Dan Diego 40 Posted May 23, 2016 Pancho and Lefty Play the hits of Charley and Ewan: The Dans take the Leisurely Way Eastbound ”Man, I gotta get away. This job has been sucking lately.” “I hear ya, brother. Where to?” “I’ll think of something. Be at my place at noon tomorrow.” And so on Saturday I headed to DanRider’s place for a mystery ride, thinking about where we might ride/camp. Big Bear? Idyllwild? The Hillbilly Haven north of Lake Henshaw? My only caveats were: Limited highway and back by noon on Sunday. Pulling up to Dan’s place, I could see he was ready to ride. “Yuma,” he said. “No slab!” said I. He nodded, hit the throttle and we were off. The route was Valley Center, Rincon, the 76 to San Felipe Road, the 78 to Ocotillo Wells (where we stopped for a cold one at the Iron Door), Westmoreland to El Centro via the 111. Then the I-8 to Winterhaven where we stopped for Mexican chow before fueling up and heading to Picacho Road. It was 18 miles of a fun gravel/sand road to the Picacho State Recreation Area. There are quite a few burros in the area and I saw a mother burro and little burrito along the way. At the end of the road was a well-maintained campground right on the pretty Colorado River. There was only one other occupied campsite so we paid the fee and chose a place near the water and the showers (yes, there are HOT solar showers). We set up camp, broke out the stogies and tequila and commenced to relaxin’. We quickly dispatched Dan’s tequila (the last of the Frida Kahlo) and started on my Patron. The sun went down and the full moon came up, lighting up the campground like a streetlamp. We sat and talked about bike stuff and work and retirement and other Very Important Subjects. After solving the world’s problems, we retired to our tents, like Old Guys are prone to do. Neither of us had put up a rain fly and I drifted off looking at the starlight display. On a related side note, I recently bought a compact cot and I’ve used it twice now. (OutAd Ultralight Camp Cot, a Chinese knock-off of the ThermaRest one: See my Amazon review here: http://www.amazon.com/OUTAD-Aluminum-Ultralight-Moisture-proof-Stretcher/dp/B019OFR68K -- yes, it IS that purple) I gotta say, it’s quite an addition to my camping kit. Could I live without it? Sure. But I’m at that age where comfort takes a back seat to minimalist camping. I slept so well that I’ve pretty much made up my mind to keep using it. We were up and having coffee by 6:30. As we sipped on the java, there were some vultures eagerly eying the chubbier rider in our group. Nuff said… A nice park employee stopped by to chat with us as we were enjoying the cool morning and she recommended that we take an alternate route back. Pointing to our bikes, she asked, “Those things have 4-wheel drive, right? Cuz’ you’ll need it to get to the really good places…like Taylor Lake).” That sounded like a fun challenge, but, alas, it was not to be. I had to get home by noon for a family function and couldn’t do any more exploring this weekend. That’s OK, it’ll be our next 2 or 3-day ride… We packed up and headed home riding quite a bit faster on Picacho Road on our way out. We hit the I-8 and slabbed it all the way back through some blowing wind. Good for green energy, not great for ADV bikes… Of note, I waved at a group of bikers coming up fast on my left. They waved back as they passed us and it was only then that I saw it was a 6 pack of Hell’s Angels. Shortly after, a much larger group of them passed us…and they waved, too. Interesting. Maybe I’ll join up. Start a 3-pice patch HA dual sport club. Yeah, I can see it now: SDOMGAR. OMG indeed. Dan peeled off at the 67 and I was home right at noon. Nice, quick camp/ride. Already making plans to head back and see the rest of the area. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
danrider 5 Posted May 23, 2016 WE GOTTA GET OUT OF THIS TOWN! Diego and I had been feeling a little bit edgy and needed to be free for a short time from the worries of the job and life, so that called for a ride and camp trip. We had one day to burn and one night not to be sober. All week I had been checking for a place up north to go camping Idyllwild, Big Bear, Lake Arrowhead, spots all taken, I know pirate camp up north. Talk about last minute, check weather wind howling in north mountains, so I put plan B in to motion by the seat of my pants. Picacho it was! We took of from my pad at noon and headed out the back way to Ocitiowells through Lake Henshaw to our first resting spot for the motorcycles and that was the Iron Door. After the bikes got rested we made our way to Yuma for our next resting spot. Diego asked over lunch/dinner in Yuma, think we will have a spot, oh I think so and if we don't plan C will be to pirate camp. We where good to go. We aired down for our trek into Picacho for a 18 mile marble gravel road. The trip in was quite the scenic views of all the mountain range, once we got into the camp the stress of the last two weeks melted away. We setup camp and proceeded to have some fine spirits along with two cans of Vienna Sausage for dinner over a full moon spotlight. It was like a endless summer at Picacho with the full moon and a nice cool breeze off the river. We crawled into our tents and watched the stars as we drifted into a good sleep for the night. I am glad we went to this campsite because it just was perfect with the weather and all! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wierdrider 187 Posted May 23, 2016 Sounds like a Grrreat getaway!? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Oracle 195 Posted May 23, 2016 Ha, ha, ha...I think we passed each other on the 78 on Saturday. I was heading west with another guy, both on our 530 EXC's, looping back to our trucks at Pinyon. I did a double take and thought, hey was that the Double D Riders... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dan Diego 40 Posted May 23, 2016 22 minutes ago, Oracle said: Ha, ha, ha...I think we passed each other on the 78 on Saturday. I was heading west with another guy, both on our 530 EXC's, looping back to our trucks at Pinyon. I did a double take and thought, hey was that the Double D Riders... I did see you guys ride by! (NOT the HA patched riders, right?) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
