alfalfa

On 25/04/2026 at 15:22, Buckster said:

Is that the one that goes north through Foster Park?

Yep.  it is our local fun road.

On 22/04/2026 at 09:59, Buckster said:

Agoura hills?

Close, but no ceegar.  It is Hwy 33, from Ventura to Cuyama.   Ventura County's version of Angeles Crest Highway, but with fewer cars and bikes and wrecks.

 

 

From our local and favorite motorcycle road

Let's wrap this up before I get interrupted again!

After Mulege, we overnited in Guerro Negro.  Not many miles, but finished with some good food and some good drinks.

 

They have an interesting graveyard and people go all out building little homes for the dead:

 

 

We stopped at a knife shop nearby.  The knives are all made from recycle steel, cow and deer bones.  They use mostly old car leaf springs for the blades!

 

Breakfast stop in the middle of nowhere, north of Guerro Negro.  Five stars!

 

 

 

One of my favorite sunrises in Baja - Hotel Stella Del Mar, San Felipe!

 

 

We entered back into the US thru Mexicali/Calexico.  One of the best reasons to ride Mexico on motorcycles comes when you have to do a border crossing - bikes go directly to the front.  We only suggest you all dont go to one lane.  Nothing worse for a car driver who is next to go thru than he suddenly finds himself 8 vehicles from the booth!

 

Given the news a few weeks ago, we left Mexico at just the right time.  Several Cartel uprisings took place in Puerto Vallarta and even one or two in Baja.  Things seem a lot quieter now.  Good thing as we have a whale tour scheduled in two weeks, back down in Baja.

 

 

Climbing out of Santa Rosalia and the Sea of Cortez:

 

Didnt notice the floppy tail bag lid until i caught up to them and Ronnie looking for his stuff

 

We stopped next in San Ignacio, ice cream time!   This is the town we usually go whale watching at (which we will do the end of this month!)

 

I have never stayed here, Ignacio Springs BnB, but someday ....

 

 

 

 

The mission in the town square

 

Ice cream! (and Baja 1000 stickers)

 

 

 

 

Soon it was off for another grueling 40 miles or so... 

Lunch!

 

 

Mazatlan:

The trip itinerary included multi-nite stay in Mazatlan due to timing on Ferry schedules to Baja.  That was a good decision as several of the riders were in dire need of manicures, pedicures and maybe even some anal bleaching (I dont know, didnt look).

The palatial BNB near the beach. Four bedrooms, three baths and i got to sleep under the stairs. 

 

I need a better travel agent

 

Walking tour along the promenade:

 

As always, good and inexpensive food:

 

 

Favorite Margarita Bar

 

Ferry time

 

It is an overnite ferry ride to La Paz, in Baja Sud.   Three more security checks and we headed north.

 

First, breakfast with Gary's buddy who lives full time in La Paz:

 

This could be part of the reason for that decision:

 

 

Time for some mileage north.  We did stop for a pic or two.

 

Bahia Concepion is probably my favorite place in Baja, which is saying a lot as there are several great areas.

 

 

We made it to Mulege for the nite.

 

The next morning it was into Santa Rosalia, where a couple of the guys knew of a great bakery.  They were right as the line was long, especially for a not so big town:

 

When you dont speak Spanish, you figure out another way to tell the staff what you want.  Just take picture while waiting:

 

 

 

The next day on the way out of the canyon, leaving the Eco Park behind, we noticed our "guard" was missing.  As well as the couple of other guys.  Even the welcoming crew at the compound was missing.  Weird, I thought.

 

We headed back to Guachochi, on our way to Paral to meet Pancho Villa.  Riding along we started noticing bus and truck loads of Mexican Army, headed to Guachochi.  Well, that explains the disappearance of our "guard".  I believe there is a three-way game between the Govt, Army and Cartels.   As long as the bad boys stay out of trouble, the Govt pretty much leaves them alone.  Especially in the far out of the way places, like Copper Canyon.  But, every now and then, the Govt has to look like it is doing its job so they send in the army.  Of course, the Cartels get warned, so they vanish for a few days.

 

 

 

Not many pics from Paral as something hit my guts at the Eco Park.  Pretty sure it was orange juice from Batopilas, but the internal discomfort knocked me out for a few days.

 

Did get a great pic of the Pancho Villa statue.

After Paral, we headed to Durango for two nites.   Just outside of town is an old movie studio turned tourist stop.  The studio was supposedly built by John Wayne as he filmed several westerns in the area.

 

 

More lobby parking for the bikes.

 

Durango turned out to be an awesome town, untainted by many tourists.  The nite life was fun and abundant, and the town has a very young vibe to it.  Highly recommended. 

