2023-09-01 Puerto Penasco to Kanab UT 553 miles Official miles per our passports

We both probably had a good nights sleep. I did hear the wind howl again, but it wasn’t all night. The next days ride is on your mind which makes it tough to fall asleep. I believe we were up about 4ish. After our routine in the room, we were at our bikes about 5am, with maybe 2 thirds of the bikes in the lot gone. We took off our bike covers to begin to pack only to discover there was sand ever where on the bikes. We finished loading up, turned in our token coin to the guy in the lobby collecting them, and off we went at 5:30 am. It was still dark, and there was some wind and it was still warm but comfortable.

When we start off, there are a few bikes ahead of us and we are somewhat in a pack. Once we get through the town lights, we are on Mex 8, the main road to the border. Still very dark but most of the bikes catch up to each other and pretty soon, it is a long line of bikes – or it seemed that way in the dark. I’m unfamiliar with these Mexico roads here, and I’m hesitant to do much passing with such a line of bikes and it still being dark. There are critters out and I can’t really see the road for any curves, blind spots, pot holes, sand drifts or washouts. I know we only have about 60 miles or less to the border so I just decide to just relax and wait this out. From past three flags I remember it will start thinning out once we cross the border.

As when riding in a group of motorcycles, especially when there are many, the ride in the line is like a rubber band due to everyone riding in a group. Speeds up, slow down, speed up, slow down etc. Just had to be patient for the sunlight and the border crossing. When there was more daylight and you could start to make out the road, we started to make some passes and by the time we got to the border, the line was not long at all. Maybe 10-12 bikes ahead of us. Rick and I lucked out on the border as they opened up another gate just as we arrived so the wait was minimal.

Once we crossed, like I thought, it was cleared out of bikes on the road as a lot of riders started taking breaks, getting gas or stopping for breakfast. We were riding in the 75 – 80 mph range on AZ 85 through Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument Park in the southern part of Arizona.

We continued to ride north on AZ 85 till we hit I-10, which we took east towards Phoenix. The route didn’t go into Phoenix, but skirted Glendale/Phoenix area via 101 to I-17 north to Flagstaff. The skies were generally overcast, with patchy blue areas. There looked like threatening clouds east of us but generally it look like we were going to have a dry day.

I-17 north is a fun beautiful road, a bit crowded this holiday weekend, it was moving but always climbing in elevation for the most part as you head into the Sedona area. We found that riding in the right lane was quicker and could pass more cars that were all in the left lane. I-17 ends at I-40 by Flagstaff, which we take for a short time and get of on AZ 89 north, which takes you the east side of the Grand Canyon. All we had to do was follow the signs for 89 north till sometime past Paige AZ, would would catch 89A through Marble canyon and past the entrance to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

As we continued north in the afternoon, the skies were starting to get cloudier and you could start to see showers off in the distant areas of the desert. When we were in the Phoenix area, it was hot and still humid. As we climbed on I-17 to Flagstaff, it started getting cooler in the higher elevations to about 70 degrees when we were in Flagstaff. After Flagstaff you drop back down into the desert and warm up again, and by the time we get to the 89A/89 junction, it is about 3ish in the afternoon and we could see the rain behind us and just to the side of us.

I pulled off the road to get my jacket on, put my helmet on, and to verify with Rick that there was a gas station somewhere ahead of us as we were probably still about 65-70 miles from Kanab and it would be tight to push it. It starts to sprinkle just as we get going and we head forward to the next gas station which Rick’s gps was saying was 10 miles.

Sure enough, when we see the gas station it starts raining hard. We are under the canopy when we are filling up our bikes and we decide to wait a bit and let this storm push most it’s energy out. After about a 10 minute wait, the rain was light and we continued along, but at a slower pass as we climbed up a mountain and over a pass before we were heading down into Kanab UT to our first checkpoint at about 4:30 pm.

There were some volunteers to guide us into the first checkpoint, which was at the community center in Kanab. It was still a steady drizzle when we got there. There were a handful of bikes in the parking lot when pulled in. We parked our bikes, grabbed our passports and as we made our way towards the entrance, we said hi to the father/son team that sat at our dinner table at the start banquet as they came out. Inside it was dry and as it turned out, this was also the best spread of snacks. There was coffee for us along with oranges/apples/bananas, chewy cookies, and assorted snack bars. We got our books stamped-I asked where we were in placement and they said we were in the top 1/3 as people were just starting to come in.

Our hotel for the night was not in Kanab, but 17 more miles north on AZ 89 at Mount Carmel Junction, which is junction 9 that take you into the east entrance to Zion National Park. This is a familiar stop for us going to Sturgis and I like it as there is a gas station, a Best Western, and the Thunderbird Restaurant all on premise, which is nice after a hard day of riding.

After we checked in, we rinsed our bikes down, not just from the rain but from the dust storm the night before in Puerto Penasco, then cleaned up for a great dinner and what this place is famous for, Ho-made pies.

After our belly’s were full, we made it back to the rooms and settled in for the night as we wanted to get up early for the biggest mileage day of this 4 day rally, which was 610. but we already did 17 of it to get to the pies….

2023-09-01 ride video

Ok, my sis always complain that I never finish a trip blog that once I get home, I stop. Well, she is partially true on that…. So I am going to update and finish this website up of summer travel!

Yes, we have been home for almost a month now since finishing the 3 Flags Classic. So here is a summary of that ride (to the best of my memory).

