cottonwood to crown king, 5/21/08

It was a fairly easy ride, & we didn't take many pics, but i thought i might as well give a ride report.

It was Tom & I on Wed, 5/21/08. We met in Cottonwood at 8am, then rode up fr 361 to the north toward Cherry road. It had some tricky sections, but nothing too tough or long. Here's some pics:


The view to the southeast into the verde valley.

The riders: Tom & Scotty


Once we got past cherry road, we took another side road toward the orme road & 169 intersection. This is a rutted & sandy wash road, but it was also pretty easy.

Tom winding along the granite ruts.


We crossed 169 & took the orme road & Sycamore all the way to mayer. Those are also pretty easy, graded roads. they were washboarded in spots, but we kept a good pace. Tom let me ride his husky 250.. sweet ride. Light as a feather, plenty of power, nimble, & good suspension. I might get one of those when my drz is ready for pasture.

We took the black canyon trail down the hill toward old cordes, then headed to cleator & crown king. This goes through some lower desert. The saguaros were starting to bloom, as well as the ocotillos. Here are my obligatory nature shots:





It was very dusty. It had been in the triple digits in the lower desert the past few days, & now the wind was blowing & gusting all over. I mostly ate Tom's dust, but the wind picked up plenty for him, too. The wind & incoming storm (weird weather for late may, here in az, no?) kept it cool, at least.

We made it into crown king just after noon.. good thing, we were hungry! Tom had a hamburger, i had a rueben. Good food!


It's the crown king saloon's 100th anniversary. the oldest continually operating saloon & brothel in az. After dinner, Tom wanted to check out the brothel part, but i think the ladies were the same ones there when they first opened..

Besides, we still had a long way to go. Heading back to Prescott & points north. The wind made it pretty chilly in the 7k ft range. Before the day was done, i was adding my rain jacket to cut the wind, since i just had a mesh jacket.


Last pic.. Tom at crown king.

Tom has ridden the road from crown king to prescott so many times, he can do it blind folded.. This was only my 3rd time, so i couldn't keep up with him after lunch. But that was fine.. less dirt to eat.

We rode uneventfully through the winding curves & 5-10 water crossings... i did get drenched going through a series of those, but dried out quickly. We came to a fork where Tom went on to prescott, & i headed over toward prescott valley, then took 169 to I-17, then home to sedona. It was about 5:30 when i got home, with 180 miles on the odo.

I got to try out some saddle bags i had ordered. They are mad dog gear from rocky mtn atv, $35. They aren't very big, but hold rain gear, a big powerade, some tools, & room for other small stuff. They velcro to the side of the bike (sticky velcro tape to the plastic). I'm planning a couple week ride up into utah this summer & it looks like these will help carry a little more stuff than the tail bag. I'll give them a dry run to the grand canyon in a couple of weeks.

The ride was fun, except for the wind & dust. I'm glad we weren't riding there on the weekend, though. You could tell the previous weekend the traffic was horrendous. These are well traveled roads. We saw very little during the week.

Jerome to Martin canyon, Dewey, 5/27/08

I finally am getting around to posting some pics from this ride. It was a pretty cool ride, really.. some interesting terrain, nice weather, good views.. & an option for some really fierce riding conditions, which we did not take.

We met at Perkinsville road at the jerome fire station, rode along the mountainside to fs 318a, then another 15 miles to the road to martin canyon.

One of the views along the perkinsville road:



The Riders:


scotty & Tom



I should have suspected something when Tom said he got this trail from some 4x4 jeep club, & it is supposed to be pretty challenging. My problem was i was geared too high. I put on a 16t cs sprocket for some up coming road rides, & hadn't geared back down.



The road zigged & zagged along martin canyon, crossing the dry wash 15-20 times. There were a lot of boulders to avoid in the crossings, but overall it wasn't too bad. I did drop the bike once. I was going slow through some boulders & tried to gas it to go over a big one, when the bike stalled & fell over. It was mostly the gearing.. i think i would have had the low end pull with the lower sprocket.







It was a very scenic ride.. through oaks, pinons & winding along the creek.







Tom was riding point, & i came to a spot where i stopped to pick a line through another boulder field. I heard Tom ahead, calling, so i walked up. He was at a point where the trail was the wash. It was a couple hundred yards of large boulders. I didn't think i could ride it, especially with my gearing. We walked up a bit to see if it improved any, since it looked like we'd be walking our bikes through the boulders. Neither of us really wanted to turn back, because we knew what we'd have to ride through to get back. But going forward seemed to be more difficult. So reluctantly (after a lot of whining from me), we turned back.



