Looking for a camp near Drake

[mikehikes]

I'm looking for a place to pull off the road for an overnight carcamp in the area of Drake AZ. Any suggestions? Favorites?

Mike Coltrin
Tucson

[Al_HikesAZ]

Which Drake? Yavapai County NW of Prescott or Mohave County south of Kingman. Where are you coming from and where are you going?

[mikehikes]

89 between Prescott and Ash Fork. I'll be coming up from Tucson on a Friday. Just need a place to hang my hat for the night but should be able to arrive early enough for some looking around.

Mike

[hikeaz]

Well... Hell Canyon is rife for 'splorin and there are a few forest/mining roads that run along it - should be OK camping....

Doin' a Diamond down? Or maybe Havasu?

[mikehikes]

Sort of a Diamond Down.... I will be meeting a trip going through from Lees Ferry to South Cove. Plan 'A' was for me to bring my boat and join them at Diamond Creek but there were problems scheduling shuttle drivers on the holiday weekend so.. Since I have the motor for the lake runout and the food for the past few days, I will still meet the trip at Diamond Creek. (Oh. I will also be bringing another friend as passenger that will join the river trip there.) I will leave a drybag with some of my camping gear with the river folks then head out for a couple days of exploring. Later I will hike in to the river at Pearce Ferry Rapid and join the trip there for the final runout. From the takeout at South Cove it is a simple matter to retrieve my vehicle at Pearce.

Plan 'B', if you will, allows me to view both of the superimposition rapids on the lake, the things I am most interested in seeing by the way. I will also get a close look at the progress (or lack thereof) being made on the Pearce Ferry road extension.

Not wanting to begin my road trip at three or four in the morning of the Diamond meet, the need for a nice place to camp on the side of the road. Hell Canyon sounds right up my alley!

Mike

[Al_HikesAZ]

There is open dispersed camping just about anywhere in the Kaibab Forest. If you have a DeLorme Atlas, just follow one of the forest roads about 1/2 mile or 1 mile off the highway and you will start to see "hardened" areas with fire rings along the FR. I can look at my Atlas when I get home tonight and give you a better idea of which road to follow. But just about any road in that area will have a camp. Some of the FRs have gates, but just open it and close it after you. That is Game Management Unit 8 - one of the best in AZ - so there are a lot of campsites that the hunters use.

I think there's an RV campground in Ash Fork.

[azbackpackr]

Dang, Mike, 'bout time you showed up on this here website! Welcome! This is a nutty bunch of folks you're joining, so watch out! (Present company included, of course!)

[Al_HikesAZ]

It looks like if you head West up FR 573 there should be some campsites. Also NW up FR 640. Those are outside of Unit 8 so I don't really know them I have driven FR9711L and there's a nice campsite near S P Hill, but if you are hauling equipment you might not want to go this far off-road.

Hell's Canyon is beautiful. You should be able to head east and find something off of FR4. FR30 looks a little rough.

[PaleoRob]

Like your avatar, Mike. What sort of rig you got?

[mikehikes]

NRS 16-foot SB (E160) I use a NRS frame and have several self-made floors allowing me to configure HaHaBernie for different types of trips. I have a full kitchen, expect to have a groover setup soon.

I have already had my GC trip for 2009. (29 days in Feb/March - awesome weather!) Have a Deso/Gray trip lined up for August. Have knee surgery scheduled for early Sep so will probably take this Fall off.

[mikehikes]

A better look at HaHaBernie...

[PaleoRob]

A better look at HaHaBernie...

Looks nice! How did you make the floors? Out of what? Diamond plate? I'm looking into flooring part of Black Cat (18' Rogue w/NRS frame), and I'm not sure exactly how I want to go about it.

[mikehikes]

3/4 " plywood - best grade available before price gets out of hand. Round the corners and sand all the edges. I drill camstrap holes to fit the frame configuration and write the strap length for each hole on the floor before I treat it with a shellack. This saves much headscratching when I prethread the holes before lowering the floor into the raft. I also retouch the paint job after each trip.

I have three different floors. Great side decks can be made with scrap plywood left over after cutting out the floor.

[mikehikes]

Al_Hikes..... Thanks for the tips. From looking at the maps I sort of thought those would be good areas. Nice to have the additional info. Will let you know in a couple of weeks how it turned out.

Mike

[Azbackcountry]

Mike for your Deso/Gray float trip, are you joining another party with a permit or are you a trip leader with your own permit? I have been trying to find a party that has a permit and would allow me to tag along on the trip, with all my own gear and raft obviously.

[mikehikes]

I'm not the trip leader for Deso/Gray. Don't know if TL has trip as full as he wants or not. Talk to me.... coltrin1 at cox dot net

Mike