kaspily

Is there a part two. I'd love to know the end result.

Sorry for the delay. Link to the photo album: https://picasaweb.google.com/110968346826086888564/HackberryForTripReport?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Started off on a cloudy misty day but thankfully the rain held off for the run:

The trail went from easy to challenging very quickly. Nothing like waking up with some tippy switchbacks and some steep sections!

The Finn:

Our brakes just barely held coming down this. Kris made it look easy.

After the Finn we started up our first hill. The trail consisted of large boulders that moved around. Reminded me a bit of Carpet Hill on Rug Road. The scenery was beautiful.

At the top of the saddle on the first hill if you look to your right you can see a cool balancing rock that looks like a car:

Coming down the hill George annouces the trail gets tight and we might have to back to get around a switchback. The funny part was our fat WJs had already needed to do this and we weren't even to the tightest switchback. I snapped this photo and thought it was funny because you couldn't even see the trail.

Funny sign considering the trail goes through. Although I would only want to run this during the dry season:

As we were nearing lunch we came into this neat canyon of rock spires.

After the wash we were up with the cows on some higher more level ground near the powerlines:

We were looking for the trail to do the loop that goes up the waterfall instead of down it. We ended up missing it and had to back up the trail, turn around, and hunt it down. Looks like it isn't used anymore and was really overgrown.

Going up the powerline trail we came to a nice waterfall section. The guys were debating how to get the fat WJs through it and up and around a narrow section. Thanks to George for stacking some rocks for our rig.

After that just a little more rocky climb:

We came to a shooting area with some interesting finds. Kris found some maps and we teased him about finding the secret gold mine maps:

Wearing it Proud!

We then descend back down the other side towards "civilization". The views were beautiful from up here.

We got to the spot to air up and came across a fellow jeeper whose motor mounts had broken. He thankfully had a buddy with a trailer pulling in and was all set. Chris and I made it home safely. The next day our Jeep's Engine Computer died. I am sooooooo thankful that didn't happen on this run. We had a great time and a big thanks to the trail leaders! We can't wait to get back out with everyone again.

Thank all!

Please remove us from both runs. Jeep died again and we won't have time to fix before these runs. Damn thing won't give us a code just shuts the engine off a few miles from home and then won't restart. We are so bummed.

Sounds a lot like what we just went through. We replaced all the sensors first and then the solenoid pack. This didn't help. We tried a salavge tranny and this turned out to fix the overdrive transmission issue but then resulted in us not being able to go into reverse. We didn't want to go through having to take out this tranismisson (super heavy and a pain in the butt) and return it to the salvage yard. So we paid a shop to rebuild it. So sorry you are going through this. Hope it turns out better than ours did.

I am just not finding the time to do a detailed trip report. Here is a link to the short verison of the photo album: https://picasaweb.google.com/110968346826086888564/AguaCalienteForSharing?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJjop-vombLiGw&feat=directlink

Link to the large version of the photo album:

https://picasaweb.google.com/110968346826086888564/AguaCaliente2013?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPbj5s_Sjaaocg&feat=directlink

Put Chris and I down for the trip. He needs to finish his rock rail modifications but should be able to before the run.

I'd be interested in a "semi beginner" class. I can always use more trail experience if Chris will let me steal his Jeep

We were able to this morning. I got an out-of-stock but should be in on Monday email.

Got an updated on the Reddington Pass area in Tucson. The "Friends of Reddington Pass" are hosting a meet and greet on the Pass Saturday, November 2, 2013 from 8:00 am - 5:00 pm.

Chris and I can't attend but it looks like the government agencies will be out again and it would be great to get the OHV community support out there to help balance the interests of the area. The friends group is trying to restrict all OHV access to popular trails to Chiva Falls and Chiney Rock.

Their email states:

"Plan to join us on the Pass at the new information kiosk, just half a mile east of the lower Tanque Verde Falls trailhead.

Meet up with Friends of Redington Pass, officials from the Coronado National Forest, Arizona Game and Fish Department, and other recreation groups

Learn more about what is happening in Redington Pass

Tell us about your favorite place in the Pass

Fill up your water bottle

Grab a litter bag to clean up while you recreate

Sign up to help improve Redington Pass for everyone's recreational enjoyment

Please put the MEET & GREET on your calendar and help us get the word out.

