Day 7 April 19th, 2003
| Don was riding to Phoenix this morning to catch a jet home. We will miss his company greatly. He stayed around for awhile as he had a little extra time and I was pretty sick and didn't know if I could ride. I laid around for about 2 hours making trips to the john about every 5 minutes---sometimes sooner. I was wanting to go riding, but how was I going to deal with this ?? Finally we took off------after I stole about 3 rolls of toilet paper from the motel---sorry Primrose. As it turned out this almost wasn't enough--what a day. |
|
Our mission should we accept---ride our motorsickles all the way to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. We accepted not knowing what consequences would be awaiting us. It wasn't in our original plan to go to the Grand Canyon as me and Kenny went to the North Rim last April on our bikes--by way of secret Indian information !! But after good advice at the Primrose motel we headed for Peach Springs, Arizona on old historic route 66. Here is the old "Stagecoach Motel". |
 |
|
In Peach Springs (a very small town) which appeared to be occupied only by people of Indian heritage right on the edge of the Halupai Indian reservation-----we paid a small fee for a permit to access the reservation lands. |
 |
| Here is the beginning of the ride down----this may be the most scenic ride on the face of the earth---or least we thought so this April day. |  |
|
It was a 21 mile ride down to the Colorado River. We had altimeters in our GPS's and we dropped approximately 3,800ft. in elevation from Peach Springs to the river. I rode slow and Kenny rode slower trying to soak all of it up------this once in a lifetime opportunity. Usually you see a lot of switchbacks when dropping elevations quickly but oddly there were none. Just Down !! |
 |
| Mark Sampson and his trusty, dusty KLR650 going where few men go. OK----this is my favorite picture !!!! And a sunny cool 58°. |  |
|
We rode right in a clear water creek sometimes coming down between the steep narrow canyon walls. Sometimes the water would be almost a ft. deep and fast movng which made you think the water may get to deep before you got to the river. |
 |
|
Here we are at the Colorado River. Looks pretty tame here----but at other places the rapids are fierce. Last year me and Kenny took our pictures at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon after an Indian girl told us how to get there on an obscure little dirt and snowy road as the main North Rim road wasn't opened up yet. And now we are at the canyon again this year---about 100 miles downstream. We thought we would have views of the higher canyon walls here but smaller canyons blocked the view to them. |
 |
| The sun was setting and you can see some rapids further down the river. I like this picture because the girl in the picture looks like an Indian girl sitting by the river with her black hair. She wasn't Indian at all --she and her husband were on a tour from Las Vegas I think. It seems others are finding out about this little getaway. |  |
|
The 2 very dark skinned fellows checking out our bikes and equipment were from India I think, and were very interested in our trip. The 21 mile ride back to Peach Springs was just as spectacular as the ride down. It was a different view going back. Me and Kenny had a great feeling of accomplishment coming down to the river--as neither of us thought it possible. Back in Peach Springs there was a very nice Motel with an in house restaurant where we spent the night. |
 |