FIDO Expeditions 2016
- Thread starter yabanja
- Start date
westyss
Explorer
Ya but there are lots of folks appreciating the write ups!
We drove TO the Expo from Sedona the same route in reverse a few years back, near the top of Shnebely I stopped a sedan to tell them maybe that its not really a good route for him....must of been something blocking the sign!
Keep up the writing!
DirtWhiskey
Western Dirt Rat
Fellow Utahn here: I can't express how much I love this build and these reports. I've had a similar build, although larger (much larger) in my mind for years: modified Hilo, 4x4 CF chassis. Hope to get it working this year. Truly, amazing.
yabanja
Explorer
yabanja
Explorer
Sedona
We arrived in Sedona just in time for lunch at my Dad's place. We gave Dad and Momma Joan their first tour of Fido and gave them both rides around town. They were pretty thrilled with the truck but it is a bit difficult to get in and out of at a more advanced age. Sedona is a pretty special place. They ended up taking us to dinner at a new Mexican restaurant called Mariposa. Man was the food good. The view from our table wasn't too shabby either!
So I have a pretty unusual family. I have My Dad John and his wife Joan in Sedona, and My Mom Elizabeth and her husband John in Prescott. Wouldn't you know it, forty years after they were divorced they decide they all enjoyed each other's company and they are good friends. Lucky for me!! We were staying at Dad's and Mom and John came up for the day to harvest Apricots from the tree out front. We all pitched in to can a boatload of apricot jam together. I am still enjoying some today. We added a bit of Ginger. Man is that good! I understand they made some Apricot Liquour as well, but the old people are holding out on us and we haven't gotten any samples of that yet. We enjoyed a few days in town while I did some minor plumbing repairs in Fido(apparently Sakshi doesn't like it when water leaks from the pipes onto her clean clothes!)
We arrived in Sedona just in time for lunch at my Dad's place. We gave Dad and Momma Joan their first tour of Fido and gave them both rides around town. They were pretty thrilled with the truck but it is a bit difficult to get in and out of at a more advanced age. Sedona is a pretty special place. They ended up taking us to dinner at a new Mexican restaurant called Mariposa. Man was the food good. The view from our table wasn't too shabby either!
So I have a pretty unusual family. I have My Dad John and his wife Joan in Sedona, and My Mom Elizabeth and her husband John in Prescott. Wouldn't you know it, forty years after they were divorced they decide they all enjoyed each other's company and they are good friends. Lucky for me!! We were staying at Dad's and Mom and John came up for the day to harvest Apricots from the tree out front. We all pitched in to can a boatload of apricot jam together. I am still enjoying some today. We added a bit of Ginger. Man is that good! I understand they made some Apricot Liquour as well, but the old people are holding out on us and we haven't gotten any samples of that yet. We enjoyed a few days in town while I did some minor plumbing repairs in Fido(apparently Sakshi doesn't like it when water leaks from the pipes onto her clean clothes!)
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yabanja
Explorer
Sedona
We also did laundry and resupplied the food as the next leg of the trip was going to be pretty long. We enjoyed a nice evening hike the night before we left.
On our way out of town we decided to drive up Oak Creek Canyon. It is really beautiful up there, and since FIDO isn't really a speed demon on the uphills it really didn't take much longer than the interstate would have. We stopped in Flagstaff to Fuel up and continued to head North towards Kanab. We were battling a serious headwind. In fact, it was strong enough that our mirrors kept blowing back out of adjustment. I soldiered on until we decided to stop the the loneliest gas station at The Gap. Sakshi went to the ladies room and I snuck up to the counter to buy some provisions. When we got back to the truck Sakshi decided it was her turn to drive. When she got in she looked over in alarm to see my face covered in orange dust. Know the user of the spice by the color of his lips..... sorry that is just a really vague Dune reference. Anyways, I was gorging on Nacho Cheese Doritos and Coca Cola Classic. Two things she had never seen me consume in the decade we had known each other. She thought I had lost it as we are generally very careful about what we consume and never eat junk food or msg. I had to explain that this was my once a decade binge into the comfort food of my youth. YUM!!!
