Cow Creek Rd: Rednecks, Radishes & Keep out!!

 Back-to-back days doing scouting rides, how great is that? Y'days ride near Superior turned out to be a success, what would today's ride hold? Our annual ride around Lake Pleasant, the AES Pleasantville route, is a good one, but it gets shut down each year from Dec. 15 - June 15 because a portion of the route cuts through a Bald Eagle nesting habitat. Wouldn't it be cool to find an alternate route that bypasses that area? I thought so.

I began scouring the area maps and thought I found a way through, but there were some rumblings online about some private property issues. Maps weren't showing any along the route I had planned. No better way to find out than to put tires to dirt. I had a couple of takers, which was perfect since setting up a shuttle for this ride was the wise thing to do. Mike, Igor and myself met at Rock Springs trailhead, then drove around Lake Pleasant to where this route deviated from the Pleasantville route.

Our first main goal was to reach the historic mining camp of Columbia Mine. We figured if we could get through there we were set and that was near mile 7 or so. Time to roll.

Northbound on Cow Creek Rd. one of the widest dirt roads evah.

The terrain rapidly turned un-flat.

Not quite three miles in, our turn towards Columbia Mine...

...was met with a series of No Trespassing signs. Hmmm, wasn't expecting that this early on. There weren't any gates, but the signs were clearly on the road discouraging forward progress. I figured anyone who lives this far out really doesn't want company. We were able to get enough signal to find a possible alternate route around. Continue north on Cow Creek Rd.

Interesting spot as we leave the Columbia Trl. turnoff.

Old ranch remnants.

Must've been quite the desert oasis, in-ground pool and all.

The creek bed was dry, but water was trickling underground flowing out below this dam.

Looks like there's more private property out here than we thought. Cow Creek Rd. is the dark black line going up the left side of the parcel map. Our first deadend at Columbia Trl. is the southernmost righthand turn above the down arrow.

Look closely, find the wild burros.

A slew of Keep Out & No Trespassing signs by this 'riffle' wielding redneck. Keep heading north.

That. Is. Massive. Perfect message too, but we were running out of options.

We debated on what to do, keep heading north hoping we could find a way to head east or cut our losses and head back. We were a little over 7 miles up Cow Creek Rd. and a ways off our intended route with no real confidence we could get through.

Plan B would be to head back to Rock Springs where Mike and I were parked and ride the Black Canyon Trail for a bit. Sounded good to us.

On our way back the guys noticed this giant pile of red just beyond the Columbia Trl turn, we missed it earlier in the day.

Radishes, lots & lots of radishes. Like thousands of them.

Good place to practice some crowd surfing, no? Sounds like the local ranchers dump produce every so often for the wild burros in the area.

Igor spotted this spiral on our way out. Is it legit??

Lake Pleasant coming into view.

Really cool perspective from up here.

Why did we park at the top of the steepest hill??

Well, win some, lose some, but we all got to ride and see some new terrain and scratch our heads over some of the sights & finds out there. So, I'd call it a success. Next stop: Burritos.

Route:

We were in Joe's neighborhood, so I shot him a text to see if he was free to join us for our BCT ride. He was, so after we grabbed some burritos, we made our way to Joe's house. Joe got ready while we chowed down.

Mike had yet to ride this section of BCT, so it was great to get some fresh eyes on it.

Off we go, heading south from Rock Springs.

Fast forward to the top of the Little Pan Loop. Igor continues on.

Joe, Mike and I had had enough for the day. We turned around, content with the Skyline & Cheap Shot segments, two of my favorites along the entire BCT.

Joe begins the climb back from the Little Pan Loop.

Up on the right side of that rock outcropping above Mike, there are two small arches. Neat.

Love this section of trail.

That's Black Canyon City way down there.

The ever changing rock art at the top of the Skyline climb.

Joe rides left, Mike rides right on the upper switchbacks of Skyline.

Joe cruising along the hillside.

Mike traverses the saddle.

Agua Fria crossing, still has some water, but we need rain!!

Home stretch back to Rock Springs.

Spectacular in late afternoon light.

While our initial plan didn't go as we hoped, having a solid plan B option turned in to a pretty rad day. We still did some cool exploring and rode an amazing slice of trail. Thanks fellas for coming out.

Route:

Flyover by Ayvri.