Arizona's First Old Iron Run`

[mkitchen]

Well ever since 1 LegLance got his older Suburban, we have talked of putting something together in the spirit of The Relic Run that is held every summer in Utah. Well if it was left up to me, it would not have gone much further than the talk stage but Lance decided to put something together and together it went. Lance posted a thread in the Southwest region and it started to gather some interest to where it got to five pages. Who would have thought that a run with a cap on vehicles at 1980 would have shown that much interest.

We put together a route here by Kingman that would offer some nice sights, challenging driving, and plenty of spots to stop and enjoy. After a breakfast at the Golden Corral here in Kingman we were off. Now a short note on the wonderful weather we had for that weekend. We have been having very nice weather for the two weeks prior so I was very comfortable about that aspect. That is I was comfortable until the weather changed just before the trip. I am thinking that a lot of the folks that were planning to come, opted out at the last minute due to the forcast. In hindsight, not a bad plan. I guess that northern Arizona was on national news for the freak snow storm that we got that same weekend. Geez. lucky us.
At the beginning we talked about whether we wanted to do a two day or a long one day but we thought we would let the weather decide that for us.

The orange Suburban was from Phoenix and in it was Nick, Shelly, and Leland. The blue/grey burb was Bill and and he is from Ceder City UT. And of course Rueben, my 71 Ford. Both burbs were very well built; Nick's with a Cummins and Bill's with a 454. Nice builds. Lance is going to have some competion in that area.
The trail is about 15 miles from where we ate breakfast and about three thousand feet higher. A bit cooler but still ok.

My three Cogi's are great spotters.

[IMG]http://i41.tinypic.com/w7ge29.jpg

It really is nice country and my pics don't do it justice. I am hoping that Bill and Nick jump in with some of their pics. They both had some hot rod cameras and seemed to know how to use them. (hint, hint)

We had lunch at Moss Basin. We were a little bit over half way by this time. From this point on we would jump onto a more know road but still rough. From some spots on this road, Flag Mine, we could see the big Sandy valley where 93 goes through south of Kingman and we could see Yucca Valley that I 40 travels through, west of Kingman. We were truly on a spine.

This is Pine Flat, where we were intending to camp and it really is a nice spot. Just a bit of an oasis of pine trees with a few openings for camping. One of those sky islands that we always hear about but seldom get to see. It really is a great spot but the weather was turning bad at this point and there was some concern about the level of snow that would be there by morning. Pine Flat is at 5,800 feet. This turned out to be a pretty good choice. When I looked up there the next morning, it was obvious that where we were had gotten a lot of snow. I don't mind camping in the snow but being stuck in the camper shell all night was not my idea of a perfect night. I have yet build up the shell to where I want to have it. Once I have Rueben built up, it would not be a problem.

The road out was a lot rougher than I remember but it was still nice. By this time we were catching some rain, but not too bad yet. The clouds made for a very pretty drive out. Unfortunately I was too busy driving to do much photo time.

We hit rain on the way back to Kingman and it was raining pretty well by the time we finished dinner. Glad I bought those new wipers.

I still feel somewhat cheated about not getting to camp out. Mo is going down to Phoenix weekend after this so I think that I will head back up to the Hualapais and do a camptrip. All my years of bicycle touring, I have learned to enjoy my own company by a campfire. In the mean time keep an eye out on the forum for Arizona's Next Old Iron Run. Till then, see you all out there.
Mikey

 

[mkitchen]

One big post script!

I should have mentioned that Lance was not able to make it due to some serious medical issues and was in the hospital on Friday night instead of his burb, heading north.

Lance, I am hoping the the pictures help to keep the fire going. I would love to get another Iron Run going. Time allowing, we could do one from Lake Pleasant all the way up to the Grand Canyon with folks jumping on at different points along the way or doing the whole sheebang if they chose. I am thinking that we could keep it pretty much on dirt (well dirt and rock) most all the way. So get better and let's do some wheeling together.
Mikey

 

[toddz69]

Nice trip report! Looks like some nice country up there - more of Arizona to explore. I have a soft spot for '71 Highboys as that was the first 4WD I ever rode in as a wee lad (my grandpa's truck). Looking forward to checking out Reuben in person.

Todd Z.

 

[1leglance]

Great pics and looking forward to hearing Nick & Bill chime with their reports...