So Sakshi was driving and I was binging and we were heading down the steep two lane road to Navajo Bridge over the Colorado River. I noticed that something sounded strange about the truck and looked over....she had it pegged! With the 37" tires redline is approximately 80 mph. That is a big no-no with this truck, particularly since I was running low pressures in the tires to improve ride comfort. But we survived and she slowed down. The wind was blowing strong from the west and there was a big thunderstorm brewing on the other side of the Colorado over the Vermillion Cliffs. We crossed Navajo bridge and man was the truck all over the place. I noticed an Earthcruiser hardtop at the visitor center but it was too late to turn around and we kept going. Would have been nice to say hi. Particularly considering what was about to happen.
You see, we were not experiencing strong sidewinds-we were getting a flat in the right rear. Sakshi hadn't noticed but she was all over the road and I spotted it in the passenger mirror. We pulled over as soon as we found a safe flat spot well away from traffic. Lots of people put themselves in harms way by parking too close to traffic in emergency situations. It is not worth it. Drive on until you can get to a safe area to pull over. Anyways, by the time we got pulled over the tire was completely flat, and smelling pretty hot. It was pretty windy and there was a big thunderstorm heading our way so we wasted no time getting started on the tire change. When I bought this truck I had no idea the infrastructure involved with even the simplest procedure like changing a tire. You see, they weigh around a hundred pounds so you have to have a winch to get the spare tire up and down. Then there are the lug nuts. They are torqued to about 400 foot pounds and if they haven't been off in a while it will take a lot more than that to get them off. I have seen a lot of pictures of people standing on six foot breaker bars trying to get their lugs loose. That sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. I bought myself a 72 to 1 torque multiplier on eBay for $60. One turn of the lug nuts takes seventy two turns of the handle. Sakshi can easily break the nuts loose with one hand. Pretty cool stuff. Oh and don't forget that the drivers side nuts are threaded backwards. I always remember that right side is correct and left side is wrong. Then what do you do when you put them back on. How do you get them to the correct tightness. Yes, you have to buy a 4 foot long torque wrench. I got a certified Proto on eBay for a couple hundred dollars but generally they are much more.
Ok, back to the present. There was a storm coming and we had to get that sucker changed. It seemed to be leaking from the valve stem. I wasn't surprised as the custom wheel manufacturer had sold me on these recessed stems and they hadn't drilled the holes correctly so I had had problems with them in the past. I decided to put the spare on it and have a tire shop deal with it in Kanab.
We got it changed and back on the in a record 45 minutes. That was our workout for the day and we missed the rain.
Our friend Scott has a cute little Cottage in Kanab that he rents out on AirBnB and it was vacant so we had a place to stay for the night. It was getting late and i was concerned that there wouldn't be anywhere open to service the tire. We ran all over town trying to find a place that was open. I finally spotted a semi truck service center and pulled in to have them replace the valve stem on the spare tire. They were already past their closing time but decided to stay and help me out.
We also did laundry and resupplied the food as the next leg of the trip was going to be pretty long. We enjoyed a nice evening hike the night before we left.
On our way out of town we decided to drive up Oak Creek Canyon. It is really beautiful up there, and since FIDO isn't really a speed demon on the uphills it really didn't take much longer than the interstate would have. We stopped in Flagstaff to Fuel up and continued to head North towards Kanab. We were battling a serious headwind. In fact, it was strong enough that our mirrors kept blowing back out of adjustment. I soldiered on until we decided to stop the the loneliest gas station at The Gap. Sakshi went to the ladies room and I snuck up to the counter to buy some provisions. When we got back to the truck Sakshi decided it was her turn to drive. When she got in she looked over in alarm to see my face covered in orange dust. Know the user of the spice by the color of his lips..... sorry that is just a really vague Dune reference. Anyways, I was gorging on Nacho Cheese Doritos and Coca Cola Classic. Two things she had never seen me consume in the decade we had known each other. She thought I had lost it as we are generally very careful about what we consume and never eat junk food or msg. I had to explain that this was my once a decade binge into the comfort food of my youth. YUM!!!
