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Hello everyone! Fresh back from another adventure through the north end of the state. It's always incredible to drive through Arizona and see how truly diverse the landscape, geography, people, and the weather can be here. It's amazing. Folks on this trip included: @Bradywgn71 @theksmith @Dennis Szymanski @Ken Ford @Mick Bowers @AZRNintheJeep242 @OffroadFun @Curly For this adventure we laid down the miles and met up in Seligman at the famous Roadkill Cafe, right on old Route 66. It's a sleepy little down, but one full of history and interesting things to look at. We enjoyed a hearty breakfast at the Roadkill Cafe and then jumped on a beautiful section of Old Route 66 on our way into Peach Springs. The road was nice and smooth, the white plains of grass ebbed up and down with the mesas and plateaus in the distance. We descended into Peach Springs, a very small town on the Hualapai reservation, and quickly found the Hualapai Lodge. Across the street next to a market was the one-room office that Hualapai Game & Fish uses for their permit operations. We queued up in line, paid out $16.27 per person, and then received our "Permit to Trespass" down to the Colorado River via Diamond Creek Road. As we aired down, someone noted that the BNSF railway had trains thundering through on almost 15 minute intervals. After we were aired down, we hit the trail, which was literally across the street. After passing through the pretty depressing suburbs of the reservation, the views quickly opened up into pristine and towering canyon walls. The road was graded in some spots and bumpy in others. We only saw 3 other vehicles our entire time on the road - with an additional stop by a Hualapai Ranger who meticulously checked every permit in the group with a discerning eye. You can see my permit jammed up on the center of the windshield. Running deeper and deeper into the canyon, the walls grew taller and taller. Eventually they topped out at almost 3,000 feet above road level. Not as deep as the well-known south rim of the Grand Canyon, but 3K feet of vertical rock ain't nothin' to sniff at. For reference, I shoot with a 35mm camera - this gives you the approximate field of view of the average human eyeball. Hopefully that puts some of these images in perspective. We drove through the thickest ocotillo forest I've personally seen here in the southwest. They were everywhere, green, and thick with life. We made multiple creek crossing over Diamond Creek, which was bubbling and flowing with crystal clear water every few thousand feet. After about an hour, we made it to the mighty Colorado. The water was MOVIN'. Like really moving. You could see powerful ripples in the river as it moved over the rocky bottom, scraping the sides of the canyon and picking up silt and mud. Checking the topographical maps, the peaks around us topped about 4,600ft above sea level - the river is at 1,300ft. Fun Fact: The elevation of the Colorado River at Bright Angel in the GCNP near the South Rim visitor center is 2,540ft above sea level, so there is more than a 1,000 foot drop over in water surface level about 125 miles. This helps explain the extreme momentum of the river. By the time the river hits Lake Havasu you're just 440 ft above sea level. The surrounding canyon walls on the South Rim are 7,000ft and over 8,000 at the North Rim. Here's the crew checking out the river. We broke to lunch at some nice pavilions with concrete tables with the roar of the river in the distance. After lunch, we made our way out the canyon. We made it back to Peach Springs, aired up, and headed up the 66, connecting to I40 into Williams. After a brief fuel stop, we made our way to camp for drinks and some fireside socializing (always my favorite part of every trip!) The next morning - we packed up and started our whirlwind tour of the wonders Kaibab NF has to offer - starting with the grand daddy of them all - Sycamore Canyon - Arizona's little known 2nd largest canyon. We had several first-timers with us who had never seen or heard of the canyon. Here's a nice shot of Dennis and Jeanine ogling the canyon and the snow-capped peaks of the San Francisco Mountains :) Here's the view they were taking in: A few years ago the Raphael Fire swept through the canyon. Note the burned trees along the canyon wall in the foreground: After "oohing and aaahing" the canyon, we headed north to connect with Sarah, Chris, Devon, & Tim. Sarah brought doughnuts! YUM! Our next destination was nicely labeled: If you know - you know: Our plans to check out the Hardy Hill Trestle didn't pan out as there was a large tree blocking the trail, so we took an alternative route down a pipeline trail, which was surprisingly pretty. We made our way to Johnson Crater, an approx 1km wide hole in the ground. The story on it is its either a sinkhole or somehow related to past volcanic activity. We then made another fuel stop in Williams and made our way to camp. The site we stayed at on Friday night was so nice, we decided to do it all over again! Here's Jack's neat "spaceship tent". Ken - setting up the Leslie's Pool Guy truck camper shell: Dennis and Jeanine's nice custom overland trailer and RTT setup: Darryl's rig, blending in to it's surroundings: Here's Kristoffer - enjoying breakfast in the sunrise the next morning: Marty's Betty Lou: Mick's sweet trail limo: Sunday morning we took Jerome-Perkinsville Road into Jerome, stopping a few times to take in the views. Government Canyon was pretty neat, hidden beneath a pretty inconspicuous bridge. Of course, it wouldn't be ORP without some shenanigans! This photo makes me think ORP is about the drop the sickest alt-rock album of 2023: "Boats & Hoes" Jumping back on the trail, things were pretty dusty (for most of the trip!). The switchbacks always make for fun photos: We stopped at the Perkinsville Bridge for a quick photo and to check out the Verde River. The views all along J-P road are always stellar: All in all - it was a great trip with a great group of people. I love the ORP fam! Thank you all for coming out and making it such a great and memorable trip!

For the last several years George and I have found ourselves yearning to spend more time at the beach. After moving to Kingman, the wish turned more into our constant focus, to the point that we're planning to move to Mexico within the next year or so, to invent a beach-bum lifestyle for ourselves. Obviously, numerous logistic issues arise in terms of our ORP responsibilities when considering an international move, and under these circumstances George and I can't devote the kind of time and energy that we feel ORP deserves. While it was a very difficult and emotionally bittersweet decision, we've sold our interest in Offroad Passport to Kristoffer, and we're confident that he will carry on the vision of ORP we all three always shared. Offroad Passport is the most worthwhile thing that either George or I have ever done. It's gone from the idea of 3 wheeling buddies into a thriving community of helpful and considerate adventure-minded folks. Considering the places that we traveled to, the things that we saw, the experiences we experienced, the people we met, and the friends we made; this turned out way beyond any of our wildest imaginations back in the day. And thankfully us 3 original wheeling buddies remain friends today, even as we go through life changes. We're super enthusiastic for the future of the club and will still be members, attending adventures and events as time/travel allows.

Introducing Bumble, our new Jeep. Bumble is a 2023 Sport S with a V6/Automatic. After many years of driving Barbie, we decided an upgrade was due, so we made the change. We already have the Mopar 2 inch lift installed and will be buying tires soon. We named it Bumble after the snow man from the Rudolph cartoon. We are already having fun with the name. A Rubicon style name graphic is on order for the hood and the graphics shown below will go on the windows. No big plans for modifications. We will add or change what is needed to continue doing the trails we have done in Barbie. I am impressed with how high the jeep sits with the Mopar lift. It is supposed to be 2.5, it feels like more.

