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Sunday, February 13th, 2005
Arizona has had a record wet winter so far
this year! The desert is in rare form and can sneak up on you
quickly! This is our story of fun and survival!
Weekend
before last we went up to Crown King, right after they got 7" of rain in
24 hours. There was so much running water coming off that mountain. 1/8 of
the way up, the road was removed by GOD. Left a 3' patch of ground for us
(dirtbikes) to go through. Then we came up to the first major water
crossing. It was so wide that there was an island in the middle. Johnny
said F@*k it and took off towards the island. Water up to the tank, the
rocks under the water bucking him up in the air, huge water rooster and he
wheelied up onto the island. So over I came. Same scenario. NOW, we had to
finish the crossing to the other side. It was my turn to go first. I
entered into the water, nose down, full throttle, didn't want to stall it,
the first boulder and the force of the water turned the bike upstream and
I started to float backwards. I jumped off into waist deep snow melt 33
degree water, trying to hold my bike up to keep from flooding it out.
Screamin for help from Johnny. We managed to dog walk my bike sideways
till we hit the opposite bank.
Next it was Johnny's turn, he decided to take more of a downstream
approach. When he hit the rapids it flipped the bike on it's side
underwater, throwing Johnny into the rapids. COLD COLD COLD. I was already
in the water and picked his bike up immediately. We forced his bike over
to the bank. His CRF450 fired right up, my YZ426F took 20 minutes or so to
finally fire up. Meanwhile during all this two more dirt bikers showed up
and watched the show from the bank. They gave us a wave, said we were
insane and turned around to go back.
Well, we were thinking it can't get worse then this. Better to go on, then
try and go back through that shit! The next 5 crossings were bad, with
different degrees of difficulty (depth, rocks, sand, rapids), but we
seemed to build more confidence with each success. The road in many places
was now the river. We had to go upstream in many cases over water covered
boulder fields to find out where the road continued.
Then we came to what we thought was the show stopper. At this time we had
been water soaked for about 4 hours, couldn't feel finger or toes. Boots
were filled with water still. But the bike were running ok, and it was
only about 1PM. No one would be worried about us. So, your asking: "What's
the show stopper?". The new formed river had completely removed the road,
leaving a 15' rutted nasty cliff on the other side. WE DID NOT WANT TO
TURN AROUND AT ALL. It would put us out of there after dark and probably
with wrecked bikes. SO we studied the other bank till we found a way to
cut a 12" path through the opposing bush with a leatherman and boots. Took
us about 1/2 hour to cut a swath about 30 feet. Johnny was the first
across the deep water, up the opposite bank and into the bush with me
pushing the bike, moving tree branches and clearing rocks. Once we got him
clear, we both collapsed from exhaustion, staring over at my bike on the
opposite side. It still had to come over.
I walked through the rapids to the other side, filling my boots with fresh
ice water. Got the bike started, made it across the rapids, up the bank
and into the bush. Johnny and I fought tooth and nail against the
branches, thorns and rocks and made it to the other side. We rested and
shook our head, gathering our thoughts. Thinking it can't be much worse,
we are getting quite high in elevation.
We had a couple mile reprieve and really thought we were out of the tough
stuff. Then we got to Oro Belle Mine. GOD had rerouted the river, actually
split it in two. It completely removed the road and left a river gorge. If
we even thought of dropping into this, it was 15' deep at the bottom end
where it turned out and went back to the main river basin.
I swear, this was like getting hit in the stomach. NO WAY TO GO BACK.. NOT
GONNA DO IT. NO WAY TO GET A TRUCK IN TO GET US OUT. Could we be here for
the night? We had a lighter, found a cave to sleep in if needed. Knew we
weren't desperate, just gonna be hungry and cold for an evening if we
couldn't make it past this next obstacle. So we took off walking through
the area to find a way around.
RAGING river to the left, can't go that way. THe road is now 15' deep with
no way of dropping into it. Lots of water coming down it with waterfalls,
roots, rocks, and deep holes. Johnny found a mule trail going up on top of
the old foundations from the old bunk house. If we could climb this near
verticle, we could pass about 100 yards of the gorge. It was worth a try.
Johnny made it about 30 feet up the hill, then both started to push and
pull the bike the rest of the way up this switch back. Again, cold,
exhausted, and beat to hell we rested. Then it was time to get my bike
that far. ARRRRRG!
We then proceeded on the floor of the old bunk house and semi trail behind
the old foundations. We found a place with about a 4' drop into the gorge
and proceeded in the gorge for about 50 feet. We had to clear log jams and
breakup some of the roots to get through. We were now at the last major
river crossing.
It looked daunting at first. A tree had fallen across the river. Johnny
and I were able to break the tree in half while standing in thigh deep ice
water. We smoothed some rock piles and Johnny was the first across. No
problem!
I pulled up next and just before launching through the water, I started
suffering major muscle cramping. Couldn't work the throttle or even get my
legs to stay on the foot pegs. It took about 10 minutes to get the
cramping to quit.
I started across the stream, took a wrong bounce, wheelied up the other
side, pulled in the clutch and rolled back, cramping was back and could
not let go of the clutch to stop rolling back. I hit the boulders and
flipped the bike over on me. FRIGGEN OWE!!
Johnny ran down, got the bike off of me and we rested again. We are now
about 3/4 the way up to CK. Sun was going behind the mountain, temps
dropping. We needed to get to the Crown King Saloon and those beautiful
wood stoves.
The last part of the trip was bumpy, numerous land slides that had to be
traversed to keep from going over the edge, trees down and a huge boulder
had fallen on the road. All the snow was gone, so it was just a muddy
rocky mess the rest of the way.
The saloon was welcoming and warm. We stripped to the core clothing and
laid everything out to dry. We called family to drive up from Black Canyon
City to pick us up in Cleator. About 20 miles down the county road from
Crown King.
What a trip. Took me two days to recover. A true test for mind over
matter. Kudos to Honda and Yamaha making bikes that could take that
torture and keep going. I am on my third oil change and still can't get
the milky color out of it. There is not too many people on this earth that
I would have wanted with me on that trip. Thank you Johnny for hanging in
there. We just refused to have the helicopter come get us. They would have
left our bikes and that would have been unacceptable!
Thanks for listening!
Thank GOD we didn't take any electronics with us. They would have died a
horrible death. I did get one picture before we left.
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