Superstition - awesome!

[tntmo 898]

My son (Aaron) and I hit the road at 0530, pretty early but I like to start my rides when the sun comes up so I can be home to drink a beer or two when the sun goes down. We had our usual gas station breakfast and got out to Superstition a bit before 0800. We stopped at Golden Acorn casino on the way out to get some gas and it was freezing cold, the desert was bit warmer but there was a chill in the air. The area was almost empty, I have never seen so few people out there. I would bet there were less than 50 campers out there, only about ten at the base of the mountain. I love it when an area isn't crowded. We started off loading and papaalex showed up with his awesome KTM. We waited around a bit to see if dirtdame would show and started getting our gear on. Here's my son in the holiday spirit.

My son was whining a bit that it was cold, but by the time we got started it was warming up nicely. Since the desert was.....umm, deserted, I let my son lead the ride for a while. He really likes the hills over by the dip so he took us that way. Alex and I were working hard to keep up with the kid, he has no fear I guess. We got through the hills and over to the dip, maybe about ten campers there also. Messed around a bit there and headed north toward the edge of the bombing range. We stopped at the tank for a minute and then followed a wash over to the east edge of the mountain range and the small dunes there. My son doesn't have a lot of sand dune experience so I figured we would just play on the edge but he jumped right into it. We were all carving it up for a bit. Here's a crappy picture of Alex, excuse my poor photo skills.

Aaron bombing across the face of a dune.

Alex and Aaron

Since Aaron was doing so good I decided to give it try riding into mountain dunes. We headed up a decent sized sand hill and he was right on my backside. He was pretty proud I think, I know I was. He did great.

I know Alex really likes the sand, and Aaron said he was having a blast so we played around in the sand for a while longer. We kept making tracks up to the first set of towers and down a steep sandy/rocky trail. Darn kid did better than both of us on that trail I think. We got a good view of the Salton Sea from up here, it was a beautiful day. Alex checks it out.

The little KX100 was getting hot from all the sand so we took a breather and then headed out of the sand.

We came to the base of the mountain and headed out toward the plaster plant. We made it about halfway there and cut across to the edge of the prison. We cut through the hills at the northeast edge of the prison, then toward the whirlybird and over to the dry lake bed on the west side of Wheeler Road. My son wanted to see if the jump we built at Thanksgiving was still there. Not only was the jump still there, the fire pit we made was still there and the coyote skull I found was there too.

After a few passes on the jump we booked it over to the trucks and took a break. Aaron decided he was done for the day so we started loading up. Alex let me take his bike for a spin, nice machine. Loaded up the bikes and called it a day. It wasn't a long ride or a difficult one but it was just what the doctor ordered. You can't beat the weather or the lack of a crowd that was out there today. See you on the trail next time.

[dirt dame 561]

Sorry, I overslept.... AGAIN. Sounds like it was a plenty nice ride, though. Had to be warmer than where I was riding.

[tntmo 898]

Sorry, I overslept.... AGAIN. Sounds like it was a plenty nice ride, though. Had to be warmer than where I was riding. :pilot:

No worries, I figured you probably slept in!

Good that you got a ride in anyway, even if it was chilly.

[grantzilla 0]

Good write up and nice pics. Let me know if you hit Superstition again anytime soon, would love to get your ol DR in the sand! I love the sand, fall over, bike doesn't get beat up and neither do I for the most part.