The 13th Annual ORP event at Dogtown Lake (near Williams, AZ) was a huge success! We filled the group site there nearly to capacity, and it was a little 'cozy' but everybody seemed to be pretty comfortable. The two major complications were the abundance of mosquitoes, and the amazing downpour Saturday afternoon. Other than that everybody seemed to have a great time! I was so immersed in the experience that I forgot to take pictures, so I borrowed the ones below from Ann Marie aka @Riddler. Please post your pics in this thread to share with the group!! We want to thank all twenty-nine of you who came out to the event - you're why this group is so awesome! Special thanks to Ann Marie aka @Riddlerfor organizing the salsa contest! Special thanks also to Michelle aka @Yodamom for help with the 50/50 Raffle and T-shirt sales. There is no way I could do everything, so I really appreciate it! Salsa & Dip Contest 2022 We had a fine selection of salsas and dips to sample at the contest this year. They were all so delicious it was seriously difficult to decide which one was best. I had to go back and fill my plate 3 times! 🤪 Congrats to both winners of the Salsa/Dip Contest who each won a new design OPR T-shirt. The Dip Contest winner this year was Andrea aka @andimac, winning with an amazing smoked cheese dip. The Salsa Contest winner this year was Doyle aka @Riddler with a tomato based salsa. Although he says he changes it up every year, he now reigns as king of the salsas for several years running!! Here he is sporting last year's contest prize: OOFD - ORP Overland Field Day Saturday morning @4x4tographer lead a trail ride enjoyed by many of the campers! They got back at about noon and everybody at lunch in their individual camps. And then, about the time we were going to start the inaugural OOFD games, we had an utter downpour! By the time it passed enough for folks to move around without getting wet it was too late for the games. 50/50 Raffle This year's 50/50 Raffle netted $142.00 to the club, and $142.00 to winners @Bradywgn71! Congrats guys! And thanks everyone who participated! ORP Trail Leader Appreciation Awards At the awards/announcements ceremony we gave away several of these badges as a way for us founders to say 'Thank You' to these members who generously and regularly lead trails and contribute to the function of the club. We are super appreciative of all your contributions here @4x4tographer, @gearhead, @shellback91, @WILL E, @SonoranWanderer, @Ladybug!! If you weren't able to attend the gala, your badge will be in the mail to you soon! (FYI no I didn't grow my nails out green, that's the person who made the badges manicure! 😂) Go ahead and post your pics!!

We joined a small group of capable offroad vehicles for an “easy forest service” road picnic. This was a chance to test out our 4x4 that had been making a weird rattle noise for sometime. We started in Williamson Valley and the plan was to have a nice lunch and exit through Skull Valley area near Iron Springs Road. It was a beautiful sunny day and the first portion of the trail was easy sandy roads with some minor running streams. We had to turn around once as one of the trucks wouldn’t have made a stream crossing. Not a big deal it happens. We then took a long route up to a ridgeline with nice views of the mountains towards Baghdad, AZ. In the middle of nowhere we came across a rancher with a flatbed Unimog. He stated it had been stuck in deep mud for several days and he just got it out. He warned us to be careful the trail had some deep mud but with our built rigs we should be ok. We thanked him and moved along. **This was one of those here is your sign moments** We found the spot he had been stuck in but it was only a short section and we made it through with horsepower and careful placement. A little further on we found our first quicksand/mud area. The lead vehicle (suburban) sunk in front of us. With a heavy Factor 55 kinetic rope we were easily able to pull him back. During this time one of the group members, in a very nicely modified Gladiator, attempted to come around that area but found even deeper mud. Sunk his whole rear end and not going to move. He had to use his winch line to pull himself up and out of that. 20230325_132312.mp4 We continued and the trail became the normal rocky Arizona forest road with not much difficultly. Along the way we stopped for a BBQ lunch and enjoyed finally getting out after a long winter. After lunch, we joined a larger main easy road and made our way to Skull Valley. Lots of running water but no mud and no issues. We were a few miles from town and hit a locked gate. Such a bummer. We were told it was a 50/50 chance on the gate being open. Not our lucky day. The trail leader knew this area well and we had two other options. A direct route back to Williamson Valley on a newer small forest service road or a power line trail to the south. Our group chose the shorter route since storms were in the area and it was later than expected. We had some kids who needed to get home and animals at home that needed fed. We made our way to the north and the trail was fine. A few small stream crossings but nothing much. As we were about halfway to being done with this spur trail the Suburban in front of us just sunk in seconds. The trail was dry and it was a big surprise. Turns out there was a crust of dry dirt over “mud soup”. It was clear none of us could go forward with the trail melting in front of us. Chris was behind the Suburban and we attached our winch line and attempted to drag him backwards. Unfortunately, our big Grand Cherokee (on one-tons) then also broke through the crust and sunk on the right side all the way to the frame. The entire 37” tires gone on the right side and no hope of moving. The whole front right bumper at ground level. This was the most stuck we have ever been in years of wheeling. We had to shuffle the group a bit and got the big Gladiator behind us. He attempted to winch us, but our Jeep refused to move. The mud was too deep. Tires turning freely and no hoping of escaping the mud soup/quicksand crap! Chris tried to then pull himself forward using the Suburban as an anchor, but it just wouldn’t move. Our jeep was sunk. The Gladiator then got turned around and got out his kinetic rope. We are so thankful he had this!! We pulled a stupid and all our recovery gear, except for 1 soft shackle, was sitting in our other jeep at home! Now that is super helpful and not our usual!! The Gladiator had to take several attempts at pulling us out but eventually got the big WJ pulled backwards to a small patch of more solid ground. See Video. By this time it was dark out and getting cold fast. Snow was even starting to spit at us! Not ideal for sure. Now the issue of getting the first vehicle pulled out started. For several hours the group tried multiple plans that failed. Finally, Chris was attached to the Gladiator with a tow rope. Then the Gladiator was attached to the Suburban with that kinetic rope. They took several shots at it and finally after a long time and much shoveling of mud the vehicle finally was forcefully yanked out of its happy mudhole. They had to drag him around 30 feet backwards. This was around 7pm. I’m sorry I don’t have video at this time or photos of this one as I was helping spot and communicate to Chris. I should add we were all soaked with mud and one of he guys even lost his boots to the mud and was barefoot in this cold. Additionally there were some minor injuries to hands and feet from helping out during the recovery. The bushes were not kind in this area and the shoveling was rough without gloves for some of the people. Link to us getting dragged out of the first sinkhole spot: https://photos.app.goo.gl/XuDbYQ9NUMnwmJru6 One other “fun” factor was there was almost no cell signal in this area. The one group member was able to get a text out to a panicked mom (was a friend of one of the other kids who was with us that day) and get someone to take care of her horses. After that the cell signal died and no one could get messages out. Totally alone and miles from a “town”. The group then backtracked and hoped to smoothly get back to the main road so we could try going home on the powerline trail. We were in the lead and navigating in the dark. I’m thankful I was recording the gpx track. As we were approaching a stream area, we knew we needed to stay hard left as and then make a turn up the bank to the right out of the stream. This was all solid when we went in but leaving the earth opened up swallowing the front right of our jeep into quicksand. We sunk over the front right bumper and leaned hard into the bank on the passenger side. There was no going forward or back, and we were again stuck. This time though we had stream water coming in and filling the passenger side. I couldn’t get out of the vehicle to pull the winch line so our team leader had to come through the water and mud to pull our line to a tree. Thankfully in this area there was a large tree. Our jeep also decided in this moment to break the window regulator, so the driver’s back window was down. Karma considered running away during this moment! Our winch pulled us out thankfully and we got up to the dry bank in maybe 15 minutes. This was certainly a surprise and I’m thankful for our good Warn 