We met at the gas station in Sedona ~ 9:30, then headed up Oak Creek Canyon to the dirt road to Williams. We just rode.. i didn't get any pics of the switchbacks, or the rough dirt roads before Garland Prairie.. I finally stopped & took a picture on the easy gravel of Garland Prairie.
Mark & Kim were both riding KLX 250's. I was on the lonesome wr250x. No videos today, either.. just a few stills since it is along areas we had ridden before.
After we got out of Garland Prairie, we took a side road toward a small lake we had noticed before.. thought we'd explore it a bit. We ran into a narrow path, but continued on until we came to a fence. ..a little bit of tricky singletrack. We had to walk the rest of the way to the lake. It is a pretty lake.. & pretty remote.
We continued our way toward Williams, & Twisters.. one of the older 50's style eateries. Right before we crossed the railroad tracks, we saw them. White Buffalo. A sign. Times would change. A new era would begin.
We made it to lunch, our main purpose in riding. It was fairly pricey, but decent enough. Don't look for food pics on my reports! We eat like starved coyotes.. stop & take a picture & your food will disappear.
No gas stop.. we all have big tanks, now! We headed past the Williams reservoir & got on the old perkinsville road.. very rough, windy, & steep in spots. I had a few gps issues.. the contaption wanted to steer us back on the pavement.. got tired of the bumps, i guess. But i kept forcing it to go on the obscure roads, & eventually it agreed to take the old perkinsville road toward Jerome.
The bridge over the Verde River on Perkinsville road.
As we neared Jerome, we got along the side of the mountain.. a plume of smoke was visible in the distance.. a proscribed burn, Kim speculated.. he's a retired Fire Captain, so he should know these things.
Except for the haze from the smoke, it was a clear day. It was even a bit chilly in the pines, early. I don't think it got to 80* until we hit cottonwood.. very good riding weather.
Cottonwood to the left in the valley, Jerome & the copper mines to the right, on the mountainside.
We stopped & jawed a lot.. new rider to get to know.. swap lies, etc. Mark's turn signal vibrated off.. then his license plate. We found the turn signal early on before garland prairie, but the plate was lost in perkinsville. No other bike or health issues, so it was a good ride. I was home by 5 or 6. We did a little over 150 miles. I still have gas in my tank! ..like the new range of the ims. Now I have 3g on my phone & my gas tank.