Heading back was actually easier for me, since it was mostly downhill.. i could roll slower through the boulders, rather than trying to accelerate when barely idling.

We got back to 318a, & turned to the south, toward prescott & heading to dewey.

We headed back to Jerome on 89a, then turned south on fs151, aka the powerline road. This was supposed to connect to the old cherry road, so we could ride to Mayer, then complete the loop to the north. The road was up & down, with lots of rutted out spots & more rocks. No problems, though, until we got to a couple of miles to the end. There was a sign warning of the road closure at the end. Earlier, we had run into several gates with padlocks & & had to look for alternate routes. The roads were on the gps map, but evidently had been developed since, & closed off as private property. We were over an hour trying to get out of a section North of 89a. We could see the road we wanted to get on, but it was fenced off. We rode along the fence for several miles before we found an open gate we could get through.

Now we were heading for more of the same. We got to the end of the powerline road, & sure enough, it was locked shut. We could again see a road where we wanted to go, less than 1/4 mile away. We doubled back, looking for a way over, & found a spot that was open enough to get through. Now we were on an easy gravel road, & heading for lunch! We rode for less than a mile, & got another gate! but this time, we were locked in. The sign was on the outside, threatening trespassers with prosecution, & we were on the inside, trying to get out. We rode all over the apparently new development, looking for a way out. Everything was locked down. There was a real estate lock box, which probably had the key to the lock, but we couldn't get it. Finally we decided to go back to the first gate, which had a chain across, & tilt our bikes & go under the chain. We wrestled our bikes under the chain & were finally free!!



But by now, it was too late to continue on to Mayer, so we cut the ride short & rode to Dewey for lunch.



After lunch, Tom continued back to Prescott, & i cut over prescott valley to Jerome & then back to Sedona. I had about 150 miles on the odo, & got home by 4.

Next week: 4 of us going dirt from Sedona to Grand Canyon, spend the night at the maswik lodge, then back north of the san francisco peaks through the pass, Flagstaff, & back down to Sedona.

Grand Canyon overnight, 6/3/08

Sedona to Grand Canyon, 6/3/08

We started in Sedona. Jim trucked his bike over & left his truck at my house. We met Tom & headed up oak creek canyon. It was about 9am. It's about 15 miles up the canyon to fs 535.



This stretch to williams was a good, fun ride. There were a lot of hard ruts, & Kim did clip a tree (the tree won). But overall we cruised through the pines & enjoyed the cool air & nice views.

The riders:

Jim, Scotty, Kim, Tom.

We rode up to garland prairie, a wide open meadow covering hundreds of acres. Unfortunately, where we came out, there was a sign & gate.. but the sign was on the other side, so we went through it... these are hard boiled arizona mavericks we're talking about.. open range types..


It was an easy ride on graded roads back into the pines & into williams.. the gateway to the grand canyon.



We went for the quick lunch, gassed up & headed to the back roads.


The next 50-60 miles were great roads.. rocky, rutted, windy.. Jim could open up his crx, with Tom & Kim in hot pursuit. I plodded along, bringing up the rear. There were several intersections where i had made waypoints to plot our way. But after a while, we encountered another of a dirt rider's greatest fears: A locked gate. The road on the gps went north to the next waypoint. But the fences & gates wouldn't let us through. We rode along the fence for a while, looking for another road, or a way through. But we had to double back, & take another road. this one didn't go north, either, but took us back to hwy 64, the paved road between williams & the grand canyon.


The san francisco peaks in the distance..

By now, it was around 4pm, so rather than ride into more unknown roads with unknown gates & locks, we opted to take the pavement the rest of the way.. about 40-50 miles.

We gassed up at tusayan, then entered the park. It was about 6pm.




There are few sights on earth that compare with the grand canyon. There was a little haze from the afternoon winds, but the skies were clear & you could see for 3 days.





We were there in time to see a nice sunset.. The shadows bring more texture to the canyon.


We checked into our rooms at the maswik lodge, showered & changed into our civvies & went looking for something to eat. The restaurant at the bright angel lodge was pretty busy, but we put our names on the waiting list & headed for the watering hole.

Tom had been raving about the bartender here who made the best long island iced teas. He had a couple, & we didn't even have to carry him into the restaurant. Kim, Jim & i had the fat tire ambers.. Jim & i had 2.. & we made into the restaurant ok, too.

We left the bright angel lodge about 9:30, & took the shortcut across the railroad tracks in the dark back to the rooms.

