So last weekend me and my friends (after some useless planning) decided to take ORTB's smallest TB on the Senator Highway, with the hope of making at least to Venezia (or, where in a 1900 map, you would find Venezia), and hopefully, all the way to Crown King. However, at the Poland Junction Rd junction (where the road beggins off the Senator Hwy), we found out that the Senator was closed, after unsuccessful phone calls to the USFS, Sheriff's etc, someone on the 2M repeater told us that search & rescue was down there every day pulling people out of the snow. Taking that as enough warning, we re-planned. I knew that the Poland Junction Rd would take us to SR-69, where we could then take the Crown King front way, maps verified, we moved on.
However, we did not know that pard of Poland Rd is classified as an "unimproved road", so it was good, and after getting to the top of the mountains (~7600ft ASL), the road started to get bad as we traveled down, but, as we moved on, we realized that the easiest way out was to continue going down on the bad road instead of ascending on the bad road. On the debriefing, Google Earth showed that we traveled approximately 4.07 miles in roughtly 3 1/2 hours, this was between Senator Hwy and Big Bug Mesa Rd. After the Big Bug Mesa Rd junction the road is much better (still a little bit bad) and then the "sign classification" goes from Limited Use Road to Primitive Road, and we saw some houses, and then careful observation revealed that there was an Envoy XL in a driveway, so, if the weiner dog made it there, there was no doubt we could get out of that place. And sure enough, not too long after, we made it to SR-69, but then we turned back to Prescott, at 9PM there was no way we were heading up to Crown King. I was originally planning 1.5 hours max to get from the Senator to 69, which should have been less than going back down the Senator, then cross Prescott and Prc Valley and continue all the way to Mayer and then take the Crown King Rd.
I must say that in this trip I developed a new respect for this awesome vehicle, and made me even more desperate to get the improvements needed (lift, tyres)
And the guy in blue is my roommate / spotter / communications guy when needed/available
Me
Full collection
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