10k winch. It would have been helpful earlier to have our full recovery gear, but we thought we were going to make it back out to the main road where we started this spur trail. However, the truck behind us was mostly stock and we warned her to try to avoid the hole we just ended up in. She unfortunately also found the sink hole that had expanded since we got out of it. She sunk even deeper than we did and we later learned she had some electrical damage. Chris flipped around and tried from multiple angles to pull her out using the winch. We were limited on dry ground and didn’t want to sink in the steam as then the whole group would be blocked by us. NO such luck. She was stuck too deep and the bank in front of her right front tire was too steep. Chris then turned around and we tried to use the kinetic rope to pull her forward. Tried again several times and several angles. Even tried backing up the steep bank on the other side of the stream but we started to sink, and we all agreed this wasn’t working. This is after she pulled back. She was sunk in about 4ft deep on her right front when up at the bank wall. We moved our Jeep out of the way while the rest of the group scouted the area around us to see how we were going to get her out and the rest of the group around this deep sinkhole. The Gladiator then pulled her backwards and the group had to bushwhack up and around the trail. The issue now is a very steep bank (8 ft vertical) that dropped the truck on her nose, and she couldn’t make it to the other side of the stream. One of the guys attempted to shovel out her front to find her tow point but couldn’t find it. They had to pull her backwards and hang by the rope and then one of the guys attached the tow strap. That was scary! Chris then dragged her out and up to a safe area. I hate having to go off trail and do this, but we’d otherwise be spending the night, abandoning vehicles, and walking out. With the cold this got scary fast. Lot of prayers said. My poor dog was shaking from fear and all the rough rope pulls. Most of us were shivering badly in this area for hours. The group was amazing despite this. Everyone worked well together, communicated respectfully, and even tried to bring humor to a very very tough evening. While the rest of the group was making it through “the bypass around” and dropping into the creek, we noticed the truck’s tire was flat. This is when we discovered she didn’t have a spare. A few of the guys attempted to see if it could be plugged but it turned out to be her inner TPMS valve was leaking. They fixed that but later found that the bead had come off and wouldn’t reseal due to all the mud and sand. We continued to lead the way out and in the dark it was a challenge. We kept needing to stop to fill the truck tire with air but eventually she decided to leave her vehicle at the main road once we got back there. So now it is around 1am and we have to try the Powerline trail. Our nerves were fried but the group was successful and it turned out that the powerline trail was in much better shape and limited mud and no sink holes. We made it to a main gravel road and out to Williamson Valley by around 230am. Home by 3am. In reflecting on the situation a lot went right but we certainly could do better in the future. Hopefully no mud sinkhole futures for us again and we won’t be wheeling in areas that get this much water or snow. There have been record amounts of rain and snow in central Arizona so please be careful. I swear I have mud PTSD now. We were on trail almost 16 hours not counting the time for lunch. What a long day! We did make some new friends and have a crazy story to tell!! The woman was brought back to her truck the next morning with a spare tire. We spent the next day cleaning the jeep and are still trying to dry out the r side. I am shocked but no major damage. Lost a spot mirror, a few new scratches, need to fix the window regulator, regrease everything, and check the diff fluid. Lesson Learned/Tips -Actually, pack your recovery gear in the vehicle you are in. We are now building a full second recovery kit so we have a dedicated set. We are adding a factor 55 winch line repair tool https://factor55.com/product/fast-fid-new/ We are adding heavy 1” kinetic rope likely the Yankum Ropes https://yankum.com/collections/kinetic-recovery-ropes/products/rattler-kinetic-recovery-rope?variant=39734984999118 made for 1 ton vehicles (we weigh around 6500lbs), and adding a winch retention pulley https://factor55.com/product/rope-retention-pulley/ and some extra soft shackles. A warn 10K winch not enough with a straight pull for this mud. Had we had the donut tool we could have doubled the winch line for more strength. In the first sinkhole there were no trees so that was not helpful either. - I'm thankful we all knew how to use the winch, what tools would work best, and working together we were able to make it home that night. Some of the guys race in King of the Hammers and have a ton of trail recovery experience. I am so thankful we were with awesome people who were committed to not leaving anyone behind and doing it as safely as possible. -Kinetic ropes are amazing in these conditions. It really is the only thing that saved all of us all evening. I highlight recommend you get a good quality one. -Understand that with the months of rain and snow Prescott National Forrest in this area is soaked and even if the trail looks dry underneath it likely is not. This area and further north are going to need a long time to dry. Seen two other friends get seriously stuck in the Camp Woods area recently. -Make sure to have a full set of spare clothes and warm weather gear. We personally had winter jackets but could have used a change of pants and socks. Others in the group needed heavy jackets for this freezing nighttime temps. Don’t forget your dogs too and bring jackets if they need them. -Add extra hand warmers for other members of the group. Add emergency blankets and other items to stay warm. We had about 4 handwarmers but not enough to pass out to everyone. We personally could have slept the night (even with the open window) and would have made it. -Have extra high-quality flashlights with enough battery life to get you through the night. We personally had 3 flashlights to be able to help with the recovery but discovered 2 of them were crappy. I have ordered better ones. The waterproof flashlight came out handy when our jeep took on water and of course the flashlight fell into the water!! -Have your active Garmin In -Reach or Spot. Are we were in had zero cell signal. We hadn’t been trail riding much and had deactivated it to save money. But looking back this should have been on and could have gotten us help sooner. We just said oh it’s an easy picnic forest service road shouldn’t be any issue. Have cellphone numbers to text through Garmin or Spot when you need help. -Pack an extra meal and more water than you think you need. Other members needed food and water and we were limited in what we could share. Needless to say we were super hungry from eating lunch at 1pm and getting home at 3am! Pack extra meal and water for your dogs too! I had plenty of snacks for them so they were fine thankfully. -Harness your dogs and have a net or attach them to the jeep somehow. Karma went flying at one point and hit the dash super hard during a pull. I couldn’t have her and Cooper out of the Jeep and help. Plus it was in theory safer inside than in the mud and cold. Dogs are ok but it could have been worse for sure. -Make sure to tell someone what area and preferably what specific trails you plan to run and when you plan to get back. I tried sending a text at 3pm to a friend saying where we were but it never transmitted until 1am. Lessons we got right -Knowing how to navigate your way out if the trail leader can’t or if someone’s device fails. -Knowing where your first aid is and how to use it -Know how to use your recovery gear and be prepared to use it for others benefit. -Know hand signals for winching and winching safety. Be able to communicate effectively under stress was key for us. -Know how to trail repair a tire. Have someone with on board air to continually refill a tire that can’t be repaired -Have a SPARE tire. - Bring extra gloves -Bring full size shovel. We only had one for the whole group which slowed down the digging out of the vehicle. -Have a bottle jack available. High lift was available but didn’t work for the vehicle we needed to use it on. -Had extra blankets in case we had to sleep in the Jeep that night -Have hiking boots for when you need to walk to town - Communication with GMRS and had an extra radio to share. Despite being a new group we ran with everyone was patient, respectful, and worked very well as a team. They even kept a sense of humor even thought the situation is dire! -Ask for help. We had some newer people on the trail but they did a great job of staying calm and asking for help when they needed it. Everyone was excellent at making sure they were as comfortable as they could be and being supportive. So that is the story of our long Saturday night on an “easy forest service road”. I am so thankful we made it home and will be making changes to what we bring on “just a day trip.” I may have more videos of us being recovered but trying to obtain those.

