Day 10 - Gilbert, AZ to Prescott and back via the Tonto National Forest 

313 Miles

The most descriptive way to start today's comments is a simple OMG!  What a great day!!  A great ride, new friends, outstanding scenery and preview of tomorrow's shared ride with Denise.  What more could a person ask for?  Oh yes, ending it with our newest family members.  Yeah, a great day indeed.

When we started talking about coming out to Gilbert, a good friend of a good friend came up in conversation and invited me to lunch in Prescott.  Quang Nguyen is a Vietnamese American who came to America as a child after the fall of Saigon.  (I'll probably get this wrong but you'll get the idea.)  From his time in South Vietnam, "Q" has had a strong bond with Marines and I met him through a retired Marine distro I'm on.  Anywho, Q invited me to lunch if/when I got here and I happily obliged.  He also invited several other former Marines and one was foolish enough to join us.

I rode up to Prescott mostly by interstate.  I got out of the house a bit later than I had intended and had to hyucka as quickly as legal.  ;-)  When I arrived I was also introduced to Ray Gormley, a former Marine door gunner.  Ray rides a Harley so we had some good talk about biking as well.  Q talked about some of his memories from back in the day, as well as his plans to go back to teaching at the college level.  We pray it all works out for him.  Ray and I talked a bit about time at Camp Lejeune and riding.

Ray, me, Q

Uh, still Ray, me and Q

(The guy who took our photo asked us if we were going to smile or try to act tough.  Looks like we chose both.)

Q

Ray

I happened to mention that I was thinking about riding back to Gilbert by way of Pine, AZ and both Q and Ray told me I had to do it because it was a great bike route.  They weren't joking.  We finished up our lunch, saved most of the world in our conversation and we all had to get back to family.  During our goodbyes, Q mentioned he had family reasons to come east next year and I heartily invited him to get in touch when he did.  With that, we all hugged and I headed back to Gilbert.

As soon as I headed out of town on US69, I had to break out my camera.  The scenery was outstanding.  I wish the pictures just once were as good as what I was seeing in real-time.

After I crossed I-17 from US169 to US260, that's when it really got good.  Riding from Camp Verde, to Strawberry, Pine, Payson, through Tonto National Forest and through the Four Peaks Wilderness area, past  Saguaro Lake and the Salt river, the ride was up and down hills, through short canyons and excellent curves.  I honestly couldn't have asked for a better return ride.  Even better, this is the route we'll take tomorrow on our way out of Gilbert up to Sedona to kick off our return trip.  I'll hate leaving, but if we have to at least it'll be along another beautiful route.

Here are the photos from that stretch, and yes I know, I took too many:

That's enough for now.  My heartfelt THANKS! to Q and Ray for sharing time and stories with me and for giving me such good advice on the return ride.  Prescott, hmmmm.  Nice place.  Something to think about.