 

 

 

 

After two nites in Durango, we headed off to Mazatlan to take the ferry to Baja.  There are two options to get to Mazatlan - one is the toll road, the other the libre.  Google AI has this to say about the two highways:

Highway 40 out of Durango, Mexico, offers two distinct routes to Mazatlán: the modern, fast Fed. 40D toll road (approx. 3 hours, 63+ tunnels, 115+ bridges) and the scenic, dangerous old Fed. 40 "Espinazo del Diablo" (up to 8 hours, narrow, 3,000+ curves). The 40D features the world-renowned Baluarte Bridge, offering breathtaking, fast, and secure mountain travel

 

Guess which one we took?

 

 

 

 

 

 

2500 curves (of 3000+) later, we needed a quick drink and let stragglers catch up.  By this time we were pretty far down in elevation from Durango.

 "Hey!  you cant park there!"

AKA - How do you know you are now in the State of Sinaloa?

 

 

Next - Mazatlan and the Baja Ferry

 

Left Creel after the ice melted off the roads.  About 80 miles to Batopilas, back down into the Canyon.  The road down used to be more of a challenge, but has been paved.  Now, if they would just maintain it.  Although dodging landslides, rock slides, washouts, etc does make it more interesting.

 

Square in Batopilas

 

 

 

 

 

Batopilas is an interesting little village.  Once a mining town, now more tourism related. Not sure how it survives, but have some guesses.  Those are based on the number of expensive, un-licensed vehicles with all tinted windows.

 

But, i could be projecting.

 

Down river from Batopilas is a little village with this mission.  When we pulled up, two ladies showed up to unlock the building and let us tour it.

 

This woman is holding a card explaining she has MS and her medicines are expensive.

 

This lady had lots of $$ and helped build the mission.  She is planted inside of it

 

Near the pulpit there is a tunnel that leads, well "somewhere".  Not sure if it was to the Priest's house nearby, or entertainment chambers below.

 

 

We spent two nites in Batopilas (temps were nicer down there than up on top of the Canyon), before heading to our next stay.  This would not be in a village, but an eco-hotel back down in the canyon.

 

Canyon watching outside Guachochi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We werent chasing them, but we did catch this one.  In Guachochi

 

For our last nite down into the Canyon, we chose to stay at Kokoyome Eco Park.   Eco is short for roughing it.  Although, with Starlink, solar panels and batteries roughing it turns out to mean no crowds, beautiful scenery and your own security guards!

It really pays to let the Eco Park know you are coming and how many in your group.  We headed SW out of Guachochi, turning south of the main highway.  Friendly couple of guys on a block wall, waving.  Thought it was an army compound.

 

It wasnt.  At the end of this second road, prior to starting down into the Canyon, we were greeted by the fellow above.  Not sure how he did it, but that was the largest machine gun we saw during the entire trip.   Never did see what he was guarding, but he was gone the next morning.

 

 

Nice outdoor bar, right on the edge of the waterfall

 

 

 

 

 

Rooms were cut out of the rock, but were comfortable and each had its own full bath.  Score!!

 

 

Great view - Cartel provided

 

 

 

Spent most of January riding thru Copper Canyon, Mexico.  Lots of pics, less words -

 

Met up with two friends near the Salton Sea - Bombay Beach

Bombay Beach is trying to be a little artsy, like Burning Man

 

 

 

 

First nite in Gila Bend, AZ

 

Stopped off in Tombstone, AZ

 

Second nite in Bisbee, where we met up with everyone else.

 

Mostly old white guys

 

Crossed into Mexico through Douglas, AZ.  Made it to first lunch stop after almost losing someone off a mountain (think rainy, dirty roads, leaky semi's and you get KTM Ice Capades)

Hard to find bad food in Mexico, especially at the prices they charge!

 

Overnited in Neuvo Casa Grande.   The next morning we tried to add a little culture to those KTM guys.

 

After choosing a highway not under Cartel "management" we made it to Creel.

 

January may be a bit early for the high elevations of Creel

 

On the way to Urique, down in Copper Canyon.  Temps are warming up.

 

Ran into these guys coming out of Urique.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yep, this is where we be

 

After two nights in Urique, it was back out of the Canyon and back to Creel

 

We overnited in Creel, after meeting up with two riders.  One of the KTMs ate a valve on the second day, coming in to Creel.  Dropped the bike at a shop and then called to another shop in Chihuahua.  They had a GS for rent and would bring it to us and also pick up the broken bike.

