Crown King, AZ '09 Dec. 18,19,20

...They have some cool pics of the trail in this thread..
http://virtualjeepclub.com/showthread.php?t=22440

...Duder 1 and Yountxplr, have just been added to the maybe's...Anyone else?

I have the days off from work on the days around the run. Assuming I still have a job, I'll be there (never know with the economy).

~Mark

..It's getting closer...I wonder if Danny's truck will make it...
http://www.st4x4.com/dannyboychat/index.html

Out. I get to be in Virgina instead.

Alright... I know I've threatened to finish my rig and wheel with you guys a few times since I sold the Ex but never followed through.
Well.... I've got it up and running. Count me in.
It'll be good to see some of you again.

...One out and one in...

...Since you haven't mentioned it, What is the rig you will be bringing???

It's the slowest blazer build in the world. I started this about 5 years ago, worked on it for a year, took a few years off and got it wheelable this year. And of course it will never be done.

...Cool, glad to see you can make it and you got it done in time for this run...:biggthump

Kevin, your ears must have been burning! Dannyboy, Maniak and myself were just talking about you the other day while we were working on Dan's Explorer!

That's scary. Hopefully it wasn't only about my bad moments.
I check up on you guys here every now and then to see what's going on. Now that I have wheels again I'm really ready to get out there and see what it can do.

LOLz, I was going to post the same thing when I saw "OffroadKC" as the last poster on this thread.

Anybody else trailering out?
I'll need to so hopefully others are and we can work something out to get back to them.

I am planning to trailer up to there.

Rick,
How far is your house from the trail head? Would it make sense to unload there?


~Mark

Probably 20-30 minutes from where it changes from asphalt to dirt. Only 1 stoplight and 1 stop sign between here and there.

offroadkc said:

Anybody else trailering out?
I'll need to so hopefully others are and we can work something out to get back to them.

Click to expand...

Not sure what the group did last time, but usually we head back to Phoenix via the freeway. It's then about 30 minutes from the New River freeway exit back to the staging area near Lake Pleasant.

This is a tough call depending on if you are street worthy or not. I did some zooming on google maps and made a fairly accurate trail guide.

The red is what is paved roads (or close enough to paved). The green is offroad, however, I could get my trailer all the way back to the point where I made the orange circle, that's where "Cow Creek Road" ends and the "Crown King Road" begins. I'm by no means saying I'd want to trailer that far, but I was just asked last week to get my trailer back to that point for a recovery.

What I may recommend since 99% of us would be coming off HWY 17 is to meet/stage at HWY 74 & I17. There is a huge complex with Home Depot, Fry's etc. I hate to say it but vandals have been breaking into vehicles and slashing trailer tires in desolate ares, specifically on Table Mesa road from what I hear which is right off I17 so I'd say it's in the general area. I'd rather leave my trailer in a Fry's parking lot. Plus there would be no backtracking if we did it like this.
So basically you would
1) meet at Hwy 74 and I17, drive 10 miles to trail head (and probably meet Rick there)
2) run to Crown King (36 miles offroad)
3) drive back to I17 (about 20 miles of gravel road)
4) drive I17 south to Hwy 74 (about 20 miles of HWY)
5) load up trailers from there and head home.

Any other spot like meeting at the trailhead would involve us backtracking the 10 miles from HWY 74/I17 intersection. Now if we have trail only vehicles that makes things difficult, but in all honesty, Crown King probably isn't that much fun for a trail only rig.

My biggest problem is I'm not street legal at all and I don't see me being able to get there in the next few weeks.
I think it is driveable at speed but I'd need to keep it somewhat slow cause I still don't know really how capable it is and honestly my tires would scare me.

Has anyone ever done up and back? I haven't and I'm not sure if it would be more pain than worth it.
Would anyone be willing to do it?

I've done that on my dirtbike and it's a long day on those. with no breaking down and the few occasional stops to B.S. and check on trucks it's a 4.5 to 5 hour drive up. The winding road back to the freeway is about 25 minutes and them about 20 minutes back to the trailer spot. Best solution would be to leave your truck up at I17 & Crown King Exit and ride down with somebody, then jet back up and load up.

Dannyboy said:

Best solution would be to leave your truck up at I17 & Crown King Exit and ride down with somebody, then jet back up and load up.

Click to expand...

That sounds like a good idea. Then I would only need to beg someone for a ride back to the trailer.