Florence Junct, Superior, Montana Mnt Loop in the rain 12-08-07
Well all I can say is WOW,WOW, and WOW. That has to rank right up there with one of the funnest rides ever. How can you beat a rainy day in the deserts of Arizona, good guys to ride with, tons of water crossings, great scenery, and a quad rescue all in one day. The only negative about the trip is having to clean the super muddy quads.
Riders were RoyD, Jeff (Azgolfer) his son Jeff a couple of newbie's (for us at least) Dan, Steve (from New York) and me (Azquadrider)
The day started out with a bang literally. Jeff was going to meet us for breakfast at Denny's at 6:00 AM. He called and said he had a tire explode on his trailer. It just so happened that a DPS officer was right behind him and turned on his lights. When he came up to Jeff he said " you did one hell of a good driving job to keep that trailer under control". Needless to say we were a little late to our start time. Oh well it was still raining hard anyway and kind of cold for us desert rats at least.
We turned off US 60 to the Florence Junct highway, went 5 miles to Cotton Wood Canyon Rd to stage. It was very muddy. We knew this was going to be a fun day. When we got to the 1st wash it was flowing quite a bit. We decided to go for the boulder crawl with the water flowing to see if we could make it. No problem!!!! What fun.
We took the trail that headed into the town of Superior. Jeff wanted to get a ride I had done before on his GPS since I rarely use mine. There were some good water crossings along the way to make it fun. By the time we reached Superior some of the riders were a little cold and wet. Rain gear didn't hold up to the rain, so we stopped at La Hermosa bar and restaurant to warm up. After some hot coffee and hot chocolate we were ready to hit the trail for the 2nd half of the adventure.
We had to go west on the highway for a mile or 2 to a FS road headed north west. We then turned N onto another FS road. This is where the real fun started. This is the road S of the cabin at the switchbacks where you have to ride in the wash a bunch. There were times I was not sure if we would be able to make it but we kept pushing forward. The only one that had trouble was Jr's King quad. The clutch kept getting wet and it wouldn’t move. I can't imagine why it kept getting wet. I had to tow it a couple of times. Of course there are no photos of that so I'm sure if you ask Jeff it never happened. We were in water several times up to the front rack and the water was pushing you around.
As we climbed up and over the mountain to Rogers Trough the views were incredible as always but on the north side as we headed down there were several beautiful waterfalls cascading down the mountain. There was even a couple just a few feet from the road. After a bunch more water crossings we knew we were coming to the biggest of them all at the entrance to Rogers Trough off of Hewitt Station Rd. We had passed some jeeps heading in se we thought we could make it. When we arrived at the big wash it was intimidateing to say the least. It was running very fast and we did not know for sure how deep it was. This is where out trusted leader Roy jumped into action. Jr was in the lead and Roy said go or get out of the way. He got out of the way and Visco Daddy nailed the throttle. His little 400 dove into the water, started throwing water and came out the other side even though it took him down stream about 10 feet. We all went one by one until it was down to Jeff and me. We decided it would be safe to tie a rope from my quad to his in case his belt wouldn’t make it so hopefully I could pull him out. When I hit the water I was wide open in low and never looked back until I was on the other side. I think he made it on his own but better to be safe than sorry.
As we were on the other side we met some other ATVers that said there was a quad upside down in the river about 1/4 mile down stream. Well, we just had to look at that. There was a group of people looking at the quad on the other side and 1 guy wanted to walk over to it and hook my winch to it to pull it in. We weren’t real sure about this as it was really flowing. He insisted so I said as long as you are going to do it tie a rope around your waist just in case so we can pull you in. He did, and he took off with a friend of his next to him. They made it fairly easily, turned the key off, pushed it onto it's wheels and I pulled it in to shore. Just as we got it to shore the owner of the quad appeared. He was amazes and very thankful. Apparently he was riding by himself (lesson #1) tried to cross fast running water (lesson # 2) and got thrown off his quad and into the river (big lesson #3). But lesson #4 was there were good ATV riders willing to help a fellow rider out of a bad situation. The Suzuki Eiger looked pretty good for going down a river.
As we were talking to the group that got in the water we were telling them to look at Riding Arizona because we would post these photos. They asked our screen names and of course every one knew RoyD. They even remarked that if it wasn't a 100 mile ride it didn't even count for RoyD. Plus they recognized the duct taped helmet. Those guys that got in the water are real men!!!!
