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Big GS Weekend in Crown King Being active on the BMW GS board at advrider.com, Jim put together a "burning liberal" weekend event that brought more than 15 riders together from across the country. Since most of us would be crashing at Jim's cabin (well, not literally), I headed up to Crown King after work on Friday evening. The initial ride up was great -- there wasn't much traffic and the setting sun made for some very scenic desert images. However, once I reached Cleator, traffic on that dirt road became a real bother. I had to pass one truck after another (most with trailers) that collectively created a perpetual wall of dust. Now, when you combine dusk with dust, you end up with pretty poor visibility. But after passing the sixth or seventh truck, I finally had the road to myself again. (Little did I know that my sleeping bag had bailed off partway up. Luckily, one of the guys in our group saw it sitting in the road and brought it the rest of the way up -- thanks, Ryan.) Once at Jim's cabin, I met a slew of GS riders, most for the first time. The BMW guys had by far the greatest showing, with about 10 of the big bikes running around up there. Naturally, most of the night was spent swapping stories and other BS around a fire (always a great way to spend an evening). The next morning, we all headed out for a ride on Senator highway - a fun dirt road that runs from Crown King to Prescott. But the group didn't get more than a couple miles before the first crash. One of the GS riders hit some rocks and went down, only to have a second GS come crashing down on top of him. I was next on the scene, so I made sure the riders were OK and helped them pick up their bikes. They seemed OK, so I continued on to the first checkpoint. (It turns out both of these riders decided to turn back after the crash.) After everyone regrouped at the checkpoint, I heard about another GS crash. Again, the rider was OK, but he also decided to turn back. Being on one of the "small" bikes (we're talking relative here), I settled the KTM into a nice pace up front with Steve and his KLR. Senator hwy has a LOT of nice "S" curves that allow you to really get into a groove. After a couple of additional group checkpoints, we made it into Prescott and took the always incredible stretch of pavement over Mingus mountain into Jerome for lunch. Although I was having a blast with all of these great riders, I had to cut out and head home from there. To all the guys I met that weekend -- thanks for the great ride and conversation. Until next time... (I was having way too much fun to stop and take pictures, so I only have a few shots of the trip.)
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