Buy an old rig and hit the dirt for the holiday weekend

[1leglance]

This is the story of a crazy 1 legged guy and his buddy who went along for the ride
My Black Friday Special was buying this 1970 Chevy Suburban 3/4 ton 4x4, and since Waymon (TexGX) and I were already planning to camp that weekend we decided to make an adventure out of testing out this completely unknown vehicle on a fun 2 1/2 day trip.

We left Phoenix around 9am and thus gave plenty of time for the crazy shoppers to be ready for a rest break and off the highway. Waymon has his Lexus GX setup very nicely with a African Outback roof rack, Hannibal Awning, custom sliders and a National Luna power pack giving the juice to his fridge. He also built his own storage setup in the back so his new Kodiak tent and all the gear packs in cleanly. And I shouldn't forgot Lacy the dog was along for the adventure and you will see her in pics soon.

So once we test drove the Burbon in Lake Havasu, paid a very fair price, grabbed some lunch and gassed up the rigs we hit the road.
This was our route for Day #1 post vehicle purchase and you can see once we exit I-40 it is all dirt to the mine ruins at Signal, Az...64 miles of wondering if I had lost my mind or if everything would turn out just fine

Oh and almost all these pics are with my cell phone, but a few are Waymons...I will try to make sure to give him proper credit
This is just after we hit the dirt, a ton of fine dust meant keeping some distance between the rigs.

We got to the area I normally like to camp at Signal (huge tree for shade) and found a massive gathering of ATV/Side by Side folks with campers, generators and lights/music and such. Lucky for us there is plenty of area to camp and we were able to get far enough away it wasn't an issue.
The next morning we got up early enough to go hike the various mine ruins without anyone else around and Lacy the dog had a blast flushing quail for the bushes.

Lacy & I looking over some old mine parts...maybe have to fire things back up with the price up gold skyrocketing.

 

[1leglance]

This is why I have a big problem with ATV & Side by Side folks, most of the trail damage is caused by them. All the tire tracks we saw that were in places a person SHOULD NOT BE were ATV style/size.

Waymon & Lacy at some of the walls that are left standing.

Lots of big, heavy metal machine bits still laying around looking cool.

We hiked over to the old cemetery and it looked like some recent upkeep had been done, nice to see.

Lacy was guarding us from Ghost, lizards, quail and other dangerous desert dwellers.

 

[1leglance]

This was the oldest grave with a date on it....1810 to 1887. Amazing to think what all was going on with US/World history while this person lived. Especially depending on where they lived and how they lived. Hard life in the Southwest I am sure.

This tin marker was pretty old but looked great. And I was happy to see that there was no sign of anyone messing around/damaging anything at the site.

From Signal we hit the wide & graded dirt road towards McCracken Mine & the Rockhouse Cabin. The route wasn't too tough until the final bit when my massive front bumper/support structure started to trouble my approach angles

 

[1leglance]

Now it was time to park the Suburbasarus and hop in Waymon's Lexus/Prado for some new style comfort and make the climb up the Rockhouse. I give a ton of kudos to every person who has visited and NOT destroyed this cool old building. It looks like plenty of people use it as a hangout & party location but seem to leave it in good shape.
Photo credit to Waymon.

Check out the inside, looks like you could move in tomorrow with just a bit of cleaning required

More inside details..

 

[Lostmanifesto]

Cool ride so far!

 

[1leglance]

McCracken Mine itself is an open horizontal tunnel that goes in farther than Lacy the dog and I wanted to go...something primal in me states clearly to keep the light in sight. Waymon on the other hand was happy to go much farther exploring and he made it back out safely. Very cool place and it seemed stable, not that my gut felt any better about those tons of rocks over my head.
Photo credit to Waymon

As the morning was wearing on and our stomachs were rumbling it was time to motor on down the dirt road to Alamo Lake. It isn't the prettiest lake but there is good fishing and plenty of eagles (didn't see any this trip) to watch.
Lunch worked out nicely under the Hannibal Awning.

In case you noticed there wasn't a cool gps map of this part, yeah well slight good on my part meant eating was more important than saving the track file. But fear not I have a track of the Alamo Lake to Swansea section coming up next!

This was more of a 2 track route instead of the wide graded road to Alamo Lake, nothing tough mind you, just a better sense of remote travel and exploration.

