A little jaunt down to the lake

[Paul B]

Turns out it's been a few years since I put together one of my famous Crown King to Lake Pleasant epics, but the stars came into alignment and I able to secure a free van, very affordable driver and dirt-cheap gas.

Seven of us total -- half the size of our typical crew, but a stellar bunch of people -- made the descent last Saturday in 5ish hours. Actual ride times were in the 3.5-4 hour range, which tells me an all-business bunch who didn't crash and didn't have mechanical issues could probably do it in 3 or less (quite the change from my first-ever attempt, which took 11 hours). But where's the fun in that? The weather was perfect and I couldn't imagine a nicer day to spend on the bike.

The CK Class of 2008 was: Paul B, bike=good, chollaball, NoelG, Jayem, and my non-MTBR buddies Michelle and Tommy Kelly of Team Red Energy.

Just a few pix this time, sorry. I'm experimenting with hacking my Flickr account so, hopefully, the pix will actually show up...



Cheesy group shot at the Crown King General Store. About 10:30 and you couldn't ask for better riding weather.



That's a long, long ways down. I shot this from close to the top.





Michelle headed down. This was one of the few spots smooth enough to actually stop and take a picture. I'll let others who were on the ride describe the predominant condition of the Old Senator Highway, but suffice to say that it's not "just a dirt road."



A shot from about halfway down one of the steepest, deepest ravines you have to traverse to get "down" the Bradshaws. There's an awful lot of tough climbing for a ride that descends about 4000'.

And that's it. Hopefully the other shutterbugs got better shots than this.

p.

[azepicriderandrunner]

I like the second shot with the dirt road rolling through the hills...looks like a great time!

[Jayem]

You put on a good show Paul! Glad to have been there to ride. Absolutely stellar day, and it's fun to just "let 'er rip" at mach 5 down that road.

[YuriB]

How was the road? I had head it was heavily bladed a year or two ago.

Looks like the guts shrunk a bit since 04 too....I was sucking mine in...

[Noelg]

[Noelg]

[Noelg]

[Noelg]

[Noelg]

[Noelg]

[Noelg]

[Noelg]

[Noelg]

[Noelg]

[Noelg]

[Noelg]

Thanks again Paul. I love getting the opportunity to ride NEW places so this was definitely a treat!

BTW, you forgot to include Jayem in our class above! Give the boy & his big bike some love will ya!

[Jayem]

Originally Posted by Noelg

Thanks again Paul. I love getting the opportunity to ride NEW places so this was definitely a treat!

BTW, you forgot to include Jayem in our class above! Give the boy & his big bike some love will ya!

I think what he ment by "class" was the people that hadn't done it before.

[hfy108]

I watched the route on MotionBased a minute ago (by 'aginaz')- That looks like a great ride! A couple friends and I were talking about a down from Crown King ride a couple weeks ago; maybe we'll try this route.

Where do you get the trail from in Crown King? Any specifics you can relay about the route down or is it self-evident?

Thanks.

[bike=good]

That was fun... oh and thanks Noel... the only photo of me is pushing my bike. great. Props to Jayem for doing the ride on the ultra-efficient pedaling 8" Turner.

[Paul B]

Augh! No, I totally overlooked Jim in that pic. Edited!

Oh and Yuri? No. I just wear baggier clothes now. :-(

p.

[Paul B]

Okay, the route works like this:

Starting at the Crown King General Store, head over the bridge and turn right. Start climbing.

At the T with the road that goes to Horse Thief Basin, turn right. Keep climbing.

Eventually you'll start going down, honest! But as soon as you do, you're likely to blow past FR52. There's a post with a sign but you'll never see it. 52 bears left while the well-graded road bends right and continues to Prescott. Turn left on 52...and KEEP CLIMBING.

52, aka the Old Senator Highway, is a tricky climb for mmmmaybe a mile, probably less. Then it begins to drop. IIRC there's a split to the left that makes you climb again but you get to descend this time. For real!

The drop is about 4500' or so, I think. There aren't any decision points, just lots of burly high-clearance jeep "road" for like 15-17 miles. There's a really nice lunch spot near the "bottom" of the descent. I put the scare quotes in there because there's still a looong way to go down.

The first decision point brings you to a T marked with a prominent painted rock. There's a CK and an arrow painted on the rock. While either direction will take you where you need to go, the left is MUCH more direct. Bear left and let 'er rip. This is probably the most draining part of the ride, IMO, because you've done a lot of hard work and now it's just a fast, long grind back to civilization. Oh, and more CLIMBING.

You'll eventually hit a stop sign with an ORV kiosk, and a BIG parking area for the quad clubs. Turn left at the T. Yes, there will be another climb.

Finally, you'll hit pavement. Shoot through the stop sign and continue down to the lake. Our preferred destination is the Castle Rock Ramp, which involves taking all lefts after you've passed the guard station.

Total distance 32 miles, total elevation split is 4500ish feet, total elevation lost is closer to 6000 and total elevation gain is like 3500, some of which is at a very, very steep grade (20% or more). Long day but a good day.

p.

[chollaball]

some pics. Thanks Paul for putting this adventure together. My only complaint is i did not ask you for a double latte in the morning. Jayem was maybe 5 minutes behind at the finish - he pulled so much time on us on the DH's that we didn't really notice his big bike having a big effect. The unmentioned gem was the potluck dinner - ohmigod that was good. Mike R took the prize with bacon-wrapped jalapeno poppers.

images from Topofusion



















PS: Chad you would love this ride, but in the other direction.

