ADVRider West Fest 2007, Sipapu, New Mexico, 3-day group ride/camp for all the FFs.  July, 2007.

This limited report was originated on KLR650.net, and is only a small portion of the full report on ADVRider.com from the many riders who showed up. The limited report is imported here with some editing for structure (due to the import process).  Typos, etc., have mostly been left as they are, fixed only for clarity in some cases.   Martin is the report originator.

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We had a group ride down to Sipapu, NM for the 2007 ADVRider West Fest gathering.

Laurie and I trailered to Salida, Colorado since she had to work late that evening. Once there at Duke and Tami's Adventure Cottage, our hosts and fellow riders (Wally (Tallboy), Scot (Ganshert), Ben (ScrambledBen518 ), and Edward (Geek) met us and helped us off-load in the dark. The next morning came earlier than I wanted.  We had an early breakfast nearby, and we were off!




MountainEagle joined us in Sargeants, after we crossed Monarch Pass, so we were the Fellowship of the Nine. No new tattoos.

We got onto dirt as early as possible, and followed a loose track along the Great Divide Trail. It was mostly easy and scenic.






We stopped often enough for everyone. We were all loaded (to varying degrees...) with camping gear, since we planned a 2-day ride down to Sipapu.






Laurie had her clothes, sleeping bag and pad, weather gear, and a camp chair. I had everything else.






This was Laurie's longest dirt ride, and most of it was at her ability. For the rest, she persisted. She's... persistent that way.






We did some route adjustments along the way, but just kept heading south.










We camped somewhere near the Colorado-New Mexico border and got a good fire going. I carry a folding camp saw for such things as this, and it is often useful. It was a bit dreary, so no pics. In the morning, Laurie side-swiped a tree on the way out of camp and earned a bruised right wrist. It was just as well that she took a pavement detour around the harder dirt to come.

(Update:  A bone in her wrist was later found to be cracked.)

We had been warned about a long, hard rocky section, and several times we thought that we had found it. The next sections kept getting harder, so we were fooled several times. Finally, at the top of a steep track of loose, sharp rocks, we all stopped and cursed for a while. It was fun (Tami here at the top), but it was work.




Imagine this surface at a steep angle with curves and ruts for a long distance. Again, this was near the top where it got easier. Can't stop in the hard spots for photos, you know.




Then it was wonderful, easy, fast forest riding with dust-free roads.




The storms were headed in, and I had to go fetch Laurie where we had planned to meet her. We had to make better time, so it was a plan for pavement as the afternoon wore off. I got beat crazy by hail and buffeting wind, but by the time I got to Laurie, much of the storm had passed. She and I rode back in the rain to our next meeting place for a meal, and I saw flood waters threatening the roads along the way. Everyone else had been pounded by hail, too, and some had red welts to prove it.




We set up our tent near the lodge in Sipapu (a ski resort), and got checked in. I recognized lots of folks from last year, met new folks, too.

The next morning, I joined a small group of riders on an ATV-track exploration, and we got completely lost (which was fine). Once again, I wished I had a knobbier tire on the back, but the Mefo tire managed to do okay in most terrain. It did not do so well in wet, muddy grass, or in slimy mud. Smaller gravel was tough, but it did okay on bigger gravel and rocks. It did okay in sand, too, which was a surprise. My bike there on the left.




When I got back that afternoon, Laurie had relocated our camp away from the lodge, which was a gathering area and the noise was too much for her at 2 a.m.




I saw a matched set of Transalps (from Easter Island, apparently), but I guess I missed who they belonged to. Seems like it should be obvious.




The Striking Viking held court wherever he was, which was to be expected. Glen was easy to meet and talk with, easy to listen to his world travels. His book (Two Wheels Through Terror) was made into a docudrama by National Geographic in 2008. Watch for it. He's got those new rounded Jesse boxes on his bike, I noticed.




That night was the ceremonial de-noob function. All the new people had to get some attention. Since KLRs are held in low esteem (a good-natured attitude, I think... I hope), there were lots of "cheap KLR" awards and ribbing. Here, Augie the De-Noober auctions a used tire to a KLR rider who paid about $7 for it. Bidding started at 25 cents. No, I didn't bid.



If you missed a de-noob trivia question, you had to either eat it (Rocky Mountain Oysters), drink it (whatever evil was in the "teapot"), or wear it (which Ben did here in fun style). It was a pretty sun dress, to be sure. It was raining, of course.




The next day, more of us went exploring the ATV and jeep trails again, and got into much harder stuff. At times, it was desperation that kept my throttle open, not skill. Here, I waited in a meadow while others were catching up (and others were further up the trail).




Finally, we worked out way through more rough trails, some of which were basically blocked off and nearly abandoned. The water bars had been raised to be blockages, and there was a lot of fallen trees (or cut trees) across the road. We soldiered on either over, under, or around the obstacles until it was just no use. Some of the blockages could be gotten around, but the dirt was so soft that my Mefo kept sliding down the hill. If you rode over some of them (such as this one), there was sometimes a deep water hole waiting for you.






The hail and the trees took their toll on my brand new reflective ADV sticker that had been on there for only a week or so. grrrr...




The afternoon was raining again, so I decided to ride up to Taos and shop for mirrors (I forgot to remove mine before slamming into the ground a few times). Before I got to Taos, the weather was clear and bright. After finding no mirrors, I crossed east from there on a nice paved road (64), then south to pick up fire road 76, which is a "must do" for this area. The road was wet in places, only a little muddy, but totally wonderful. This is my first ever self portrait while riding.








On Saturday evening there were the door prizes, recognition awards, and some-serious some-goofy awards ceremony, a highlight of the weekend. It was drizzling again, but not too bad. Too many people and too many awards made the thing drag out a bit too long, honestly. I scored a nice, custom engraved aluminum paper weight with the 2007 ADV rally logo on it, though, so that was cool. All is forgiven.




Sunday morning and everyone made their way home in groups or alone. Laurie had done very little riding that weekend due to her sore wrist, so we took the most direct route back to Salida to load the bikes and trailer home.




Since we were in Salida pretty early, we rode up the Spiral Drive to an overlook on the north side of Salida. Nice town, nice back yard for riding.






Just after we loaded the trailer, it started a huge hailing thunderstorm with lightning slamming down all around us. "Whew," we actually said, "that was perfect timing." Of course, Just as I turned onto US 50, both bikes fell over on the trailer and we had to get out in that maelstrom, unstrap and re-strap them down again. I can only figure that as the straps got wet, they slipped or stretched or something. We were sore from the hail and soaked for the whole drive home.

Oh, well. We had had lots of fun, so the minor "OWies" were worth it.

Next Year? More of the same.