Conclusion 2022 Recap Day 6

Day 6: September 15, 2022
Holbrook to Flagstaff, Arizona

March 31, 2024

This day had three distinct objectives:

1. Make it from Holbrook to Flagstaff.
2. Ride through Flagstaff up to the Lowell Observatory.
3. Lloyd scouts the old stage route from just north of Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon South Rim.

Holbrook is less than 100 miles from Flagstaff, but we made two stops along the way.

There are no local highways between Holbrook and Flagstaff (the old roadbed for Route 66 is mostly abandoned or paved over by I-40), so we opted to trailer the bike to a stop east of Winslow so I could do some riding in reasonable safety.

Winslow: I rode into Winslow and stopped at the street corner (Kinsley & 2nd Streets) made famous in the 1972 hit by Jackson Browne and the Eagles, “Take It Easy,” a song describing an event that occurred while “standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona.” I rode into town on 3rd Street (which is a one-way road today) and then turned left for one block south on Warren Avenue, then left again (east), to arrive at the famous intersection where we took photos and entertained many passers-by.

From there, I rejoined I-40 westbound and rode another 25 miles or so to Meteor Crater. After getting off I-40, we stopped to take photos at the crossing of the old US-66, a dirt road that actually dead-ends a few miles west (I know because I scouted it years ago to see if it could be ridden to reconnect to I-40). I do not know if that road was there when C.K. visited the Crater, but the condition of the road there today seems likely to be similar to what C.K. encountered on most roads in the USA in 1919. 

Meteor Crater: Having visited Meteor Crater in 2019, we didn’t take the tour, but we took a breather to refresh ourselves and talk with a dozen or so people from all over the world who wanted to know what this crazy-looking motorcycle was all about.

Flagstaff Operations: We arrived at the hotel earlier than we were allowed to check in, but that was okay because we had some riding plans for the rest of the day.

I would ride the Red One right through downtown Flagstaff, past the old Bank Hotel where C.K. stayed in 1919, and then up the winding road to the Lowell Observatory. Just 6.5 miles, but small city traffic the whole way until the road to the Observatory. At the same time, Lloyd headed out to scout the old stagecoach road from just north of Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon South Rim that I still hoped to be able to ride the next day.

Lowell Observatory: C.K. Shepherd arrived in Flagstaff on Saturday, July 26, 1919 but was laid up with food poisoning and motorcycle repairs for a few days until he was well enough to visit the Lowell Observatory on Mars Hill on Tuesday, July 29, 1919. One of the lead scientists at the Observatory, Carl Lampland, noted his presence in his diary: “Captain Shepherd of R.A.F. here.”

The next day, C.K. rode to the Grand Canyon, returning to Flagstaff on Saturday, August 2, 1919. It seems that George Hamilton, one of the astronomers at the Observatory, gave him lodging at his “bungalow” on Mars Hill for two nights until C.K. headed west on Monday, August 4, 1919.

The day before C.K. left Flagstaff, he and four others from the Observatory made an outing where they hiked to the top of what is now called Sunset Crater (the trail to the top of Sunset Crater is now closed to the public).  Carl Lampland recorded this outing in his diary on Sunday, August 3, 1919, describing it as a beautiful day: “Captain [Shepherd] from England here. He, with Miss [Elizabeth] Williams, Mr. [George] Hamilton, Verna [Darby Lampland, Carl’s wife], and myself went out to Sunset and climbed the mountain. Verna did not go to the top.” With the possible exception of Verna Lampland, all of those named were formally-trained scientists working at Lowell Observatory and were some ten years senior to C.K. Shepherd. George Hamilton and Elizabeth Williams married each other three years after C.K. visited.

I had stopped and explored the Observatory in 2019 and took a few photographs including one with Kevin Schindler, the Lowell Observatory Historian, who located the Carl Lampland’s diary entries mentioning C.K.’s visits.

In 2022, though, we just rode through the parking lot and headed back to the hotel where I could use the inReach® satellite tracking web page to see how Lloyd was progressing on his scouting.

Historic Maps: Researching and documenting the actual route of the old road from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon, the road C.K. described as being rough and causing him a number of spills, evolved into a years-long effort.

I quickly discovered that roadmaps in 1919, compared to roadmaps available today in book form or on-line, were often hand-drawn affairs and not always to scale.  The earliest relevant map I found was in a pamphlet from the Arizona Good Roads Association published in 1913. This map included a series of eight photographs taken along the way to help keep motorists on the correct road.

I included this map in the video identified above. You can click here to go directly to the segment of the video containing this 1913 map.

By 1916, the Automobile Club of Southern California (one of the member clubs that became AAA) had spent years producing a map series of the “National Old Trails Road,” coast to coast from Los Angeles to New York. The Club included a map for some “side trips” including Route 12B, from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon. The Club noted that they had posted signs along the way to help keep motorists on the right roads. The Club’s map was comparable in some respects to the Arizona Good Roads map, but without the photos. The Club’s signs would almost certainly have been there when C.K. rode up to the Grand Canyon in July 1919 and, except for the road conditions, would have made confident navigation much more likely.

I included this map in the video identified above. You can click here to go directly to the segment of the video containing this 1916 map.

By 1918, the Official Automobile Blue Book featured “turn by turn” directions for driving the 84.7 mile route from the train station in Flagstaff to the El Tovar Hotel at the Grand Canyon. The Blue Book did not include a close-up map. Instead, they provided “turn by turn” instructions with elapsed mileage and key road descriptions (hardly practical for real-time reference even in an automobile, much less bouncing along off road on a motorcycle). Considering the actual road conditions out there with numerous intersecting roads and trails, I found the Blue Book directions to be lacking in terms of utility and detail. For example, at one point 20.8 miles into the trip, they identify a point rather imprecisely followed by an equally incomplete listing of every possible crossroad and landmark: “Fork, sign in angle; bear right. Follow winding road thru open country for many miles. Avoid roads to left 34.0, 41.1. Meet road from left 41.7. Pass reservoir on left 48.1. Curve right, along fence 54.0. Avoid road to right 54.7.”

