East 223 Fork to 287 to 225
On our first day at M Lazy C we rode out the gate to the Pike NF and met up with #225. We rode north until we hung a right on what we thought was 223. Apparently this road wove through several campsites and was not road #223 but was off the trail map. This unknown road met up with #223 and ended at highway 77. We back-tracked to the juncture of 223 with 287 then continued on 287 to head west. 287 met up with 225 and we headed south to go back to camp. This ride took us 2-3 hours at a walk/trot. I felt fairly lost until we got onto 287 and I could see where we were on my Avenza app. Looking back at google maps I estimated we rode about 9 miles.
This is the unknown road we took that meandered through some campsites to meet up with 223 and 287.
My narrative starts on unknown road going east from the 225/223 junction. We went though a wire gate to avoid a cattle guard and had this amazing view.
We headed downhill through a shaded section of trees and past campsites on either side. This road took us to the junction of 287 and 223.
223 ended as we approached highway 77. We back-tracked to the 223-287 junction. We could have also stayed left to continue on 287.
Back at the 223/287 junction we took 2 lefts to stay on 287. At this time I could see on Avenza that we were on 287 and back on the trail on my map.
There were a lot of forks that were unmarked. Several of these forks just took you to primitive campsites. We looked at Avenza and stayed right to stay on the trail marked 287.
Jon opened another wire gate for me. I was very relieved to see a marker for 225 at the next fork.
We passed the 4-way fork for 225/290/262 and continued on 225 south.
We watched carefully for our turn-off to get back to camp off the left side of 225 right before a clump of trees and the fence.
I felt pretty lost when we took the non-223 road to the east and ended up at highway 77. Not all the trails are on the atv road map and my google maps satellite wasn't working without a signal. If I had downloaded google maps I may have felt more confident that we weren't terribly lost. It was a beautiful but long, dry and hot ride. I could not see the mileage of each trail and didn't know how long to expect to be out.