[MDairheads] Wacky Story Time

[Mac Kirkpatrick]

Here is a wacky story for you, if you have the time:
About a 6 weeks ago, ago I intended to go to the Airheads Death Valley
Rally in CA, so from PA I flew into Phoenix where I store my R80G/S, and
rode toward Death Valley. I made a stop to see Scott Brady, the owner,
editor of "Overland Journal", in Prescott, AZ, from which there is another
tale that is now unfolding, but that is a story for later. See
https://overlandjournal.com/

I spent the night in Kingman, AZ, where it rained all night. I climbed on
my bike the next day, went out on the highway in the rain and the bike
started to run on only one cylinder, so I returned to the hotel overhang,
out of the rain and attempted to fix the bike. There is a long back story
about how this turned out and I met some great folks who helped me, but I
could not get the necessary parts and ultimately got myself towed back to
Phoenix and the bike taken "toward" Tonto Basin, where it was to be fixed
by Dave Alquist of Quality Cycle Service. (Failed coil.) A good Samaritan
and fellow BMW "airhead" owner helped me with this towing. Much thanks Jim
Marsh!

BUT, there's a catch: one cannot get to Tonto Basin UNLESS the river is
flowing below a certain cubic feet per second, because one MUST cross this
river to get to Tonto Basin.  The school kids cross the flooded river to
get to school using a massive ex-Army 6 by 6 truck. In the summer the river
often has NO flow!

SO my bike was stored in a storage unit across from Tonto Basin until the
flow lowered sufficiently for Dave to come get it; that happened several
weeks ago and the bike has now been fixed for a few weeks.

BUT in the meantime, it snowed and rained, and the river flow rate came
back up and my bike was cut off from the world, and me! I was contemplating
"no bike for the trip to Mexico!".

I fly back to Phoenix on Mar 12 to hopefully pick up my bike and ride into
Mexico with the NorCal BMW Club, AND thankfully, it seems like the river
flow rate is coming down.

Click on the link below and scroll down to see the chart showing
"Discharge, cubic feet per second", where it now shows the flow rate
becoming low enough. Pretty cool, but not when your bike is held hostage!

Hopefully Dave will now be able to use his big-tired, raised-up Jeep and
trailer, to ford the river with my bike and take it back to Phoenix where I
will pick it up. Dave has been very helpful!

Thus the subject of this email being "Wacky Story Time". This kind of stuff
will keep you up at night; hey, a motorcycle trip is in peril!

>From Dave Alquist a week ago, the awesome technician for my bike, who is
located in Tonto Basin, AZ:
I think maybe the Tonto Creek will subside enough for me to trailer the
bike across by the 11th, I'll keep you posted on the stream flow. If you'd
like, I've attached the website for  "Gage Station For Tonto Creek Above
Gun Creek" from the USGS, look for the "discharge, cubic feet per second"
graph. I can safely cross below 700cfs. It's at 2600 cfs right now, down
from 3500 last night. That's like 3500 people dumping buckets of water into
the creek every second! It's all about the snowmelt in the high country
north of us.
 Dave
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/az/nwis/uv?site_no=09499000
USGS Current Conditions for USGS 09499000 TONTO CREEK ABOVE GUN CREEK, NEAR
ROOSEVELT, AZ <https://waterdata.usgs.gov/az/nwis/uv?site_no=09499000>
Welcome to the NWIS-Web for the Arizona Water Science Center The majority
of USGS Gaging Stations are funded though a cooperative program between the
USGS other interested agencies.
waterdata.usgs.gov


Mac Kirkpatrick
Glenmoore, PA

"After all, what is adventure, but inconvenience, properly regarded?"
C. Donahue