This last tuesday, Kim & I met in Sedona, & rode out to Clarkdale to meet Tom for the start of our ride. We were doing a loop in the verde valley, starting in clarkdale & going up to sedona. Tom came over mingus mountain & down into the verde valley through jerome.. over a chilly 8k' mountain pass.
From Clarkdale. The bikes: Kim's klx250, my wr250x, & Tom's wr250r. All of these bikes are highly modded & most are very clean & scratch free.
Here's a video clip of me following Kim up sycamore pass toward the sedona red rocks.
More video.. We did some bike swapping here. I'm on Kim's klx, Tom is on my wrx, & Kim is on Tom's wrr.
A nice rocky section of trail toward loy butte..
We got to an overlook of loy butte.. there were some ruins along this mountain, & we were going to check them out.
Everyone decked out in their matching riding gear.. Kim, Tom, Scotty. We were planning on having a vote for the best dressed rider.. cast yours now!
Tom flexing his muscles to look like a body builder.. good thing there's some nice scenery to distract our view from Tom & his monster bike.
Kim double checking my gps readings with his trusty paper map.. but he thought we were about 30 miles west of where we actually were..
The ride to the ruins parking. This is the Honanki ruins.
We decided that it would be cool to see the ruins. I've lived in sedona for 25 years & haven't seen these ruins.. i guess they weren't going anywhere. Anyway, we saw them this day. They were pretty cool.. you could get much closer than with many other ruin sites. So we hiked the loop to the ruins.. about 3/4 mile, with some climbs up.
There was a tour group there, & Kim thought they might ask Tom if he was there during the construction of the houses here..
Tom claimed he didn't work on this job.. or maybe he just couldn't remember.. memory is a funny thing.
The hike back to the bikes.
It was now about 2pm.. we hadn't had lunch, which is always the highlight of any of our rides. We still had a couple of hours of riding to do, so we thought we'd better get geared up & go. Kim was fiddling with something in his tank bag. He kept pulling out his cell phone & looking at it. It was off. Finally, i went over & asked him about it. I admired the new phone, then put it back in the bag. He reached in & pulled it out again, asking if it was mine. I said no & put it back. He got it out again. Then he started asking what was going on.. he felt very loopy, like he was dreaming. Tom & I decided to take our helmets off & sit for a while with Kim. We got some trail mix & some water for him to drink. He didn't know where we were, & repeated himself several times. We chit chatted for a bit, then Tom suggested i ride home, get my truck & come back. I left, telling Tom not to take any chances & call 911 if he didn't improve.
I called Gail, Kim's wife when i got into town & left a message on their machine. It took me over an hour to get home, get my truck & start back. Gail called me when i was going down the dirt road to where the bikes were. Tom had called 911 & the emt's had come & gotten Kim. Tom was waiting at the bikes. When i got there, it was after 4pm & the sun was hanging low. We loaded up both bikes & got off the dirt roads. Gail called again & let me know they were at the sedona medical center, so we decided to stop there & visit. Kim was still loopy, but knew everyone. He wondered if he crashed & kept asking questions to try to put everything back together. The docs did some tests & ruled out stroke & other more serious possibilities. They concluded it was 'transient global amnesia'. I had never heard of it, & evidently it is a rare condition. They sent Kim home that night, with his memory the same.
It's been a couple of days, now, & it appears that's what it was. He has some more testing to do with the neurologists, but they seem convinced it was just a short term memory glitch. He remembers previous events, now, & everything from today & yesterday, but everything from the ride day is fragmented & dreamlike.
Kim seems normal now, & we're all optimistic that it is over.
Except for the medical emergency, it was a great ride. The verde valley has some nice winter riding, with some great views. We'll have to do it again, soon, so Kim can remember it.
