Living in the Past
SILVER Star
Believe the Verde Valley route from a couple of years ago is still. End up at higher/cooler elevation. Still in stage two restrictions but not closed?
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Besides the forest svc website, we can call CK and ask if people are making it up the backside, they'd know....
UPDATE: CONFIRMED THE BACK WAY TO CROWN KING IS DEFINITELY CLOSED.... BUT, GOOD NEWS, THE FR 393 TO BARTLETT LAKE IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS! (although the nice ranger who confirmed this was like "uhh have you been on that before? are you sure you want to go on that?? it's pretty rough" )
PLEASE CONFIRM AGAIN IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO ATTEND THIS RUN, I DON'T EXPECT ALL WHO WERE IN FOR CROWN KING TO NECESSARILY GO ON THIS RUN.
SEE UPDATED FIRST POST FOR RUN DETAILS!!
Meet-up will be 7:30 AM at Baja Gas station off 87.
As long as this trail is dry, it's not too challenging. The biggest issues are all off-camber spots on shelf roads, I can't think of any otherwise technically challenging spots. In fact, we convinced Tonto to run some equipment in there this past spring from the north end to address some of the off-camber spots so it may be easier than ever. There is that one caveat though- if there is any water at all, this is a dangerous trail. There are a couple of 50-yard plus stretches of off-camber that turn slick as gorilla snot when wet. I personally nearly went off the edge on one, had to pound in an anchor and winch myself sideways while two other trucks daisy-chain pulled me back onto a flat area. This was not a situation you could avoid by going slow and careful, every foot forward sent me a foot closer to the edge. My advice is to check the weather as the day approaches.
393 connects to Log Corral (FR3456) on the south end, which makes for a nice loop. Log Corral can be challenging at times, although the last time I ran it, in January of this year, it wasn't too bad. Here's the trip report from that day if you're interested. I like to try that end first, it only takes about 10 minutes to get to the rock garden and see if the rigs in the group will have any issues, and then you can always turn around and head up to the north end if necessary.
As long as this trail is dry, it's not too challenging. The biggest issues are all off-camber spots on shelf roads, I can't think of any otherwise technically challenging spots. In fact, we convinced Tonto to run some equipment in there this past spring from the north end to address some of the off-camber spots so it may be easier than ever. There is that one caveat though- if there is any water at all, this is a dangerous trail. There are a couple of 50-yard plus stretches of off-camber that turn slick as gorilla snot when wet. I personally nearly went off the edge on one, had to pound in an anchor and winch myself sideways while two other trucks daisy-chain pulled me back onto a flat area. This was not a situation you could avoid by going slow and careful, every foot forward sent me a foot closer to the edge. My advice is to check the weather as the day approaches.
393 connects to Log Corral (FR3456) on the south end, which makes for a nice loop. Log Corral can be challenging at times, although the last time I ran it, in January of this year, it wasn't too bad. Here's the trip report from that day if you're interested. I like to try that end first, it only takes about 10 minutes to get to the rock garden and see if the rigs in the group will have any issues, and then you can always turn around and head up to the north end if necessary.
If you like your bumpers this trail is not for you. If you are going to eventually replace your front and back bumper then your fine. You will likely scrap both.
I’m still in sounds like fun. As long as we don’t have rain, and gorilla snot, and going over the edge thing..... then maybe not so fun. I’m still a newbie but am eager to learn, I have a lift and sliders on my 200 now so the vehicle should be fine, but any experienced advice along the way I appreciate. @Abigail if you could bring an extra Ham for me to monitor that’d be great!Thanks for the insight. I've run this a couple of times and do remember the off-camber areas. As of this morning the weather looked dry, but now there are chances of scattered thunderstorms. Will monitor this as we approach the end of the week.
If that was a question, everything between Phoenix and Payson off of SR87 is Forest Service land, no STL permit required.I know it's been brought up that Crown King run did not require a State Trust Land permit, seems when your east of I-17 some of those areas do.