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I was just wondering if anyone had done the AZBDR (Arizona Backroad Discovery Route) in their 4x4? My brother and I are planning to do this next year. He and a few freinds are going to ride their dual sport bikes, and I and maybe a couple of others are going to go in our Jeeps. The AZ BDR actually starts about half a mile before my Dad's house, where I grew up in Montezuma Canyon. His property is just inside the park boundry, due to the park and forest services trading land boundries back in the early '80's, so we'll have a good base to start from. I have viewed most of the trail via video that dual sport riders have taken. If you have done any in your off-road rig, what are your thoughts. Our eventual goal is to do the TAT (Trans American Trail).

Here is a link to Matt's Report on China Camp https://offroadpassport.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2770&highlight=china+camp Here is a link to the trip I did with Matt to Courtland ghost town and Gleeson. This is Matt's report: https://offroadpassport.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3552&highlight=Gleeson

I live just west of Tombstone. Middlemarch road is basically graded road that crosses the Dragoons to the Sulpher Springs Valley. When you pass the cattle guard at the National Forest sign, you can take the left and go over to council rocks ( I have not been that way myself) or you can go straght. The road turns to single lane with room to pass from there on. About a mile up or so, there is a Forest Rd off to the lleft that heads up to China Camp, which is a beatiful hidden oasis in the mountains for camping or picnicking. Going past the road to China Camp, Middlemarch rd heads up Middlemarch pass, with a few short dead end side trals that are fun to explore before the pass. When you go over the pass and start down the Eastern side, when you come to the first switchback to the right, there is a road to the left going up Soren pass. This is a nice easy trail with great views. Once you get to the top, there is a nice area for camping or picnic as well as great photo ops. Continueing on over the Soren Pass, takes you along a shelf road that has a couple of white knuckle washouts that tip you towards the cliff on your drivers side, but you should not have any problem. Take the road all the way to a parking area next to big rocks. We call this place "Shock Rock" and you will see why when you get there and walk around a bit. This is as far as you can go by vehicle. The trail (walk it) continues on, and you will find an awesome mine with huge drifts and shafts in it. There are also old cable ways crossing the trail. I believe Matt Marine did a write up on both this spot and China Camp a few years back in the Trip Reports. I"m just giving you the basics here. There are geocaches in each of these areas as well if you like to do that. IF you are going to be at Ft Huachuca, there are quite a few trails on Post (Ft Huachuca) That are fun as well. The back side of the Huachuca Mountains, Bisbee, Sonoita and Patagonia all have trails that range from very easy to very difficult. Lookup Sierra Vista Offroad on FB, and Cochise Range Riders. They post alot of trail rides and info. PM me if you want some more detailed info.

Couple of more pics: Removable roof rack. Yes I re-purposed an old futon frame. It is lightweight, designed to hold a lot of weight, and best of all, it was free. I love trading, and re-purposing old items..

Little wheeling here and there, mostly work. Am moving more in the direction of a more comfortable overland ride. Trying to decide between JKU, WJ, WK or 4 runner. Seems that the bang for the buck are WJs and some older WK's. But am leaning towards v8 to pull expo trailer with. Couple of pics of Grumpy: New cage, which has since been painted with bed liner, and 33" BFG KO2's...

Wow, time flies when you are having fun. Can't believe it has been 3.5 years since I posted here. The ZJ is gone. We replaced the 4.0 in it and drove it for a few more years. The drivers door was sprung when we got it, and eventually it just wore out until it would not close anymore. And the Transmission was giving lots of problems. I traded it to a fabricator friend of mine who was building a new rock crawler and needed a good 4.0. He built a full cage in Grumpy (my 88 wrangler) for me in trade, took the 4.0 out and then sold the body to someone else. Grumpy Updates: Full cage, chrysler 8.25 rear end, 4" lift, 33x12.5x15 BFG KO2's, home built roof cargo rack. Daily drive it 130 miles a day to work, round trip. "Slowly" looking for another Grand Cherokee or Forerunner for wife, and to use for Overland rig.

Nice Pics. Think some of the guys down here are gonna do that soon. Thanks for the report.