So Sakshi was driving and I was binging and we were heading down the steep two lane road to Navajo Bridge over the Colorado River. I noticed that something sounded strange about the truck and looked over....she had it pegged! With the 37" tires redline is approximately 80 mph. That is a big no-no with this truck, particularly since I was running low pressures in the tires to improve ride comfort. But we survived and she slowed down. The wind was blowing strong from the west and there was a big thunderstorm brewing on the other side of the Colorado over the Vermillion Cliffs. We crossed Navajo bridge and man was the truck all over the place. I noticed an Earthcruiser hardtop at the visitor center but it was too late to turn around and we kept going. Would have been nice to say hi. Particularly considering what was about to happen.
You see, we were not experiencing strong sidewinds-we were getting a flat in the right rear. Sakshi hadn't noticed but she was all over the road and I spotted it in the passenger mirror. We pulled over as soon as we found a safe flat spot well away from traffic. Lots of people put themselves in harms way by parking too close to traffic in emergency situations. It is not worth it. Drive on until you can get to a safe area to pull over. Anyways, by the time we got pulled over the tire was completely flat, and smelling pretty hot. It was pretty windy and there was a big thunderstorm heading our way so we wasted no time getting started on the tire change. When I bought this truck I had no idea the infrastructure involved with even the simplest procedure like changing a tire. You see, they weigh around a hundred pounds so you have to have a winch to get the spare tire up and down. Then there are the lug nuts. They are torqued to about 400 foot pounds and if they haven't been off in a while it will take a lot more than that to get them off. I have seen a lot of pictures of people standing on six foot breaker bars trying to get their lugs loose. That sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. I bought myself a 72 to 1 torque multiplier on eBay for $60. One turn of the lug nuts takes seventy two turns of the handle. Sakshi can easily break the nuts loose with one hand. Pretty cool stuff. Oh and don't forget that the drivers side nuts are threaded backwards. I always remember that right side is correct and left side is wrong. Then what do you do when you put them back on. How do you get them to the correct tightness. Yes, you have to buy a 4 foot long torque wrench. I got a certified Proto on eBay for a couple hundred dollars but generally they are much more.
Ok, back to the present. There was a storm coming and we had to get that sucker changed. It seemed to be leaking from the valve stem. I wasn't surprised as the custom wheel manufacturer had sold me on these recessed stems and they hadn't drilled the holes correctly so I had had problems with them in the past. I decided to put the spare on it and have a tire shop deal with it in Kanab.
We got it changed and back on the in a record 45 minutes. That was our workout for the day and we missed the rain.
Our friend Scott has a cute little Cottage in Kanab that he rents out on AirBnB and it was vacant so we had a place to stay for the night. It was getting late and i was concerned that there wouldn't be anywhere open to service the tire. We ran all over town trying to find a place that was open. I finally spotted a semi truck service center and pulled in to have them replace the valve stem on the spare tire. They were already past their closing time but decided to stay and help me out.
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yabanja
Explorer
Tire woes.....
