Ride Summary – April 27th Bradshaw Mtns Ride

With only a 24-hr reposting notice, we had a nice turnout of 24 vehicles and 38 riders from all over the valley on the April 27th Bradshaw Mtns club ride.  One of our attendees, David Cade, had drove in from Yuma to attend this ride.  Sadly, our original club ride plans for a Table Mesa-Indian Fort-Tip Top Mine ride & BBQ were cancelled by the permanent closure of that historical mine trail by a local rancher.  The background story is that someone had shot some of his livestock and people were vandalizing the historical area.  Our club and many other clubs practice safe and responsible OHV riding along with safety, riding etiquette, sportsmanship, and awareness and respect for the environment.  Sadly, there are members of the OHV riding community that disregard that philosophy and as a result, trail closures are becoming more common for historical mining sites and destination highlight riding areas.

Our original plans were to visit a few historical mines on the way up to the cooler pine tree climate of the Prescott National Forest of Crown King and the Horsethief Basin mountain lake recreational area. With a large number of new club members and other Facebook visitors attending, the co-ride leaders, Bob Maitzen and Bill Poppo, decided to add some sandy wash rides, bedrock mining trails, and other destination highlights on the way up to Crown King and the Bradshaw Mountains.  The ride has a Easy-to-Moderate (Level 1-2; Green-Blue) trail rating.

We departed the I-17 Bumble Bee staging area (2600′ elev) at MM2 at 9:15AM after our safety meeting.  Overflow parking was held at the Pipeline staging area a few blocks away.  Heading NW on the Bumble Bee/Crown King road, we passed through the historical stage coach stop of Bumble Bee noting the old stone schoolhouse and the stagecoach cabin on each side of the road at MM5.

We went off-road shortly thereafter taking a hidden Bumble Bee Wash trail to the old Bumble Bee Ranch Line-Cabin for our first scenic photo stop.  With all the rain this year, the overgrown hidden trail did offer the riders the chance for additional pinstriping detail on their vehicles.  Ha-ha!   Bob and Bill played traffic cop on the radio getting the vehicles parked in and around the cabin.  On a pre-ride earlier that week, we found the Antelope Creek Waterfall was just a wet smear on the cliff-face and the waterpool area had filled in with sand so we opted for a fast sandy wash ride through the Government Springs Wash with a short Moderate-to-Difficult trail exit to get back onto the Crown King Road.

Our next destination highlights were scenic photo stops at the Hidden Treasure Gold Mine (1925), American Flag Mine (1915-1922), and the Golden Turkey Mine (1923-1949) on our way to the Cleator Yacht Club Saloon for a soda meet-and-greet rest stop.  Bob gave a short history lesson at each of the mine stops and showed the group some nearby pictographs at the Golden Turkey mine stone cabin viewpoint. People had fun throwing rocks into the 200′ deep mine shaft of the American Flag mine (aka Old Brooks mine 1915-1922 owned by JP Cleator).  It is certainly a deep mine shaft covered by a large steel grid pad and barbed wire fence to discourage the curiosity seekers.  Everyone was having a lot of fun at the scenic stops so we did get a little behind schedule but that was expected with a large group.  As long as we are having fun, who cares about the time?  As we left the Cleator Yacht Club saloon, we found one of our vehicles had a left rear flat.  The driver, Jay Roberts, with the assistance of a multiple member pit crew, was able to find and plug the puncture with only a 20 minute delay.  It pays to travel in a group with experienced members!

From Cleator, we headed up the two sets of CK road mountain switchbacks to Crown King (5740′ elev).  Bob had to play traffic cop at the bridge entrance as a Jeep club and 20 other UTVs arrived at the same time from the Backway to Crown King trail.  It made for a lot of double parking and a traffic jam in the small historic ATV friendly town.  It was nice and sunny in the mid 70’s up in Crown King and under the shady pine trees of the Bradshaw Mountains.  Our group decided to have our trail lunch in town to give ample time for members to explore the main street’s General Store, Chapel, Fire Station, Prospector’s Mall, and of course the historic Crown King Saloon.

