On Friday my buddy Dennis drove out from California to meet up at my house. He brought his dog Taggart which is the coolest, most even tempered dog I've met. Taggart is an Australian Sheppard.
Meet Taggart:
On Saturday morning we all met up near Carefree Highway to gas up. (There is gas in Crown King, but it's expensive and I tend to use it as a backup)
Ruff is Dennis's 79 Bronco. (I think it's a 79...)
Is Danica the best girlfriend in the world? Yes.
(airing down the tires)
On the way up we enjoyed taking some of the easy routes and some of the harder routes. It was fun and we managed to stay ahead of most of the slow traffic.
Last week after work I installed a new set of rear suspension arms from Total Chaos.
My stock bushings had worn out so bad that there was more air than rubber left in the bushings. These new arms were easy to install and they make the whole truck feel tight again. The loosey goosey feeling on and offroad was gone! I had even picked up a speed wobble at highway speed which was remedied by the Total Chaos arms. Plus, I like the zerk fitting so I can grease the pivot points as they dry out.
Taking a break.
Ready to hold water. Almost new. This old tank was near the Oro Belle mine which is the largest mine along the Crown King backroad. The Ore from Oro Belle Mine was taken up to Crown King for processing.
The backroad had been recently graded which made it MUCH easier than past years to drive up. That being said new areas had become harder than ever because of the heavy rains we've had. I hope that with some more good rains the backroad will become hard enough to discourage some of the heavy use it gets. It's a selfish wish admittedly.
We made it up there in time for a late lunch.
The General Store in town. A pretty nice looking FJ55 "Pig" was parked at the store.
Heading up to the Old Mill.
I love old labels.
The food up at The Mill looked pretty darn good. I think on our next visit we need to try it out.
The Mill wasn't a Lumber Mill which is what most people bring to mind. It was a Stamp Mill which would process the raw Ore from the local mines.
The Stamps.
The restaurant is literally built around the remnants of the Mill.
Not a bad way to spend an afternoon!
Not a bad campsite.
Cowboy camp.
Taggart was happy with the snow camp.
Jeremy and Jenifer joined us at camp. Jeremy has his new Four Wheel Popup Camper set up for his year long trip to South America.
That truck setup was cool, but be also brought enough Elk for us to eat enough burgers to be stuffed! That down side is that I don't think I ever want a normal Cow burger again!
We had a great night. Plenty of firewood, plenty of Cazadores, plenty of Jameson and good friends.
The next morning we went to check out the "Crown King Bloody Mary Festival."
It wasn't happening so much...
Oh well, we enjoyed a lot of coffee, said goodbye to those not going down the back way and headed out.
That's a big pumpkin!
We took another break at Minnehaha Flats.
The squeeze!
Once we hit pavement we stopped at the bridge.
As usual, it was a great trip. Far away from crowded bars full of strangers. Near a bunch of my friends and a warm fire!