I was up first, at about 5. I went for a walk & took some shots of the sunrise.

This shot was before the sun rose.. with a night exposure.






I was freezing, though. It was in the 40's & the wind had already started to blow..


Here the sun is up & hitting the canyon walls.

Tom had gotten up after i left & had walked around a little. It was almost 7, so we figured we better wake Kim & Jim up so we could get breakfast & get going. After breakfast, we loaded up everything & got geared up.


In front of the maswik lodge.

We headed out to the other side of the park.. desert view.. along the rim road.



The wind was getting stronger.. it was forecast to be gusting to 40, with 30mph winds. But early on, the haze wasn't too bad. We had a good view of the colorado river & the little colorado river gorge from desert view.




This is the old view tower built in the 30's. Jim & Kim are coming toward you. They were inseparable after rooming together the previous night..


Inside the tower.. Jim & Kim...


There were more great views from the tower viewing area.. I'm still in awe every time i see the canyon.. it never gets old.

We gassed up & headed east on 64 out of the park. After about 5 miles, we came to a dirt road & went south toward flagstaff & the mountains.

This was another fun road. It wound around, zigged & zagged.. had lots of ruts, some rocks, some sandy wash areas. Jim was practicing for his enduro rides next year, & really let it rip. We got to a point that we started to climb. On the topo map, it looked pretty steep. It seemed even steeper! The road we were on didn't follow the gps map very closely, but there were no other ways up. We switched & climbed up for a few hundred feet, when i stalled. I was going up a steep section that had a hard turn, but when i slowed to make the turn, i lost my momentum & dropped. Tom stopped about 50 yds back, & Kim was even further back. He had slid out in the rocks & went down hard.. he banged his helmet up a bit, & put some new scratches in his bark busters. Undaunted, Jim blew by all of us & rode ahead to see if the road improved. It didn't. He said it got steeper, & there were some ledges you had to go over. Tom was geared too high for the climb, & i was out of my league, anyway. So we turned around & rolled down to another road. It maneuvered around the trees & washes & was going the wrong way. So we had to back track about 4 miles to another road & take it to the west to the next way over the mountain.


Tom turning around at my 'drop' point.


Jim coming back down after finding out the road would be too tough for me & Tom (Tom could've done it with the husky).

Our detour added about 20 miles, when we only had 2 miles up the hill. But we got back on the waypoints & continued on the ride toward the mountain passes. The wind was getting stronger as the day progressed. It was puffing us around on the dirt roads & making the riding even more interesting. We got down from the last set of mountains, which were along the coconino rim road, about 7k ft. Now we were down in the low 6k ft, & the roads were pretty open, though still lots of dried ruts. The wind was pretty open, too. It was beating us up pretty good, and keeping us well dusted. The sand & grit stung our faces around the goggles. We got on a section of the great western trail, which led us through some nice open vistas & cattle country.



At one of the gates, Jim noticed oil leaking out of his engine cover. He had taken a small hit in the rocks.. probably on the big hill climb.. & it was dribbling out some. It was high on the case, so he thought if he took it easy, he could get back ok. Tom got out his tire patch kit, & had Jim squirt some rubber cement on the hole. It seemed to hold, but Jim did take it easier from then on.

There was supposed to be a road that veered east, toward the san francisco peaks, but it never appeared. The road we were on kept heading southwest. We finally came to another crossroad that we could take back to the peaks, but it was again almost 3, we were getting low on gas, Jim had a hole in his engine, & we were all sick of the wind. So it was time for a decision: Head back toward the mountain passes & take another 3 hours & 50 miles or so on unknown roads. Or, take the easy dirt road to hwy 180, then 30 miles back to flagstaff, gas, lunch. I posed the question. Jim & Tom feigned indifference. Kim said, 'Does this mean i get to say where we're going?' Then he pointed to the shorter, easier way back. No one was disappointed.

So we started heading back. The wind was still real strong. Even with our speed below 60, it was gusting us all over the road. But we made it back in to flag, had lunch, gassed up, & returned to Sedona. Tom left us & went on to Prescott (after another long dirt ride on the way!!?). Jim loaded his bike back up, & the ride was over. We lived, & no major damage to the machines.

In retrospect, it was too far to cover this distance in an exploring ride.. there are too many variables.. locked gates.. etc. We should have either staged from williams, or had 2 nights at the canyon. But it was an adventure, & everyone seemed to have fun. We all got along well, & no one died. A good ride.

Here's a short video i took with a cheap helmet cam.. it's painful to watch, too much trouble to upload, & something else to carry. I think i'll stick with stills...