Tale of The White Mountains Trail Day 3 06/06
Final day. Boo Hoo. Hated to see it end. The weather has been great compared to the hot valley. It has been in the 70's during the day with a few sprinkles the last 2 days and the low in the low 50's. I guess we got our ride in just in time as I see in the FS website that the upped the restrictions from level 2 to level 3. Level 3 is their highest level except full closure. Some FS areas are closed completely. Looks like we will have to wait for rain to ride for awhile or hook up with Roy and go to Colorado and Idaho. (lucky bastard) I don't know if he has enough room in his toy hauler for any guests.
I took some photos of a fallen tree in the campsite next to us. There was a tent within 2 feet of where that large pine tree fell on Friday. The people that were there left that same day. I can't say that I blame them. Riders today were Greg, Roy, Robert and daughter, Mark and son, Mark's dad and daughter and me (Don)
We had a loop planned out that took us to the town of Nutrioso again. From there we had to go down the highway for about 3 miles to a FS road that lead to Escadillo Mountain and the Terry Flat Loop. The Loop took us around some beautiful meadows. We stopped at an overlook where we could see New Mexico to the East. According to the GPS New Mexico was about 5 miles away. We reached an elevation of 9,900 feet at one point. After this loop we had to take the highway again for another 3 & 1/2 miles towards Alpine to another FS road to the right that headed to a turn off for the Black River. The road along the Black River is very scenic. As we headed down the road to the river the front of the group ran into our old toothless buddy Ranger Jim Martin. He stopped Jeff Jr and was giving him a hard time about riding on the FS road. Jeff Jr told him he is a licensed driver and his quad is street legal, but he still told him he should go back to camp. NOT!!!! That's when Mark and his dad came by riding double. Ranger Jim sprang into action and flagged them down. He told them they could not continue on because their quads were not manufactured to ride 2 people. There was no arguing with that as we had already told that to Mark and his dad before we left. Ranger Jim was actually very lenient on them as he told them he could right them a ticket that costs $160 per person. At this point Mark, Jeff Sr and Robert and daughter (Robert has a 2 seat BRP Max) went back to camp to get Marks truck. Greg, Jeff Jr, Roy and I continued on along the road beside the Black River and then back to camp for lunch.
We had lunch and were planning the afternoon ride when Mark showed up in his truck. As we were sitting there for about 5 min someone asked Mark where his dad was? He said he saw him turn in behind him on the road we were camped on but he did not show up. Mark took off on a quad to look for him. He came back and said he could not find him. I then said I bet he went straight where the road curved. He took off again and came back in a rush and said I was right and his dad crashed on Greg's Honda. As he was getting his truck I took off to find him. When I got to him he was sitting up and shaking as it was raining and he was missing 1 shoe. As I approached him he yelled "don't touch my shoulder" By now the others had arrived. Robert put a blanket on him and we assessed the damage. We decided to pick him up by the belt and get him in the truck. Mark then took him to Springerville to the ER. They took x-rays and determined he had broken his collar bone. Thank goodness he was wearing a helmet.
For the afternoon ride we took the main FS roads around Big Lake to the Pat Knoll area. If you haven't been to that area you need to go take a look. It is very lush like the Hannagan's Meadow area. Once again we saw Elk and Antelope. I should say some of us in the rear saw them. The hunter guys in the front missed them. Hummmmm I wonder why they don't bring back any meat when they go hunting?
We ended our ride a little early because of not being able to take the side trails, oh well we spotted lots of them that need to be investigated when we get some rain. Today's ride was 120 miles which ended our trip at 340 miles total. Day 1 was 86 miles and day 2 was 134 miles. Quote from Roy "I don't know why we weren't riding more, we had gas and it was light" I guess that will be the next trip.
Back at camp Jeff Sr brought out his potato launcher. Everyone in camp got their chance to launch a potato or onion or apple or a combination. You can see the water leaving the barrel from the potato.
What a GREAT 3 days of riding and camping. To bad we didn't get a bunch of rain, that would have really been a blast.
Read MoreI took some photos of a fallen tree in the campsite next to us. There was a tent within 2 feet of where that large pine tree fell on Friday. The people that were there left that same day. I can't say that I blame them. Riders today were Greg, Roy, Robert and daughter, Mark and son, Mark's dad and daughter and me (Don)
We had a loop planned out that took us to the town of Nutrioso again. From there we had to go down the highway for about 3 miles to a FS road that lead to Escadillo Mountain and the Terry Flat Loop. The Loop took us around some beautiful meadows. We stopped at an overlook where we could see New Mexico to the East. According to the GPS New Mexico was about 5 miles away. We reached an elevation of 9,900 feet at one point. After this loop we had to take the highway again for another 3 & 1/2 miles towards Alpine to another FS road to the right that headed to a turn off for the Black River. The road along the Black River is very scenic. As we headed down the road to the river the front of the group ran into our old toothless buddy Ranger Jim Martin. He stopped Jeff Jr and was giving him a hard time about riding on the FS road. Jeff Jr told him he is a licensed driver and his quad is street legal, but he still told him he should go back to camp. NOT!!!! That's when Mark and his dad came by riding double. Ranger Jim sprang into action and flagged them down. He told them they could not continue on because their quads were not manufactured to ride 2 people. There was no arguing with that as we had already told that to Mark and his dad before we left. Ranger Jim was actually very lenient on them as he told them he could right them a ticket that costs $160 per person. At this point Mark, Jeff Sr and Robert and daughter (Robert has a 2 seat BRP Max) went back to camp to get Marks truck. Greg, Jeff Jr, Roy and I continued on along the road beside the Black River and then back to camp for lunch.
We had lunch and were planning the afternoon ride when Mark showed up in his truck. As we were sitting there for about 5 min someone asked Mark where his dad was? He said he saw him turn in behind him on the road we were camped on but he did not show up. Mark took off on a quad to look for him. He came back and said he could not find him. I then said I bet he went straight where the road curved. He took off again and came back in a rush and said I was right and his dad crashed on Greg's Honda. As he was getting his truck I took off to find him. When I got to him he was sitting up and shaking as it was raining and he was missing 1 shoe. As I approached him he yelled "don't touch my shoulder" By now the others had arrived. Robert put a blanket on him and we assessed the damage. We decided to pick him up by the belt and get him in the truck. Mark then took him to Springerville to the ER. They took x-rays and determined he had broken his collar bone. Thank goodness he was wearing a helmet.
For the afternoon ride we took the main FS roads around Big Lake to the Pat Knoll area. If you haven't been to that area you need to go take a look. It is very lush like the Hannagan's Meadow area. Once again we saw Elk and Antelope. I should say some of us in the rear saw them. The hunter guys in the front missed them. Hummmmm I wonder why they don't bring back any meat when they go hunting?
We ended our ride a little early because of not being able to take the side trails, oh well we spotted lots of them that need to be investigated when we get some rain. Today's ride was 120 miles which ended our trip at 340 miles total. Day 1 was 86 miles and day 2 was 134 miles. Quote from Roy "I don't know why we weren't riding more, we had gas and it was light" I guess that will be the next trip.
Back at camp Jeff Sr brought out his potato launcher. Everyone in camp got their chance to launch a potato or onion or apple or a combination. You can see the water leaving the barrel from the potato.
What a GREAT 3 days of riding and camping. To bad we didn't get a bunch of rain, that would have really been a blast.