Got the rocksliders installed today. I went with the LOD signature series sliders. Heavy as hell, but a pretty easy install. I had to grind one bolt hole a bit larger. We are ready to go offroading!!

"The only way you can predict the future is to build it." ~ Alan Kay Everyone please join me in wishing George and Diane well on their next adventure! I'm going to miss having you two as partners immensely, but am happy to know you'll be fulfilling a new dream. We've worked together so well over these past 13+ years to foster a great community. Thank you so much for all the love and hard work you've put into Offroad Passport. I will continue to look after the website and club with the same dedication you've always shown. I want to assure all our members, who are the life-blood of Offroad Passport, that nothing else is changing. The site will still look the same for the foreseeable future. We'll still have the Gala, the Holiday Party, and all the other exciting adventures that we're known for.

Another year, another awesome trip to check out Casner Mountain Trail! We've been pretty blessed to have been up the mountain 3 times now, once on a friend's trip, and twice leading it ourselves. The trail is essentially a power line trail and is commonly used as a fire break (even as recently as 2021 with the Rafael Fire). The route runs over Casner Mountain itself and along some ridgebacks that split Sycamore Canyon (to the west) from the Red Rock Secret Mountain Wilderness (to the east) in to two very distant geographies. To help preserve the trail's condition, the USFS only allots 22 permits per year, limited to 10 vehicles/25 people per permit - so a pretty exclusive experience in Arizona, much less the greater region. It's a bit of a competitive process - but we prevailed! In the image below, you can see my gorgeous wife (@Yodamom) posing with Casner Mountain, itself. Note the obvious power lines, and to the left of Michelle, you can see her pointing to the switchbacks that take you up the face of the mountain. This set of serious switchbacks helps you gain just over 2,000 ft of elevation in just under 2 miles. Vehicles equipped with low range can make easy work of it, however we had a Bronco Sport with us that seemed to do well in first gear without too much trouble (not equipped with low range). All in all - the trail was in really good shape, having recently been graded for the Rafael Fire. The ultra low traffic helps as well, I'm sure. The rough monsoon we've been fortunate to have in 2021 and 2022 seemed to left Casner pretty unscathed as of our visit. Below is some of our vehicle line up - overall pretty diverse. A JL, JK, 3 TJs, a baby Bronco, a full-size Bronco, and a Range Rover made this one of the most "representative" trips I've personally been on with ORP (except for Gala, of course!) @English Al's JK, @Eugene's TJ, and @Sputternutz's sweet green Bronco pictured: Here's @snoopy61's "baby" Bronco Sport: Got to get a shot of my own rig in, of course! 😄 I might be a little biased... just a little. Here's a nice shot of a monsoon storm DUMPING all over Sycamore Point in the Kaibab National Forest. You can see Bill Williams Mountain in the background, just left of the rain. Our initial day started off gorgeous - maybe a tad warm at about 85 degrees. Massive puffy white clouds on the horizon, and our fair share of thunderheads. As we climbed the mountain and got deeper into the Coconino NF, we started to hear the distant rumble of thunder getting a lot closer. Here's a nice shot of @Mike and Kristen Inkrott's well equipped Range Rover LR4. Gorgeous rig. I believe that is @rodrakejr's midnight blue TJ, followed by @Ladybug & @ob1jeeper in Gracie. Another line-up, with @snoopy61 in the lead: Another shot of @Ladybug / @ob1jeeper, @rodrakejr, and @Mike and Kristen Inkrott We had several excellent views into Sycamore Canyon from a range of vantage points, thanks in part to the fire that cleared away a lot of brush and trees. Nice light in this photo due to a break in the clouds casting light on the western walls of Sycamore. Bill Williams Mt. makes another appearance on the right. Once we broke for lunch, one of the storms was almost immediately upon us. Loads of lightning and some pretty vocal thunder. Then came the rain - which was constant for almost the entire duration of our time on the trails. It was a bit of a bummer, since we were sort of stuck in our vehicles - anyone who knows me know I like to socialize! 😉 Another poser shot! Here's another pretty dynamic look into Sycamore. Note the fire damage in the foreground - remnants of the Rafael burn scar. Bill Williams (again) on the right on the horizon. Quite a bit of rain in the air caused some nice "atmosphere" for this one: Cows. In a field. Well - not really a field. This used to be a lake! Fry Lake, by name, long since drained and turned into a beautiful pasture with a ton of happy cows. Another view from Fry Lake - wild flowers in full bloom - and some bovine buffet action happening in the background. If you guys have any photos or videos to share - please do! We'd all love to see you point of view and hear about your experiences on the trail. It makes for great memories as well, looking back on past trips.

Class dismy

@SonoranWanderer @Michael Trapschuh @Gonzo-Ralph and myself made the trek from Carefee to Dugas via the Verde Rim. We were rewarded with magnificent views of stunning scenery accentuated by color from the wildflower bloom. The run went off without a hitch. The only hiccup was that access to the Verde River was blocked for whatever reason. I guess the government is afraid we would have drowned ourselves in the swollen river. Thanks again to everyone who made it out today! Here are some of my attempts at photos (I hate taking pictures by the way) lol!

Spent the last three days hiking the corridor trails at the Grand Canyon for my volunteer “job”. I know most of Arizona the canyon has had a wetter than normal winter. Here are a couple of pictures of the icicles on the upper part of the Bright Angel trail Also, if the park service recommends shoe traction devices please, please believe them. Some of the slip and falls I witnessed were very, scary.

It's official now. Bumble has his Hood Sticker and some window stickers too. 😎

Starting to do some mods to get Bumble Trail ready. Installed larger, wider off road tires today. Went from 31 to 33 inch. They sales guy at Discount tire talked me into wider rims and I am glad he did. These are about 1.5 inches wider and have a more positive offset, helping to visually fill wheel wells. Plus, I am VERY happy with how the new rims look. When we brought it home: New Tires and rims Installed Seat covers on the front seats. We always cover the seats in any vehicle we buy. This protects them from my butt sliding across the cushion on the way in and out. Removed the rear seats so we can maximize the room for camping gear. Lots of room back here! Next up, Rock sliders. We are leaning towards the LoD brand.

pano from the second night's camp on Table Mountain saddle. in the far distance, you can see both Mt Lemmon (left edge) and Mt Graham (near the right edge)!

beautiful scenery already just coming into the Courtright reservoir area. weird building at Courtright. looking down stream while crossing the dam. the official start of the Dusy-Ershim! no time to warm up, just head for the sky straight away. top of the slab, looking back at the reservoir. plenty of dust on the trail, but i couldn't even imagine how difficult it would be when wet. most of the trail weaves through very dense forest. passing by "the bearded man". Wayne getting into the challenging stuff on Thompson Hill. Thompson Hill is an exceedingly steep, seemingly never ending pile of rocks and dirt. everything from bowling-ball to 40" tire sized boulders shift constantly in the baby-powder soil as you scramble towards the top. climbing the hill is much like a toddler trying to find the edge of the McDonald's play area ball-pit. Wayne and i both had to winch and stack to make it to the top. anti-stacking purists can relax, the entire obstacle changes from one rig's attempt to the next, there's no evidence left of our having re-arranged the rocks in any useful order! the Dusy is often compared to the Rubicon, however beyond the fact that they share somewhat similar views of the Sierras, i found them to be completely different animals. the 'Con is like a constant extreme rock crawl, where this was more like a really long extreme trail with plenty of difficult rock crawls mixed in. the Dusy is also much more remote, both the trailhead and finish are 2 hours from the nearest one-horse town and there's absolutely nothing but forest, mountains and small lakes on the trail. the Rubicon has 3 entrances and cell phone signal at least some of the time, and people run it nearly daily. if you break down on the Dusy, it could be several days before someone came by. Mac led the first day, i led the second, and Wayne wrapped it up for us on the third day. some areas had more sandy soil, but much of the roads were black powdery dirt (between the boulders!). the trail crosses several small meadows as well. Mac definitely had the right rig for the trail - a 2 door and 37's. he'd also already run the Dusy many times. Wayne also had the short-wheelbase thing going for him in his TJ, but had to work harder in many places to avoid diffing-out with only 35's. i don't think there's more than 100ft of straight trail on the Dusy. it's constant turns and lots of those are tight ones between treese and/or boulders. my 4 door was mostly at a disadvantage with all the tight spots, though the 37's helped keep the belly off most of the obstacles. even when not climbing, dodging, or articulating, there are still plenty of just plain bumpy sections that keep you jostling around in your seat. there's also quite a supply of "inconveniently placed" boulders. the forest would thin out briefly at the tops of some climbs. which rewarded us with great views of the surrounding peaks. we ran across 3 downed trees in the trail. i was able to move one that had broken up into pieces, and fortunately the other 2 were by-passable. a chainsaw would not be a bad idea on this run - there are many places with such thick forest that there'd be no way to get around a large downed log. more boulder fields! Wayne getting out to check the way on Divorce Rock. it's not a major obstacle, but does provide a little pucker! more tight forest squeezes! getting close to the end there are several stellar viewpoints. the descent during the last hour or so of the trail is really challenging. IMO, it's worse than going up Thompson Hill, mainly because there's a real possibility of can-opener-ing a door on some of the tight turns between large rocks. nearly done! that's it, we made it! here's the sign looking back at the north end of the trail we made really good time since there were only 3 of us, averaging 5 to 6 hours of intense wheeling each day for 3 days. we were treated to spectacular 360 degree views at the last night's camp. personally, i liked the Dusy better than the Rubicon. they are equally challenging trails, but in very different ways. the Dusy being much less traveled was appealing to me, and the overall vibe is just more chill even though you're still wheeling your ass off for 3 to 4 days on either trail! it was great to also not see a single scrap of trash, and very few bypasses or widened trail areas. the Dusy is a pristine, difficult, man and machine testing overland experience.