After pumping the tire up and spraying soapy water on it we determined that it was indeed leaking from the valve stem. The technician dismounted the tire and fitted a new valve stem that I had with me. Mounted it all up and and sprayed with water.....still leaking. We dismounted the tire, pulled the valve stem, and examined the hole in the wheel. It was poorly machined and looked to be the cause of our problems. He had another style of valve stem he though would work so we threw it in and put the tire back on. Still leaking. This is when we noticed something scary. It wasn't really leaking from the valve stem...... There was a crack in the wheel. We dismounted the tire again and inspected the wheel more closely. It had an 8" crack in it!!! We could have had it come apart while crossing Navajo bridge and ended up at the bottom of the Colorado River George!!! Yikes. That would have made international news! It was late and the shop had been closed for a while so I decided to let the guy go home while I thought about what to do overnight. I have read about other people having failures with custom steel wheels and it isn't pretty. I had pretty much lost confidence in the rest of the wheels at this point. We were a days drive from home, and we were supposed to begin a 400 mile dirt road trip from Kanab to Mesquite along the north rim of the Grand Canyon with the Earthcruiser folks the day after tomorrow. That trip wasn't going to happen without a spare. I texted Howard the organizer of the event and told him we weren't going to make it, and moped my way to bed.
The next morning I woke up with additional resolve. Howard had texted back that there would be seven other Fuso's and there were plenty of spares to go around. Unfortunately, my older truck uses 5 lug wheels instead of the newer 6 lug vehicles. (Apparently the loss of a wheel in Japan due to the 5 lug setup nearly caused the downfall of Fuso.) So that wouldn't work. I decided that we wouldn't really be travelling at speed on the dirt road trip so a failure wouldn't be catastrophic. I had the shop seal the crack from the inside with Urethane and I moved that wheel to the spare tire position. These wheels had been manufactured by a company called Marsh Racing Wheels. The company was owned by Chenoweth the legendary manufacturer of off road racing buggies. The wheels cost less than $150 each which was too good to be true. When I received them I was pleased by the thickness of the material but disappointed that they took an inner and outer shell and welded a hoop of metal between the two to make the desired width. This weld was the point of failure. I only had 5000 miles on the wheels. Unfortunately The proprietor of the company had passed away six months earlier and the company was defunct. I was really happy that we hadn't had a more catastrophic failure.
I had been eyeing the nice 16 inch aluminum wheels from Earthcruiser and gave them a call. They only had 4 of the 5 lug wheels in stock for about $500 each the others would have to come from Australia. I had been running 17" wheels and had a brand new set of BFG AT KO2's which would be junk if I switched wheel sizes. So new wheels and new tires would end up costing $4000 for a set of five. This was a bit more than we could swallow at the moment. Instead I ordered a set of five 17x9 steel wheels from Kym Boulton in Australia. They were about the same cost as the earth cruiser wheels including shipping. This way we could use our current tires and save some money. The nice thing was that the Australian exchange rate had dropped enough in the last two years since I bought the last set of wheels to cover what I had paid for them! I hoped that the wheels would be to our place in time for the second leg of the trip to Canada.....
After pumping the tire up and spraying soapy water on it we determined that it was indeed leaking from the valve stem. The technician dismounted the tire and fitted a new valve stem that I had with me. Mounted it all up and and sprayed with water.....still leaking. We dismounted the tire, pulled the valve stem, and examined the hole in the wheel. It was poorly machined and looked to be the cause of our problems. He had another style of valve stem he though would work so we threw it in and put the tire back on. Still leaking. This is when we noticed something scary. It wasn't really leaking from the valve stem...... There was a crack in the wheel. We dismounted the tire again and inspected the wheel more closely. It had an 8" crack in it!!! We could have had it come apart while crossing Navajo bridge and ended up at the bottom of the Colorado River George!!! Yikes. That would have made international news! It was late and the shop had been closed for a while so I decided to let the guy go home while I thought about what to do overnight. I have read about other people having failures with custom steel wheels and it isn't pretty. I had pretty much lost confidence in the rest of the wheels at this point. We were a days drive from home, and we were supposed to begin a 400 mile dirt road trip from Kanab to Mesquite along the north rim of the Grand Canyon with the Earthcruiser folks the day after tomorrow. That trip wasn't going to happen without a spare. I texted Howard the organizer of the event and told him we weren't going to make it, and moped my way to bed.
