Update on the Scottsdale Detour

By cajoling and tender tugging, I rode in to GoAZ Motorcycles in Scottsdale at about 3;30. Ian, the service writer with whom I made the appointment, took a look at it, went back to the master technician, and they solved and fixed the problem, we think, by tightening the clutch cable and adjusting the shift lever. It seems to work fine now, and the shifts are much cleaner and pronounced. In fact, they make a very satisfying clunk.

While there, I bought some better fitting and more comfortable gloves. The gloves I bought at the Harley shop are nice, but they have padding in one place on the palms that cut off feeling to my fingers. The newest gloves are softer, and are summer gloves with mesh vent backs, and therefore cooler as well.

Having addressed the mechanical issue, I had to decide what to do. I don't think I'm going to make it to Four Corners this time, as the Scottsdale Detour ate up a day, leaving me one day short. So I rode to Payson, and tomorrow, I have to make a choice. Winslow or Sedona. If I were an adept, I would put voting buttons on here, and you all could make the choice for me. Since I'm not, you can't. Winslow, I think. I really must stand on that corner.

The ride in to Scottsdale was hot and windy, and smokey. But magnificent country, descending by steps from the pine trees of Flagstaff through grasses, then sage, until you see the first few saguaro cactus and then they are everywhere. The pines of Flagstaff and the saguaro of Phoenix, each iconic plants, each representing not only an ecology but a lifestyle as well. Once again, the ride provided vista after vista, pine covered hills, then sage studded hills, then the cactus, like old men waving at each other. Quite wonderful scenery.

I rode north on 87 out of Scottsdale, and the scenery is amazing. The highway heads up into the hills and broken country of the Mazatzal Mountains, through the Tonto National Forest, and down into the Tonto Basin, where I am now. But the broken country in the Mazatzals is unlike any I have seen before. There don't appear to be river valleys, but a jumbled heap of hills and holes with no apparent symmetry or general orientation. Here and there little valleys of a few hundred acres of grassland can be seen, but generally, the valleys are very small. A person could be lost in there and never find their way out. I mean it is hill, hole, hill, hill, hole. Every time you climbed out of one of those holes, there would be another one, and since they don't run in any particular direction, there is no down-hill route out. But very pretty country.

There are 9 wildfires burning nearby, and there are fire crews everywhere. Their equipment appears much newer than that which I have seen in Alaska, and each piece of gear has the team name, usually quite catchy. The team members also wear shirts with the name and team logo-the logo always having fire ir flame as a major element. The names and logos are so similar that to my untrained eye, they look like they all belong to one organization. I glimpsed one of their staging areas and it was very impressive. I think they must be private contractors with the Forest Service because they just don't look like a government agency.

So that's the story for today. More tomorrow.