Cecil (with his sister and her boyfriend) and I (with Scott Boone) took a quick trip up to CK this past Saturday.
It's been 5 years since I've been up there and I was in the mood for something light, fast, and fun. I have heard over the years that it had become a "graded road" and well... it's pretty much true. From where the pavement ends to CK rock is literally a full blown graded gravel road. They have added a cool OHV loading/unloading area 4.2 miles after the road turns to gravel that was nice to leave the truck and trailer.
At "CK rock" it becomes a trail again and I kicked it into 4HI just for the fun of it. Not really necessary, but it made me feel better.
As always, it's scenic and fun to get into the back country. The optional obstacles are still there and fun to play on with an overbuilt Jeep, but the "character" obstacles such as the off camber turn and rock ledge at Oro Belle mine (the big water tank) are completley gone... graded over. Same thing with the cool whoops near CK that used to be fun for some off camber action... smooth as a baby's butt.
We made it from the trailer (so 4.2 miles off the paved road) to the General Store in CK in just under 2 hours. Seriously. Now, it helps when you don't need spotters and you aren't breaking stuff, but it's a quick ride these days to get up there. The General Store is still super cool and the food at the Saloon (as well as their Crown King Ale) is really good.
Great way to kill a beautiful AZ day with some great company and the AZ back country.
Here is the entire trip from CK rock to the General Store in just over 47 minutes if you want to web wheel it for old time sake.
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On a funny side note, Cecil's Jeep and my Jeep were rock stars... it was kinda like playing basketball with a bunch of 3rd graders on a 7 foot goal. We could dunk at will and felt like giants. Not something I would do every day, but fun every once in a while!
I actually got asked "Wow, bet you don't worry about scratching your Jeep anymore!". I had to pause it's been so many years since I worried about a scratch I didn't know what he was talking about... and about that time Cecil climbed my rear wheel and I thought the guys eyes would pop out of his head. LOL Pictures were taken by the other Jeeps. Fun day of light wheeling that did my soul good.
Thanks Cecil and Scott. I appreciated it brothers.