In other updates:

The Coronado National Forest's Final EIS is due out in November and the draft Environmental Assessment for the Travel Management Plan for the Santa Catalina Ranger District should be out toward the end of November. Link to draft: http://www.fs.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsinternet/%21ut/p/c5/04_SB8K8xLLM9MSSzPy8xBz9CP0os3gDfxMDT8MwRydLA1cj72BTUwMTAwgAykeaxRtBeY4WBv4eHmF-YT4GMHkidBvgAI6EdIeDXIvfdrAJuM3388jPTdUvyA2NMMgyUQQAyrgQmg%21%21/dl3/d3/L2dJQSEvUUt3QS9ZQnZ3LzZfS000MjZOMDcxT1RVODBJN0o2MTJQRDMwODQ%21/?project=29215&utm_source=October+2013+Update+2%3A12+PM&utm_campaign=October+Update&utm_medium=email

The Coronado National Forest recently issued an extension of the closure to recreational shooting between Mile Markers 5 and 7 as they continue to work on the cleanup of those sites. You can read their press release here.

We used a magnetic one with no problems (other then trees tipping it over). We have it in the garage if you want to have it. We since replaced it with a permanent mount. We are in Tucson but make occasional trips to Phoenix and could possibly meet up.

Amazing photos. I'd love to check out this area when it is a bit warmer. You looked frozen at camp!

Congrats all and thanks to all the vendors as well!

Congrats! It is a beautiful photo!

Great now I will never get Chris to do a safari with me *lol*

Got it and just updated the 2nd post adding your user id to the list. Now you're all good when you get your own Jeep.

I was joking the other day that I need to do a build thread for my Fiat 500. Even though part of the Jeep family I never seem to get the Jeep Wave *lol*

-Sarah

Just upgraded. No more hijacking my husband's account

Chris and I are also interested in a Super Moon Camping trip.

Chris and I took a few extra days of vacation before the Smiley Rock trip to go play up in Sedona. When Chris got his WJ the first trail we did was Broken Arrow. We used every skid plate on his stock WJ. So we decided to run the trail again to see how "Hope" did. It turned out to be really easy and fun to play on now that she modified. We do still need to do something about her fat rear and change the bumper as we rubbed a few times.

We got to Sedona around lunch time and it was a bit cooler (90s) than Tucson. This was after some electrical issues that caused some weird transmission hiccups. We stopped off at O'Reiley Auto to buy some new battery connectors and that seemed to fix the hiccups for the rest of our vacation.

We did Soldier's Pass First (since it was right next to O'Reily). Other than two spots the trail was really easy. We went to the right to go check out Devil's Kitchen first. We certainly annoyed the hiker's who wanted total quiet. We only saw two other Jeeps on this trail which is surprising for the Sedona area.

We then drove on to the seven pools section. We came across more hikers who didn't have enough water. We offered to refill their bottles but they declined. I hope they made it back okay.

After running this quick trail we drove over to run Broken Arrow. The views of Sedona from the trail are awesome!

We tried to recreate some of the shots from when we got the Jeep to what she looks like now. Here is the current look:

This is the before in the same spot:

This time we got to see Submarine Rock and the trail ends right in front of what would be an easy climb to the top of Submarine Rock. Chris and I hiked up to the top and enjoyed the views:

We ate a quick lunch of chicken enchiladas in our car oven and then were on our way. I think the tourists were envious of our air conditioning as they baked in the sun

At Chicken Point I finally noticed all of the scrapes to the underside of the Jeep. We got some of these on the previous Chivo Falls runs. I think my husband is just trying to really convince me about needing a different bumper.

The last time we ran this trail we were too scared to try this steep spot. This time it was easy:

The true test of the Jeep was the steps at the end of the trail. the first time we did this trail we bounced on our skid plates off every step. This time was completely different:

We had fun playing midweek on these trail and they weren't overrun with pink Jeeps. After this we headed over to Prescott to stay at The Motor Lodge for a few nights.

You beat me to the report! I would also rate this easy to moderate. I even drove the first part until that narrow shelf road part.

Here is the link to the highlight album that I took: https://picasaweb.google.com/110968346826086888564/RedrockPowerlineTrailSharing?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Leaning a bit climbing up the spur trail:

Looking back at Jeff. We teased that we made an oreo (black Jeep, our silver jeep, black Jeep) on the trail. It was neat to have the three WJs together.

