Early Thanksgiving Ride - PHX-FLG-Sedona-PHX
 

This is our 2nd annual Thanksgiving 3 day trip. Last year we camped near the Verde river and then to Crown King for the night. Awesome trip. This year we planned on more mileage and two nights of camping. Two CRF450x Hondas.
First – tow the bike to AZ from Colorado Springs. After replacing all the bearings on my trailer – one was stuck on the axle, it was needed – all packed up.
http://i.imgur.com/g2K5sl.jpg
Then we worked on seat covers. Ikea fake sheepskin. It made all the difference on the ride. The 450x seat is not exactly comfortable, even with the durelle racing seat I have. I can't say what happens to it in the rain, because it didn't, but it sure was nice dry.
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Day 1 – New River, AZ to Perkinsville, AZ
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We started on Sunday at sunrise. Rode up to Cordez Junction for breakfast. Nice chance to try out the packing arrangement. Everything worked nicely.
Nice day
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We had a slight detour near Cherry. Mapsource and Garmin Earth showed a trail connection to a road near Cherry, AZ. After opening two gates (which had no trespassing signs on them, but not locked) and seeing the paved road on the other side of this guy's house, he walks out with a shotgun and starts yelling about us not being able to read. Unfortunately for us it looks like he now owns the road and we have to re-route to get around it. 1 hour.
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Then there was a road closure near Jerome and we had to head down the mountain to Cottonwood, then slab to Jerome.
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Packed up some beer from Jerome and headed to Perkinsville.
Finally... Camp. Found a spot in the dark. Steak on the grill :freaky
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In the middle of the night – my brother-in-law Greg gets sick. His kids, wife and family all had it the week before. He got it. :puke1

Day 2
 

I thought we got a nice spot considering it was dark when we found it.
http://i.imgur.com/r08sNl.jpg
Greg working on getting out of the tent (he ended up being ready before me) Sickness covered up near the helmet
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Day 2 tracks - some changes - details later.

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Colder morning up higher
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Stop near White Horse lake to figure out the plan
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We cut the trip a bit short, we had planned on circling the peak north by flagstaff, considering the late start we took the first option for a shorter trip and headed towards Sedona. The trail was awesome – followed the power lines over Casner mountain.
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We fueled up and ate in Sedona – and it got dark fast. We decided to hotel it for the night
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Amazing how much stuff ends up packed on the bikes
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Day 3
 

Plans are to head south to cross the Verde River near a hot springs.
http://i.imgur.com/ygVtCl.jpg
After 30 mins on some fast dirt roads and pavement, we are headed down to the Verde. Fortunately our planned crossing is in 15 miles.
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We arrived at the Verde
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Don't forget – rules at the hot springs
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The river was a little high
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So Greg went out to check
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We sat on it for 30 minutes and decided on another re-route. We knew we would have to push them across and didn't want to deal with issues on the other side.
We didn't take too many more pics after that – but found some cool trails along the way.
On the way – lucky
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and the ONLY trail damage for the trip
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Great trip overall. Despite getting sick, the trip did not suffer at all. We may have to do this one a bit earlier in the year so we can get more daylight. Overall, 438 miles over the three days.

:clap

Nice.
 

Really Nice. :thumb

http://i.imgur.com/pAKZtl.jpg

Looks like you're riding a sheep. :D Nice trip!

Nice RR, thanks for posting it up. Hope you enjoyed your trip to the SW, this time of year is our best riding season!