YOU WHAT?!



Cooling down, gotta put the fleece back on.





"Everything alright, are you having a problem?"

"Nope... doing fine, just taking a little rest stop."



Lake Pleasant in the distance.

 The two deputies met me halfway between their vehicle and my bike.  We stood at the confluence of Champie and Cow Creek road.

I'd explained that I was through here once before and was just wondering if the Cow Creek hooked up with Buckhorn rd?



Easy riding...

 Why sure, he said to me.  You follow the fork to the left and pass Crown King, keep going and you will meet up with the Buckhorn.

That's what I thought I answered him.  I went on to tell him about the boys in the Blazer I had run into earlier that had told me otherwise.  What he told me next didn't surprise me, but certainly shocked me a wee bit.

"That's the problem back here.  People are driving around, haven't a clue where they are or where they are going.  They come back here with the family wagon and get lost.  Pretty soon they are bogged down in sand or break a crankcase on a rock.  They aren't prepared, no water, no jack, no emergency equipment, nothing.

They're foolish to try this stuff.  It can get to be a hundred and twenty out here in the summer time and this time of year, very few people are back there except the odd rancher or dirt bike rider.  Why hell... we gotta rescue about a hundred people every year from the Crown King!" 

Curious for this newfound information, I push him a little further... how so?

 "Well ya know, they get back in those mountains on a quad or a dirt bike and crash over some cliff, break an arm or a leg.  Nobody dies, but usually we have to go in there and pull them out.  Costs the county a lot of money... most of those places you can't drive a truck into."

So how do you get them out then?

 "We can sometimes get in from one end or the other with an ATV*... many times we use a search and rescue chopper from Luke** or the county."

The other deputy chimes in, he wishes people would use their heads more often, be prepared for emergencies before they take off joy riding out here.

I tell him I can't agree more...




I could squat here... course that would get me shot!

"I rode the Crown King back in May on my bike."  I gesture with my hand.  "It was hard, even for my skill level, with decades of off roading and racing.  In fact I have a story coming out soon in a Cdn bike mag about the CK."

They shook their heads...

"You tell people to stay out of there, we don't want to have to pull them out because they do something stupid."




Dry spillway in front of abandoned house.

 I swore I would let them (the stupid people) know. 

We shook hands, they offered to let me ride first so I didn't choke on their dust.

I declined, after all I was stopping every quarter mile to snap a photo or two.

So, the Crown King has a rep, I thought.  I wasn't surprised to hear that!

Not a mile further on, I came across two young people parked on the road having some lunch, driving a 2WD Saturn Vue.

I asked where they were headed and guess what... CK he told me.  Now it was my turn to shake my head.

After explaining my encounter with the deputies just 30 minutes ago, and my own experiences of the Crown King... they were mesmorized... stunned. 

Nice young couple too, mid twenties for sure, I'd guess pretty well educated by their conversation, but I could actually see them driving down that killer hill that gave me pause to think back in May. 

Course that would never happen, they would have had that nice but fake SUV hung up on rocks long before they reached my point of no return.

*All terrain vehicle
** Luke Air Force base