We were up at 5AM and suited up and went out for breakfast. We usually ate a hearty breakfast as the meager lunch we would carry with us from the quickstore sure wasn't much---but tasted pretty good sometimes out on the trail.

We headed Southeast out of Prescott---intersected a small portion of the Senator Highway and headed straight west on Pine Mountain road which was a beautiful road in the pines. Look at all those mailboxes-----I guess the postman didn't want to run all over the mountains delivering everybody's mail.

We are still on Pine Mountain Road here and it's a little chilly--------which is where we started giggin' Don about how warm we were with our heated vests, heated gloves and heated grips. I would stop and tell Kenny loud enough for Don to hear-----"I'm turning my grips to low Kenny---my hands are getting hot" !!!!!

Old Don would give us both a little sneer-----all in good fun !!!! And then would put his gloves on his exhaust pipe and burn himself. This pretty well continued for the duration of the week !!!

Ole' Don says he's coming back with all that good stuff next year----and an electric start to boot----we'll see !!!!

I spotted this very steep hill from far away and just blew up it on my KLR650----all the while knowing it was something I shouldn't have done as it wasn't the way we were going and I'm not just out trail riding in my back yard.

Anyway-----you know---Monkey See--Monkey Do-----here comes Kenny and Don and I hear this big noise-- then nothing. I came back and here they were. I'm not going to repeat the bullshit story they told of how this happened------obviously they were trying to out do each other and ran in to each other and took each other out !!! What do you think ??

The hill is 3 times as steep as it looks in the picture

Can You Hear

Me Now ???????

I'm really getting a little to close to this guy. The needles are huge and come to a very sharp point. The needles are as big as a 12 penny nail. The really are not to be messed with.

I did a little research on them and found they can reach 50' in height--with a 18 to 24 inch columnlike stem--with several large arms curving upward. They can increase their weight by a ton absorbing water, then shrink during the desert heat in the summer months.

We are coming down the desert mountain to the Verde River which we will attempt to cross. Right in the middle of this picture is a tiny white line going up and down in the picture. This is "Sheep Bridge" a suspension bridge built in the 1940's so sheep hearders could move their sheep across the Verde river.It is many miles from anything that resembles a paved road.

This ain't a postcard-----what a magnificent sight !!

Actually this is not the original structure----it was recreated many years after the old one fell into disrepair.

So------I decided we would ford the fast moving water. I stripped down to my skivies and started across and it wasn't that bad----but right at the other side the water got as deep as my arms are showing you in this picture and much faster running and would have bowled you over. So we turned back and did what I hate to do-----ride the same trail twice !!!!!

I won't name any names----but old Kenny lost an XR 250 is a creek once in Missouri. It sat on the bottom for 5 days before he got it out. He sold it to Don for almost nothing and a few hours later Don rode it over to Kenny's house and offered it back to Kenny. Kenny said "a deals a deal". Don rode it for a long time and never had a problem with it.