After lunch, we headed to the southbound ridgeline Horsethief Basin Road for some fast winding ridge running with great 50+ mile views.  We did not stop along the way because we were hurrying to try to visit the Horsethief Basin Fire Lookout Tower before it closed.  We were advised by some other northbound riders that the trail to the Lookout Tower was gated and locked so our next scenic stop was in the pine tree covered Hazlett Hallow CCC Campground.  The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the Hazlett Hallow CCC Campground and the nearby Turney Campground and their unique log cabin lean-to shelters in the 1930’s as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal that provided unskilled manual labor jobs related to the conservation and development of natural resources in rural lands owned by federal, state, and local governments. The CCC was designed to provide jobs for young unmarried men (17-28) and to relieve families who had difficulty finding jobs during the Great Depression in the United States.  Maximum enrollment at any one time was 300,000. Through the course of its nine years in operation, 3 million young men participated in the CCC (including my father-in-law), which provided them with shelter, clothing, and food, together with a wage of $30 per month (about $570 in today’s dollars) of which $25 had to be sent home to their families.

Vaulted toilets are available at the campground.  Campfire restrictions are in effect for the Prescott National Forest even though each of the 15 concrete pad log lean-to shelters has dedicated fire pits, picnic tables, and campground amenities.  There was only one camper spotted enjoying the campground from a hammock in one of the hillside lean-to shelters.

Our next destination highlight was a scenic photo stop at the Horsethief Basin mountain lake for a walk out on its water-stained leaking stone dam.  The members really enjoyed the small scenic mountain lake in the pine trees.  On our return, the group stopped at the scenic 6850′ boulder outcrop viewpoint overlooking the “Backway to CK trail” and its Oro Belle mine and New Savoy Mine sites.  It made for some great photos on our club FB website.  Most of the group had never been on the Horsethief trail before and it was their first time to the mountain lake.  Afterwards, we headed back past Crown King with another Poland Vista Point viewpoint photo stop at the top of the CK switchbacks with 40+ mile views of our morning route up the CK road from the Bumble Bee OHV Area.  Our final stop was for a 10-minute pee break at the Cleator Yacht Club saloon on our return.

We arrived back at the staging area to set up our post-ride Desert Dessert Bar tables for the group.  Most of the people stayed to enjoy the camaraderie, trail stories, and Costco apple pie, brownie bites, lemon bites, and cinnamon mini-buns!  While we were setting up the tables, a late radio call came in to say that Albert Leslie at the back of the pack had a flat at MM3 just short of his Pipeline staging area.  He had jacked up his vehicle and removed the flat tire to put on his spare tire when his jack broke apart.  His vehicle fell down to the hub but the only injury was to his pride.  A passing Jeep offered his Hi-Lift Jack to raise the vehicle and Albert’s portable impact wrench had the spare tire on quickly.  It made for some consternation at the staging area since most of us had turned off our radios and did not know what was happening.  I want to give a big THANK YOU shout-out to Bill Poppo and to Jerry Klingensmith for backtracking to Albert to see if they could help and for informing the group of what had happened.

Our group had hit all of our scenic stops and trails and arrived back about 5:45PM at the Bumble Bee staging area.  The total trip was 71 miles in length with a starting elevation of 2600′ reaching a high elevation of 6900′.  Great rides are a result of the great people on the ride so I want to give a big THANK YOU shoutout to board members Mike & Joan Koep for being our group’s tailgunner and to our other midpack radio wingmen and Jerry for watching over the group.  I want  to also thank Bill Poppo as my co-ride leader for helping on the ride and playing radio traffic cop directing the group at major trail turns/scenic stops and as a troubleshooter.  It really makes the job of ride leader so much easier having veteran riders helping out.  Also, a special Thank You to David McCaherty and Albert Leslie for their open seat offers for my two guests and for all their help too.  My friends had a great time!  Judging from all the photos posted on our club website, it appears that everyone else had a great time too!

Live to Ride… Ride to Live!   Catch you on the next ride!   Happy Trails to You… Until We Meet Again…

Bob Maitzen

bob.maitzen@gmail.com