The great Cherry Creek Demolition Derby 2011

[timh]

What a trip! Just got home a few hours ago from one the most eventful trips I have had in a few years. All in all turned out to be a really fun trip.

We got out of town around 6am Saturday morning and headed towards Globe to meet up with Rich (conejo), and Jim (blue10). One our way towards Oracle I spotted three very impressive mule deer buck off the side of the highway so we stopped and watched them for a few minutes.

We got back on the road and got to Globe to meet everyone with perfect timing. We then headed up towards the mountains crossing the Salt River.

We had traveled a short way down Cherry Creek Rd. when the day started to get interesting.:Wow1: We came around a corner and spotted a Bobcat heading up away from the road. Out of habit I called out on the CB for everyone else to see and began to stop in hopes of getting some pics. Rich was behind us and saw the bobcat but didn't see us stopping until it was too late.

The impact was probably less than 10mph but my steel trailer and his plastic front end were not match.

Luckily the trailer can be easily repaired but the FJ might be an expensive one. Everything was cosmetic so we were able to continue.

Soon after we arrived at Cherry Creek and were making our first crossing.

Jim decided to give me a little better action shot.

As soon as Jim hit the water he let off and hit the brakes, little did he know the concrete was covered in algea and super slick. His FJ finally came to a stop a little past where he had anticipated.

So now your probably wondering how this could all be possible? None of us were acting like idiots and no one had been drinking. I think there was some unknown force working against Rich's FJ. Needless to say everyone felt really bad but Rich was in good spirits about it. Back door would no longer open though.

Again we pressed on, hoping nothing else bad would happen this day.

We arrived around 1pm at Devils Chasm where we had planned to camp that night. We hadn't expected to be there that early and it was still quite hot out so we decided to continue and try to make it to Reynolds Creek where we were planning to camp the second night.

 

[timh]

We kept pressing on, the trail felt like it was never going to end at this point as we were really hoping to make to Reynolds Creek with some daylight left.

Beautiful area!!!

The view back down Cherry Creek where we had just traveled through.

We made it down to Reynolds Creek to find it nearly impossible to find a campsite. We drove up a fire road all the way to the top of the mountain and finally found an open site. The site overlooked the valley in which we had spent the day driving through almost 3000ft below. This turned out to be one of the most breathtakingly campsites I had ever been to.

Once we had finally finished setting up camp it had gotten dark and we began to make something to eat. Rich (of course, he was cursed this weekend) walked around the back of his truck, where he has just been and found a rattlesnake cruising right through camp. We tried to shoo him away but he refused to leave and he was unthreatened by our presence. Unfortunately for him he had to go out the hard way. We didn't want to take a chance with the kids running around camp. Normally I don't like to kill a snake in his habitat but the kids came first.

Sunrise Sunday morning.

Our view from camp.

We all decided to just hang out and relax at camp all day. The weather was great and it turned out to be a very relaxing day.

Later in the afternoon we found another rattlesnake a little ways up from camp. He wasn't bothering us so we took pictures and let him be.

Sunrise this morning.

 

[timh]

We hung for little while this morning then began packing up. We finally got out of camp around 9am.

After leaving camp we decided to head back up the road and check out Mcfadden Peak.

A controlled burn in the distance.

Shortly after leaving Mcfadden Peak I managed to break a main leaf on my trailer on the main road. We spent a few minutes working on it and managed to rig it up to limp it home. We had planned on stopping down on the east side of Roosevelt Lake for a quick dip before hitting the highway to head home but the trailer was not up for the task.

We made a quick stop at the Salt river diversion dam to air up the tires.

We parted ways in Globe, Jim and Rich headed back to Phoenix and we limped it all the way back down to Tucson. It looks like I am going to need to rethink the suspension on the trailer now, along with a few other repairs, so I guess I am going to be busy. And Rich unfortunately has some major repairs work ahead of him before the next trip too. Hopefully the next one is easier on all the rigs.:ylsmoke:

 

[AlabamaWill]

The insurance money should help buy steel bumpers. Great trip, loved the pic with the FJ and tent by the cliff.

 

[conejo2005]

Nice pics Tim!

It was definitely a tough day for my FJ. Someone was looking out for me with that snake Saturday night though... I was getting hamburgers ready for the volcano, and heard you and Jim over at the vista talking about the lights over there, so I walked over for a minute to check it out. Turned around and took a couple steps back towards where I was cooking and saw that snake. If I hadn't walked over there, it would have been right where I was cooking. And I probably would have stepped on it or worse.

This trip would have sucked if there wasn't such great people along! Hopefully we can make some plans to explore the lower parts of that road near Roosevelt lake...

 

[dirty Bakers]

Sounds fun. What a beautiful area. Wish I Could have gone.

 

[loren85022]

Shortly after leaving Mcfadden Peak I managed to break a main leaf on my trailer on the main road.

[/QUOTE]

Thats a beauty. I really like how you accented it bailing wire.

 

[erin]

Definitely a cool looking area. We will have to go back up there when it cooler.

the trailer fix is priceless:sombrero:

 

[timh]

duck tape and bailing wire are the cure all for most trail breakage!!!!:victory:

 

[1leglance]

sorry about the carnage but sounds like having good people along made all the difference.
the pics are excellent and the campsites look like ones I would really like to take the family to visit.
Would it be easy to stop & play in the water along this route?

 

[timh]

sorry about the carnage but sounds like having good people along made all the difference.
the pics are excellent and the campsites look like ones I would really like to take the family to visit.
Would it be easy to stop & play in the water along this route?

If any of that carnage had happened with other people who knows how it would have turned out. It was great that everyone was able to laugh it off and still have a good time for the rest of the trip.

The diversion dam on the Salt River is a great place to stop and get in the water. You drive right by it on the way up Hwy 288. There is also a bunch of trails that lead down to the backside of Roosevelt. We had planned to explore one or two of those before the trailer broke.

 

[tibaal89]

Great writeup of a pretty spectacularly interesting trip! :Wow1:

 

[blue10]

Thanks for the write up Tim. Great pics. We'll add ours this evening. Regina handles all that. We had a great time....despite the mishaps early on.

 

[mbuckner]

This looks like you were filming for a "Top Gear" segment .......

I will be watching for it on the Speed Channel .......

Thanks for the write up and pics .....

 

[timh]

This looks like you were filming for a "Top Gear" segment .......

I will be watching for it on the Speed Channel .......

Thanks for the write up and pics .....

We were actually talking about that on the trail also...lol