The group met at the fuel station on the East side of highway 17 on Carefree highway at 9:30. We had a quick prayer to start our trail. Then we headed off to the Lake Pleasant recreation area for unloading and airing down.
^Adam in his Jeep Wrangler (Stock as far as I know)
^Ben in a late 80's Toyota Pickup (Stock)
^Brian in the 98 Toyota 4Runner (roughly 2 lift, rear locker, and 265/75/16 MTR tires. Lots of rock protection too)
^Chris in his Jeep Cherokee XJ (lifted, big tires, and chopped, first time out in nearly a year!)
^Dustin in his Jeep Wrangler (locked front and rear, and other modifications unknown)
^Ken in his new Jeep Wrangler Rubicon JK (stock Rubicon package: Lockers and disconnecting sway bar)
On the trails, Brian led in his 4Runner as our trail leader this time around.
(Authors Note: A special thanks goes to Dustin who had run the trail and verified all my turns, to keep us on track.)
The first set of obstacles was quickly arrived at and the fun began. Brian made the first attempt and after repositioning a few times, made it up with only a little trouble. The rest of the group followed Brian up with some notable tire carry by Adam, and some use of the Latin term, maximo speedime’, by Dustin. A couple had to opt out and try another of 3 options, none of which was the easy bypass.
The second obstacles were followed in a similar manner, with all of us doing the most difficult options o rat least attempting them and trying our hardest. After nearly a year in moth balls, Chris had some stored up 4x4 aggression and displayed it quite well trying to climb out of a creek bed. He lifted the front two wheels off twice in a display of gasoline mixed with aggression and a heavy foot. After 3 tries, he made the climb, and we recommended counseling, or more trails.
One hill climb shortly after Chris let out some steam, Brian got hung up and had to be pulled, much to his shame, by a Jeep to free himself from the rocks. As this happened, we noticed Chris’s jeep was letting off some steam of it’s own, and we had to repair his broken radiator hose. After it cooled, we found the split, just up from the hose clamp, so a quick hose length adjustment, re-clamping, and some premixed fluid had him running cool as a cucumber once again. Everyone pitched in and this fix was really quick.
As we continued, more climbing obstacles were accomplished by all. We had a great morning. We finally made it to the forest boundary around 2:00 pm and stopped for lunch. We also posed for a group photo in the stream before we headed the rest of the way.
The second portion of the trip we had to make up some time, so we stopped much less and took fewer pictures, but we had a great time. Overall time, including the cooling of Chris’s Jeep and the lunch stop, the trip took 6 hours. If you were not to go so slow or stop as much, it could be done in 4-5, but it would not be as fun.
After the trip, we all took a short break in Crown King and then went our separate ways home. Everyone went out the highway route, but when the turns came, Ben and Brian turned toward Mayer to head home while everyone else went to Bumble Bee to catch the highway. A short distance after the turn, a phone call was made to Brian saying the Adam had rolled. He and Ben both turned back and established communication with those ahead of Adam and we all converged back at his rig to help. Chris was quick to the winch (first time use) and up-righted Adams flopped Jeep, and then started tying the now defunct hard top to his Jeep. Brian and Ben arrived shortly after he was up-righted, and we all helped make sure everything was cleaned up, and Adam was okay to drive. He was fine, no injuries, and we all escorted him to the Bumble Bee turn off where he called a tow to take his now damaged Jeep home. This was probably a safer idea since the Jeep windshield was bent out of place and the Jeep was not tested at highway speeds after this accident.
It is unclear exactly what happened, but it appeared that eh Jeep slid sideways on the loose gravel and caught the shoulder which made the front right tire dig in and flop the Jeep. It was NOT a complete roll, thank you God, but was a hard flop.
Brian took Chris down to his tow rig (still at Lake Pleasant, and they returned home. Everyone finally got home around 10:00pm.
Overall, this was a great trip and I will say that I am very proud to wheel with a bunch of guys like this. After the trial was done, when one of our guys was in need, we all pitched in to get everyone home. Thanks to everyone for showing your true spirit and the true friendly nature of wheeling with Arizona Christian Wheelers.
Be sure to check out the videos and photos from everyone. See you on the trails!
