Az Peace Trail

[Debareto]

Hi,
Anyone who can give me input about a planned 5 day trip on the Az Peace Trail? Would like to be out away from civilization and plan an itinerary to see some water sources and points of interest on this trail.
Also would like to know if I can get on the peace trail from Standard Wash in Havasu
Thx

[The Rattler (BLR)]

Here is a link
http://arizonapeacetrail.com/
When we are in Quartzsite March 1st - 8th we will be going on part of the APT... deer run resort for sure..

[The Rattler (BLR)]

There is a great write up about the AZPT
I will post it as soon I can get to my computer.. not able to post off of my phone

[The Rattler (BLR)]

Arizona Peace Trail Ride by the Havasu Side-by-Side Trail Association
On a cold January Monday morning 12 Havasu Side-by-Side Trail Association (HSXSTA) members, with their 7 UTV vehicles, prepared for their biggest adventure ever…setting out to conquer the newly created Arizona Peace Trail. The Arizona Peace Trail (AZPT) is a 700-mile loop trail in Southwestern Arizona, extending from Bullhead City to Yuma, much like the Paiute ATV trail in Utah. The AZPT is the brain child of J.C. Sanders of Bouse, AZ, and the entire AZPT Committee. The leader for this adventure was John Geyer, founding President of Havasu Side-by-Side Trail Association, and his wife Chris. Also, participating in this adventure were Garry Allen, founding Club Ride Chairman, his wife Pina; Pat and Bobbe Richter; Don Bevans; Dennis and Marcia Groneman; Keith and Anita Dennis and Bob Ewing.
Much planning and preparation went into this extensive journey. The AZPT covers 3-counties: Mohave, Yuma and La Paz. The first thing was to confirm the route as planned and outlined by the AZPT website: http://www.arizonapeacetrail.com/ We then needed to decide how far we could expect to travel each day and where we could stay; the plan was to stay in hotels and eat in restaurants when possible. The next step was to see how many of the HSXSTA Ride Committee wished to go. The Ride Committee consists of experienced club riders who pre-ride new routes to determine conditions and riding skill levels of trails. Club members come with different desires and riding abilities; therefore, classifying trails helps members to determine if a trail is something they wish to ride. Trail classification includes terrain difficulty, speed of the ride based on distance, terrain, stops, gas, food and services.
Once the participants for this first ever long distance, unknown terrain ride was established, we booked rooms and put together a list of emergency contacts and spare parts since we would be traveling long distances between cities. We contacted Cole Hamil of Ultimate Side-by-Side, and John Caudle of Just Money Motorsports, both highly qualified SxS leaders in Havasu. With their help a list was developed of probable spare parts that might be needed, and both 0f them even provided the group with a SxS parts survivalist package.
Now that the preparations were finalized, all that was left was to ride.
Day 1: Our adventure started on a cold and rainy Monday morning at 8am from the Quality Inn in Lake Havasu City riding north, traveling through washes and small hills, along the trail is where an old man once dug into the ground, his living space and once made dirt bricks, then up and across the I-40. Next is a sign & old railroad ties from the Atlantic & Pacific RR circa 1890. We then traversed through a rocky, hilly area along the powerlines making our way up to Bullhead city, stopping for lunch at Denny’s and visiting the Hardeeville city cemetery. Hardeeville was the original name of Bullhead city back in the 1860’s. The sun started coming out and the trail became smoother as we made our way toward Kingman making the ride more comfortable. The various vibrant colors of the rock formations and mountains made the landscape come alive and the ride enjoyable. We even had time to take the detour into the “Secret Pass”. Our first day we traveled 120-miles and we only had to change one tire throughout this first day. Our Day 1 stats were we drove for 6-hours, traveling 120-miles with @ 2.5 hours of stops, totaling @8.5-hours, average moving speed was @ 22-mph, using 10-gallons of fuel.
Day 2: Our second day brought many more challenges. The original plan was to ride the AZPT from Kingman to Wikieup. This 78-mile section is in the beautiful Hualapai Mountains and is a very slow mountainous trail that would take us about 6-hours in a side-by-side. We, however, could not secure enough rooms in the hotel in Wikieup for our needed date so we would have to drive 180 miles from Kingman to Salome if we took the AZPT all the way and that was going to take way too long. We also thought that in January the possibility of snow in the Hualapai mountains section was probable. So, we planned a “Winter Mountain” bypass. We now had a trail that took only 2-hours from Kingman to Wikieup instead of 6+ hours. Since we had no hotel in Wikieup, this made the Kingman to Salome a feasible 8.5-hour 165-mile ride, with a few photo and “necessary’ “stops. The bypass was graded well and consisted of a drive among beautiful rolling hills as well as a water obstacle we all navigated successfully. We resumed the AZPT in Wikieup where we got fuel and stopped for pie at Hidden Oasis Café & RV Park. We then continued south where the trail passes thru a canyon of countless giant Saguaro Cacti and experienced yet again another tire failure. We then traversed over again the Big Sandy river entering into La Paz county finally stopping at Wayside Café & RV Park near Alamo Lake, AZ for lunch and fuel. Our final leg for the day had us traveling over part of the famous Parker 425 race course and then to Cottonwood Pass where we could see our stop for the day, Salome, AZ. After checking into our hotel, we fueled up our vehicles and recuperated our hungry and tired selves so we could be ready just after sunrise for our usual 8am start. Our day 2 stats were we drove for 6-hours traveling 161-miles with @ 2.5 hours of stops, totaling @ 8.5-hours, average moving speed was @28-mph, using 11-gallons of fuel per side-by-side vehicle.
Day 3: We drove from Salome to Yuma, AZ, a simple 150-mile, mostly graded trail. We planned a leisurely, 5-hour day all on the AZPT. The day started with 1 rig having an idling problem right from the start. As the day progressed, this vehicle was consuming well over 2x as much fuel as normal. The next closest fuel was around 50-miles, so other rigs contributed extra gas to keep them going. Another vehicle had a fuel pump pressure issue and could not go fast, and one of our leaders’ tires separated. We did see some very beautiful scenery and many mines near Salome. The trails between Salome and Yuma were lightly used and generally fast since the trail was not torn up. After entering Yuma county, we navigated around valleys of lava rock formations and sandy washes. Coming into Yuma, we rode on part of the old Butterfield Stage Coach line trail, paralling an abandoned RR track and irrigation canal. Upon arriving in Yuma, we started working on repairs of the vehicles. We contacted several tires stores, but had no luck on our size tires; and we contacted a RZR service center and received no help. So we contacted two helpful SxS business owners in Havasu to see what they could muster up. By 6pm they had collected the needed items, and John Caudle was driving to Yuma to install the repaired items. By 10:45pm we were all back in business. A BIG THANKS to Cole Hamil of “Ultimate Side-by-Side” and a DEBT OF GRATITUDE to John Caudle of “Just Money Motorsports”!! Our day 3 stats were we drove for 5-hours, traveling 151-miles and stopping for @ 2-hours, totaling a 7-hour day, average moving speed was @ 29-mph, using 12-gallons of fuel.