I didn't want to get this buried in the trip reports, so am starting a new post in the same area, which gives you easy access to go see the actual trip report and the mess that we got into after we left the trail ride. BTW - We had an awesome time on the trail....Thanks Ryan for putting this trip together! It was fun to ride this trail in the rain and clouds and lightening! BTWx2 - I am good at preaching how one should not be on the trails alone....always have another vehicle with you...well maybe in rainy weather, it would be good to have one with you on pavement as well...LOL. Thanks JohnPa for caravaning with Michelle on the way back to highway! So OB1 and I owe a HUGE THANKS to the crew who rescued us! After the trail ride, we left the group and headed north on Eagle Eye Road, and didn't recognize the width of the Tiger Wash crossing, and we have a jeep, and I have OB1, so off we go to cross the wash. (and yes, we are old, and yes, we know better) Only to get BURIED in the silt of the wash, with water flowing all around, and no way to extract ourselves. Three very kind men from Aguila showed up on the north side, waded into the wash (against my better judgement, but it allowed us to see that the wash was able to be waded, despite sinking into silt as you waded it), and they tried to push us out. (They wisely left their vehicle on the north bank, just tried physical pushing force) Meanwhile we had been trying to get phone signal, finally dialed 911, and lost that call many times, and finally got the word that they didn't really have anyone to help us. (We were borderline Maricopa and LaPaz County, so kept getting shifted from one to another) We tried to call Ryan and Woody, but no phone signal. Finally I try a text to Woody. We run out our winch cable to the guys on the north shore, and just then the wonderful ORP crew shows up on the south bank. We all agree we should pull from the south bank, the direction we had come from, so in goes our winch cable, and out comes Woody's. With Ryan as an anchor, and straps added to the cable line, they winch us up out of the silt. And then, thanks to Scott, for sending over a battery jumper to the guys on the north shore, whose battery had died in the process. MANY Many Thanks to Ryan, Woody, Scott and Stacey, JB and Kelly, and Alex, who hung with us all the way to I-10 as we crossed a few more washes. With a special thanks to Ryan and Woody, who waded the waters with us, and used their winches and straps to help free us from the wash. Just to finish up....Ryan, we should have asked those semi's where they came from! They obviously did not come down Eagle Eye Road! I think they came across 60, and found that Vicksburg Road (the connection to I-10) was closed, so came in from Salome? Anyways, google said our fastest way home was via Vicksburg Road, so off we go to the west...only to find that road was closed just north of the gas station. We did not try it! - just turned right around.....So we ended up all the way over to 60, by Brenda, to get home finally at 2 am. And for those of you who know OB1 - who was up early this morning, Gracie's underside has been power hosed, and yet more rocks and sand dislodged from skid plates and everywhere else. The tow strap has been hosed of its sand and the winch cable rewound tightly. The carpet under the drivers side has been dried, and the axles and such have been confirmed to be free of water. Joints and such have been lubed, and altho there is still a thin layer of mud on Gracie, she is much happier now.... As am I! For the few who have known me for a long time, my initial nickname on AZVJC was Grateful.....(Renamed later by Grunt and Bear to become Ladybug)....And I shall always be Grateful for the friends we have made, and for the help we received last night. THANKS so much! Love you all! smiles, ladybug

Awesome write up and videos @SonoranWanderer. Appreciate you running point on the recovery and running back to grab our straggler! Certainly a memorable night! Monsoon, lightning, haboob, flash flooding, road closures, cool weather - and of course @Ladybug's famous cookies! Here are some photos I grabbed throughout the run. Thanks to everyone that came out! Some cell phone photos: The meet-up with the storms looming in the background. Our situation while we were near the summit of Harquahala. We opted NOT to be the tallest things around and decided not to go all the way to the top. We enjoyed a lovely rain and lightning storm, some dinner, and of course - cookies for desert! The flood where we had to do a little recovery work. Note the drop off to the right and the rapids. Water was approx knee-deep in the center. Some photos via my camera: Clouds enveloping the summit Mike's YJ, storms and rain in the background. More scenery Some handsome devil out there socializing in some ORP swag! Another cloud-crowned view of Harquahala. Looking back at the line up Looking down at the crew from the switchbacks - Woody out giving a quick spot to Alex. Another line up shot.

Minor update to my Smittybilt 5.56cfm air compressor set up. While my compressor was sitting on the floor in the rear the plastic on the air gauge shattered. The gauge and air fitting were hose-clamped on to the end of the original hose the compressor came with. After watching this video on modifying the compressor for a pressure switch, I figured it'd be easy to just ditch the hose all together and with the guage/fitting flopping around. To make it work, you have to adapt the Smittybilt metric fittings over to whatever you're using. In my case, I picked up an M12 male to 1/4" male NPT fitting on Amazon and removed the hose entirely from the compressor. I reused my brass t-fitting and added a replacement pressure gauge and relocated the quick connect fitting I've been using. I replaced the broken gauge with another from Winters, however this on is a little better built with a thicker glass face and is filled with glycerine to help prevent vibration damage on the needle. My old gauge was always read a little higher than reality by about 6-7psi. Hopefully this new one is a little more accurate. A dash of thread sealant and a few turns of a wrench and this mod took all of 15 minutes to complete. And there you go. The solution to a floppy hose! 😁

Trailhawks Revenge - 04 Wj Overland build Prelude ; First, let me start by saying this probably won't be as creative as ksmith, though I think many of us all have been inspired by his wj build and I hope to incorporate some of the things he has done. Second, I do have a baby on the way and that will obviously take priority. Third, let's talk about how I got here today. In January, I took a new job with an agreement to buy a new vehicle. I found a 21 wk2 trailhawk 'in transit' with all the exact options I was building online. Mid February, I took delivery. My first new vehicle, a 21 trailhawk, 5.7, tech package, hid lighting, everything except for the headrest monitors. After only 3 months and 7300 miles, during a lightly wet evening in Tennessee, a mustang (go figure) lost control on the road where I park and slammed into the jeep pushing it through our fence. 2 months later, it is finally deemed totaled by my insurance. It was originally claimed by the at fault drivers insurance but she didn't carry enough coverage to cover initial estimates. There is more to this story I'll save for later. After being in a rental shortly and eventually sharing my gf car for our day to day, I started looking for something cheap, something I'd be comfortable in... Ah ha! A wj, I've owned one of those before! So I started looking. Long story short, I actually found a wj here that wasn't ideal for me, but for my father, a 00 limited with a 4.0. So I bought it, fixed a few things and drove it up from Tennessee to Illinois. Before heading to Illinois, I looked on fb marketplace to see what kind of wjs were there, I really didn't want to be car-less again heading back to Tennessee. I found a few jeeps, cleaner than expected, ultimately focusing on a 04 overland. While it was a pretty Clean interior and exterior, it has been through some salt and its forming its surface rust on the seams of the subframe, it was written off by insurance once(hydroloked motor if you believe the previous owner, but the motor has been replaced). I didn't have a great time dealing with the owner, he was a 'it's my price because I know what I got type'... I offered carfax market value, and we were only off $500 bucks, so I sucked it up and brought him the money in all 10s just so I could at least make him suffer counting it. As mentioned, it's an 04 overland, 132k, 4.7ho, factory rb1, two tone grey leather, overall very clean. Someone loved it, then it fell on some rough times. Obviously the motor had been replaced, the rear hatch and the hood have definitely been repainted.. But unless I told you, most wouldn't know any better. So now it's mine, and shall be dubbed 'The Trailhawks Revenge'. Long term goals is long armed, 33s-35s, on jk axles. Baby on the way so don't expect any of this to happen overnight. Frankly I plan on stacking parts to give myself a weekend-week project.

i recently added a rear swing-out faucet to my existing on-board water setup, writeup here... as part of that project, i consolidated several previously randomly placed switches into a single panel on the tailgate interior vent. all the switches and custom actuators came from otrattw.net. i drew the aluminum panel in a 2D vector program (similar to Adobe Illustrator) and had the part laser cut by sendcutsend.com. while i was rewiring things, i replaced my rear overhead light strip. the old one was slowly getting dimmer and dimmer over the years. i also previously had separate red and white fixtures mounted, but this time i used a single 12v RGBW LED strip and simply power either the red or white channel with a 3 position switch.

