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 Pines, rocks, & chocolate. Az ridin' the Rez.

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rydnseek

rydnseek



Pines, rocks, & chocolate.  Az ridin' the Rez. Empty
PostSubject: Pines, rocks, & chocolate. Az ridin' the Rez.   Pines, rocks, & chocolate.  Az ridin' the Rez. EmptySun Aug 22, 2010 7:42 am

Ridin' the Rez. 8/20/10

Kim, Tom & i met at the sedona exit off of I-17 to for a ride to the Navajo Reservation. With the recent monsoon rains, we hoped there would be some water in the little colorado river, & grand falls, aka chocolate falls would have some flow. Tom rode over from Prescott, & we were off, going up the old blue grade into the mountains in the mogollon rim.

The ride up stoneman lake road.. this used to be the main road to flagstaff before they built I-17.



It was about 4k ft where we left, & we would get up near 8k elevation. The rim country is nice & cool this time of year. We had some puddles, but nothing too dramatic.



We did a little exploring.. took a different route than we usually do when in these parts. Naturally, we had a bit of backtracking to do, gates to cross, some pretty rocky roads, too. It was nearing 11am when we got to the morman lake area.



Back on some easier roads, we enjoyed the trees.. nice cool pines & some aspen stands.



This is Morman 'Lake'. It's an open meadow that can get filled with water in a very wet season or high snowfall. We had a pretty wet winter, but it was pretty dry by late spring. It did make a nice wildflower display, though.



We lost a little time on the rim, so decided to jump on the pavement for few miles.. lake mary road to wynona ranch road.



Here we got onto the wynona ranch road.. some of it is a boulder field.. just rain drainage.



We could see the vegetation change.. the pines started to give way to open chaparral. Cows looked hotter & crankier.



Off in the distance, we could see the san francisco peaks for a reference.



The road also opened up & got easier. We passed more cows & continued the ride up toward the Rez.



We crossed I-40 & stopped for lunch at the 2bar3 saloon & steakhouse. It's kind of a biker bar, now, on the distant outskirts of flagstaff.. where renegade bikers like us hang out. It was decent.. reasonable, but not cheap. Nothing to take pictures of, though.

It was after 1pm, so we decided to take Leupp road up to grand falls. It is paved, so we cut some of our off road riding. The last 10 miles or so to grand falls are sand roads.. with some ruts & a few boulders to keep us alert.

The big question on our minds was: Would there be any water in the Little Colorado river? Tom & I came here last month & it was dry as a bone. Would the recent monsoon rains provide some decent flow at the falls? Our question was soon answered.



Who would go first? Someone had to record such a monumental feat, & Tom was already camera ready for the brave pioneer who would venture across. Kim didn't hesitate, but blipped the throttle & took the plunge.



I followed suit. The water wasn't too deep.. just to the axles at the deepest point. But the underlying concrete low water crossing was in pretty bad shape.. still it was better to stay on the concrete, as Tom would soon illustrate.

Kim & i were surveying the mud on the other side of the river when Tom began his crossing. I just turned in time to catch him taking a dip to cool off.



It looked like he had taken a gallon (or more!) of chocolate milk & dumped it all over himself & his bike. He had gotten too close to the edge of the concrete, & had gone into the rocky river bottom. Obviously, you could not see the rocks on the bottom, so we had to man handle the bike back to the concrete crossing.




Kim sat motionless on his bike, in answer to my question, 'who's going to go back & help him?' So i guess i volunteered to slosh through the muddy torrent & help our poor soggy comrade.



Using our water skills, we maneuvered the bike out of the rocky river bottom & back on the safe concrete.



Now we would have the mud to go through..

More later..



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