God intervenes, and leads us to a good resturant.
Steve and I had a ride that went bust, Gentle Readers of This Blog. Plan was to ride from Pine, Arizona to Mormon Lake, and then back. Things didn’t go as planned. We did a fantastically difficult and dangerous climb to the mountain town of Strawberry—then on the way to Clints Well there were just too many close-calls, whereas if run off the road, Yours would find himself falling to an un-timely death into the rocky canyons below.
I’d had enough—and convinced Steve, the Star of This Blog, we should turn our asses around and get off this road before we were killed. So we turned around and got back to the Mystery Van, in what seemed a matter of seconds—we careened down the mountain to Pine at 35/40 mph. I didn’t want to try to go any faster, mes amis!
Steve and I had a ride that went bust, Gentle Readers of This Blog. Plan was to ride from Pine, Arizona to Mormon Lake, and then back. Things didn’t go as planned. We did a fantastically difficult and dangerous climb to the mountain town of Strawberry—then on the way to Clints Well there were just too many close-calls, whereas if run off the road, Yours would find himself falling to an un-timely death into the rocky canyons below.
I’d had enough—and convinced Steve, the Star of This Blog, we should turn our asses around and get off this road before we were killed. So we turned around and got back to the Mystery Van, in what seemed a matter of seconds—we careened down the mountain to Pine at 35/40 mph. I didn’t want to try to go any faster, mes amis!
An early morning drive to Pine, Arizona...
At the Mystery Van, I talked to the Preacher’s Wife, Barbara. We had met her when we asked if we could off-load in the church parking lot earlier that morning. I told her it was just too dangerous for our blood. She gave us a map which she said was a very old Forest Service map, but we’d be able to use it to see what was in store for us. It was good for recon, and that’s about it.
At Clints Well, which is just a restaurant, we could see where local riders had parked their cars. As we drove up the road to Mormon Lake the road had a nice shoulder to ride on, and soon we saw two cyclists headed to the Lake.
Steve, The Star of This Blog, pilots the Mystery Van on yet another adventure...
Since it was lunch time, we decided to have a bite at the Mormon Lake Lodge—and just gather intelligence. For example, we found out that all the local riders meet and park their cars just after cattle guard, several miles Northwest of Upper Lake Mary. We drove about 9 or 10 miles from there (where there’s a little store to stop and get water) into Flagstaff, and it seemed that there would be about five miles of road with no shoulder to navigate on the bike should we want to ride on into Flag.
We figured if we do a ride up in this area, we can leave from Clints Well and do a ride around Mormon Lake and up to St. Mary’s Lake—and back. Possibly we could ride down from Flag, ride around the lake and then back. Either way, it requires some driving and we’re wondering if its worth such a trip.
90 degrees in Flagstaff when we left via I-17 then as the elevation dropped, the temperature rose to 111 degrees just outside of Black Canyon—a difference of 21 degrees!
Cheers!
2 comments:
Hey Bruce, sorry the first part of the ride didn't work out. I have always wanted to ride Mormon Lake/Lake Mary road. Good to hear you made it back safe. Sorry if I wasn't too accurate on the Payson to leg. I was right about the Mormon Lake leg though!
Paul,
We carried a copy of the email you sent about your recollections of this area. They helped guide us on our trek. I just feel that the local boyz have kept Mormon Lake a secret from the Phx and Tucson hooligans--it was pretty and we must attempt to ride it again, with you, as you're a local and maybe the Gods will show us the way!
Cheers!
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