Yeah I was super bummed to miss this as I had everything all set up.However I worked wed night at the hospital and starting about midnight knew I was having a kidney stone attack...by the time I finished my shift (thought I would pass out a couple of times) and went to the ER they CT'd me and admitted me right away.
2 7mm stones completely blocking the right kidney...a bunch of meds, antibiotics and lithotripsy with stent got me all patched up. But I didn't get discharged until Sat around 1pm.

I am looking forward to getting more Old Iron on the trail here in Arizona as we have plenty of Rovers, Broncos and more to run with.

Thanks for posting and now I want to get this stent out and play in the dirt even more!

 

[beelzeburb]

Bill's Report

Well, to start out, this was the first big trip my Suburban has ever really taken. It had been about 9 years since the Suburban was last driven more than 40 miles in a day. It was also the first time my Suburban had left the state of Utah in at least 20 years. I took off on Friday afternoon with 610 miles on the rebuilt 454 and drove at 80mph down to Vegas, then turned and made my way over to Kingman. Because of the high engine speed and serious headwinds I only managed 9.3 mpg (my goal has been 12 for highway driving). I was just happy to make it all the way with no complications.

Saturday morning I met everyone else, we checked out each other's rigs and then hit the trail. I took plenty of pictures, but didn't really capture any action shots. The Suburban did acquire plenty of new Arizona pinstriping though .

Where we turned off the main trail onto Mike's “shortcut”

Taking a little break

Some of the friendly local vegetation as seen from inside with my point-n-shoot

More pics out on the trail

Another short break

Later in the day

It was already raining as we came down out of the mountains

Somewhere along the bumpy, rocky ride down, my unsecured inner grille fell out and I ran over it, something I was completely unaware of until a number of miles later. Nick was kind enough to stop and pick up the pieces. The next morning I zip-tied it back together and secured the remains a little better for the ride home.

On my return trip to Utah I kept the speedometer at 70mph and managed 11.5 mpg. I think once the motor has more miles on it I might actually meet the 12 mpg goal. I didn't encounter any serious weather until I was 15 miles from home

The trip was very pleasant in all, and a resounding success for my old rig's first major outing. Plus, I got to meet some like-minded individuals and explore the Kingman area instead of just driving through like I'd done a couple of times in the past. Now I'm starting to pore over local off-road maps and imagine a few short excursions of my own.

 

[Martinjmpr]

Nice write up! As I said in Lance's thread, I love 3 door suburbans! That Ford is pretty sweet, too. Looks like the rigs that existed back when I first got interested in 4 wheeling (mid 70's!)

 

[Jrally]

Lance, 7mm, pretty damn big stones, hope you have fully recovered...

 

[1leglance]

Great write up Bill and thanks for the pics...
I knew your motor was fairly fresh but I didn't realize how fresh...kudos to you for making the adventure like that.

On the mileage thing...I have noticed a big difference between what I get at 60mph vs 70+...sure it adds a bit of time but it takes the stress off of passing people, lets me enjoy the view and keeps me relaxed when I hit the filling station. Try a trip at 60 and let us know if the results.

Bummer to hear about the inner grill though...not sure how easy they are to source up by you but I would be happy to keep an eye out here in Phx, we have great sources.

My hope is to put together another outing like this in the fall, maybe get out and enjoy some elevation when the muggy monsoon season hits. I also actually hope to make that event this time

 

[StaceyE]

Looks like you guys had a great time. I chickened out due to chance of snow. Did not want to take the chance of holding anyone up because of me dragging my trailer thru the snow.

Bill, i will be guiding a group around the Toquerville/Silver Reef area the last Saturday in April. Come join us.

I look forward to hearing about another Old Iron run in the Fall.

 

[upndown]

Thanks for the pictures guys! looks like another beautiful place to explore, but you made the right call, would've been a white knuckle drive the next day! I was up in peeples valley over the weekend.. Rain and wind sat. Woke to 4" of snow sunday. Snowed on and off all day, went to bed with icecicles everywhere and 8" on my picnic table and thats at 5000'...BRRR.

