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.
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