The next morning I woke up with additional resolve. Howard had texted back that there would be seven other Fuso's and there were plenty of spares to go around. Unfortunately, my older truck uses 5 lug wheels instead of the newer 6 lug vehicles. (Apparently the loss of a wheel in Japan due to the 5 lug setup nearly caused the downfall of Fuso.) So that wouldn't work. I decided that we wouldn't really be travelling at speed on the dirt road trip so a failure wouldn't be catastrophic. I had the shop seal the crack from the inside with Urethane and I moved that wheel to the spare tire position. These wheels had been manufactured by a company called Marsh Racing Wheels. The company was owned by Chenoweth the legendary manufacturer of off road racing buggies. The wheels cost less than $150 each which was too good to be true. When I received them I was pleased by the thickness of the material but disappointed that they took an inner and outer shell and welded a hoop of metal between the two to make the desired width. This weld was the point of failure. I only had 5000 miles on the wheels. Unfortunately The proprietor of the company had passed away six months earlier and the company was defunct. I was really happy that we hadn't had a more catastrophic failure.
I had been eyeing the nice 16 inch aluminum wheels from Earthcruiser and gave them a call. They only had 4 of the 5 lug wheels in stock for about $500 each the others would have to come from Australia. I had been running 17" wheels and had a brand new set of BFG AT KO2's which would be junk if I switched wheel sizes. So new wheels and new tires would end up costing $4000 for a set of five. This was a bit more than we could swallow at the moment. Instead I ordered a set of five 17x9 steel wheels from Kym Boulton in Australia. They were about the same cost as the earth cruiser wheels including shipping. This way we could use our current tires and save some money. The nice thing was that the Australian exchange rate had dropped enough in the last two years since I bought the last set of wheels to cover what I had paid for them! I hoped that the wheels would be to our place in time for the second leg of the trip to Canada.....
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yabanja
Explorer
Coral Pink Sand Dunes
We had a day to ourselves in the Kanab area prior to meeting with our friends so we decided to go check out the Coral Sand Dunes state park. I had passed the sign a dozen times but never explored that way. The park is a long narrow stretch of sand dunes at the base of a large mesa. It is an OHV park and you can go and drive around on them. I usually would be all over this but was feeling a bit low energy after the previous days adventures. (Now I wish I had.) Instead we went for a nature walk around the edge of the dunes. It was really pretty.
After our walk we had a nice lunch and nap in Fido before seeking out camping.
This is an excellent opportunity to introduce you to the third member of our travels who appears in the picture above. When we were in Sedona we had been grocery shopping and were going to buy Basil for caprese sandwiches. The basil in the produce section was sad looking and horribly expensive. Sakshi remembered having seen some basil plants for sale out front and they were the same price. Hence Baby the Basil plant joined our journey. She would get strapped into the third seat in the cab during the day and decorate the camper in the evenings. She was to provide us with tons of fresh basil over the coming months and yet never seemed to change in size.
The state park campground was full, and overrun with overzealous ATV enthusiasts. Our friend's house was occupied for the night so we looked at the map and found a promising dirt road just outside of town. Less than a mile north of town is another OHV area called Hog Canyon. It was a fun sandy road that went a few miles in and we found a lovely spot overlooking the stream to stay the night.
It was only after I had parked and looked at the fire pit that I realized that they had been burning Pallets there. The whole area was a bed of nails. I went to bed wondering if there would be air in the tires the next morning.......
We had a day to ourselves in the Kanab area prior to meeting with our friends so we decided to go check out the Coral Sand Dunes state park. I had passed the sign a dozen times but never explored that way. The park is a long narrow stretch of sand dunes at the base of a large mesa. It is an OHV park and you can go and drive around on them. I usually would be all over this but was feeling a bit low energy after the previous days adventures. (Now I wish I had.) Instead we went for a nature walk around the edge of the dunes. It was really pretty.
After our walk we had a nice lunch and nap in Fido before seeking out camping.
