Ride Across Arizona 2023

So, Stagecoach 400 was hard and I didn't finish it, so why not sign up for something even longer? What could go wrong?

I rented an Enterprise car and drove up towards the Needles/Bullhead City area. The ride was going to start on a Monday morning in Topock, which is right at the crossing of the Colorado River by Interstate 40. First, I drove to the Burro Creek Campground to check it out as it's a possible water resupply point ... water was off at the restroom and the faucets outside. That means the first day is going to be long and dry with no resupply for 105 miles.

Drove through Oatman. Oatman is a hoot, was full of Route 66 motorcyclists and lots of burros in the street. It's about a block or two of little shops and bars. Took a couple of photos of the burros and moved on. Got to Needles, grabbed a hotel for two nights and ate. Up the next morning and drove to Bullhead City to drop the car before it got to hot and rode back to the hotel in Needles. Needles is a little town that has just seen better days, a few hotels, couple of chain restaurants and a couple of local restaurants and that's about it. It seemed like they make their living off BNSF railroad employees, working on the railroad and etc as there were a lot of their vehicles at the hotel. Sunday came around and I figured I would ride to the start at Topock and camp and be ready to start RAAZ without having to ride 15 miles before the first 105.

Burros in Oatman

Well, that was kind of a bad idea ... it got hot, I rested under some shade, then went to Topock at the bar and checked out the Colorado River people. Bikers and river people galore. Came back to the area and then a Warden came by and told me "you know you can't camp here" ... I was going to but had not set anything up and she hung around kinda making sure I was going to leave the Catfish Paradise day use are. That actually worked out ok because I bailed back to Topock and went up the hill between the railroad and the Interstate and found a great spot, cooler and out of the wind.

6 am, we were at Topock with everyone else and boom ... we're off on I40 heading east. 

Getting Ready to Start at Topock

I stopped at the Pilot and got my extra water, an Endurolite, some chips and etc and continued. We turned off the Interstate at mile 13 and immediately I was pushing my bike up a sandy steepish little hill!  First day was hard, it got warm and we had a wind from the southeast that slowed everyone down. A couple in a white pickup truck were doing support for another rider and they gave several of us extra bottles of water and refilled some water. Alamo road went well, but Coyote Springs road was a PITA with all of the sand ... I was pretty fried at about mile 60 and bagged it for the night at Signal ( or where Signal used to be ).

Day 2, got up and rode the rest of Signal Road and up Seventeen Mile Road ... I enjoyed that one, it had lots of climbing but the surface was great! We hit US 93 and had a few miles up the hill past Nowhere AZ where a gas station and curio shop used to be about 40 years ago!  Zoomed down the other side to the turnoff to Bagdad and a bunch of rollers, then a climb up to the top of the mountain. Keep looking ahead thinking "they didn't put this town on the top of the mountain did they?"  ... yeah they did!

Bagdad was great. Giant Coke. Hit the diner and got a grilled ham and cheese and recharged my phone and Wahoo. Got a couple of things at Basha's and left and got about 10 miles into Camp Wood road before camping in the bushes on the side of the road.

Near Yolo Ranch on Day 3 .. Deer in there someplace

Up early, looked like it was going to rain on me, but had a good morning with Camp Wood road. Passed Yolo ranch, saw some deer. Never did figure out where Camp Wood was exactly ... looked like just a farmhouse at that location ... have to go back and look that up again. Great descent heading east, beautiful views and then when I turned north toward Sleigman, the wind was behind me!  Got 80 something miles in and made it to the hotel there. Girl says we only have a pet suite available and I go "yeah that'll work" so I got the Elvis theme room.

Outside Sleigman

Wind Alerts on the phone for the next day. Hard climbing east, wind behind me when I turned north. At the northern most point I turned southeast and the wind was atrocious. Crazy hard to just walk the bike .. just energy draining. Finally got close to Williams and now the wind was cold, cold, cold. I had all my stuff on and was freezing. Note to self: when you get to Flagstaff go shopping!  Cool little town Williams, had fajitas and a great breakfast the next morning. 

The "Peaks" in Flagstaff in the distance

Trailhead on the way to Flagstaff from Williams

The ride to Flagstaff had some nice sections and a power line road that was a little rocky, nothing too hard. Bit of rockiness and climby in the forest and then it topped out and finally hit the Flag area. Think I was there by noonish. Ate at a Freddie's, got a room and left the bike at the hotel and Uber'd downtown. Bought a sweatshirt and a down puffy hoodie and felt much better. 

