Topock RZR Ride (Tuesday, October 24th, 2017)

We had another club ride today that took us out to Topock 66 restaurant that is located on the old Route 66.  

We met at the Toyota Dealership on the north end of town at 9:30 am.  There were 31 cars and only two group leaders this time, so all of the cars started lining up behind them.  One group was red/blue and the other was green/yellow.  We figured that both groups would be somewhat middle of the road in terms of speed, with the red/blue group riding just a little bit faster.

Like most rides, they had a pre-ride talk, reminding all of us to look out for the person behind us, etc.  I think this is always a great reminder so that no one gets lost.

Jeff was leading the green/yellow group today (he is the one on top of the RZR), and Bob (standing on the left) was leading the red/blue group.

The red/blue group (which is the one we were in) left first.  We had 17 cars in our group.  We always try to get to know the driver in front of us and the driver behind us, so we can keep an eye out for each other.  We had Bill in front of us and Brian behind us.  

We crossed over to the east side of highway 95 and headed north, parallel to the highway.

As usual, the trails were very dusty, but we are used to that and came prepared.

Our first stop was just north of town, where people camp in the desert on the public BLM land during the winter. Even though we drove through the camper sights slowly, I still felt sorry for them because of our dust.

Then we continued on north.

As we came over one of the hills, we could see Havasu Heights below us.

 We ended up driving right along the south end of the town.

Once we got past Havasu Heights, we took a left turn and headed back out into the desert.

 We followed the trails until they brought us back out to highway 95, just before I-40.  We made a quick stop at the gas station, so everyone could use the restrooms and buy snacks.

Then we drove a short distance down highway 95 so that we could get across I-40 at the overpass.

We came down a hill off the highway, and entered into a wash.  The wash was about 9 miles long, and very wide, with trails running all over through it.  Bob told us that no matter which trail we took though the wash, they would all lead to the railroad tracks and we would all meet up there and re-group before going on.  It was very dusty in the wash, so we all just spread out and drove through the wash until we got to the railroad tracks.

The first four cars in our group were definitely red group type of drivers, and drove the entire ride very fast.  Steve and I were in the fifth car and were the first of the blue group type of drivers.  

We completely lost the first four cars driving through the wash, but knew that we would meet up with them when we got to the railroad tracks, so we were okay with that.  As you can see, they were no where to be found.

The cars behind us, stayed a nice distance back to let the dust settle, but they were always within view of us.

So we just kept driving, knowing that we would reunite with the rest of the group at the tracks.

And sure enough, just like they said, they were waiting for us when we got to the tracks.  I have to say, it was nice to reunite with them because we have never done this ride before, and don't know these trails at all.  As we were driving the 9 miles of wash with no one in sight in front of us, I told Steve that if we were lost, at least we were lost with Brian behind us.  I think that some of these drivers have done these trails so many times that they could drive them in their sleep, but there were a lot of us that were seeing them for the first time.

 As we waited at the train tracks for everyone to catch up from the wash, a train went by.  

Finally, everyone caught up, so I walked to the back of the pack to get a picture.

This is Allen.  He was our tail gunner today, and he really had his work cut out for him!  I think keeping us all together was a lot like herding cats!

When we left the train tracks, we drove through some pretty country, with some really fun trails.

After awhile we could see a white spike out in the distance.  This is where we would hit the road to Topock.

We jumped on the road and came in to Topock from the north.

When we got there, the green/yellow group was already there.  They must have taken a short cut, because they never passed us.

Jeff (the other group leader) had called ahead to make sure that Topock would be ready for us when we got there, and sure enough, they had plenty of staff to handle our crowd again.

They had more than enough room to handle all of us. This time we ordered whatever we wanted off of the regular menu, and everything was delivered very quickly. Topock is a fun place!

Then back to the parking lot to head back toward Havasu.

We drove back down the road until we saw the white spike again, then exited back onto the trail to head for the 9 mile wash.

This time Bob told us that we would re-group at the other end of the wash before we crossed the highway.  So everyone took off through the wash again, heading back toward highway 95.  

Again, we lost the first four cars immediately, but just kept making our way through the wash.  When it seemed like we had gone about 9 miles, we started looking for the lead cars, so we would know where to get out of the wash, but we couldn't find anyone.  We could once again see Brian behind us, but there was no sign of our lead cars, and we weren't familiar enough with the wash to know where to get out.  So Steve got on the radio and asked Bob where they were.  He said that they had crossed the highway and were waiting up by the gas station.  

So at that point, we started looking for other cars that might still be in the wash to see if they could show us where our exit point was.  We finally found some other drivers and followed them out.  

We got across the highway and caught up with our lead cars, only to realize that the rest of our group was still in the wash.  We could hear some of them on the radio, but there were also a lot of drivers in our group that didn't have radios, so we were hoping that they were down there helping each other find their way out, and we hoped that everyone had gotten word that we were already across the highway waiting for them.

Eventually, all 16 of the remaining cars (one driver from our group decided to leave us at Topock) made it to the gas station.  One more car decided to leave the group at the gas station and took the highway home from that point.

The remaining 15 cars continued back to Havasu on the west side of the highway, again forging through new territory as we went.

We all made it back to the Toyota dealership safe and sound after a fun, wild ride.  Thank you to Bob for leading our group, and to Allen our tail gunner!  I can't believe that he somehow kept all of us cats together without any one unaccounted for at the end of the day!