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| Lane Mtn 233 / Crown King Rd Loop, AZ | |
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| | Lane Mtn 233 / Crown King Rd Loop, AZ | | | |
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Lane Mtn 233 / Crown King Rd Loop, AZ
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| Hiking | 19.55 Miles |
4,550 AEG |
| | Hiking | 19.55 Miles | 11 Hrs | | 2.17 mph |
| 4,550 ft AEG | 2 Hrs Break | 16 LBS Pack | | |
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[ show ]
| partners | | I've had this one in the planning stages for a while now. Wanted to get out to the Lane Mountain trail and create a loop that took in some of the incredible mining history of the Bradshaw's.
After numerous iterations of a potential route, I settled on the route we took.
First, the 27 mile drive in to Crown King. The road is currently a little rough until Bumble Bee. Once past here it has been recently been graded all the way to Crown King. Past Crown King on the Senator Highway, it has seen some heavy rain and washouts lately. High clearance, IMO is required.
We started just off the Senator Highway. It was about a mile hike on FR100 to get the non existent TH for Lane Mountain 233. There is no Sign, and you will need a GPS to find the start. Once 50 yards in, the trail is quite obvious.
Views to the south abound. Quite stunning.... Like all the trails up here, this trail gets very little use. It's slightly overgrown in spots, but not too bad. A GPS is handy in the lower elevations. There are a couple of places were the trail turns off a two track that is not real obvious. The Lane Mountain Trail ends at the intersection with Copper Creek. This is the area where we found 25 gallons of water stashed/cached/partially hidden in plastic containers.
From here we made our way down to Humbug Creek and the first of five old established Mining areas.
Burro John, Kentuck's Camp, Forty Misery, Oro Belle Mine, and the Savoy Mine all either had of still have buildings in different states of disrepair. I found the history in these areas quite interesting. Burro John, Ketuck's Camp, and Fort Misery are all down below and next to the popular "Back Road to Crown King". We took a break for lunch just outside of Fort Misery next to Humbug Creek and then started the climb back up.
We had two jeeps pass us, mentioning that they were the first of 40 in their group. They asked us if we were OK, needed water, or anything else. I guess they don't typically see hikers in the middle of nowhere. We never saw these guys, or the next 3 vehicles again. The next 30 or so, we played cat and mouse with until we turned off at the Oro Belle Mining area.
They's pass us, we'd pass them hiking... we both got a kick out of it. They yelled at us through loud speakers, offered us cold water, beer and cigarettes. A great group of people.
We worked our way up on FR192 out of the Oro Belle area to the Savoy Mine Area. This road has not been used in many a year. The Savoy Mine was my favorite of the day. I'm waiting for someone to explain what the substance I saw in the Mine???
http://hikearizona.com/photo.php?ZIP=278960
One thing I had not planned for on this hike, was private property. Kinda hard to determine off a TOPO map. The last 1/2 mile getting back to FR52, The Senator Highway, was a bushwhack to get around the private property. Two more miles of road walking, and we were back to the truck. |
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Wildflowers Observation Moderate
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Copper Creek |
Medium flow |
Medium flow |
| | | Nice flow of clear water |
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Lion Spring |
Dripping |
Dripping |
| | | Wet filterable area next to the trail | | _____________________
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."
Dave Barry  |
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