April 4,5,6th 2008 Southeast Az Expedition Pre-run & Ghost town hunt

[1leglance]

As part of my prep for this summers Continental Divide Expedition I need to get some weekend expedition style runs in. The idea is to start building the habits that will get me through 5000 miles running dirt & pavement.
Also I want to check out some more areas for Disabled Explorers' Trail Guides.
So my plan goes something like this:
Leave Phx Friday at 3pm pavement to
Florence Junction dirt to
Willow Springs Road
Oracle
Peppersauce campground north of mount lemon Friday night, maybe by 7pm
Sat am Get up, Pack up and hit the dirt by 8am
Reddington
Cascabel
Benson
Tombstone
Gleason Ghost Town
Courtland Ghost Town
Pearce Ghost Town
Middlemarch road to camp in the Dragoon Mtns Sat night
this will be where ever I find a nice spot, not a campground
Sunday am Get up, Pack up and hit the trail by 8am
Tombstone
Charleston Rd & Ghost Town
Sierra Vista
Coronado Nat Monument
Monetzuma pass
Duquesne Ghost Town
Mowry Ghost Town
Harshaw Ghost Town
Patagonia - where I would setup camp if I was on an extended trip
then on the highway home through
Tuscon to
Phx

With the excellent response I got from my Weekend West of Wickenburg I thought I would open this up to a few fine folks with the following understanding...
This is not technical trail running but mostly dirt roads so I can assess avg speed/pace/fuel consumption. While there will be stops at Ghost Towns and such to document the Trail Guide I really want to get a feel for what it is like to avg 200 miles/day on dirt (that is what the Cont. Divide trip works out to more or less).

I have DaktariEd joining Saturday for part of the mad dash, and Mike-tibaal joining me friday night -sunday for the majority of the run.

I am doing this to polish navigation skills so no complaints about U-turns and no complaints about how we aren't going up that creekbed to climb those rocks! Ghost towns & camping are the goals...with 8hrs of on road time planned Sat & Sun. This should be a mild run as far as terrain but you still need a decent running rig, spare tire, food, water, camping gear (unless you are just along for the day), & a great attitude. The pace will be brisk but it should be fun!

Chime in if you would like to meet up for any or all of this training exercise.
CB channel 16
2M 146.460 I will look up repeaters for the route and add those

I am attaching a google earth file with some markers just kind of roughly showing the plan.

 

[MaddBaggins]

Thats the same weekend as AZRocks in Forence Junction. Expect heavy offroad traffic in that area. I'm supposed to attend that, but don't really feel like it. Maybe I'll drive out to Peppersauce for the Friday night and camp with you.

 

[tibaal89]

We should be good with the AZRocks traffic... Lance is going to jump on the Florence/Kelvin Highway across to the dirt roads that lead into Oracle rather than take the pavement to Peppersauce from Phx...

Shouldn't be anyone out there from AZRocks, unless they have a reeeeealy easy category this year.

 

[1leg]

Only if i had the Time and alot more money. I would be right behind you. Have a good time and be safe.

 

[1leglance]

Hey Jerry you have plenty of playland there where you are at...put together a weekend adventure where we can meet up with you fri/pm or sat/am and departe sunday evening and I will be there!

 

[goodtimes]

Lance, I may be up for some Sunday exploring. I have been forbidden to make plans for Saturday though.....

 

[kcowyo]

I have been forbidden to make plans for Saturday though.....

 

[ShottsCruisers]

Looks like a cool plan! Take lots of pics!

When done at Patagonia you should run that scenic Temporal Gulch Trail.

 

[Rockcrawler]

Lance, I may be up for some Sunday exploring. I have been forbidden to make plans for Saturday though.....

Shouldn't you be the one making the demands for that weekend??? :birthday.sml:


Lance,

I'll see if I can make it... might be a good test of the new toy to see how well it hangs onto the truck for extended offroad travel.

 

[goodtimes]

Shouldn't you be the one making the demands for that weekend???

Yea, but I have a "surprize" waiting for me on the 5th. Making other plans would apparently interfere, thus annoying Marisa, which would in turn result in me not having a happy (late) birthday.

 

[1leg]

Hey Jerry you have plenty of playland there where you are at...put together a weekend adventure where we can meet up with you fri/pm or sat/am and departe sunday evening and I will be there!

I'll do that, I'll post something soon. Maybe something out by the river!! :REExeSwimmingHL:

 

[1leglance]

for anyone looking to meet up sunday I figure we will fuel up & cruz a bit of tombstone sunday between 8:30 & 9am so you could look for us or reach out on cb/ham
it would be great to have others along....

 

[Signcutter21]

Great looking plans, sounds like a fun weekend of exploration. I'll see what my saturday plans look like. Got to work friday night Maybe I can meet you up in Tombstone for that leg of the trip, if I get the time. I'm thinking the Courtland ghost town it the one just a few miles north of Courtland Road on Ghost Town Trail. I know most of the other ones. Pearce is still living town, abet a small one. In the Middle March area there are a few good camping spots. There are some actual primitive ones one the west side of the pass. At the top of the pass is a little two track that will take you to back a little further. I know the forest service blocked of the south side of the pass, but the north should still be open. Been a few years since I've been in that part. At the bottom of the east side are also a couple two tracks that will take you pretty far back also.

One side note for consideration, this area used to be very popular for illegal activities and smuggling. Most of it was vehicles just passing through the pass. If your off the main trails to camp, you should be fine.

Good luck.

Mike

ps if you think you'll need any assistance, shoot me a pm and i'll give you a couple direct line numbers for local authorities that work that area and mine.

 

[toy_tek]

Sounds like fun. I've already made plans for AZrocks though.

Lance will you be 'tracking' your trip via GPS? Would be cool to plot it and post it when you're done.

 

[tibaal89]

I'm sure Lance will be tracking it, but I will be as well and can post.