)
But the other guys had to go to the BMW dealer the next day to have theirs changed :imaposer:
We set out for Tombstone that afternoon and got this send off picture from GoAZ BMW
Pretty maids all in a row
We got to Tombstone and stayed in a little motel (I wanted to camp). It was Sunday night and most everything was closed. We got to this bar and I hear some idiot say "we don't want BMW's around here..." I was very hungry at that point and not in a great mood and thinking "what a stupid thing to say" and was anxious to meet the guy who said it. As it turns out, the guy who said it was a bit too old and drunk to be taken seriously. So I didn't get my dream of having a shootout at the OK Corral. Besides, they didn't have any food there anyways, so we had to leave and find another place to eat.
Since then they have embarked on creating new BDR's for most of the spacious Western US states that still have lots of open space like Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Arizona, New Mexcio, etc... You can check out their site (backcountrydiscoveryroutes.com) and see for yourself. I did Colorado last year and can post a report of that one later.
This time it was the state of Arizona, where I actually grew up. I was born in CA but raised in AZ (like the movie title). I lived there for 15 years but never really even saw the places I saw just a few weeks ago riding the route. It is set up as a six day route but we did it in five.
This German guy I used to ride with moved up to the Seattle area and told me some of his riding friends there were planning this trip, so I hooked up with them. Six of them from the Seattle area rode their bikes to AZ, which at 1400 miles, is a very long way. It's only about 385 miles for me.
Arizona is known for being VERY hot in the summer. I recall one day growing up the temperature got to 122 (50C). This is why we went in the spring.
I had been looking at last year's COBDR video I did and saw from the number of views my video got that this next one was likely to get quite a few eyeballs as well. I thought why not use that for good, so we decided to do a fundraiser for a charity called "Lost for a Reason." They assist children and families of the Navajo Nation. They are also kind of the official charity of the BDR series and a lot of us riders know who they are and what they do. They have some cool stickers they offer for sale you might be interested in, like their logo with the South African flag. (lostforareason.org). JJ Lewis (headshrinker on advrider.com) came with us as well.
We met at my sister's house in Scottsdale on a Saturday night (May 3). It's funny with adventure riding in that you have never met someone before in your life but if you met to go adventure riding, then there's an immediate bond and it doesn't matter that you were strangers the day before. We had quite a time that night getting to know each other, having some great bbq, swimming and downing a few bottles of wine and beer.
My mom even addressed Ronald's sunburn with some aloe vera
Ronald (Dutch) and Jesper (Dane) enjoying the pool
I changed my rear tire there at my sister's house (because I'm a man)
But the other guys had to go to the BMW dealer the next day to have theirs changed :imaposer:
We set out for Tombstone that afternoon and got this send off picture from GoAZ BMW
Pretty maids all in a row
We got to Tombstone and stayed in a little motel (I wanted to camp). It was Sunday night and most everything was closed. We got to this bar and I hear some idiot say "we don't want BMW's around here..." I was very hungry at that point and not in a great mood and thinking "what a stupid thing to say" and was anxious to meet the guy who said it. As it turns out, the guy who said it was a bit too old and drunk to be taken seriously. So I didn't get my dream of having a shootout at the OK Corral. Besides, they didn't have any food there anyways, so we had to leave and find another place to eat.