Well well well - another EPIC trip on the books with a great group of folks this side of the Mississippi. In fact, I'd have to say they're "totally tubular!" This trip took us down the storied and historic, famous, stupendous Bradshaw Trail in southern California in the Colorado/Sonoran Desert. Along the way we visited Roosevelt Mine, the Chocolate Mountains, the Chuckwalla Mountains, Chuckwalla Well and Stage Coach Stop, the Eagle Mountain Railroad Trestle, some abandoned yachts in the middle of the desert, areas throughout the legendary General Patton's Desert Training Center, and the gorgeous sandstone of Red Canyon. If you're a Club Member, you can read up on the full trip planning thread over here. We rode about 80% of the Bradshaw Trail's length as it exists today - meeting up in Blythe, a short ride on tarmac across the CA border to Ehrenberg and then traveling a whopping 85 miles on dirt to end our trip at Chiriaco Summit, CA. A nice bootyshot at the air down point just outside of Ehrenberg, California. Note the terrible, god-awful, no good weather. Of note was the sheer amount of trash in the desert as we aired up. We found all sorts of crazy stuff - but primarily old tin cans from the last 160 years of travel along the road. We even found some old GLASS Gatorade bottles, which I didn't even know was a thing. Allow me to digress - Gatorade originally started out in plastic, but switched to glass to appeal to the snobby crowd from 1984 to 1998. I did learn that you can sell those on Ebay for around $11-$24 per bottle for a good specimen..... so you know - there's opportunity there for someone with some time that happens to be in the area. Back on track - we figured that folks traveling East out of California and into Arizona for the gold fields in La Paz were dumping their undesirables shortly before boarding William Bradshaw's lucrative ferry service that would take them across the Colorado River. Interestingly - this was really the ONLY trash we encountered out there. By and large, the entire area we explored was surprisingly pristine with few signs of the typical garbage you might encounter out there (like entire boats). I don't know if this is thanks to efforts by clubs and individuals or the State of California - but it was something that was glaringly obvious to me. Another shot of the lineup We made camp just outside of the Roosevelt and Rainbow Mines only about 40minutes into the trail on a nice spur to the north. We have views for literal MILES to the East, West, and South. The ground was rocky, but largely flat. Suprisingly no wind, but temperatures did dip down to about 39 that night. The stars at night over the red light district. That's not the sun - we had a nearly fully moon that really lit up the landscape for us. Sunrise the next day The next morning we awoke and took a short 30sec drive over to see the remains of the Roosevelt and Rainbow Mines. Not much left in terms of junk - the area was surprisingly well cleaned. However there were heavy-duty gates over all of the shafts and adits in the side of the mountain. The shafts were fairly large - a possible glimpse into the size of this gold mining operation. Back on the trail. Dust was the name of the game on this trip. Pausing for a quick photo of the Mule Mountains rec area. This area reportedly turns into a small city of RVs in season. I can see the appeal. Quick photo of myself and @theksmith courtesy of @johnpa INn the foreground of this image you'll notice some parallel lines. They were all over the entire area and long a good chunk of the trail. These are the tracks left from General Patton's maneuvers at the Desert Training Center which operated a series of training camps for the Army during WWII. They were using the area to train for tank warfare in north Africa and beyond. The tracks were primarily made by M3 Lee and M5 Stuart light tanks. Ironically - when the Desert Training Center was in operation - the 773rd Tank Destroyer Battalion described the Desert Training Center in their official journal as “18,000 square miles of nothing, in a desert designed for hell”. Of course - times are different today and we have a totally different perspective on the beauty and rich history of the area! Back on the trail A goofy thing you'll find out in the middle of the trail.... boats! There are several known, abandoned boats all throughout the area. Curious! We stopped for lunch at Chuckwalla Well, an old stage coach stop along the Bradshaw Trail. Back on the trail again - headed towards our Night #2 camping spot in Red Canyon! The entrance to Red Canyon - a glorious sedimentary formation that is showing signs of rapid erosion. Setting up camp - tons of space for everyone! The next morning we made our way down to check out the Eagle Mountain Railroad trail trestle. We had an incoming winter storm in the background coming up and over the Santa Rosa mountains. We doubled-back on the Bradshaw Trail and headed back toward Red Canyon where we then took the Red Canyon Jeep Trail, a rollercoaster of a ride that rode the ridged above the canyons and surrounding mountains. Our ultimate destination was north to Chiriaco Summit, CA. Looking East over Red Canyon, the Santa Rosa's obscured by the coming storm. A good look down into the canyon and wash from the trail above. Gadget Film Noir Gadget The beginning of "Bootyshaker Road" - a hyper-washboarded section of the trail caused by our SxS friends. Note the gentle slope of the perpendicular hillside to the right - a hint as to how high the peaks around here once were and the flow of the rain over millions of years. We ultimately ended up in Chiraco Summit, home to fuel, some food, but most importantly - the General George S. Patton Memorial Museum, which documents a vast reaching history of the entire area and Patton's legacy.

Sunday, we headed out and took a little used track from the East side of the Mtns to the West side. Gearhead (Mike) left us before taking the pass and exited at Wellton. We stopped to check out the Fortuna mine (no pics) and then headed out for home. We stopped to check out Yodaville from afar. (A bombing target made of shipping containers) Yodaville.

A short minute long video of a storm as it was rolling into Bulldog Canyon Saturday. It was awesome and the video doesn't do it justice. This is the kind of cool stuff you will see the more frequent you get out wheeling. This was at the play hill on the 3554 trail.

My wife and I were in Santa Rosa/Healdsburg/Russian River Valley wine country out in CA over the holiday weekend and I came a cross a classic Jeep. We stopped by the Hook & Ladder Winery and they had a Jeep FC-170 that was converted to a fire truck. This thing was pretty dang cool. I could not get inside to take pictures of the interior but from what I saw it was pretty neat. I found an article on Motor Trend that gives a brief history on these models. Apparently they were built by the Willys Overland corporation back in the day. This particular model of FC(Forward Control) Jeep was built using a 103.5-inch-wheelbase chassis that was similar to 104-inch Willys Wagon chassis. This rig is a true 4x4 Jeep which I found pretty damn cool. It's engine provided a whopping 105 horsepower! I did not manage to get the year of this beast, I was too far into the wine to think to ask. 😆

Shots fired!

Just finished another 4 days hiking the Grand Canyon corridor trails for my volunteer gig. Monsoon action every afternoon. Only hiked in the rain one day. Humid, hot, no cloud cover until about noon. This makes it worth while. Mr. Ram was a couple switchbacks below 1.5 mile rest house. He would peer over the edge of the boulder at me and then disappear. Like a Disney animatronic . This shot was taken with a bit of zoom. I was so close to him here I had to step back to edge of the trail to get this shot. No zoom. This is looking back down on him from a couple switchbacks up trail. Many animals in this area due to (another) pipeline break that left the water turned off at the 1.5 and 3 mile rest houses. The break was leaking enough to water the animals. Im no photographer but with subjects like this it’s hard to take a bad picture.

60,425 miles Took the Jeep over to see our good friend Joe @OnPointOffroad to get some maintenance knocked out and some ball joints installed. Always happy with the work Joe does on any of our vehicles, Jeep or otherwise. Can't recommend him enough and it's always great to talk with him and pick his brain on different topics. The last time we were in to see Joe we got to talking about the 8 speed ZF transmission in the Jeep JL and the service interval. Jeep seals these trannys "for life" - but that's not reallllllly true. Maybe it's because most American's these days trade their vehicles in every 2 years and roll over that sweet, sweet negative equity. Since I'm in the "severe duty" category, Joe recommended a 60K service interval for the transmission for a new filter and fluid. So there you go. Additionally, Michelle gave me some new Teraflex HD Ball Joints for my birthday back in February. We had those installed as well. They're STOUT and I was really impressed with the apparent quality and design of the new ball joints. Twin zerk fittings on each one allows you to easily grease them up and they allow for adjusting pre-load anytime you need in the future. Lastly, I've been getting some wobble on certain predictable sections of my local roads at certain speeds. Was suspecting a loose trackbar at the axle. Clayton's install instructions called of 90ft/lbs of torque. I recently increased the torque to 105 and that seemed to dampen the wobble a bit. Joe noted that factory spec was around 160ft/lbs (I can't remember the exact number) so they tightened her up. On the drive home, no wobble. And the new ball joints are great! I'm getting a more firm feel from the steering and feel more "stable" on our local windy roads. So far, pretty happy. The last thing to talk about is some cupping on my front Yokohama Geolandar G003 tires. We thought this might be contributing to the wobble, so Joe was kind enough to switch the fronts with the rears so see if there was an impact. Can't really narrow the wobble down to the tires since the trackball torque was upped - but we did notice a shift in braking behavior. The Jeep used to pull left on hard braking, now it pulls right a bit. Possibly chalked up to the tires. All-in-all, that's all I have to report. Looking forward to the next run later this month when we check out Smiley Rock trail and Mingus Mountain!