 

[1leglance]

Now lest you forget....I am on Day #2 of a backcountry trip in a rig I only spent 30min or so driving and another 30min crawling around before hitting the dirt. The tires feel out of balance, the transfer case is a bit hard to shift but getting easier and it seems to be a solid rig. Hey it is all part of the adventure right?

After a while the 2 track joins up to a pipeline road and becomes a real roller coaster ride of up & down hills. But before long a really cool sight appears in the distance...a suspension bridge!

A little easier to see in this image
There was a group of ATV folks hanging out and having lunch, they didn't seem real friendly when I ask about the trail coming from the other way. Also they had some units of measure issue we will talk about soon.

The fall colors were looking very impressive along the Bill Williams River and it was nice to just stand under this cool bit of man made metal and realize it is nothing compared to the wonder of mother nature.

 

[1leglance]

But as always the need to travel on grew stronger in me and there was also the concern over the depth of the water crossing on the Bill Williams River.
Now again I am in an unproven, fairly unknown to me rig and the guys in the side by sides tell me the water is 2-3 ft deep...well that is more that I have seen in the past so I figured it was up to the 1 legged guy to do a little bit of water wading.

Maybe because those ATV's have little tires or maybe those gents just figure an inch is more than their mind than the ruler says, but the water was only up to my knees which being 5ft 8in is way under 3ft deep and less than 24in I am pretty sure. Either way it looked good to Waymon & me both and the sand/gravel was well packed so into the water we went.
Waymon first in the pretty Prado.

And then the big bad burb went into the drink. Photo credit to Waymon.

After that is was smooth sailing into the Swansea mine site and that is an impressive area to camp.

 

[1leglance]

Here is a pic of what Swansea looked like in 1920 from Wikipedia

BLM has done a really great job of making this a place that folks can visit in a regular ol' car (from the Parker side, not our way in) and learn/see a ton. There is a gravel road that goes around the site and plenty of signs to explain what was where & when.
There was some really old iron to make me feel like my rig wasn't so ancient.

Many of the etched signs have pics that let you see what things looked like back in the hey day of mine action.
And you can walk around the place after you read which really helps the feel of life back then sink into your bones.

This wasn't any small time operation here, the slag pile and foundations tell a tale of major mining for that time.

Metal, minerals and men working under tough conditions out in the Arizona desert.

 

[1leglance]

Swansea is a big site and a great place to bring a family to spend a few hours. It is very safe with large metal grates over the mine shafts and enough room to not feel that you are crowded if other folks show up at the same time.

And the greatest thing of all for us was some killer campsites right in the middle of it all. Of course the couple of vault toilets on the night Waymon was making Frito Pie (chilli on top of Fritios corn chips) didn't hurt our feelings about camping here.

As the sun was setting we knew our campsite choice was excellent. Waymon's pic.

 

[1leglance]

And since we had a bit of sunlight left I had a chance to play with some of the cooler features of my new to me wheeling machine.
One of these was the "Combustables Deployment Device"....because you are not camping in style if you have to unload firewood with your bare hands. Oh no it is only the finest of outdoormens who have the right to use such a cool thing

Actually this thing was used by the original owner for his desert prospecting. As an older guy loading & unloading heavy gear was tough so he setup his rig well. For me as a disabled person I just like to see how creative people can be in solving problems and getting doing what they love.

The next day was a get up and go home day...but first I had to drive very carefully if I wanted to make to Parker, Az which had the closest fuel station that my thirsty beast was crying for. With only 1/8th of a tank (out of the 22 gal I stared with) it was a gentle right foot that got me there.

All in All a great first trip for our new family project.
Huge thanks to Waymon for being willing to have it all go pear shaped at anytime and for bring Lacy the dog out for the fun.

Even with loosing part of my gps track I figure I covered about 300 miles with half or more of that on dirt. That is having fun with something you just bought and going purely off gut instinct telling you she is a solid rig.

Now that I am home the deconstruction phase begins and then it is time to really get this project rolling so we can spend a bunch more time out in the cool places.

 

[loren85022]

The matching blue bug guard really adds something to its look.

 

[TexGX]

Great write up about a great trip. It still amazes me coming from Texas on how much public land we have in Arizona. The campsite at Swansea was amazing. The burb is a beast and I am looking forward to wheeling with it again.

 

[matthewp]

That is one heckuva test drive! Looks like a great time there. Thank you for the beautiful pics and write-up.

 

[ColoradoBill]

Sweet rig Lance. Good old American iron!!!! Looks like a great trip.