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| Panoramic view from the Saddle |
What a BEAUTIFUL day!!! A beautiful day for an off-road adventure, a picnic, a few harrowing clothespin turns, and a great deal of excitement over what my truck can REALLY do!
The AZFJ forums have been ablaze with tons of great rides to do over the next
few months while the weather in Arizona is gorgeous. Problem for me is,
I'm not an experienced driver, and I don't have off-road or even all-terrain
tires. I have to be super-picky about the trails I choose.
Then one day, Montana Mountain run pops up. This was one of the first
trails I wanted to go on, but was unsure, and didn't want to go by
myself...glad now I didn't, but wow - what a day!
There were three FJ's - Bailey and I in the Purple Submarine, a silver FJ
driven by a gentlemen, his friend, a dog and his daughter - we'll call
them "Red," and the leader of the run in a black FJ - his handle is
technically AYC, but we'll call him "Choy" as that is what the girls
were calling him by the end of the day. We met up at the Shell station in
Gold Canyon Ranch, and started out! AYC was voted in to head us up, and I
offered to be in the back. We are all equipped with working CB radios,
and off we go...
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| Choy and Red head down the trail |
As we first turn onto the "trail" - it
is paved for quite awhile, and we miss the turn off, but quickly turn around
and get back on trail. Nobody has done this trail, with the exception of
myself, some almost 20 years ago, and only half way up to Roger's Trough - a
trail head that leads into the Superstition Mountains and to some very awesome
Native American Ruins. So - we're essentially the blind leading the
blind. Yay us!
We keep heading down Hewitt Canyon Road, and blow past the sign pointing to the
turn off to Roger's Trough. I slow down, radio the other two, and we turn
around and head back down towards the sign again. And we're off.
Again. LOL
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| Bailey and Serenity at our first Geocache |
First
stop - a geocache! It was a lovely little hike down a dry river bed,
which had clearly had a number of flash floods over the last year or two...and
we stop by a huge tree. We're certain the geocache is in the trunk - but
no! A little more hiking, and Red's daughter, Serenity, finds the
geocache. We sign the log, convince Choy to sign (and tell him to later
sign up at Geocaching.com as Choy), and go back to the tree to take
a picture of the girls - the tree really was awesome. So we get ready to
leave, and Red's daughter asks if she can ride with us, and we happily comply
and Red offers to take to the back of the convoy - which I later sincerely
appreciated!
The road up to this point is pretty much a graded dirt road with a few bumps
here and there. We're cruising along at a pretty quick pace, and then we
start heading up. Again, the road isn't bad - I'm not even nervous or
being overly cautious. The FJ is going like a champ - and I'm
super-proud of my driving abilities - I'm not even in 4L (the truck is always
in 4wd). We stop about 1/2 a mile below the "summit" - the
Roger's Trough trail head - for a lunch break. We pull out the chairs, we
all eat some lunch, and Bailey pulls out the Thin Mints. We polish off a
sleeve amongst the 4 adults and two children, and watch some other trucks heading
up the mountain. As we are getting ready to leave, a Sequoia comes
crawling up, and stops to ask how far to the top. We tell him it's maybe
a mile at most, and he gets visibly excited and says "great - then we get
to head down off of this." We all kind of look at each other, and I
tell him that the road down the back side is even worse than the road headed up
the front. The Sequoia turns around and heads back down.
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| Ominous snow clouds |
And
then it snowed. For maybe five minutes, it snowed. The clouds were
ominous, and there were snowflakes sticking to our jackets. And then it
cleared up. Immediately. Like nothing had happened.
Onward!
The girls sit in the back chattering away, and we bump up the hill to the
Roger's Trough turnoff, where we begin the "backside" of the Montana
Mountain trail.
Immediately, the trail gets much rougher, and for the first time in 20+ years,
I smell clutch. Gotta stop riding it - I get that sorted out, I calm
down, and I hear the girls are still chattering away, eating the second sleeve
of Thin Mints, and chowing on a large Tupperware of goldfish. They
clearly don't think we're doing anything crazy. In fact, they are acting
as though we are on a highway cruise. I decide to use their reactions as
a gauge to how well I'm doing.
As we get over the top of the first rough hill, we are now in gorgeous pine
trees, and pass a number of campsites full of wonderful people who are all
smiling and waving. We wave back, and cruise along on a slightly
rougher-than-graded road with some heavy ruts here and there, but all in
around, a lovely drive in absolutely beautiful back country. I forgot
that the Superstitions, at the top, are a pretty high elevation. It was
about 50 degrees outside, and gorgeous.
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| Best off-road vehicles in the world! |
We
stop in a saddle area to take some pictures (the panoramic shot above was taken
there), and decide to walk back to a geocache that is about 250 feet behind
us. So we walk. Around the bend in the road. And we walk
further, then off onto a trail. It was WAY more than 250 feet, but who
cares...it was gorgeous, we were having fun, and the geocache was genius!
We get back in the trucks and head out again - all the while I'm still awaiting
the "steep drop offs and harrowing switchbacks" which I've read so
much about.