This is an excellent opportunity to introduce you to the third member of our travels who appears in the picture above. When we were in Sedona we had been grocery shopping and were going to buy Basil for caprese sandwiches. The basil in the produce section was sad looking and horribly expensive. Sakshi remembered having seen some basil plants for sale out front and they were the same price. Hence Baby the Basil plant joined our journey. She would get strapped into the third seat in the cab during the day and decorate the camper in the evenings. She was to provide us with tons of fresh basil over the coming months and yet never seemed to change in size.
The state park campground was full, and overrun with overzealous ATV enthusiasts. Our friend's house was occupied for the night so we looked at the map and found a promising dirt road just outside of town. Less than a mile north of town is another OHV area called Hog Canyon. It was a fun sandy road that went a few miles in and we found a lovely spot overlooking the stream to stay the night.
It was only after I had parked and looked at the fire pit that I realized that they had been burning Pallets there. The whole area was a bed of nails. I went to bed wondering if there would be air in the tires the next morning.......
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unkamonkey
Explorer
It's good that you found that crack when you did. I've seen and felt the results of a tire destroying itself at speed. Especially if it is on the front. (On mine, always the LF?)
Too bad it is going to be that much to get things right.
The folks that had my FG before me drove 18,000 miles through TX and the Baja with no spare.
I went and got another wheel and tire ASAP.
I've been through Kanab but had to look it up
Have a good, safe trip.
Too bad it is going to be that much to get things right.
The folks that had my FG before me drove 18,000 miles through TX and the Baja with no spare.
I went and got another wheel and tire ASAP.
I've been through Kanab but had to look it up
Have a good, safe trip.
yabanja
Explorer
Yes, we were very fortunate not to have a catastrophic failure. I will never use custom fabricated steel wheels of that type again.
Allan
yabanja
Explorer
Earth cruisers!
The sun came up, and the tires were still full of air! Yippee!
We have had our camper up and running for about two years and have really loved exploring the back roads solo. Sometimes things don't work out so well and you could use someone else with a vehicle of similar weight. For example this adventure last year.
[video=vimeo;130061838]https://vimeo.com/130061838[/video]
https://vimeo.com/130061838
Up to this point we didn't really know anyone else with a big expedition rig. That is why we were very excited to get out for a week or so with seven Earthcruisers on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Having backup rigs allows you to take risks that maybe you wouldn't take alone.(unless you are me and just bonkers). On the flip side, we aren't really big on caravaning all over the place in large groups and sucking huge clouds of dust all day. It is a little counter to the whole outdoor experience we crave, so there was a little underlying apprehension about the trip. After getting to know the others it turned out that they were all feeling the same apprehensions about the trip. As it turned out we were all like minded and got along great!
The plan was to meet several of the people early in the morning at the Fredonia ranger station. We showed up early and ready to go. Shortly afterwards two Earthcruisers showed up with the intrepid leader Howard. (He tried to dodge this title the whole trip. Such a nice guy.)
We all introduced ourselves and I confirmed that Howard had brought an extra 5 gallon jug of diesel for us. We were still running the stock fuel tank and had concerns about making it the whole 400 miles between fill ups so I had brought a 5 gallon spare as well as the one he was carrying for us. (At our pit stop later in Salt Lake I installed a new 50 gallon tank which rectified this problem). I still owe you for the Diesel Howard!!
After a quick potty break at the ranger station we headed West towards the Toroweap road. At the turnoff of the pavement we stopped to regroup and I noticed a suburban with a flat tire. He was pretty distressed as he was facing a tow bill. I threw a plug in for him and pumped it up with the onboard air. Ten minutes later he was back on the road. It is nice to be able to help a fellow traveller.
We began south on the dirt superhighway towards Toroweap. About thirty miles in is a turnoff to the east towards Hack canyon. It is a lovely remote tributary to Kanab Creek. This is where the fun would start!