There are other ideas that we came up with too. Team tire change event and low range slow drags could be fun, as well as hi lift winch pull. Tire change: see how quickly a team could come to a stop, after crossing a starting line, completely change a tire, putting everything back, and crossing a finish line. Low range slow drags: A drag race in low range, from a starting line to a finish line, who can do it the slowest. Cannot touch the brakes or put in neutral. Hi lift winch pull: Who can set up a hi lift and pull their vehicle a certain distance the quickest. This will require the use of an anchor point, tree strap, recovery strap and highlift jack, and that the jack pull through two cycles. If you all have some other ideas, post them up.

Looks like a nice run, Diane. Would love to take a dip in that stream! What elevation did you all get up to? I notice some pines in some of the pics. Good pics!

Sweet Truck. I love my crewcab Silverado. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that yours does, (02 LS) but it is super comfy for the long trips. Now if I could only get it back from my son who has had it for a while while his car is down, lol. I'm glad you like your truck. Your JK was pretty nice too.

On Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, SVOR (Sierra Vista Off-road) had their annual BBQ / Rodeo. Actually this was the first time for the rodeo. This year, we held the event at Middlemarch Mine which is off Middlemarch Rd in the Dragoon Mountains. This is a perfect spot for the rodeo, because it offers a great area for the challenges. We had four challenges to complete and they had to be completed by teams. The team had to drive the same rig, so it was really a challenge to some. The first challenge was backing down the hill. This challenge had one team member driving the rig, and the other spotting. This is a timed challenge to see who could do it the quickest. In the middle of the hill, the course had to go off to one side and then back onto the trail to make it more of a challenge. We had cones set up that you had to navigate through. If you touched or ran over a cone, it was a 5 second penalty for each one. Your spotter had to be behind you (out of the way of course) and the driver could use his/her mirrors, but could not turn their heads to look behind them. The time keeper was at the bottom of the course with his stopwatch and radio. Here are some pics of this challenge: Drivers meeting at the beginning of the challenge: The starting line was some caution tape at the top of the hill. You had to make this left hand turn before going down. This is the jog off to the side of the trail. You had to go between the cones: If you didn't time your turn correctly, you really ended up sideways on the hill, which costs time, and can give a little pucker factor: Not as easy for the longer wheel base rigs: This was Darin. His team was the fastest at 39 seconds. A perfect run: We were second fastest at 93 seconds: I believe 3rd place went to Robert: The next challenge was the egg... er ... rock on the cone challenge. The starting line was about 100 feet from the cone. You could not have any body part outside the vehicle and both teammates had to be in the vehicle. You had one minute to complete the challenge. This is one challenge that we had to write down the rules to make if more fair for everyone. Standard measuring point etc. It was a learn as you go challenge, but still plenty of fun. You had to get your driver's front tire as close to the cone without knocking the rock off. If you knocked it off, you were disqualified. There was a tie for first place. My team came the closest to the cone without touching it. BUT, we actually touched the rock and knocked it off so were disqualified. Tire size made a big difference here: After this challenge everyone had lunch. Lots of food and full bellies. The third challenge, and personally my favorite, was the blindfold driver challenge. In this challenge, we had an obstacle course set up that had turns, flexing, ditch crossings, a ledge climb and drop and driver switch. The team, with driver blindfolded, and teammate as navigator, would drive the course to the half way point which was at the top of a ledge. Once there team members would switch places and do the course pretty much in reverse order, only crossing the ditch at a different spot. You would not believe how much you have to depend on each other, and how much we take our visual ques for granted. My team mate, Aaron and I pre ran the track in his jeep (a rear locked TJ) and mine (front locked YJ) His TJ got hung up in the ditch even though he had bigger tires. My front locker pulled me through, so we used mine. We also walked the course and talked about where to turn, etc, which I believe really paid off for us in the end. Before the challenge started, everyone drove the course to familiarize themselves with it: The Flex section: Front not so strait: The back not so strait, up the bank: Into the first Ditch: the ledge climb and turn around spot: Back through the ditch: Back up the front: And back through the flexies: The first contestants: 2nd Contestants: Third Contestants: Fourth Contestants: Fifth Contestants: Sixth Contestants: I'm happy to say that Aaron and I came in first place. In fact, 2nd place was over 4 minutes behind us. Our pre-planning really worked!! Last event: The Watercup hill climb. Teamates had to drive up the same hill as the first challenge, with the navigator holding two cups full of water. The team that had the most water at the top of the hill wins. The next most gets 2nd place and so on. This was not a timed event. These guys decided they needed a cool shower rather than the win: And Darin just decided he wanted to be the fastest up the hill. Surprisingly enough, they still had water in their cups! First, Second, and Third place teams. Love the trophies!! All in all it was great fun and I hope that you all get to try something like this on your get-togethers.