The views from the spur trail were neat. Down in the valley I noticed what looked to be a commune or something. It turned out to be a vortex retreat center.

Heading backdown the switchbacks to continue on to the powerline trail and our lunch spot.

Jeff's first trail repair...this time his CB was acting up and needed to be secured:

The one and only moderate challenge with a small step:

We stopped to check out a sign and noticed that Jeff had a flat tire

Thankfully the hole was in the middle of the tread and only took one plug.

I just love taking pictures in this scenic area:

We had lunch at the indian ruins. It was hot but we found some limited shade under our rear hatches.

Jeff's AC decided to act up as well (he had a rough trip!) and poor Rudy was hot.

After lunch we headed out the easy dirt road back to the highway:

After the trail, Kris and us decided to head over to Prescott to find the entrance to Smiley Rock that Kris wanted to run. We kept hitting dead-end roads, private access only, etc. Finally Kris decided it was better to start the next's day trip out of Jerome where there was access. After that we went down to Dewey, AZ for some excelent BBQ at Lucky's BBQ. We then parted ways and we went back to our hotel for the night.

Thanks to Jeff and Kris for joining us to check out this trail. We had a lot of fun!!

-Sarah

Day two:

I was of course awake before the sun came up and my husband was thrilled when I climbed out of the Jeep at 4am. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was still fairly comfortable out and sat back and watched the sun rise over the trees.

The group eventually crawled out of their respecitve sleeping spots to make breakfast, pack-up and get ready to take the dirt roads over to Cherry, AZ.

The road winded along through the forest, along ridgelines, and through some previously burned fire areas. The views of the valley below were cool:

Clifford leading the way:

A quick break along the trail:

We sadly hit pavement and had to air-up:

Chris and I then made the long drive back to Tucson. It went from 80 degrees to 109 in Phoenix and then settled in to 105 in Tucson. Yuck!

We had a wonderful trip and really enjoyed meeting some new people. Thanks again for leading another adventure. I can't wait till the next trip.

-Sarah

Chris and I had a great few days in the area. The link to the highlight album is at: https://picasaweb.google.com/110968346826086888564/SmileySharing?authuser=0&feat=directlink

The link to the entire album (240+ photos) is at: https://picasaweb.google.com/110968346826086888564/SmileyComplete?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCOfR_4OEgpezlgE&feat=directlink

Chris and I left The Motor Lodge , in Prescott early in the morning to make the drive over to meet everyone at the new meeting spot in Jerome. The drive between Prescott and Jerome is super scenic and fun to drive.

While waiting for everyone we took a few shots of Jerome and the Ghost Town:

The group of I think 8 Jeeps met in the parking lot near the fire station. Moose promptly looked for a shady spot to chill out in:

Driver's Meeting:

Then we were off to run the easy portion of Smiley Rock on some really dusty roads. The views of the valley below were beautiful:

Looking Back to Jerome:

Up by the powerlines we came across three cows and a newly born calf. The calf was still wet with the cord attached. I wasn't able to get a picture as it kept hiding behind mom:

Kris showing off his new spotting techniques:

Mike starting on the fun rocky section of the trail after lunch:

Playing in the rocky wash:

Smiley Rock and the lesser known Yawning George:

Loved the cool shade in the forrest sections:

"Hope" doing what she loves best:

"Caroline" showing her skills:

Kris making it look easy:

Who loves tipy shelf roads?

We got up to our campsite and sat around the imaginary campfire. The bugs soon joined us but didn't dampen the mood.

I had previously picked up some tasty wine from the Jerome Winery and since I am such a lightweight it didn't take long for me to find it difficult to navigate over the rocks. But after some coaxing my husband convinced me to get a sunset shot or two:

Day two coming....

Bradywgn71 and myself will be there on Saturday for the trail talk and will run the trails with you. Most likely camping with you saturday night providing it isn't too hot

-Sarah

OOOO...she looks so shiny!! Any tricks for getting the dust out of the inside cabin air vents? Tried a swiffer, toothbrush, etc and so far still can't get all of it.

The red rock powerline trail sounds fun. Depending on how long that takes maybe we'd have time to check out the Cottonwood forest roads as well. We are staying at the Motor Lodge in Prescott. I'll send you our cell phone numbers so we can figure out where to meet. Thanks for coming up early