We began the decent into the canyon. It starts right into a lovely narrow gorge which shortly opens into a beautiful wide canyon. The road is all doable in two wheel drive high clearance provided you pick your line carefully. With scenery like this and good company I was in hog heaven.
The drive was uneventful except for one small missed turn. We finally settled in for the night on a small spur road and waited for the rest of the group (another 3 earthcrusers) to catch up with us that evening. Sakshi was in a filming mood throughout the day so here you go.
https://vimeo.com/182953488
The sun came up, and the tires were still full of air! Yippee!
We have had our camper up and running for about two years and have really loved exploring the back roads solo. Sometimes things don't work out so well and you could use someone else with a vehicle of similar weight. For example this adventure last year.
[video=vimeo;130061838]https://vimeo.com/130061838[/video]
https://vimeo.com/130061838
Up to this point we didn't really know anyone else with a big expedition rig. That is why we were very excited to get out for a week or so with seven Earthcruisers on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Having backup rigs allows you to take risks that maybe you wouldn't take alone.(unless you are me and just bonkers). On the flip side, we aren't really big on caravaning all over the place in large groups and sucking huge clouds of dust all day. It is a little counter to the whole outdoor experience we crave, so there was a little underlying apprehension about the trip. After getting to know the others it turned out that they were all feeling the same apprehensions about the trip. As it turned out we were all like minded and got along great!
The plan was to meet several of the people early in the morning at the Fredonia ranger station. We showed up early and ready to go. Shortly afterwards two Earthcruisers showed up with the intrepid leader Howard. (He tried to dodge this title the whole trip. Such a nice guy.)
We all introduced ourselves and I confirmed that Howard had brought an extra 5 gallon jug of diesel for us. We were still running the stock fuel tank and had concerns about making it the whole 400 miles between fill ups so I had brought a 5 gallon spare as well as the one he was carrying for us. (At our pit stop later in Salt Lake I installed a new 50 gallon tank which rectified this problem). I still owe you for the Diesel Howard!!
After a quick potty break at the ranger station we headed West towards the Toroweap road. At the turnoff of the pavement we stopped to regroup and I noticed a suburban with a flat tire. He was pretty distressed as he was facing a tow bill. I threw a plug in for him and pumped it up with the onboard air. Ten minutes later he was back on the road. It is nice to be able to help a fellow traveller.
We began south on the dirt superhighway towards Toroweap. About thirty miles in is a turnoff to the east towards Hack canyon. It is a lovely remote tributary to Kanab Creek. This is where the fun would start!
We began the decent into the canyon. It starts right into a lovely narrow gorge which shortly opens into a beautiful wide canyon. The road is all doable in two wheel drive high clearance provided you pick your line carefully. With scenery like this and good company I was in hog heaven.
The drive was uneventful except for one small missed turn. We finally settled in for the night on a small spur road and waited for the rest of the group (another 3 earthcrusers) to catch up with us that evening. Sakshi was in a filming mood throughout the day so here you go.
https://vimeo.com/182953488
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yabanja
Explorer
Toroweap
it was a beautiful sunny morning and we were eager to get on our way. It is always nice to be on the road early as that is when all the animals are out before the heat of the day sets in. We saw a nice rattlesnake, and I spotted a pretty big horny toad in the road which we stopped to shoe out of the way.
The road out to Toroweap sees a huge amount of traffic and is one of the worst washboards we have seen. We just took it slow and meandered our way out there. We passed a group of ten "overlanders" coming the other way in jeeps and trucks covered with gas cans and roof top tents. They didn't have the courtesy to slow down to reduce dust for oncoming traffic. This is a pet peeve of mine. When I am in the middle of nowhere, I usually like to not only slow down as a common courtesy, but will often stop and chat with other folks. Our society is becoming too insular. The ranger at the entrance who's job it is to prevent low clearance vehicles from heading any further took one look at Fido and said "you should be ok" with a smile. I told him there were five more trucks like ours on the way and he smiled.