 

 

Headed back down into the Canyon, this time to Batopilas

 

 

Great bike security in the little towns.  Just ride thru the lobby and park in the garden

 

Big ass burritos!!  (yes, those are all his beers <G>)

 

Carlos, our guide, is from Chihuahua City and does tours on a part time basis.  Great to have along as he speaks Cartel and Mexican

We did this trip in 2009.  Well, I did but it was with my brother and and our buddy from Tennessee - Jim Bean.  I bring this up as the overall dynamic on that trip was that it was a sight-seeing trip.  One with plenty of stops to enjoy the scenery, first time on some roads.   The majority of the group on this trip has a different take on touring.   One is an Iron Butt Rally fanatic (11 days of 1000 miles per day).  Another has done 1500 mile rides on 2-, 3-, 4- and 6-cylinder bikes. Two others just travel at warp speed, leaving me and Ricardo as the stop and smell the roses type.   Another difference that always comes to play (in an enjoyable way) is that i am a get up in the morning and figuring out today's route, versus some that plan each day to the nth degree .     These differences add to my ride enjoyment, as I like tweaking noses and watching melt-downs by the OCD/ADHD riders.

 

So, Day 1 of the ride for the combined group started off as expected - "where we going?" followed by two seconds of planning on my part and an hour of planning on the parts of others.   My philosophy is we have a destination - Alaska, there are roads there and we should take them.  Which ones?  Well, of course, the squiggly ones on the maps.  Especially nice if they connect interesting things.  Fortunately, most of Canada meets all these requirements, so we just took off north on the two-lanes.

 

Chad's ready for some riding!

 

We were two miles out of town on this road when we came across the first deer, who got frightened and ran into a wire fence, hooking its antlers!  (Ironically, the wire fences are there to keep em off the road).   I stopped to try and rescue the trapped tree rat, but it freed itself and took off across the road, into the other fence!  Fortunately, this time it wasnt trapped.

 

 

 

Lunch stop was in Valemont, as we were headed to the highway to St George for the night.   Unfortunately for us, we were riding with the Rainman, Rob.  Rob's famous for having a storm cell over him, no matter where we ride.  He once broke a 7-year drought in California simply by coming out to visit me.  You may think I am joking, but that is our normal rain pattern - 7-9 yrs of very little rain, followed by a year or two of Noah-esque rain storms.  The day he left my town, the sun came out and stayed out for another 3 years! 

 

Chad is pointing to the Rainman and his handywork.

 

 

With the rain cutting our day short, we stopped in McBride, a wide spot on Canada Hwy 16.  The picture above was taken after Rainman went to bed and his powers lessened.

 

 

The next morning he was back!

This day's route:

As you can see, the route shows a shortish day, but with stops in Kamloops for breakfast and lunch in Valemont, that added a couple of hours.  I bring this up because this pattern had already started to irritate the high-mileage guys 

 

(some may say I did this on purpose, just to irritate em.  some may be right?)

 

 

 

On 26/08/2025 at 11:28, Buckster said:

Supposed to be a motorcycle thread???

On 21/08/2025 at 15:44, Buckster said:

I'll be in America otherwise I would have gone along.

need to extend that wall along the Atlantic Coast....

 

Sad news, for sure    Condolences to all his family and friends.

Back to it....

 

After the weekend at Uncle Tom's Cabin, with the NorCal BMW Club, Gary and I headed north to Washington, to meet up with the guys on this trip.  Two were already at the Touratech Rally in Plain, WA.  One was riding in from Virginia and one more flying in from Connecticut area (after attending a friend's 60th soire.)

 

Here was our route: 

 

Not much to say about this day, other than it was hot!  The motel in Bend did have a nice little patio to escape the heat.

 

This first excitement/challenge of the trip happened the next day as we were approaching the Washington border.   Gary started feeling a weird vibration (BMW owner's can guess) and suddenly pulled over to the side of the road.  I asked him what was up and he said the bike felt funny.  He tried taking off again, but you could hear something grinding.  Usually a final drive, or driveshaft.  This time - driveshaft.

 

He limped back to a small park so we could find some shade and call AAA for a tow.

 

After 3 hrs of waiting and phone calls saying "they should be there in 45 mins", we gave up and I decided to go rent a small U-Haul van.  Of course, as soon as i reached the town of Rufus, on the Hood River, I get a call from Gary saying that the tow truck had finally showed up.  Since the guy had been driving for 3 hours to cover his calls and get to us, we decided to take the tow.  The nearest BMW dealer was in Prosser, WA so I told Gary I would meet him there and get a room reserved.

Not wanting to do normal highway, I asked the lady working the U-Haul office what would be a good way to get to Prosser.  It is always best to ask a local as they know the roads that show up as squiggly lines on the map!

 

This day's route:

 

The fun part is from Goldendale to Mabton, and even included a few miles of gravel road:

 

 

Gary showed up to the hotel about 10.  As it was located right next door to the dealer, he pushed his bike over the first thing in the a.m.  Within 15 mins, the mechanic walks out with the culprit:

 

 

BMW has recently instituted a replacement program for the driveshafts that I dont believe expires as long as you own the bike, so this work was covered under warranty even though the normal 3-yr one had expired.   Funny thing is that driveshafts now cost about $300 from BMW, when they used to cost $1200.  Hmmm, wonder why.