NEXT STEPS! Build the platform. Loaded up the fridge, slider, and my pre-cut base plate. As mentioned earlier, the fridge would need to be mounted at an angle to clear the soft top tailgate cross-bar (no idea what the technical term for it is). In terms of operation, the RV45 is good to operate at UP TO a 45 degree angle, which is pretty crazy. However, 45 degrees certainly isn't optimal for the system to cool properly. I emailed SetPower's tech support folks and asked if it would be detrimental to operate the fridge at a 5-10 degree angle - they came back very quickly and said that it would work just fine, but with a footnote that it would work at its best if flat. @theksmith noted that one is rarely "perfectly flat" when offroad - so that certainly helped in the decision-making process. 😅 Stacked up some scrap boards to find that magic number to allow it to happen. This was the slowest part of the build so far and I hem-hawed on it for about 2-3 days. Using a pair of straight edges, I'd adjust the angle and place the straight edge across the top of the fridge and along the bottom of the slider to see where it would impact along the deck lip and the cross-bar. For me, on 30" drawer slides, the magic number was 6.3 degrees with the fridge shoved all the way to the rear (front?) of the trunk area. The baseplate is bolted down to the factory tie-down points using factory hardware. I used a contour gauge to ensure the platform was cut to fit into the spot nice and flush all around, following the lines and angles of the "cutout" in the truck. Here's a look down along the "hump" in the tailgate the houses mostly empty space, but has the mechanics for the rear door lock, handle, etc... Some considerations had to be made for how far the hump intrudes into the trunk area. After a LOT of fussing around with it, it was time to get back to building. Here's a jump forward to the "left wall" and "center wall" built, glued, and screwed with copious amounts of pocket screws. At the rear of the compartment I added a "cross wall" to help support both supporting walls, in addition to serving as a rest for the rear of the slide (previously, I had measured the height of the rear of the slides once I was happy with the angle they needed to be mounted at). A 1/2" shim was used on the front as a "rest" for the front end of the slides. Combined, this helped ensure I stayed at 6.3 degrees and made it a lot easier to mark the mounting holes. All bolted up! Verifying the slide angle in the rear of the Jeep Load'er up! The full-extension 30" slides allow the fridge to come completely out of the Jeep for easy loading, access, and allows the lid to open without hitting the soft top. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! More to come!

Some photos from our weekend adventure through the Table Mesa rec area on Crapshoot, led by @SonoranWanderer! My personal first time on this trail - it was fun! The 2 obstacles on the trail were interesting and made you pause to think for a minute. The views were very nice with some scenic overlooks and plenty of wildflowers waiting to burst into color. The desert is extremely green right now. We had an interesting mix of vehicles with us, a 50/50 blend of current and "vintage". 😁 3 JLs, a YJ, an XJ, and a sweet Ramcharger.

my existing pump and sprayer nozzle work well for showering or rinsing off muddy feet. but due to the pressure buildup from the on-demand pump, the setup wasn't great for getting just a small amount of water for something like wetting a toothbrush. it would also waste a lot of water if i locked the sprayer in the ON position for the common task of washing my hands. so, i've added a rear faucet that uses an additional much smaller water pump that is activated with a switch (instead of being on-demand). the swing faucet itself is meant for a wok or other commercial grill. the photo above shows it swung out to fill a kettle, and below is the "stowed" position. i use a small piece of velcro to keep it stationary so it doesn't end up rattling against the rear window. it's mounted to some of my existing contraptions (the spare tire hoist and ham radio antenna bracket). with the tailgate closed you can barely see it tucked in behind the spare. it will also swing out past the tailgate for washing hands or to rinse something when the slide-out tailgate table is deployed. the new tiny 12v pump was mounted inside the tailgate, behind the interior exhauster vent. a 3/16" I.D. silicone hose runs down to the same water tank used for the shower and connects to the existing line with a brass tee. the pump activation switch was placed on a new switch panel i created on the tailgate vent. the faucet switch is a 3 position, ON/OFF/TRICKLE... "ON" runs the little pump at it's full 12v rating which is pretty low-flow but can still fill a pot quickly enough to not be a PITA. the "TRICKLE" feature drives the pump via a 5v DC voltage adapter so that it flows even less. this setting is perfect for rinsing hands without wasting water.

Last fall Rita took a little nap on the way home. I was uninjured, but Rita unfortunately didn't make it. So, last week I did a thing and bought Jack. She's a 2017 Rubicon Hardrock. She was 100% stock and 100% a pavement princess when I drove her off the lot. We salvaged everything we could from Rita, including the 35s. Those went on Jack this weekend. They rub in the front when offroad, but on the pavement they are fine. I've ordered the 3.5 Metal Cloak lift for her. It arrives shortly. I believe I've finally decided on the Fox 2.0 shocks....but haven't pulled the trigger. I'm not usually this indecisive. Here is Jack before with her stock shoes and after with Rita's 35s. And, I've had a lot of questions about Jack's name. She named herself on day one. As we drove to get her all I could think of was I was going to need a drink after the dealership hassle....and on the day Rita tipped over I had just purchased a brand new big bottle of Jack that survived the calamity and soothed my injured pride that night, and so she was named before I even drove her home. Looking forward to having her lifted so I can get some more off-road time. I've certainly missed some ORP trips and the dirt therapy. (Extra hands on wrenching days welcome. 🙂 )

Coconino forest has released what they call the Buttes and Boulders loop. Some of you have done some of this trail as it goes by Apache Maid cabin. I've done most of it before, but not as a loop. What I like about it is Buckhorn cabin, a nicely preserved cabin that backs right to a pretty cool canyon. The portion of the trail that runs from Lake Mary Road to Buckhorn cabin is perfect for an ATV because it is rough as a cob and constantly twists and turns. In the Jeep it was brutal. Luckily, the cabin can be accessed from Cedar Flat, and that portion of the trail isn't bad at all. ( Cedar flats is accessed off of FR 618 in the Verde Valley) Buckhorn cabin would be a great place to overnight on this trail or a modified version of it. I've also been to Hollingshead cave. A pretty drive to a pretty small hole in the hillside. Link to the Coconino Nat'l Forest description: https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/coconino/recarea/?recid=84330&fbclid=IwAR0o_tquFNxwR4L-risa_zI7qRRb_2Nwic7vMf4nVBxwNqEFecS2HkM0o0E Some Pics: Buckhorn cabin: The road crosses a dry water fall that leads to a drop into the canyon. I wouldn't advise crossing if the water is flowing. The drop off Hollingshead cave entrance A real pretty area So, who's going to lead a trip there? :)

Here's some pictures of the awesome winch installation by @Number7 on the Smurftruck. Looking all mad max Done!! Finished product looks really nice!

🙂

Photos... Day 1 - Friday Bates Well From Friday night camp Day 2 - Saturday Leaving Papago Well Dave O'Neil's Grave 1871 Nameer Grave Circle of 8 Grave site Tijanas Altas (High Tanks) Day 2 camp at Tijnas Altas Day 3 - North Tijanas Altas Pass Yodaville Fortuna Mine

Some pictures of Tulle Wells.

i thought you were talking about @johnpa for second there!

The next day we stop at Cathedral State Park for a 2 mile hike. And then stop at Pioche - where the first 72 people to die here were from "Lead in the Head". This was the most violent town in the west. Consolidated Shaft #1. And the start of the tram line that goes down to a large mill on the other side of town.. And Steve posing at Boot Hill Cemetery...In front of Murderer's Row.... Murderers Row...nothing fancy here. A few of the headstones identified the names and who shot/stabbed them. After Pioche, we headed to Ely, where we are now for a few days. All is going well except for today and tomorrow with lots of rain....Plan B. or C or D....we'll figure it out.... smiles and love to all, Moses

@Mac Ruiz, @stockjeep and myself are back from the Dusy-Ershim... what a trail! i have to sort through a bunch of photos, but here's a couple to get us started... sign at the North end (finish-line for us) of the trail: Wayne climbing a portion of the infamous Thomson Hill:

Made it home, now it's time to clean up. Had a good time this weekend minus the rain. It was good to see old friends and meet some new ones. I will apologize if I didn't say goodbye to folks in their RV's, I don't know the etiquette so I wasn't going to be rude and start beating on doors.🙂 Thanks to everyone who put this together and thanks to @Yodamom for some killer moonshine! It was very good.