[brianc]

wow that looks like fun. I guess this will teach me to not over look things on MTBR.

Like Noel mentioned riding place new to use is great. As much great riding there is in AZ it wierd that I've fallen into the rut of just cycling throught he same old haunts. As good as they are that's not really a problem.

ScottN and I were chatting on the drive back from Pinal, that we really should explore the trails that skirt the Sups. on maps it looks like there is some great desert trails out there. I've never been.

I think the best part of winter in AZ is the abiltiy to explore new areas all day long.

[u2metoo]

Man, now I really wish I didn't bag out

Jayem, well maybe it didn't pedal like a 20 lbs bike, was it more like 21?

[Noelg]

Originally Posted by u2metoo

Man, now I really wish I didn't bag out

me too! If'n you'da joined us, we'd have an awesome video to see!

Sorry you couldn't make it Sam.

[Noelg]

Originally Posted by hfy108

I watched the route on MotionBased a minute ago (by 'aginaz')

That's me.

[chollaball]

Originally Posted by Noelg

me too! If'n you'da joined us, we'd have an awesome video to see!

Sorry you couldn't make it Sam.

+1
Jayem's jump followed by my endo were both film-worthy.

[Paul B]

Oh man, that endo was gorgeous from where I was sitting -- comfortably on my bike and fully upright. So glad it didn't end up being a more serious injury.

p.

[rockychrysler]

fantastic! i would love to do this ride someday. had a cabin in walker for years, but it's been a loooong time since i drove that stretch of the senator. awesome!

[Paul B]

Hey, did anyone capture a .gpx of the route this year? I've had several email requests for it, and I can't find my old tracklog.

p.

[chollaball]

Originally Posted by Paul B

Hey, did anyone capture a .gpx of the route this year? I've had several email requests for it, and I can't find my old tracklog.

p.

attached. change the file extension from .pdf to .gpx
thanks again Paul!

[Noelg]

you can also go to my motionbased.com page (listed earlier in this thread) and download/export it in various formats.

[bike=good]

How do the two files differ by ~500' of climbing?

[chollaball]

Originally Posted by bike=good

How do the two files differ by ~500' of climbing?

the geek answer, paraphrasing a little bit from Krein (Scott Morris) who write TopoFusion, is that MotionBased and TopoFusion use slightly different ways of analyzing the data and data points. I have seen this before as well, using the same gpx file

The actual answer: i climb faster

[bike=good]

Originally Posted by chollaball

the geek answer, paraphrasing a little bit from Krein (Scott Morris) who write TopoFusion, is that MotionBased and TopoFusion use slightly different ways of analyzing the data and data points. I have seen this before as well, using the same gpx file

The actual answer: i climb faster

thanks... but I have both in Topofusion. you musta cheated, cause I followed Noel.

oh, and if by 'climb' you mean endo... than I agree.

[chollaball]

Originally Posted by bike=good

thanks... but I have both in Topofusion. you musta cheated, cause I followed Noel.

oh, and if by 'climb' you mean endo... than I agree.

you think just cause you make liberal use of bacon you have carte blanche to heckle me...well you are mostly correct.

i just dl'd Noel's file. I noticed it had about 20% more data points. Also, i think he was wearing it on his arm (mine was on my bike). Perhaps that affected things - assuming he moved more than his bike? he also had more descending distance. dunno.

[Jayem]

Originally Posted by bike=good

How do the two files differ by ~500' of climbing?

500 bunny hops off of drops.

[Paul B]

Bacon buys you a lot of leeway.

[Noelg]

Originally Posted by Jayem

500 bunny hops off of drops.

BINGO!!!

More geekage ahead:

I'm not sure what device Jason has but my Forerunner 305 doesn't have a barometric altimeter (which is more accurate than using satellites alone). My greater number of data points and faster speed ( ) also skew things.

If you noticed I had less moving time but more overall time. So, while I was constantly waiting for Jason to catch up to me on the descents, he actually finished the entire ride BEFORE me.

I'd guess the actual # was somewhere in between. Paul will have to find out what Tommy's # was in order to settle this one...

[chollaball]

Originally Posted by Noelg

while I was constantly waiting for Jason to catch up to me on the descents,

why you gotta make me feel inferior cause i'm on the grill (nee, rode a squishy with less pizazz than you did a hardtail)? i might seriously go the Jayem route and bring the 6incher next time.

i have a Forerunner 201.

[Jayem]

Originally Posted by Noelg

BINGO!!!

More geekage ahead:

I'm not sure what device Jason has but my Forerunner 305 doesn't have a barometric altimeter (which is more accurate than using satellites alone).

Unless your GPS has WAAS technology, then you're back to the GPS being as or more accurate. WAAS boosts the overall accuracy of GPS, but especially altitude accuracy, not sure how many "off the shelf" units have WAAS these days, but it's getting to be the standard in aviation now, with some amazing vertical (altitude) capability.

FAA is considering going to an enhanced LORAN system as a backup for GPS so they can start dismantleing all the navigation aids that exist throughout the country, it would be much cheaper to do the enhanced LORAN thing as a backup to GPS with a total of 16 stations than have all the hundreds of nav facilities that currently exist.