Lake Mary with a Kayaker

Headed down Lake Mary Road the next morning. Pavement for 55 miles and the wind wasn't bad. Sometime in the afternoon I got to Happy Jack's RV Park. Big barn like place with a country western dance hall/restaurant and lots of dead animals hanging on the walls. But a great burger and piece of strawberry pie. Left there, down AZ 87 just a little bit and onto the Rim Road. I got to a great viewpoint of the Mogollon Rim and it was getting late and wanted to camp. The campground was closed .. not open for another week and was full of snow and water. I saw the privy and it was dry and so that's where I ended up for the night. 

Mogollon Rim

Rim Views Forever 

Got to Forest Lakes the next day before the store closed at 3!  Everything else there seems to be closed or a step backwards on the route. The fellow running the store was really nice, let me recharge my stuff on his patio and stay after he left. Had two burrito's, chocolate milk, Coke ... all the necessities. Back into the forest, saw some horses that seemed to be wild, passed a fire tower and camped for the night.  A little windy, but not too bad.

Fire Tower at Campground between Forest Lakes and Show Low

And More Rim Views .. Powerline for TEP in Tucson runs in the distance
 

Next day's goal was Show Low and I got there around 2:30 and stopped at Motel 6. Washed my clothes, and walked across the street to get a prime rib. Recharging electronics and eating ... that's pretty much it. Breakfast at McDonald's ... their big breakfast has about 1000 calories, hard to beat.

Rode to Vernon and then on to Greer. The wind really really picked up in the afternoon and I was getting low on food. The route doesn't go to Greer, there's a turn in the forest way above it. So I went down the hill not realizing how deep of a hole Greer was it, and it got steeper and steeper and I was committed and it was still going down and now I was going to have to go all the way back up this damn thing. Stopped at the little store and got some goodies. Asked the lady if the Motel was open and she said yes. Went outside and walked over to the Motel and looked for the office. Tom was sitting there and he says "it's behind you in that building". Went back and she had closed the store ( it was 5 pm closing time ). So no motel for me tonight! Talked to Tom for a bit and he and his buddy offered me a ride back up the mountain and I took it and got back to the route. Rode about 5 miles or so and camped on the side of a paved highway near a snow plowed area. Heard the elk "bark" that night.

Not that long of a stretch, about 9500 feet 

Wed morning comes around, cold start. I really thought the Big Lake store would be open, got close to it and then realized they didn't open for another week. I was off route at the Apache Trout campground and stopped at the little kiosk looking for an electrical outlet. None on the outside and a door that said employee's only. Hmm ... tried it and it opened! Power strip inside and I started charging. Forest Service guy drives up and I tell him what I'm doing and he says OK!  Looked around and They Have a Microwave and I heat up my Jimmy Dean egg/cheese/sausage ... WIN, WIN!   More riding, a nice long descent through a burned area, more forest road, just getting closer to US 191.

Crossed 191.  Up a hill and inventory what I have. Part of a Nestle crunch bar, couple litres of water, a bag of M&M. and a Cuban beans and rice back packing meal. Down into the Blue and the beginning of the Blue Wilderness. It's 9 miles down, down, down. Windy, crazy windy with dirt blowing in my face. Finally got down to the relative quite of the Blue River Road. Think it was about 8 miles to the Finish, took a while as there was still some wind and a little climbing and I was tired. And then I look at my Etrex 32 and I have run out of track.. we are done. Am in New Mexico and I look behind me and there is a sign saying welcome to Greenlee County.

Dropping into the Blue 

Along the Blue River 

Figured I was going to camp down there someplace and was walking the bike and a truck comes by and I flag him down and ask for a ride and he gives me a lift the 8 miles up to AZ 180. And it was still light out. I get to Alpine, get turned around trying to find the motel ... Alpine isn't that big but i got confused anyways ... tired, cold and the hotel had a vacancy! Put the bike inside and walked to a bar and had a great burger and fries and listened to a live band with a whole bunch of Willie Nelson lookalikes.

Rolling a 5:30 am in 25 degrees to get to Springerville to pick up a rental UHaul. Put my bike in it and drove home. Dead tired, but I did it and 9 days and 10 hours.  No idea what to do next .. get some house stuff done this summer I think.

This is an awesome ride. Craig and Minnie put a lot of work into it. It hits desert, mid desert, mountains, forests .. it will test you and it isn't easy and it's pretty rewarding to be able to have finished it. Get out there and give a piece of it a run, you won't be disappointed!