That last shot is awesome Seth. We had a good time, we left about 5min late from our meeting point waiting for others to show up, and just north of Black Canyon City we hit a load of traffic. Apparently there was a disabled vehicle blocking the right lane. We got up to the main point of congestion and there was no vehicle blocking any lanes, and one traffic accident, other then that, why was it backed up so badly? Anyway, a fun story did arise when we were sitting in traffic. I will elaborate later. OK, traffic clears, kinda, and we start making our way again. The initial plan was to cut up through Paige Springs and do Greasy Spoon first, and then get our Red Rock Passes and run Broken Arrow. Well, traffic and getting a bit of a late start meant that we had to make a decision. We exited at McGuireville and waited a minute for Mark to catch up to us and we decided that since Brian had never run Broken Arrow, and he out of town visitors that we would skip Greasy Spoon and run just Broken Arrow. Time permitting, Mark, Seth, and I would go back and run Greasy Spoon.
Well, as usual, Broken Arrow was just great, I love running that trail as the scenery is unmatched in Arizona. We ran the trail with no issues and I hope Brian's family enjoyed the trip and was as awe inspired by the beauty as I always am whenever I go to Sedona. We tried to get Brian and Mark up the slab, but neither made it over the first obstacle, Brian I think could have made it if he had aired down a bit more, and Mark with his open diffs had no chance. Need lockers Mark? I however, can not make to much of a comment as I did not even try, and as I am running almost on racing slicks, I do not think I would have made it up either. Mark did a great job of spotting going down the staircase, with one minor faux-pas that caused me to slide off to the right and I heard a loud CRUNCH under the truck. Of course the usual expletive was shouted by us, with a "sorry Aaron" from Mark. The stair case does seem to be a bit more worn than it was when I ran the trail last year, and I am still amazed at how many full Pink Jeeps were running in 105* heat. Crazy tourists. It did look like they were having as much fun as we were though, and good for them. We also did not run into any of the "nasty" Pink Jeep drivers, they were all friendly and courteous on this fine day.
After BA we were a little short on time, and with a commitment in the valley I, like Brian had to head on out. Brian headed back into Sedona while Seth, Mark, and I made our way to the Village of Oak Creek to air up chat a bit. It was a great run again and a lot of fun. This is such a great group of people that I feel it to be a pleasure to run with them. Also, Seth did do the run almost completely in 2WD unlocked, pretty impressive and fun to watch him pick his lines. I did not take my camera, so I have no pics, but everyone else, post em up, lets see what you got! Also, Mark, did you ever get your burger?