The last mile or two is a nice rough section over big chunks of slick rock. You could almost walk faster and certainly could ride a bike faster. (we considered this but where is the fun in that?) We got to the overlook and set up a picnic right on the edge. This is really one of those places that is not to be missed. Sheer cliffs to the river. Beautiful!
I went to sample what has to be one of the world's most beautiful toilets. It is composting and doesn't smell half bad either.
When I came out the lot was covered with Earthcruisers. It takes a bit to get used to this. With my focus on fusos and building the camper over the last few years it really is hog heaven!
After a nice lunch we headed back out towards the first fork in the road towards the west and Mount Trumbull. This area is called the Arizona Strip, and it was all new territory to us. This has got to be one of the more remote areas in the country. Miles and miles of dirt. Gotta love it.
Along the way was a short detour to some lovely petroglyphs and Nampaweap. We parked and took the short walk to the site. I had never seen them in black basalt rock like this. Very nice.
We drove just past Mount Trumbull and found nice dispersed campsite in the pines.
It was still early so Sakshi, Bob, and myself went for a short mountain bike ride. A mile down the road Sakshi had a small spill and decided to turn back. Bob and I took a lovely ride up the hill and back. It turned out that Sakshi had heard the red wine calling and that was her real motivation!
it was a beautiful sunny morning and we were eager to get on our way. It is always nice to be on the road early as that is when all the animals are out before the heat of the day sets in. We saw a nice rattlesnake, and I spotted a pretty big horny toad in the road which we stopped to shoe out of the way.
The road out to Toroweap sees a huge amount of traffic and is one of the worst washboards we have seen. We just took it slow and meandered our way out there. We passed a group of ten "overlanders" coming the other way in jeeps and trucks covered with gas cans and roof top tents. They didn't have the courtesy to slow down to reduce dust for oncoming traffic. This is a pet peeve of mine. When I am in the middle of nowhere, I usually like to not only slow down as a common courtesy, but will often stop and chat with other folks. Our society is becoming too insular. The ranger at the entrance who's job it is to prevent low clearance vehicles from heading any further took one look at Fido and said "you should be ok" with a smile. I told him there were five more trucks like ours on the way and he smiled.
The last mile or two is a nice rough section over big chunks of slick rock. You could almost walk faster and certainly could ride a bike faster. (we considered this but where is the fun in that?) We got to the overlook and set up a picnic right on the edge. This is really one of those places that is not to be missed. Sheer cliffs to the river. Beautiful!
I went to sample what has to be one of the world's most beautiful toilets. It is composting and doesn't smell half bad either.
When I came out the lot was covered with Earthcruisers. It takes a bit to get used to this. With my focus on fusos and building the camper over the last few years it really is hog heaven!
After a nice lunch we headed back out towards the first fork in the road towards the west and Mount Trumbull. This area is called the Arizona Strip, and it was all new territory to us. This has got to be one of the more remote areas in the country. Miles and miles of dirt. Gotta love it.
Along the way was a short detour to some lovely petroglyphs and Nampaweap. We parked and took the short walk to the site. I had never seen them in black basalt rock like this. Very nice.
We drove just past Mount Trumbull and found nice dispersed campsite in the pines.
It was still early so Sakshi, Bob, and myself went for a short mountain bike ride. A mile down the road Sakshi had a small spill and decided to turn back. Bob and I took a lovely ride up the hill and back. It turned out that Sakshi had heard the red wine calling and that was her real motivation!
SmoothLC
Explorer
Very nice write up. Having been to many of the same places (except Toroweap), it looks like you had a lot of fun. Look forward to reading about the rest of your "trip". Oh, and about that bentonite. Somehow we've been lucky to have never been caught up in it when its wet (knock on wood). That simply does not look like it was a lot of fun. But nice that a JK got you out. Love the videos by the way. Keep 'em coming.
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