Camino del Diablo in the rain

[1leglance]

Last weekend myself and a couple of other FJ Cruisers went out and pre-ran the Camino in hopes of taking a larger group in January.
The larger group might be an issue as normally you are only allowed 4 rigs and we are asking for a permit for a big group....maybe yes maybe no.
The route is long, flat, wide and boring for most of the way since the border patrol uses it daily, there are a couple of real 4x4 sections towards the yuma end but otherwise you are going for the history and scenery not the offroad difficultly.
An easy 2 day trip from Ajo to Yuma and worth the effort...in our case a bit more effort due to the rain induced mud festival.
here is a link to our full report with pics...
http://expeditioneers.com/Expeditions - El Camino Del Diablo.html

enjoy

 

[Overland Hadley]

Thanks for the report. Looks like the rain was fun.

 

[Willman]

Right on lance!!!

Looks like Seattle type of travel!!!

:ylsmoke:

 

[Brian McVickers]

Nice Lance!

But wait, you can't get off that easily.
Introduce us to Expeditioneers!

Brian

 

[1leglance]

man I wish we had enough figured out to make a formal intro
It is an evolving operation...
JP has an expedition company in Bolivia that:
takes people on trips
films those trips for tv shows & manufacturer advertising
provides driving instruction
sells parts

He wants to start a new company here in Arizona to do much of the same, however as we have researched it the focus has had to narrow for now since insurance to guide trips is brutal and the revenue model isn't there. The same looks to be true about driving instruction but that will be easier to add than guiding. Retail sales will just be a tiny part mainly only because JP already has all the contacts and it would be to sell things that aren't already well covered in the marketplace.
So that leaves 1 area, media content creation. The concept "right now" is to use our overland trips through historic or scenic trails to create tv shows and advertising content for manufacturers. The Camino trip was a proof of concept effort. We needed to see what was involved in filming a multi-day trip, highlight various products used along the way (along with testing and documentation of performance), edit all that then pitch it.
Expeditioneers will only reach the everyday person indirectly, which is why we haven't hyped it much....that and we are still figuring out our core biz...which is driving me insane trying to write the biz plan!!! Backwards of every other way I have started a company before. But there aren't too many companies in this market to go work for or research I do know that we want to support expedition portal & the overland society so we will become vendors here even if it is only to talk about our activities.
I am still not sure what the market needs and if the need for media creation will support more than 1 or 2 companies doing it....
So once we figure a bit more out we hope to be more open in talking about ourselves, and while we won't be a company that deals directly much with end consumers we want to provide content on our site for everyday folks, trip reports, gps #'s, product eval, chances to tag along now & then that sort of thing.
Thanks for the interest and watch for more info as we have it.

 

[Brian McVickers]

Sounds like you have some great initiative behind your efforts!

There is a company, two brothers, out in California that uses tricked out sand rails to capture video for automotive commercials. For instance they would drive around an XTerra or simmilar while it zoomed up and down the dunes and film if for marketing uses. They were on the cover of Off-Road Business a few months ago, can't remember the name but somthing that may work as an example for you.

Best of luck
Brian

 

[adventureduo]

Right on! that's a trail ive been wanting to run for a while now.

Sharp looking website you have.

 

[Jasonazx]

Lance, do you live on the west side of Tucson? I think i've passed you by on Ironwood Hills Dr. on a couple occasions.

 

[1leglance]

nope I live in central phoenix...but nice to know there are other well built FJC's out there

Hey Brian, nice to see you up in sedona and thanks for the tip on the other offroad biz..didn't know there was a trade rag to read..I will get to reading that right quick...

and for all of you interested in running the camino I can email my gps file with the track we took which takes the offroad option at tinajas alta's and optional offroad section at the end coming into yuma...
But realize that without the rain the majority of the trail the very flat, very dusty and the reason to go is the history and scenery, not the tech offroading stuff.

 

[Scott Brady]

Nice update. I just signed the log at Tule Well 2 days ago