I included this page from the Blue Book in the video identified above. You can click here to go directly to the segment of the video containing this Blue Book route.

Scouting in 2017 and 2019: This piece of road presented the most challenging off-road experience I would encounter (should I decide to try riding it). Since no one had apparently re-mapped the route in the last 100 years, I felt compelled to get out there myself and map it in detail.

In December 2017, I rented a small SUV in Phoenix and drove up to Flagstaff. In addition to clipboards with reams of notes and a Garmin GPS, I was also armed with a GoPro and a digital camera set up to automatically take a photo every six seconds that embedded geographic coordinates in the metadata for each photo. Starting before sunrise, I drove the old stagecoach road from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon. I was accompanied by local “tour guides” Brian Blue and Tom Martin of the Grand Canyon Historical Society who were keen with the prospect of seeing the Red One successfully make the trip in 2019. In December 2017, the trail – not quite a “road” in some places – was mostly dry (except for the occasional snow cover which increased as we went further north) and was passable by Jeep.

I included excerpts of photo and video of this scouting run in the video identified above. You can click here to go directly to the segment of the video containing the 2017 scouting summary.

It did not occur to me at the time that the stability of a four-wheeled vehicle over such terrain was far better than that possible riding on a motorcycle, especially a motorcycle a hundred years old ridden by a 60-year-old novice motorcyclist.  Since the Red One was not operating when we arrived at the Grand Canyon in 2019, we didn’t see much of that old stagecoach trail, but trailered into the Park from the north to take a photo of the Red One at Lockett Lake which was almost certainly the lake where C.K. stopped and took a photograph.

2022: As we headed west in 2022, I contacted Tom Martin to ask him about the condition of the old road. After all, it was nearly five years since I had seen it, but it was also the tail end of the monsoon season and was probably much wetter in September than it would be in December. Tom was a real trooper and sent me a report after driving it on September 13, 2022, including over 100 photos. Here is an excerpt of Tom’s report:

“Is it ever beautiful out there. This stretch of dirt road is as close to what C.K. saw as any on your trip. It’s muddy in spots but almost everywhere there’s a route around the bad stretch. There’s one or two rough washouts that folks have been driving through. The grass is knee high near FLG. I got into some rain on the last 1/3 of the route and it was very muddy but it should be dry by the time you get here.”

Tom pointed out a key change from 2017 was that Babbitt Ranch and the Arizona Game and Fish Department, across whose land the old stagecoach trail transits, both now required permits. So that put me into some late-night administrative work from desk in my room at the hotel in Holbrook to get the permits we’d need even if we never had to produce them. I managed to get both done in time so we had a multi-party permit for a three-day period. More than adequate.

Tom continued that he felt that “this will be a real dirt road experience. The truck and trailer can make it, but will be rattled so everything needs to be strapped in and squared away.”

I included some of Tom’s photos in the video identified above. You can click here to go directly to the segment of the video containing Tom’s photos.

Truth be told, I did not have sufficient time before arriving in Flagstaff to study these photos in detail, but relayed Tom’s brief to Lloyd and showed him some of the photos. Although none of it dissuaded Lloyd from venturing out on his own BMW that is literally made for that kind of road, he did share with me before he left that he felt the conditions were such that he would not recommend I attempt the ride.

Almost immediately after we arrived at the hotel in Flagstaff, Lloyd set off solo for the Grand Canyon scouting trip, which included over 50 miles of desolate off-road riding. Before he left, I gave Lloyd a detailed and fully-annotated color map of the route to strap on top of his gas tank bag to use in case he got lost or needed assurance he was on the right road.

I included a version of the “moving map” I gave Lloyd in the video identified above. You can click here to go directly to the segment of the video containing Lloyd’s scouting map.

I also gave Lloyd copies of all the travel permits in case he was stopped on the trail. Then I opened his right pannier and dropped in my Garmin Montana® 700i after first switching on the inReach® satellite transmitter. I showed him that, if he or his bike ran into trouble, he could press the guarded “SOS” button on the Montana to get whatever help he would need, especially if he was out of cell phone range (I knew much of the route would be out of cell phone range). I patted him on the back and watched him depart as I prepared for my own ride up to Lowell Observatory. The video below is a “moving map display” adapted from the annotated map I gave to Lloyd. I added yellow circles and boxes that show locations and local times extracted from the inReach® reports at 10-minute intervals.

Lloyd produced his own narrated video of his expedition that is so complete and entertaining that I think nothing is to be gained by me duplicating his effort. Enjoy!

After Lloyd got back from his scouting trip, he met up with us in the hotel lobby for snacks and beverages. I could already see the expression on Lloyd’s face. No matter what I may have wanted to do, he was not going to allow me even try to run that old road on my beautiful 1919 Henderson. For a variety of reasons, not the least of which was adhering to the “prime directive” for this trip (to arrive in San Francisco with a fully-functional Red One, but more importantly, an unbroken rider), I made no effort to persuade him otherwise. We talked about our plans the next day, including my idea of “putting my toe in the water” on the northernmost end of the old Grandview Road by riding it south a mile or so to the Grandview Lookout Tower. But that was for tomorrow. We had done our work for the day with everything (and everybody) still in good functioning order, and it was time to turn in for the night.

Stay tuned!

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