PHX - Great Western Trail

6 Adventurers headed out this past Sunday on a ride north via the Great Western Trail.

It was a KTM kind of day, with one exception. Today's players included:

4 Play - Honda XR650R
KTMSER - KTM 950 SE
Johnny 5 - KTM 990 ADV
Misery Goat - KTM 950 SE
Rock Thrower - KTM 950 SE
Nightstalker - KTM 950 ADV

I had a 250 mile route planned. I was wondering how much of that we'd get covered with storms forecasted in the north and triple digit temps forecasted in the south.

The planned route.



I had been up late the night before working on a new project for my ride reports. I couldn't wait to see how it works out.

The meeting place was set to the Cave Creek Coffee Co., suprisingly located in Cave Creek, AZ.

Typical northern Phoenix morning sky filled with colorful hot air balloons along the way.

Cave Creek Coffee Co is a popular meeting place for all in the two wheel crowd.

We were running a little behind, so we split the group figuring the fast riders left behind finishing breakfast would catch us soon enough down the trail. 4 Play, Johnny 5, and I took off, leaving Misery Goat and KTMSER behind.

My first attempts at video resulted in mostly closeups of my front tire. First adjustment netted something watchable, especially since it includes catching up with some other ADVRiders riding the Sheep Bridge - Horseshoe Dam loop.

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Suprised that the fast guys hadn't caught up to us yet, we stopped to wait and I made some more camera adjustments.

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OK, here comes the guys!



Something doesn't seem right???



I do a quick rider inventory:

4 Play, check.



Johnny 5, check.



KTMSER, check.



Misery Goat, hey, that's not Misery Goat!



So, KTMSER picked up RockThrower and lost Misery Goat? OK...

In addition to losing Misery Goat, KTMSER had an altercation with some ADVRiders heading in the opposite direction. He almost broke a turn signal.



emerson.bigguns (who recently sold me the 908 rear tire I'm currently running) captured the moment. Thank goodness no one was hurt.

As we prepared to continue on our ride, this cool buggy drove by.



I took a boat load of video between Bloody Basin Road and Dugas on the Great Western Trail.

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I really like this section of the Great Western Trail. It's just TONS of FUN!! I decided to turn the tide and see if everyone else was having fun too.

4 Play looks like he's having fun.

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Johnny 5 is having fun!

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KTMSER, boy is he having FUN!

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Dam-it, That looks like it could'a been real ugly.

RockThrower was having some bike issues, so we made a great pit stop at this prime streamside locale!

4 Play, KTMSER, & Johnny 5



RockThrower







Running the dual HID's had drained RockThrower's battery. KTMSER gave him a jump.

Does anyone want to see more video??

KTMSER

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4 Play

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RockThrower and I were playing cat and mouse!

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Watch out for those sharp turns!!

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We jumped on the interstate for a short run up to Camp Verde for some fuel.



AND PIZZA!!







I LOVE pizza!! Especially Crusty's Pizza!

After lunch, KTMSER, Johnny 5, and I continued on with 4 Play and RockThrower returning to Phoenix.

On the way to Fossil Creek Road.



Those don't look like happy clouds.

Fossil Creek Road takes you to Childs Powerplant Road, which takes you to the, sometimes passable, Verde River. Great views line the way!

The Verde River is a popular destination. For some reason, there were a number of "Nudity Prohibited" signs about.

Cross the river here, and Cave Creek is about 60-70 miles away.



This truck crossed the river while we were there. The river was about 30 inches deep. Too much for me!

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Nice campspots, too bad they're trashed up.

Be sure to pay attention when driving this road. You don't want to end up like this!





Back up to Fossil Creek Road. It's a great spot to cool off in the hot summer months of Arizona.

Dramatic mountain views are par for the course on the way out to Strawberry. Unfortunately, there's plenty of traffic on this route too.



Heading towards Payson, we split off the highway in search of CrackerJack mine.



We passed through a little rain on the way in. Clouds in the distance.

MY GPS said we were standing on top of the CrackerJack mine. Darned if we could find it! But we sure did look!







We did find, This Old House.

We gave up on the mine and started on the long slab ride back to Phoenix. The Beeline highway does offer some nice scenery along the way.



The ride ended up being 252 miles, pretty darned closed to what I had planned. 303 miles door2door for me. Superduper fun day! Thanks to all who came along!

I could not have had a better day, even know my head was in the dirt, rock, mountian side...

Great pics and video Terry..

Still cannot get rid of this..

Where we going this weekend..