Tucson Folk Festival 2022 and a 650 Mile Moto Road Trip

My eyes are bleary and irritated from the riding miles I racked up yesterday. It's the constant focus on highway conditions, as well as the wind and debris that gets past the windscreen and face shield that triggers it. But well worth the effort. I think the motivation for the effort was to burn off some stressors I'd felt accumulating recently. I know, I have a pretty stress-free life, but in perspective, I do feel stress at times. And getting off on a little trip felt great. I left the dentist and spent the evening at home, getting a few road trip things together. On Saturday I walked down through the Farmer's Market, and over to the Warren Ballpark. I watched one of the Vintage Baseball games with the crowd of kids and parents. It was a bit of a circus, but there was also a bit of baseball. There was a woman calling the game on a PA loud enough to  be heard up in Old Bisbee, but I had a good time. As the afternoon wore on, I knew I still had time to make the headliner at the folk festival in Tucson. I packed up my tent, sleeping bag, and hammock. I didn't bring food, figuring on catching some festival fare and then watch The Watkins Family Hour. This is the brother and sister team and former Grammy winning bandmates of performer Chris Thile, that formed Nickel Creek of mid-2000s fame. I found parking 3 blocks from the stage and just followed the music to the crowd. There was a plate of good BBQ waiting for me, and I found a great spot to set up my little pack-chair. I was only 30 feet from the stage. Sean and Sara Watkins only did one old Nickel Creek song. Maybe just to keep the old Nickel Creek fans entertained, but they are quite far down the road with their own music. I was surprised to hear so much of the old sound in their new music. I bought their CDs and spoke to Sean, (guitar and vocals), after the show. I told him about my starting to flatpick bluegrass fiddle tunes after seeing the Nickel Creek show in Tampa back in 2006. (They couldn't have been more than 20 years old back then!). During the show they described their own process for coming through the bluegrass jam circles in Los Angeles and how they made it onstage as children. It's such a common story of how bluegrass artists come to fame. Nobody I've heard of just picks up bluegrass picking skills as an adult. It was a great show, and I was happy to have made the trip up there. The folkfest crowd is so relaxed and gracious, I don't think I'll ever skip that event again.

When it was over and I navigated my way up 77 to Oracle I peeled off onto the dirt road up the control road to Mt Lemmon. It's mostly paved, but as you get to Peppersauce Canyon it gets a little sandy. I rolled into the National Forrest CG at about midnight and set up my tent in the dark. I could hear my neighbors snoring in their tents and I tried to be as unobtrusive as I could. I slept well and was up at dawn, ready for a hearty breakfast in Mammoth, the next town up Hwy 77. I continued north to Winkelman and then to Globe, I saw great swaths of fire damage from last summer. There was a few patches of green, but many barren areas with scraggly, scorched mesquite trees. 

I started  wondering if I'd head off into the dirt again and around the back of Roosevelt Lake to Young. Young was near where I'd camped among the bears last year. I rolled the dice and decided to take a nice ride through Tonto National Forest and up to Hwy 260. I wasn't as happy in the dirt as I'd have been with knobby tires, but the loose terrain was manageable. I tipped the bike over in a gully trying to navigate a washed out trail at the Gila River. I managed to right the beast and get down to the river. It had wonderful flow and I found a spot to just sit and listen to the rapids gurgle. Ahhh...peace. When I got to HWY 260 I had to decide on either a campsite for the night, or possibly looping back toward home. It was already three o'clock and the GPS read a 5 hour back through Payson and down to the 202 through Phoenix. Phoenix was definitely not in the plan, but I did decide to head home. The trip east to Alpine and down 191 through Morenci was an option, but would have been a 10 hour trip through the twistys at night. I settled on riding west to Payson and back south to Globe, staying east of PHX and then back down 77, the route I'd come north on. This left me with an all-pavement route and maybe a 7 hour trip. It turned out to be a 500 mile day. The ride was uneventful, though I had a couple of food and fuel stops along the way. And of course I was witness to the grand desert countryside. The sun set as I was passing just north of Tucson. It's funny how traveling through areas with snow on the ground up on 260 transitioned into the decent of about 5,000 ft of elevation as I traveled toward Payson and then to Phoenix. I fall in elevation left me stripping away layer after layer of gear as the temps rose from 57F to 75 in about an hour. Watching how the terrain changes from Ponderosa Pine to Saguaro is a stunning. Nature is a marvel to witness. It was a great couple of days, and I hope to get summon the energy for a few longer loops through the mountains as the temps warm. I'm thinking that my commitment Thursdays in Tucson will keep me from taking a major roadtrip over the summer. We'll see how things go.