Another beautiful day on the books with the ORP family! In what was originally planned as an overnight trip from Sedona to Flagstaff and around the San Fran Peaks, we turned this into a day trip for fear of a nasty monsoon forecast. As luck would have it - not a drop of rain the entire time we were out there! All sun, all the time. We met up with the crew at the Red Rock Cafe, just south of Sedona in the village of Oak Creek. Awesome food, great music, good vibes. Check them out if you're ever in the area! They sell a 3 lb cinnamon roll that will feed a family of 23. 😅 So who was there? A mix of familiar faces and some new members - which was great! @Curly in his TJ - "Barbie" @shellback91 in his JK, "Betty Lou" @Bradywgn71 in their souped up monster of a WJ, "Hope" @Scott Miller + Kim in their clean new JLUR @Mike and Kristen Inkrott in their Range Rover LR4 @alexshel44 rocking the Jeep KL Trailhawk Our route was about 70 miles as planned, but due to some hiccoughs on the way and some rockier than anticipated trails, we cut it short a little bit. All-in-all - it was an awesome trip with awesome people! We kicked off with what I really consider to be one of the Crown Jewels of the area: the iconic Schnebly Hill. @Curly in Barbie - the rest of the line-up in tow: Always gonna grab photos of The Balrog @shellback91 looking shiny in Betty Lou: Stylin' & Profiling! Barbie looks great in the rocks! Alex's sweet KL Trailhawk: One of the many gorgeous vistas on Schnebly Hill. The town of Sedona in the background - the Sedona Airport can also bee seen on a hill in the background. It's impossible to take a bad photo of @Mike and Kristen Inkrott's LR4. Hope, looking right at home! Alex is all smiles after reaching the top of Schnebly Hill and earning that Badge of Honor! After Schnebly Hill, we made an attempt on FR153A, but it proved to be a strong moderate, beating up some of our stock rigs. We made the decision to turn back around to the main road. FR153A has some A-MA-ZING campsites that overlook Sedona. There aren't many that do, these are it. You need to be in stock Wrangler at a minimum to get there without too much trouble - or choose some careful lines. The camp spots are very small, large enough for 2 vehicles each - there are about 3-4 total spots that we noted. After joining back up to the main road (FR153) made our way under the i17 and rode through the Coconino NF on our way up to Flagstaff, using as much dirt as possible. The general idea was to connect up with Horse Park Road (FR700). To get there, we had to take the path less traveled, first using FR226 to FR228A to FR220, then on to FR700. FR228A was a bit of a surprise - plenty of bouncy rocks, but doable in a stock high-clearance vehicle. The trail was beautiful and not well travelled - plenty of shade from the pines! The rocks are sharp - we ended up needing to change a flat - seemed like a pinched sidewall. It was great to see everyone jump in to help out and we were on the road again in about 15-20 minutes (once we all scratched our heads on how to free the scissor jack from it's prison! 😁) Here's @Mike and Kristen Inkrott just after conquering FSR228A - big smile on Kristen's face! Alex - emerging from the trees! We took a break for lunch after 228A for about 45min and had some good conversation. Was great getting to know our new ORP fam a little better! After lunch - it was off to the races with FR700 - a nicely maintained dirt road where we were able to lay down some miles pretty quickly. @Curly clued us into a hidden gem that lies along this road - an old stone train trestle, over 100 years old. Click here for a look on the map. Tim noted that the stones were all laid down by hand, with supporting beams fashioned from logs. Tim provided a great photo of the same trestle from the 70's that his father took (link). I went back to check the maps this morning to see if I could associate the bridge with any details. This is an overlay of the 1930 USGS topographical maps for the area. You can see the train route on the map - which is the same railroad bed that FR700 was built upon. There doesn't seem to be a connection, or the map alignment is off slightly (they were hand-drawn, afterall). Maybe it was a spur track, or it simply wasn't captured on this map at all! I went back to the 1900 USGS maps and there were no tracks in the area (per the map). Super interesting area - really appreciate you sharing it with us Tim! Here's an interesting photo of the trestle with a healthy Ponderosa Pine growing right out of the center! I believe I heard someone say they thought it was about 50 years old at this point. We continued on laying down the miles and stopped for the day at about 4pm with this beautiful view of the San Franciscos over what I'm calling a "mini-cinders". There are some small campsites nearby with this view - I'll definitely be coming back here. I'd love to see sunrise and sunset from this vantage point. So there you have it! A long, but awesome day. At the end of it, we put about 62 miles on the rigs in 8 hours, climbed from 4,500 ft to 7,800 ft, went from red rocks to cool pines - all in the sunshine. Hope you guys enjoyed the trip! If you took any photos and would like to share - please do - and I hope to see you on the next ride!

got everything put together with the custom bracket. the only place i had to modify the parts thus far was trimming the lower outside corner of the ACM panel. the Jeep's tub curved more than i realized there. i think that's not too shabby for having measured everything with a tape measure and just visualizing how the 2D pieces would fit together in my head. now i just need to take it back out and paint the raw aluminum. i'll also start mounting all the fuses, renogy controller, disconnect, etc. to the ACM panel as soon as i have more free time.

I had a very similar experience. I didn't see the flood heading to the I 10. The very first one and it was going fast. I hit the brakes ended up in the middle went through the water by the time I stopped I was 10 feet off the pavement. I went through the water, it turned me slightly I went over the burm on the left hand side. Not exactly sure how I did it but no damage to the jeep at all. My mom and I and the dog were all fine inside. I was able to get back on the road really easily. Mike stopped to make sure I was ok. Then he went on the radio to let everyone know to be careful. Took the rest of the way looking carefully at each one. Mike found a family broke down on the side of the road trying to get back to the I 10. I ended up giving them a ride home. They told me on the way they called 911 and was told by the sheriff that called him back that there was no way to get to him. The sheriff wished him the best of luck. The floods affected the locals there badly. There were 4 others stranded the sheriff let him know about that he had also called and wished good luck to. I only seen the family I helped but seems crazy to me to call 911 and be called back by the sheriff and told good luck. This is why it's great to be in a great group of people that help each other out when we run into these problems. Crazy all the eventful things happened after we were done with the trail. I still think that trail was the easiest part of the whole thing. Looking forward to the next trip.

Buddy and I snuck in an early morning 'bull dog' run

Put the Wagoneer on the back burner for now. (It is running) Barbie started making a suspension noise and locking the passenger rear wheel on slow stops. Found the rear upper control arm bushings were bad. I had replaced them not that long ago with new arms with bushings already installed from Quadratec. Bushings didn't last 10k miles. So I went to Napa and bought bushings from them. Spent today driving out the old bushings and installing the new ones. I'll install the arms tomorrow. "Old" bushing 3 of the older bushings U joint tool from Harbor freight made it easy. Done

I’m going to post a series of photos of a big horn ram that I encountered on the South Kaibab trail in the Grand Canyon last month. I was headed up, almost finished with a shift, a few switchbacks from the top in a section we refer to as “the chimney“ when heard a few rocks rolling down. I looked up a small side cut in the canyon wall and a big horn Ram stepped out on to the trail about 25 feet in front of me! I started to back down the trail and the Ram thankfully headed up the next switchback. This was taken when I got my phone out of my pocket and backed a safe distance away. Note the two hikers headed downhill. Ram is headed up the hikers are headed down and I’m trying to warn the hikers without spooking the ram. This photo is a bit deceptive. It doesn’t really show that the canyon wall sticks out a bit and the hikers can’t yet see the ram Now they see each other! The Ram politely gives up the trail to the hikers and steps off. He's now headed for a shady overhang that’s not so crowded.