As
we round the bend, we come upon an old burnt section of the trail - and this is
where the steep drop-offs start to bother my sensibilities. The girls are
still chattering in the back like little jaybirds, but the chatter has turned
to "what would happen if we rolled off the mountain?" Sigh -
thanks. They're SO imaginative! We had everything from plumes of
flames and smoke, to magical animals that would swoop down and rescue us
(Bailey has been watching WAY too much Hobbit). They are just chat chat
chatting about it, while I'm attempting not to hyperventilate, nor to show the
girls I'm panicking.
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| Arizona pinstripes |
We come to a tight turn, a fairly easy one, but the inside of the turn (the
"down the cliff" side) has eroded, and the "up" side of the
road is a big rock. I just stop. I stop dead in my tracks. I'm
breathing heavily - panicked. Afraid to "slide" off the rock
and "roll down the mountain." And I'm certain there won't be
any giant eagles saving us. Red radios to ask if I'm okay. I
shakily reply no...and I climb out of the truck for air and perspective.
Both he and Choy come to the truck, and they keep telling me I can do it.
I'm going to be uncomfortable because I'm not going to be level for a little
bit, but I can do it. I told myself that I must be able, and there can't
be much danger, or Red wouldn't let me have his daughter in my
truck. They were right. I did it. I didn't slide.
I was fine.
I've done worse than that in my old Honda CRV and on quads - I had already done
worse THAT DAY. I don't know what happened there - it was the least
terrifying "obstacle" of the day. Looking back on it now, the
only thing I can figure out was that if that rock had had ice or snow on it, it
would have been a very dangerous turn. But dry? It's fine.
Build up my confidence...keep going. Still don't like the drop offs, and
I'm getting TONS of Arizona Pin-stripes on the "mountain" side of my
truck...but we're good.
So - I think we're done with the switchbacks and the harrowing pin-turns. WRONG!
As we come around the mountain from that burnt out area, I can look down, and
see the road switch backing all the way down. Way down. WAYYYYYYY
down. Okay - I can do this. I'm awesome, everyone says my truck can
handle all of it. Still not in 4L. I can do it!
We do the first few switchbacks, and then I watch Choy do one where there is no
room to really back up much, and the "inside" of the switch back has
a huge, HUGE rut in it (I'm sure if Red and Choy read this, they are going to
think that I'm exaggerating - but it was HUGE). And I HAVE to go in the
rut. There isn't enough room on the trail for me to take my truck level
down this portion. And I can't turn around. No room to go back
up. For the first time, I see an FJ articulate like nothing I've ever
seen. Choy edges forward (not very slowly either), his front driver-side
tire is not even on the road, and his truck just tilts into the rut. Back
passenger tire off the road. And he goes. Like nothing. I
glance back at Red - I'm sure with a look of sheer terror on my face.
They both radio that I'm fine, and my truck will be perfectly fine. Two
things are keeping me calm. The girls chattering away about the movie
Frozen, and the fact that even if I do roll, I'll just tilt into the
mountain. Unfortunately, there isn't much room for recovery.
I inch forward. I feel my front tire leave the safety of the road.
I start worrying, but I keep inching forward. The truck tilts into the
rut. The girls get silent. Dead silent. (In my head
"please keep chattering girls...please"). I let out a squeak as
we tilt more, back tire leaves the ground, and we slide a bit into the rut, we
catch hold, and keep going. The chattering starts. Then I realize
that Serenity is talking to me. She says the sweetest thing - I almost
started crying from a mixture of terror, relief, and overwhelming
emotion. She says "I think you're probably the second or
third safest driver I know. My dad is the safest, but you are very
safe." And on the two girls chatter about safety on the road.
If I could have reached back and hugged her, I would have.
After this, I have full confidence. I'm STILL not in 4L, and I did all of
that. I know that for technical off-roaders, this trail is a piece
of cake, but for a newbie, it isn't. (And what the heck kind
of trails are those technical folks on? Not sure how technical I'm
willing to get...)
We keep bopping down the rest of the switchbacks. They are mostly easy -
a few where I have to get a little close to the edge, but I'm okay. Hey -
I drove on three tires for like 1.4 seconds. I can do anything! I
KNOW how cool the articulation on my truck is now. I can do anything!!!
We get off the mountain and start the long, mostly flat trek out. We pass
a Jeep sitting in a creek bottom. I have to rev it up to get the truck up
the other side - my push bar grinds on the rocks - but the truck pushes
through, we bound up the other side, and keep going.
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| Choy in front, AZBackroadsGirl behind |
The
scenery is still lovely - we drove through the river bottom for awhile
(crediting Red for the photo - glad to have a picture of my truck in
action). We climbed out of the river bottom, and we drove down a dusty,
well-graded road until we came out the other side. We girls are all
singing at the top of our lungs to the Frozen sound track, with interspersed
conversation from the backseat about their favorite parts of the movie.
It was an uneventful last couple of miles.
Again, my lack of confidence was won over by my truck's ability, the "can
do" attitude of my trail companions for the day, and by two little girls
who are experienced off-road riders, and who kept me calm through much of my
day! Thank you to Choy and Red for your help, but first and foremost,
thank you to Bailey and Serenity for just being you and acting as though
nothing is happening, even if I felt my life was hanging on the line!
