To go where no man has gone before (no sensible man)

The adventure crews went in different directions today.  The Commander took off with some new made friends to hike part of the Arizona trail.   Kadizzle set out with Len to ride far into the back country on two identical Yamaha's.   After unloading the cycles, we blasted down the road until we found the road leading far back into the mountains.  It turned out to be the first day of javalina gun hunting.  The desert was full of pig hunters.  As we got farther in, people quickly disappeared.  The roads are extremely rugged and difficult to negotiate with anything.  When you start up a hill, you dare not stop or you will never get going again.  Len carefully prepared printouts of our route and the expedition went pretty well. Kadizzle had made this run last year, and had a pretty good idea of how to navigate the back roads.  At the summit, Len was confused about where we were, but Kadizzle assured him he knew the way.

Luckily from Kadizzle's past ride through the area, the two of us decided to reverse the direction Kadizzle went last year.  The whole route is treacherous, but the very worst part is a steep canyon one descends into and hopes to get out of.  These trails are so steep and full of loose rocks that  going down is often harder than going up.  On the way into the canyon, Len had a spill, but recovered.  Kadizzle struggled, but reached the bottom with no crashes.   Thinking it best to get it over with, Kadizzle just headed up the other side.  To his own amazement he could see he was going to make it to the top.  Then the motorcycle started to sputter.   Kadizzle first though he had some how run out of gas.  The motorcycle finally did stall, but Kadizzle restarted it.  After another ten feet it quit.  Kadizzle's favorite jacket had become entangled in the wheel and locked it up.  Although ruining the jacket was a tragedy, it was very fortunate that this happened after the worst part of the climb.  Had the cycle come to a stop on the steepest part, it would have been a nasty disaster.

Out of the canyon, we looked for our second Indian ruin of the day. Before we descended into the canyon we found the first one.  Len did a great job of spotting the ruin.  The ruin was a surface site, and  very hard to see.  Kadizzle said he would not confirm it as a site until we found pottery.  Len found a piece that would pass the test, and Kadizzle found a nice small piece of black on red to confirm it was a site.   The second site was never found, but Kadizzle feels sure he knows where it is.  Kadizzle went up the canyon, and found a spring and the ideal spot for habitation.   Another trip and more investigation will have to be done.  One the way back to load the cycles, the first rattlesnake of the year was spotted crossing the road.  Now that the snakes are out hiking takes on a new dimension.