Wow, Guess it has been along time since I updated this thread. So Grumpy had some things wear out and replaced. Also a couple of upgrades. I checked and found my drivers side front hub bearing had play in it, so I replaced both of them. Wow! that noise that I had thought was noisy gearing in the transmission, was actually the hub bearings dried out. I can't believe how long I've driven on them. When I first got my jeep running I heard the noises, and initially checked the bearings for play/roughness, but they were smooth and no play in them. So I assumed that the noise was coming from the tranny and I changed out all the fluids but still noisy. I figured I would just drive it until it got worse. Well the noise never got worse but the hubs eventually showed play. New hubs in, no more noise! What the heck? I had been driving with that noise for over 4 years. A couple months later, I finally bought a locker for the front. I got the Lockrite, and installed it in about 2hours. What a huge difference in traction. Then in March, my son bought me a windshield kit for my b-day. It came with new frame, glass, and rubber seals for the glass and the cowl. Installing the glass with the sealant provided is a nightmare if you don't have a powered caulking gun. I tried and failed and ended up cleaning everything up and taking it to a glass shop. They made it look easy, partly because they used a different exterior seal for the glass which was a much better design. I also ordered new hinges, as the old ones were broken. New kit: Painted Frame: Removing the old: Broken Hinges: Had to remove dash to get hinge bolts/nuts out: When I installed my radio a couple of years ago, I never bothered hooking up the front speakers because I knew that the factory ones behind the dash would be toast. Imagine my surprise when I found out what are actually back there. And they are in great shape, and work! Test fitting new frame: Completed: Amazing how easy it is to see out of. I had gotten so used to the sand blasted/ cracked/ hazed old windshield that the new one looks like there is nothing there. Also, no more leaks when it rains!! Next upgrade: My son gave me a highlift for Christmas. Now that the windshield was done, I could mount it on the jeep. I ordered some brackets on ebay for about $35. Turns out the guy who make them lives in Vail, Az on the east side of Tucson, only about 70 miles from where I live. These are some great pieces and very sturdy. They are cnc milled and bent. I am very happy with them. Next upgrade is a winch. I just traded for a Smittybilt XRC 8500 winch that needs a new solenoid box (the housing the solenoid sits in). I also have to save up for a winch plate. I will post pics once I am finished with that project. Also, am building a swing out tire carrier. I am using 2x3 square tubing for the crossbeam and upright, and 2x2 square tubing for the 45* angle supports. I was trying to figure out what I am going to use to mount the wheel. I looked at different pieces of metal and plate. I was sitting at my workbench contemplating this when I looked down and saw one of my old hub assemblies on the floor... yep! that will work. Just gotta press the hub out of the bearing. and I know it will fit, plus already has the studs pressed in. I'll post pics of that as I go as well. Thanks for reading.

Great pics as usual, Matt! Also on my to-do list.

Nice trip report and pics! Glad you all could make it down to this part of the state. I haven't been on the forum here for quite a while so I didn't know you all were in the area. There is so much to see down here. Glad you enjoyed it. If you do come down again, and plan on being in the area for a few days and want a beautiful challenging ride, check out Mansfield Canyon just to the north of Patagonia It combines exploring with a bit of rock climbing and some spectacular scenery. Plan on most of a day to do it though. It is one of the favorite runs of this area. Not as long as Charoleu Gap, but can be as challenging.

I've shared this with my FB friends, asking them to spread the word. Praying for Jason's safety.