Unfortunately, before we could get out of town, John and Sheila's dog got away, and as they were looking for it, they heard a yelp coming from the wash near their house. John got out of his truck and saw a coyote holding their little dog in its mouth by the neck. The dog was all slumped over, so John was sure it was dead, but yelled at the coyote anyway, hoping it would drop the dog. He got back in his truck, and headed to the nearest cross street to the wash to try and stop the coyote. When he got there, the coyote was standing there, but was no longer holding the dog. As John started to head down the wash to try and find their dog, he got a call from Sheila that the dog had run home. It had four puncture wounds around its neck, but seemed to be OK. What a terrible start to what should have been a great day!
To make a long story short, John decided to go on our ride after all, but Sheila stayed home to take care of the poor, tattered dog. So it ended up being just John, his friend Bob and the two of us that went for the ride.
We met John and Bob at the Chevron station at the intersection of I-40 and highway 95.
And then drove out to Yucca. It is an area just off of I-40, south of Kingman, AZ. There is a white "golf ball" at the Yucca exit. We all pulled off in the parking lot and unloaded our side by sides.
We headed out on the dirt road that lead to the Hualapi Mountains. Our first dirt road followed a gas pipeline. It was a fairly smooth road with lots of dust and a few deep washes. When we hit the first couple of washes, we weren't expecting them, and we bottomed out pretty good. And unbeknownst to us, in one of these washes our spare tire mount broke, and our spare tire fell off.
When we got to our next turn-off, we stopped for a break and realized that our spare tire was gone. John and Bob started to head back to look for it, but Steve and I decided that we should just continue on and look for it on the way back. Of course, there was a chance that someone else might find it, but we decided to take our chances and keep going. We really didn't expect to find it anyway! So John and Bob came back and we continued on our ride.
As we made our way closer to the mountains, the road became rockier and narrower, but still very easy to ride.
Sorry for the glare and dust on the windshield, it will get even worse as we go through the day, but at least it gives you an idea of what we were riding.
We had to stop twice to open and close gates. We crossed through a couple working ranches. We're pretty certain that these ranches are off the grid. There doesn't appear to be any electricity, gas or water up up here.
As we continued through the ranch lands.
You can see that the windshield is getting quite dusty by now.
We rode through a small mud bog, so now we have mud spots in addition to the dust. Sorry!
But the scenery out my side window just keeps getting greener and prettier!
Another ranch gate.
I shot this picture back behind us. The view was so pretty, and seemed to go on forever.
We drove over the Wabayuma Peak Pass on trail 7101, and as we approached the lodge, we ran into Jamie and Diane, friends of John's. They decided to join us as we continued our ride. We were looking for an old mansion, but we were having trouble finding it. Jamie and Diane knew right where it was, so they took the lead and lead us in. From the 7101 trail, we took a cut-off on the 7200 trail, and that was the trail that lead to the mansion. They had not been there in a while and thought the road in was in very poor shape. John and Bob had recently been there so they knew the road in was fine.
Here is what is left of the mansion today. The arched windows and crown molding must have been an expensive addition in 1929, not to mention how remote this location is. We have no idea how they brought all of the building materials up here.
Diane had a book that she bought at the ranger station that shows all of the 4 wheel trails in Mohave County. We're going to have to pick one up for ourselves.
This is what's left of the Gold King Mine almost 90 years later.
After our fun stop at the Gold King Mansion, we continued around the loop to find the Hualapi Mountain Resort. Another shot through a super dirty windshield. Sorry!
John found a rock crawl that he just couldn't resist. It was fun to watch him work his way through the boulder area. He made it all look so easy! Trust me it wasn't!
He made it look way too easy. It was very steep! Then we were off again! I believe that our trail coming out of the mansion was called Antelope Wash, but I'm not sure.
Once we hit Moss Wash OHV Trail, it was wide and smooth again.
Another beautiful ranch.
And another stray cow.
When the dust gets too bad, I have to cover up a little bit. I have a dust mask, but sometimes it gets pretty uncomfortable after awhile. A wet cowl works just as well.
If you look closely, you can see a cow elk standing under this tree.
It didn't take long to reach the resort. When we got there, we decided that we were feeling water logged, at thought a gatorade sounded good, so Steve walked over to the general store to see what he could find.
But when he got there, it was all locked up.
We started to walk away, when a woman yelled at us from the bar patio and asked us what we needed. We told her we just wanted a couple of drinks. She said that she had closed for the day, but if we had a credit card or exact change she would be happy to open back up for us. So she opened up and sold us a couple of drinks. Steve gave her a tip to thank her for going out of her way for us. Once again, we just love the small town feel of everything around here!
Once we bought our drinks, we went into the restaurant and bar to check it out as well. The next picture is the bar patio.
Here I am with Diane and Jamie inside the bar in the nice cool air conditioning. Ahhhh!!!
John and Bob at the next table. Just cooling down before we hit the road again. Mary and Russ are at the next table. We met them up there, then wen't back to their cabin for a few minutes. Again, more people that John knew!!!
It's a very nice bar and restaurant!
Another cow elk walking through town.
We can't believe how much this little town looks like the mountains of Colorado!
When we left the Wallapi Mountain Resort, we made our way back over the mountain pass, and as we got down lower, we could see smoke off in the distance. We heard later that there was another fire at Topock area.
As we got back on the pipeline road, we began watching for our spare tire, thinking what a slim chance it would be to find it. But as John and Bob came over one of the hills, there it was. Laying right in the middle of the road where we had left it. So John and Steve picked it up and figured out how to reattach it to our broken spare tire holder.
It was an incredible ride. Our starting elevation was 2,024 feet and our max elevation was 7,064 feet above sea level. Our elapsed time was six hours and seven minutes. We didn't actually do a 100 mile trail ride. It was really only 97.8 miles, but whose counting!
John and Bob are both very good drivers, and they were so patient with us. John would offer advice to us whenever we came upon any difficult obstacles, and was a great trail guide for the day. We are so excited for our next chance to go riding with them again. Hopefully next time Sheila and their son can join us. We really missed having her along! Now it's time to get this thing cleaned up!
Again, should you need maintenance or a full customization on your SxS please use Just Money Motorsports here in Lake Havasu City! It is a great shop run by wonderful people!
It took me a few days to get this post written, so we now have an update on John and Sheila's dog. He came out OK, but one of the puncture wounds was so deep that they had to put a drain in it. He is very lucky that John found him in the wash when he did, and that the coyote decided to spare him. We are very thankful that he is going to be OK.
What a traumatic experience for everyone!
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