Highly recommended dealership in Washington state.  They had the bike fixed and ready to go within a couple of hours.

 

Back on the road and only a day late to meet up, I let Gary lead.  Forgot he doesnt know how to use his GPS, so this was our route to the Canadian border:

Google would have been a little more efficient:

 

Our stop for the night was in Princeton, BC, where we would meet up with the other 4.

 

Crossing the border should have been quick and easy as there wasnt much traffic.  The only small snag was explaining to the customs official why my bike is registered in Montana and I live in California.  I quickly made up a story about my wife living in Missoula most of the year, while I work in California.  I didnt tell her that I'm not married.  However, it did raise a slight concern when i recalled the guy riding my other GS was from Colombia and was on a bike registered in Calif.   As we didnt have any text messages from those guys, saying Ricardo had been arrested, we figured he crossed OK.

 

CA Hwy 3 runs up a long valley and the temps were down into the 70s (you can figure out the Celsius figure as we won that war in 1776).

 

 

 

We reached Princeton and met the other guys for dinner before going to the motel.

 

Left to right - Gary, Larry, Chad and Ricardo.

 

 

Chad, Ricardo and Rob.

 

 

 

 

 

Some music snippits, starting with one of my favorite Chris Wilson originals - 

 

 

A couple of my SoCal friends has expressed interest in going to AK with us, but the numbers dwindled down to just me and another friend, Gary.   Still on the calendar, however, was a Northern California BMW Club monthly meeting at Uncle Tom's Cabin, the end of June.  This meeting is a campout and is a good one as two of my friends play music on Saturday nite, one of whom was supposed to  have gone with us.  As Uncle Tom's is on the way north (in the hills just west of Lake Tahoe), it made sense to attend it.

 

We left a day early, Thursday, so we could camp near Twin Lakes which is just SW of Bridgeport, CA.

 

 

 

Getting ready for the concert, starring the C&O Medicine Show (Chris and Owen).

 

 

Somehow, Buck's dog made the meeting, but he didnt.

 

 

Yes, have been absent for awhile.  But, I have still be out riding and enjoying retirement.

Earlier this year a couple of us were in Colombia, doing a tour with EpicoMoto.  EpicoMoto is Ricardo Congote, who is one of the best tour guides we have ever come across.  That says a lot.  This year's trip was my third with Ricardo, and we still saw new things.   Anyways, while there we saw another friend, Chad's FB post about going to Alaska, to fulfill one of his bucket list items.   As it has been 16 years since I've visited the state I pretty much grew up in, and that my little sister still in, I jumped at it immediately.

Ricardo has also done tours with Chad before, so it took us all of 3 minutes to convince him to go, too.  Touring in Colombia slows down during our (US) summer months, so Ricardo was available.  I offered him up my 1250GS to ride, as I had dreams of taking Flames back to Tuktoyatuk.  If you know Jesse James and have seen his old show from around 2009, called "Jesse James is a Dead Man", you might recall the Arctic Bike episode.  In that, Jesse rode my 1200GSA on the ice road from Inuvik to Tuktoyatuk.  (turns out he may have spent all of 5 minutes riding and the rest of the time riding in a truck.  But, its TV, right?)

 

 

Ricardo enjoying California margaritas.

 

Ricardo had plans to attend the Touratech Rally in Washington, end of June.  As did Chad.

The rest of us had plans to meet up with those two at the Canadian border, in Washington.

 

12 hours ago, boboneleg said:

The flamemobile rides again , how many miles on it now ?

Over 140,000 miles on her now.  But, she does have a new motor after swallowing a valve a year or so ago.  Now, got to find a windshield and fly back to Alaska and ride south.   Again!

13 hours ago, Buckster said:

Okay, well after a major hiatus we get a photo bomb culminating in a medivac by chopper?

Just like a movie preview 

14 hours ago, Catteeclan said:

Oh shit. Hope alls well.

Relatively.  3 bikes down, with one hurt (but, his bike is ok!)   9 broken ribs!  Cool helicopter ride, tho

Some teasers.....

11 hours ago, Buckster said:

Good to hear from you.

Danke!

 

Been traveling alot.  Now, to figure out which trip(s) to write about 

12 hours ago, Catteeclan said:

Did you hire bikes once there, first pic looks like an airport shot.

Perfect way to keep the floor clean.

Did anyone else notice the re-bar table legs.

Yes, we rent from EpicoMoto.  Ricardo is a great tour guide!

 

That last pic is our new friend, Kevin Bacon.

 

 

On 13/01/2025 at 02:29, Buckster said:

I wonder how @alfalfa is doing? The fires have reached his parish by all accounts.

they were about 20 miles from me, at closest approach.  Been some crazy times here in Cali!!!

 

 

Been out riding (we can do that year round, mostly <G>

 

Just got back from a great week long ride in Colombia, too!