The previous post was a teaser that we were starting our the next morning and that I wasn’t going to be posting much. Turns out I didn’t post AT ALL. But we did do the ride. The 3 Flags Classic is a rally style ride that happens over Labor Day weekend where the route changes every year, has 4 checkpoints to complete within a specific window, and traverses three country’s – Mexico, US and Canada. This one was the 46th annual starting in Puerto Peñasco (Rocky Point) Sonora Mexico on Friday Sept 1st, through checkpoints Knab UT on 9/1/23, Idaho Falls ID on 9/2/23, Sandpoint ID on 9/3/23 and finally Calgary Alberta Canada on 9/4/23.

08/30/2023

Rick arrived at my house on Wednesday morning, August 30th for our ride to Puerto Peñasco. We wanted to attend the opening banquet on Wednesday night and also get a day to relax before we ventured on 4 tall days of riding. The weather called for a clear day but hot once we went into the desert.

I’ve been to San Felipe many times in Baja and Puerto Peñasco is located on the opposite side of the Sea of Cortez (aka Gulf of California) of San Felipe, but I never been to Puerto Penasco. Our ride started with a nice cool clear ride along the coast as we headed to San Diego, but turn hot and muggy as we started heading east. Even in the mountains that you cross over east from San Diego didn’t give us much relief at elevation – and when we dropped down into the desert 30 miles from Mexicali, the heat and humidity was on!

We gassed up just before crossing the border and I get some intel from the clerk about gas stops going to our destination. Today was also the projected hottest day and we could expect cooler days ahead, although that is no constellation right now…. we could feel the higher than normal humidity along with the sunny weather and 105 degrees in the shade temps, but we don’t ride in the shade. We also had about 190 miles to go and it was 11 a.m.

We crossed the border into Mexicali, and as typical, no stopping at the border, just go through the maze and bumps. So far, the ride is familiar to me as it is as though we are heading to San Felipe, which we are till we need to cut across the top of the Gulf of California. Once through Mexicali, the road to San Felipe is good and fast. I’m thinking we will be at Puerto Penasco in about another 1 1/2 as the roads are probably the same. WRONG!

About 30 miles from Mexicali we turn off of Mex 5 and take Mex 4. Mex 5 to San Felipe is mostly wide open with a very good road and non stop till Mex 3. I though this would be the same, but it was really a bunch of small farm towns we had to go through, looking for the stop signs, watching out for dogs, pot holes and don’t forget the surprise speed bumps that you have no warning for. It was tedious for the next 43 miles and probably took us 1 1/2 as we had to negotiate some turns in these towns.

Finally the towns disappeared but we still had about 120 miles to go in this heat and desert winds that were blowing. We continued for a bit, slowing down for the sand covered areas and the recent washouts on the side of the road from last weeks hurricane remnants. Sometimes almost half your lane was gone due to the washout.

We ventured off our route to go into the town of El Golfo de Santa Clara to gas up (the intel I received from the clerk) where a blind man was pleading for money while I was filling my tank. It was a miracle that after a gave him a some greenbacks that his eyesight apparently came back as he commented how he like my bike.

We continued in the heat, plodding along and being carful of the road hazards as we came across them, contend with drifting sands from the wind and a few construction areas. But the drive started to become interesting as you could see the blue sea off to our right in this desert landscape and as we approached the town of Puerto Penasco you could see a group of high rises rising from the desert along the coast. We topped off our tanks before heading to our host hotel so we wouldn’t have to worry about it.

We pull into the host hotel area about 4 pm and there are quite a few bikes already here. It was still very hot and very very humid. We park and enter the building for check in and we must of looked beat as there was a greeter there with a cooler full of bottled waters and he kept asking if I wanted more water. It was a relief to check into our room that had the AC running and both of us just chilled for a while drinking our water.

We check in for the ride and picked up our passports and other items – a yellow ribbon to tie on our bikes to identify 3 flag riders while we are riding the route, a couple of wrist bands we had to wear (One for the hotel security at Playa Bonita, the other for dinner in Calgary) and we were given a token coin with our number on it that we would turn in the morning we start the ride. The passport was a nice summary of our ride legs, with our picture in it, our ride number and places for a stamp for each checkpoint,

After check-in it was time to head to the pool, where there was a bar and other riders. Even though the pool water was warm, it was nice to relax and have a cold beer while wading in the water. Later that night we had our banquet dinner outside. Rick bought me a Cadillac margarita before we ate, but some time after my 2nd helping of food, that margarita hit me like I got roofied… But it must have been good tequila as I didn’t wake up with a hang over.

08/31/2023

During the night, the wind was just howling! The small crevice in our sliding glass patio door was just howling with a little shaking too. I had washed socks, t-shirt and underwear during the day and had them out on the patio. During the night I went out on the patio to only find my socks and underwear. The t-shirt was down below on the bush. So off I went to get it. While walking out side it was like a mini sandstorm. I retrieved my shirt and heading back I noticed someone’s bike was actually pushed over on its side from the wind! I headed back and went back to sleep.

The morning, the wind was strong but not the sandstorm the night before. We got up and cleaned up for breakfast. While heading out, we crossed paths with a guy from Newport who we met the day before in the pool, and he recommended a place in town for breakfast, so we took a cab there and he was right. It was an excellent place and air conditioned! It was still hot and humid today, but not quite as bad as the day before.

Most of the day was just relaxing, hanging at the pool, and reviewing our stuff for our coming days of riding. For dinner, we again got a cab and went to a place that Jean had memories of going to when she use to come to this oasis in the desert. It was still there!

We got to bed early and decided to get up at 4:30 or 5:00 am and be rolling by 5:30 am.

2023-08-30 Ride video

to be continued……