AZ Great Western Trail - 26 Jan 08

[crawler#976]

Thanks to all that came out for the trip!

Great turnout!

Total mileage from Bartlett Lake Dam Rd. to I-17 and Dugas exit - 79 miles. Of that only the first 5 miles or so were paved.

The roads were in pretty fair condition - the only heavy mud was at the Pine Mountain trail head. I'm very curious to see how Greg and company did getting out from the camp location.

I did get Greg on the radio about 7:15 PM from near my house in Chino Valley via the 147.22 repeater on Mingus Mt.

See ya on the next trip!

Mark

 

[crawler#976]

quoting the post trip replys on the original thread:

Home safe and sound......A hot bath and a cold beer sure did feel good. Great to have met everyone, glad to have had the oppertunity to put names with faces. Thanks Mark, great job

REX

Glad you made it out for the day!

Jacki and I made it back safely too. Mods, can we get this moved to the completed section please? I also have a couple of pics to post up, I'll do that in a little bit. Thanks for another great run Mark. It was good to see some familiar faces as well as meet new people. I'm going to have to start getting out more often again.

Indeed - gotta hit the trails more often - just like the rest of us! It was nice to meet Jacki - hope she enjoyed our group!

 

[Hunter]

Wow, what a great trip. It was my first outing with this group and my wife and I had a wonderful time. Mark, you rock as a trip leader. Through out the way he commented over the CB with some great tips and tibits of history that made it that much more eventful.

Roads were nicer than I expected. Smooth sailing most of the way.

Greg, (ViaTerra) Seth, (Seth_js) and myself spent the night about 8 miles below the top of Pine Mountain. It got a bit cold after the sun went down but the night was wonderful. No wind and clear skies. It started to cloud up around 11 PM. Sometime around 2 AM, (guessing) it started to rain. At times hard and some good gusts but not much after that, just ligth rain until we left.


It never stopped and by morning things were pretty wet. We were all prepared for it so it was a snap to break camp and head out. We pulled out around 930ish. Road was OK, but defiantly slimey in some spots. Greg has some great pictures of my truck sliding around in one very unforgiving section of ruts. Is a bit unerving when your rig slides sideways and you are square on the brake... other than that, it was easy going. Hit up Micky D's in Cortez and trucks got cleaned on I-17.

I think Greg got some good shots of our campsight, hopefully he will post some.

Thanks again all. Lookign forward to the next for sure. :wings:

 

[seth_js]

Good times. Thanks for putting this together Mark. Nice meeting the new folks, and seeing every one else again.

 

[crawler#976]

Glad you all made it out OK!

As of 5PM the local creeks are bank to bank - the warm(ish) storm has melted off all the snow below 8000'.

Mark

 

[biglowt]

Excellent trip Mark. The scenery was wonderful, the weather cooperated and my wife and I got to meet a bunch of new people.

Besides Mark, I was the only member from 4wdtrips.net. But I have wandered over here to keep up on any other adventures that may occur.

It was great to meet all of you. I look forward to future runs.

(I was the guy in the old blue 4runner, in case anyone wants to know).

Tom

 

[datrupr]

It was nice to meet Jacki - hope she enjoyed our group!

She had a great time, and really enjoyed meeting everyone.

John, it was nice meeting you and Brandy. Tom, sorry we did not get a chance to speak more, however I do sometimes post over on 4WDTrips. Also, welcome to ExPo!


And now for a few pics:

The obligatory "group airing down" shot

The group from the high up vantage point

A lone tree in the middle of a stream (thought it was photo worthy)

Other than that, I actually didn't take a lot of pics.

 

[viatierra]

I have been waiting 8 months to do a trip with Mark! His attention ot detail, care for everyone in the group and concern for responsible travel did not go unnoticed. Mark, you lead by example which is the best way. NICE JOB!

IT was great to see some familiar faces and meet new ones. As always, everyone was super-cool. Tom (Biglowt) went out of his way to help me out with some of those unweildy gates.

I don't have many good pictures of the group. This was basically a trip to hang with Samantha. She had a great time with most of my attention. But here are some from my camera:

Airing down

Ready to ROLL

A familiar lunch spot

Making Chocolate Cake

Sunday morning muddy roads

REMEMBER: What happens in Dugas, stays in Dugas!

 

[Hunter]

Great shots. That cake was great by the way.

No pics of me going sideways?

 

[viatierra]

Road was OK, but defiantly slimey in some spots. Greg has some great pictures of my truck sliding around in one very unforgiving section of ruts. Is a bit unerving when your rig slides sideways and you are square on the brake...

After a couple of sticky spots, I got the camera ready and caught John during the most exciting moment of the trip out. Here it is:

 

[viatierra]

Great shots. That cake was great by the way.

No pics of me going sideways?

Patience bro! Nice driving by the way. Several times Samantha commented that your rig looks like a firetruck.

It was really cool to share a campfire with you guys!

 

[Hunter]

Ha ha! Sweet.

For those at home, it went like this. First picture, I came to a stop as I could see some nasty ruts.... I slid all the way down into the drainage cut. I think I slid sideways close to 4 feet.

After I that, I gave it easy gas and tried to crawl out without digging too much. For the rest of them, includeing the one were I look like I am trying to back up and turn around, I was actually moveing forward at walking speed sideways like that. It was pretty wild.

Great shots amigo. Brandy and I were looking at them again and just laughing all over.

Patience bro! Nice driving by the way. Several times Samantha commented that your rig looks like a firetruck.

I was really cool to share a campfire with you guys!

Ah thanks man. Been a while since I had my truck move like that.... at least since I was up north in the snow. Fire truck eh? Well, I will take that as a compliment and she can use my shovel anytime.

Like wise man, that a was nice time around the fire. Bummer you were feeling so under the weather. We will have to do it again for sure. Maybe next time just us big kids and a blender.
__________________

 

[crawler#976]

Did you get the magnesium piece to light?

 

[Ursidae69]

Great trip!!!! :victory:

 

[whipp]

What a great trip.

Mark, thanks for putting this together and leading us.

- Craig