 

[Rot Box]

AWESOME! Looks like a lot of fun you guy's thanks for sharing and nice rigs everyone :bike_rider:

 

[NOIBN]

We got in Friday and did a little wandering around town. I had been through Kingman a few times, but I never really slowed down to look at anything. I knew the Kingman Army Air Field had a museum, so we headed over the the airport to check it out. Unfortunately, it was closed. We did a little wandering around looking at the buildings that were original to the time. The control tower is original and pretty cool:

We wandered around the airport area and I managed to get us on a dirt(!!) road back to town.
We made it to the meet-up point:

Its kind of funny. None of the vehicles would garner much attention to an untrained eye, but they were all equipped/outfitted in their own way and quite capable platforms. I think Mike's Ford had the smoothest running FE motor I have ever seen. It is a very nice rig. Bill's rig is set up to run. The creature comforts have not been addressed yet, but kudos to him for running the rig in its current form for the distance he did. Just knowing how the interior of my rig is, I can only imagine his was like a tin can with a handful of marbles inside. Very cool that he chose to run it.

This probably is not an ideal message to read on the way INTO the mountains:

I don't know where we were, but it looked really neat:

Cool vegetation:

More scenery from an unkown location:

Same here:

Mike brought some heavy-hitting guard dog protection:

Right after we left what would have been our camp (for those that haven't seen my truck, my hood normally does not shine):

We had enough elevation that, at times, we were at the same height as the clouds out there.

Boriana Mine: (it was raining pretty good at this point as the water spots on the lens attest)

Not a running board friendly trail: (shortly before this pic was a chunk of ground effect plastic laying on the side of the road)

Not a grille friendly trail either: (this was recovered and returned to its rightful owner) Everybody looked at me goofy when I exclaimed "Hey!! I know what that is!!" and got out of the truck in the rain to gather up the bits and pieces and put them in the back of my truck.

 

[NOIBN]

On our way back into town from the trail, we passed some interesting things like the golf ball:

We got back into town and had a nice dinner together. We got a room right next door to the restaurant and after repairing the toilet, heater and faucet (I did not feel like fixing the exhaust fan in the bathroom, but it did need help too), we settled in and decided what we were doing for the return trip. We could go back the way we came or go across I-40 to Ashfork or Flagstaff, or we could roll across the longest remaining continuous stretch of old Route 66. I/we opted to go this route. I thought it would be cool as I had only run it in the dark at very high speed years ago and my wife and my boy had never seen it at all. In past years he watched the Cars Movie daily so I was explaining to him that Radiator Springs was based on this stretch of road (grab a teachable moment in any form whenever possible, right??) So we got up the next morning and looked at the snow on the mountains we ran yesterday, loaded up and headed out on the Mother Road.

The old Cozy Corner:

An old 76 Station:

Cool looking mountains with snow near Truxton:

The Frontier Motel:

Main Street in Peach Springs:

I explained to my boy that this was a huge gas station back in its day because it had two rows of pumps:

We started getting into more snow on the ground at this point. The roads were clear, but there was definitely more snow on the ground.
Grand Canyon Caverns:

At this point the road ahead of us is looking pretty dark even though it is not 0930 yet. But before we got there we got to see a snow covered Aubrey Valley: (pictures do not convey the beauty of this area in snow--the grand views with a visually sanitizing layer of white accentuating the beyond-grand scale views--absolutely amazing)

We hit snow about twenty miles out of Peach Springs: (visibility was not quite as good as the picture makes it out to be)

My wife wanted to stop and get something Route 66 from the trinket shop: (they don't use spell check on buildings there)

We drove in this from Seligman, through Ashfork, Paulden, Chino Valley, Prescott/Valley down into Mayer. We stopped somewhere along the way for some lunch and I snapped this pic:

We stopped at Sunset Point so I could grab a drink out of the fridge and I couldn't resist taking some pics of the clouds hanging over the valley:

So we get down to the bottom of the mountain and I figure we are done with weather. The roads are drying out, all is well. Well, not quite. About a mile from home we get absolutely drilled with hail. We had been through wind, rain, snow and sleet, so I guess hail was the next logical weather to expect:

It definitely proved the all-weather capability of the equipment. All in all it was a great time other than not actually camping. I think we made up for that in the extra-curricular travels we had and the other cool stuff we got to see. Mike and Melissa were fantastic hosts and I would highly recommend wheeling with them if the chance is ever presented to you.

 

[1leglance]

Big thanks Nick for adding your story and pics....great work on both by the way.

It is always fun to see a trip from the different eyes of those who were there.
Even though the weather looked cold and miserable it still would have been great to be there and hang with everyone.

It will be fun to get more old iron together in the future and I hope to have better weather for that run.

 

[Larry]

Looks like a fun trip guys. Too bad Lance missed out. All three of those rigs look great out in their natural habitat. Great pictures too!