Lou and I wanted to put a trip together and realized we haven't done Backway to Crown King in awhile so decided to plan a trip around that. Lou picked out and sent me about 10 trails that I sifted through to put together a good flow. Once we had a weekend picked out, we invited our dad and other brother John to come along. Pa would make it but sadly John could not. We didn't invite anyone else since we wanted to keep it just as a boy's trip.
Day 0 - Thursday
Pa flew in to Vegas on Wednesday evening which gave us a little time to hang out before we departed for the trip. Nina had dinner ready for us which was great! We woke up early Thursday morning, grocery shopped, packed up, and departed around lunch with the intent to make it to Lou's place by dinner. We rolled in about 15 minutes late but Lou didn't seem to mind as he made us salmon and steak filets for dinner. Yum! Don't tell Winston but I snuggled up with Denali on the couch for a bit after dinner.
Day 1 - Friday
Since the trailhead was close to the house, we had a slower start Friday morning. Lou made Pa and I eggs sunny side up with toast while he finished packing up the Jeep. We all took one last shower for the weekend and headed out to get gas before driving the 20 minutes to the trailhead of Castle Hot Springs. This trailhead is right near the Lake Pleasant fee area but just outside of it thankfully. Even with our later start and stopping to take a selfie, we were aired down rolling out by 10:30.
The plan was to run Castle Hot Springs southwest to Tribly Wash north to Anderson Mill south over to the highway north to Box Trail going east back into Lake Pleasant to camp at the start of Backway to Crown King so we'd be ready in the morning. As we started our day on Castle Hot Springs, we enjoyed some beautiful Arizona scenery home to many saguaros. Not long after, we passed the Castle Hot Springs all-inclusive resort complete with their own green house and garden. Talk about Farm to Table! Nina said she didn't want to go though.
As we continued, the clouds looked like they were going to rain but thankfully didn't. It had been raining all week leading up to the trip so the trail was already muddy in some sections and I was hoping it wouldn't get worse. About halfway through Castle Hot Springs, we approached the northly turn off for Trilby Wash. However, the trail was blocked by a barbed wire fence so with thoughts of Pucker Pass still on my mind, we skipped both Trilby Wash and Anderson Mill and continue on.
We stopped for lunch near the end of Castle Hot Springs. Pa and I had some Greek yogurt with peanut butter and granola. Very nutritious! Lou had an avocado sandwich. We all washed it down with some Coca Cola that Lou brought. During lunch, we took a few minutes to look at the PowerPoint to go over the plan for the rest of the day. Once we all had a shared mental model, we knocked out the last few miles, drove 25 minutes on the highway and arrived at the start to Box Canyon.
Box Canyon was a cool trail with many river crossings. Thanks for the recent rain, the river level was high giving us a chance to play in the water. However, it also made it hard to follow the trail since the water covered the banks. Fear not, we had our GPX tracks up and made it work. We took a hidden offshoot underneath low hanging trees to find the actual Box Canyon. It also had a great camp site tucked away under the shade of a huge tree. If we didn't already have a planned area, we could have definitely camped here. So, we parked the cars and journeyed the 100 yards or so and found the actual canyon. I'd hate to be there when it rained but it was neat to check out.
After a few more water crossings, we came out of the box canyon and started winding through a more hilly terrain. The route we had planned was a longer route to Lake Pleasant but we found ourselves at a decision point where we could either continue the longer path or take a more direct route to camp. After a brief discussion, we decided to take the shorter route and get to camp a little earlier. It ended up being the right decision as we were able to find a good spot on the start of the trail to Crown King.
Day 2 - Saturday
We woke up Saturday morning after a long night of rain. We've done this trail before and we camped at the start of the trail so we felt comfortable sleeping in a little bit before pushing off. We noticed there was cloud coverage over the mountain and looked like some snow had fallen overnight. We didn't think much of it at the point but it ended up being a big factor for us later that day.
The trail started off winding through a little town before a slow ascent up to the town of Crown King where we intended to have lunch then find camp before doing some trails up north the next day. As we started ascending, the trails became slightly snow covered. It was a good chance to pause, get some snacks, and break out the drone for some cool footage.
From there, we started to hit the obstacles portion of the trail. There was nothing too concerning until we were about 5 miles from the end. At this point, the trail was completely snow packed and I was having flashbacks to Pucker Pass just a few months prior.
Thankfully, I had switched to Lou's KM3s that he replaced when he got new tires. These new tires, although old, gripped just fine and gave me a bit more confidence in the snow.
As we approached a snow covered obstacle, there was a Jeep on 35s pulled off to the side and a line of ATVs munching up the trail as they were going up. We chatted with the owner of the Jeep, a guy named Brandon, and he said that he made it up the obstacle but started sliding in the snow and reversed back down the obstacle. Of note, he was rolling on 35 inch Bronco takeoffs (the same tires I had when I slipped at Pucker Pass). After much discussion and watching a Toyota group attempt the obstacle and fail, we made the tough decision to turn back. Our rationale was that even if we made the obstacle, we would struggle on the hill. Ultimately, our new friend Brandon who was abandoned by his group, didn't know the way back so we decided to turn back, take him with us, and camp at our same spot from the night before.
Morale was low as we trekked the 25 miles back down the hill. But, once we got back, Brandon split off as we turned towards camp and set up in the exact same spot we were in just hours earlier.
Since we didn't have any trails scouted out for the next day, we all decided to sleep in a bit. Pa and I were tired and ended up sleeping 11 hours that night. We must have really needed it!
After our slow start, we packed up and decided to go to Rock Springs Cafe for lunch. Rumor had it they had good pie! So, we headed out, went to the cafe, and I can confirm they had good pie! After lunch, Pa went home with Lou, spent a few days with them before flying back home to Florida.
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It was a great trip even though we had to not finish .. First trip with my new Rock Jock rear swaybar.. Love BWTCK
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