We even towed the quad back to Al's truck and pushed it into the back of his truck for him. Hopefully he bought a lottery ticket that night.
Read MoreRiders were RoyD, Jeff (Azgolfer) his son Jeff a couple of newbie's (for us at least) Dan, Steve (from New York) and me (Azquadrider)
The day started out with a bang literally. Jeff was going to meet us for breakfast at Denny's at 6:00 AM. He called and said he had a tire explode on his trailer. It just so happened that a DPS officer was right behind him and turned on his lights. When he came up to Jeff he said " you did one hell of a good driving job to keep that trailer under control". Needless to say we were a little late to our start time. Oh well it was still raining hard anyway and kind of cold for us desert rats at least.
We turned off US 60 to the Florence Junct highway, went 5 miles to Cotton Wood Canyon Rd to stage. It was very muddy. We knew this was going to be a fun day. When we got to the 1st wash it was flowing quite a bit. We decided to go for the boulder crawl with the water flowing to see if we could make it. No problem!!!! What fun.
We took the trail that headed into the town of Superior. Jeff wanted to get a ride I had done before on his GPS since I rarely use mine. There were some good water crossings along the way to make it fun. By the time we reached Superior some of the riders were a little cold and wet. Rain gear didn't hold up to the rain, so we stopped at La Hermosa bar and restaurant to warm up. After some hot coffee and hot chocolate we were ready to hit the trail for the 2nd half of the adventure.
We had to go west on the highway for a mile or 2 to a FS road headed north west. We then turned N onto another FS road. This is where the real fun started. This is the road S of the cabin at the switchbacks where you have to ride in the wash a bunch. There were times I was not sure if we would be able to make it but we kept pushing forward. The only one that had trouble was Jr's King quad. The clutch kept getting wet and it wouldn’t move. I can't imagine why it kept getting wet. I had to tow it a couple of times. Of course there are no photos of that so I'm sure if you ask Jeff it never happened. We were in water several times up to the front rack and the water was pushing you around.
As we climbed up and over the mountain to Rogers Trough the views were incredible as always but on the north side as we headed down there were several beautiful waterfalls cascading down the mountain. There was even a couple just a few feet from the road. After a bunch more water crossings we knew we were coming to the biggest of them all at the entrance to Rogers Trough off of Hewitt Station Rd. We had passed some jeeps heading in se we thought we could make it. When we arrived at the big wash it was intimidateing to say the least. It was running very fast and we did not know for sure how deep it was. This is where out trusted leader Roy jumped into action. Jr was in the lead and Roy said go or get out of the way. He got out of the way and Visco Daddy nailed the throttle. His little 400 dove into the water, started throwing water and came out the other side even though it took him down stream about 10 feet. We all went one by one until it was down to Jeff and me. We decided it would be safe to tie a rope from my quad to his in case his belt wouldn’t make it so hopefully I could pull him out. When I hit the water I was wide open in low and never looked back until I was on the other side. I think he made it on his own but better to be safe than sorry.
As we were on the other side we met some other ATVers that said there was a quad upside down in the river about 1/4 mile down stream. Well, we just had to look at that. There was a group of people looking at the quad on the other side and 1 guy wanted to walk over to it and hook my winch to it to pull it in. We weren’t real sure about this as it was really flowing. He insisted so I said as long as you are going to do it tie a rope around your waist just in case so we can pull you in. He did, and he took off with a friend of his next to him. They made it fairly easily, turned the key off, pushed it onto it's wheels and I pulled it in to shore. Just as we got it to shore the owner of the quad appeared. He was amazes and very thankful. Apparently he was riding by himself (lesson #1) tried to cross fast running water (lesson # 2) and got thrown off his quad and into the river (big lesson #3). But lesson #4 was there were good ATV riders willing to help a fellow rider out of a bad situation. The Suzuki Eiger looked pretty good for going down a river.
As we were talking to the group that got in the water we were telling them to look at Riding Arizona because we would post these photos. They asked our screen names and of course every one knew RoyD. They even remarked that if it wasn't a 100 mile ride it didn't even count for RoyD. Plus they recognized the duct taped helmet. Those guys that got in the water are real men!!!!
We even towed the quad back to Al's truck and pushed it into the back of his truck for him. Hopefully he bought a lottery ticket that night.
