| I've discovered that if I stay at home I end up watching too much TV and eating too much junk food. To prevent that I decided to go riding this past weekend... a lot. Two different groups were planning to ride up to Crown King, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. Generally this is the path for both days. |  |
 | A couple of us staged and one of the riders houses to start of Saturday. I was late (it's pretty much a given) but they were still buttoning things up so I refuse to feel guilty. |
| We picked up a couple more riders along the way and headed out to Lake Pleasant. Crown King is a mountain town with two restaurants, a convenience store, a vintage gas pump and a candy store. Back in the day a lot of mining was going on in the area so the remains of the mining roads are the playground of off-roaders today. There's still individuals that have claims around the Crown King area but nothing very large. |  |
 | The previous weekend was wet and cold but this weekend was dry, dusty and hot. We lost one rider early on that had work responsibilities. The rest were more than happy to carry on. (The salute is a very standard ADVrider greeting) |
| These are the other degenerates on the ride. A good group of guys, all very capable riders. It's interesting getting back into group riding after riding by myself for those two weeks. |   |
 | GPS units are useful but there's nothing like folding out a map and being able to see the big picture. And then having to fold the map back up again. |
| The first real issue of the day, a missing bolt replaced by a strap. Really an elegant solution but the pipe wouldn't have lasted the whole way to Crown King without cracking. Lucky between all the toolbags we had fasteners to tighten the pipe hanger back in place for the rest of the ride. |  |
 | If you're familiar with the area we took a left at the CK rock expecting an easier route than the imfamous "Back way" to Crown King. We were all surprised by some of the challenging rolling rock climbs on this route. Of course I don't have any pictures of the tough parts because I was too busy keeping the bike upright but I did manage to catch some pictures on easier sections. |
| Some remnants of the mining history. It's amazing the equipment that has been abandoned at these old sites. |  |
 | The fun part of dual sporting is there's always time to stop and explore and stand around and talk. It's pretty low stress which is my style. Singletracking is usually much more purpose driven, go go go! I love singletrack but it's nice to try the lighter side of riding. Not a lot of time to stop and chat unless there's a problem. That came later on this trip. |
| Lunch at the Mill was hearty and greasy, just what a day like this calls for. For some people it also calls for an icy beer. Definitely earned it today! We all worked up quite a sweat on the rocky hill climbs in the heat. This was probably the last hot weekend before beautiful fall weather arrives. |  |
 | Time being what it was we decided to come down the front graded road out of Crown King. Dust dust dust. Glad I installed the foam air filter before this trip! |
| Of course the fun wasn't over. A deck screw took out the rear tire on the X-Challenge part way down. He limped it along to a spot in the shade because none of us were looking forward to changing a tube, let alone in the hot sun. |  |
 | Flat tires are great when you can watch other people fix them. I could have used these guys when I was doing the tire switch up in Portland. It's all about getting your whole body into it. |
| After the fun and games we called it a day. All the wrestling the bike through the rocks was a work out but I was looking forward to another day of riding on Sunday. |  |
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