[The Rattler (BLR)]

Day 4: Yuma to Quartzsite, AZ was a simple 130-mile ride north along parts of the Colorado River. Just outside of Yuma along the AZPT were 10-miles of amazing and sometimes scary ridge trails. A big thanks to the AZPT committee for adding this enjoyable section. We continued through a cleared trail in the Yuma Proving grounds, along an Irrigation canal, Imperial Dam, and into quaint Fisher’s Landing along the Colorado River. A quick break for fuel and off we went north up Red Cloud Mine road. We stopped at the mine, and a gentleman happened to be around, and he told us that they mine the finest Wulfenite crystals in the world there. Continuing north, we re-entered La Paz County and stopped along the river for lunch in a very scenic spot. We then continued north to Cibola and saw an old home from the 1800’s and a directional totem pole sign. As we were getting closer to Quartzsite we entered a canyon called The Good, Bad & the Ugly. The trail started off as a nice trail through a wash but turned into a rocky trail. As we started up, it became apparent why it was called ugly. It is passable if you take your time. You will scrape and ding your undercarriage, but we all made it through in one piece. One member of the group did it in high range…he would later pay for that with replacing his clutch down the trail. Just south of Quartzsite, is a place where, for years Indians ground corn, and you can still see a few smoothed grinding holes and nearby petroglyphs. And, oh yes, our leader had another tire separation. Our day 4 stats were we drove for 7.5-hours, traveling 130-miles and stopping for @ 2-hours, totaling 9.5-hours, average moving speed was @ 25-mph, using 10.8 gallons of fuel.
Day 5: Our last day was traveling from Quartzsite back to our starting point, Lake Havasu City, going through the just opened Planet Ranch. It was supposed to be a 99-mile easy home stretch. But we had to replace a clutch which was done in only one hour because of our experienced riders. Our first stop was at the remnants of a WWII General Patton training camp. Then we crossed some scenic desert valleys and drove thru Planet Ranch which is mostly closed to vehicles except the main north/south road as it still is a working ranch. We stopped for lunch under a very large tree in the middle of Planet Ranch where we entered back to Mohave County. As we exited Planet Ranch, we headed to Founders Cabin, also known as Mohave Cabin in Mohave Wash, and we started to reminisce about the trails we experienced. As we headed on the final few miles and with Lake Havasu City in sight, our leader had another tire failure. At this point the group had run roughly 5,000 miles in a combined total. In total, due to failures, we had to replace 4 STI Chicane tires, one primary clutch, one fuel pump, one shifter cable and one T-Map sensor harness. The ironic thing…we planned and brought many spare items that were known failures, but none of those failed. Our day 5 stats were 6-hours driving, traveling 105-miles and stopping for @ 2-hours, average moving speed was @ 29-mph, using 8-gallons of fuel.
The AZPT will go down as an amazing journey over a wide array of beautiful Southwest Arizona desert landscape that none of us will ever forget. If you ever have a week and friends that have a sense of adventure, this is a trail experience you will not want to miss.
Leader
John & Chris Geyer

[DLFoust]

Sounds like a fun ride .

[goldbrick]

I was out cruising around in my 1000S with my brother just the other day. We were on the bajada East of Ehrenburg AZ. We headed up a gulch road, being unfamiliar with the area I did not know was "The Good, The Bad, The Ugly". I did recognize what I thought was a AZPT sign that I had read about so was happy this road was likely to take us through to the Gas Line Road and we could make a loop back to camp at Tom Wells Road.
My rear helper springs need replacing so my Polaris suffers from less than stock ground clearance. We made it through the trail but it was a slow, challenging ride fraught with worry of damage. I will be back but with upgraded suspension, taller tires, and maybe some arched A-Arms. We came out the other side and had stopped to chat with some fellow utv'ers in an XP. When I told the locals where I had come from they were surprised I had came through and had no damage. We all have different machines and experience with our utv's. Be aware this part of the AZPT may be quite challenging for some!

[The Rattler (BLR)]

Thanks for the input..hopefully next year we will be able to do the whole 700 miles