Gotta say, today was a good day!

Okay enough rap for one day. I just wanted you to know that I'm a thug and that I'm classy. The classy part comes from the pic below which is actually from a week ago, but classy none the less.

It was actually a great and very full weekend. I changed the front diff fluid, rear and the transfer case. The front and rear looked REALLY bad. I rotated the tires. Why is it that car maintanence makes me feel good. I need a dog...
On Friday Danica got home from Ohio. She had been up and on planes making layovers and transfers since 3AM. Since we were feeling chipper we loaded the car up with all of our camping gear and headed south to Tuk Sone or Too-son if you want to say it right, but where is the fun in that!
We took advantage of the warm bed and hot showers because it was cold in the old pueblo. Very cold. There was a sheet of what looked like ice on the pool. It couldn't be. This is the desert...
I had to touch it to believe it like a kid that sees Mickey Mouse for the first time in his 7 foot furry costume...
It was one solid sheet. Amazing. If you're not living or from Arizona you have already stopped reading, but this is an impressive site for us.
The only thing as crazy as this is snow in the desert. Here is a pic from last year at my parents house.

We were down south for something new, something a little different, a little less self indulgent than a normal exploring trip. We had come to learn about treading lightly. What? We've come down here to learn about how to utilize the outdoors in a way that will help to keep it unmolested (stop thinking bad thoughts, if only your family new that you were picturing a saguaro doing that), pristine, and possibly the most important to many people. OPEN.
Tread Lighty is an organization that serves to educate anyone willing to listen about how to take responsibility for what happens to the off highway areas. Those new to OHV (Off Highway Vehicle) us may want to look them up or shoot me an email. There are things like trail etiquitte to give guidance to what to do in some situations, but how do you handle the other decisions. The ones that affect the terrain you're on. Tread Lightly is a great place to look.
We headed out to a beautiful desert retreat of some great folks that I would now call friends.
If you've ever fealt like you just don't see eye to eye with some offroaders or clubs you may want to check out www.expeditionportal.com I am amazed by the percentages. I constantly think, there is no way I could meet that many good folks in a row! Its not logical. Well, the reason I mention this is because some of the other folks from this site were headed down for this traning as well.
We pulled up to this remote plot of land in the beautiful sonoran desert. I held back my urge to crawl over every vehicle on site checking out every inch of them. Each one had all sorts of personal modifications that I could view and contemplate the whole day. The voice in my head (lets be an adult and have some impulse control, damnit)

So many different ways to camp and methods to set up. It was nice to see them all in one place.

We spent some time talking about the techniques, ideas and priciples of Tread Lightly. It was enlightening as to how much of what I thought was right... actually WAS right. Okay comforting may be a better word. It also laid down some ideas that although logical are not something that would come to my head. All in all it really helped me to have some conviction about what we do while in the wild and that there ARE in fact others that think like us.

We took a hike around the property. Absolutely beautiful. If only I could capture the beauty with a better camera. This cactus was a great splash of colors in the desert, but its hard to make it come through.


We had a great night of BS'ing around that camp fire that was enjoyed by all. The next morning we all packed up and most were headed out for a trail run.


We had to get going because today looks like the only day I'll be able ride the mountainbike race course for next Saturdays race.

It was great out. Just a little bit cold which is how I like it when I'm about to be huffing and puffin.


It is odd being in nature and always seeing things like this


We checked out the hole in the rock, but it was just about as busy as the zoo so I turned and ran. I have flight instincts when I see things like crowds, tour buses, cruise ships and people with chainsaws on their arm where a hand had once been. Excluding lunmberjacks of course.

Pro Desert Race. Rocky Point December 8th 2007

We headed out of Phoenix after work on Friday. The traffic sucked. After a couple of hours we made it out of Phoenix. It poured the whole way down. The kind of pouring that makes you want to drive 20 and feel crazy going 60.
For this race the Pro Desert series run a morning race with half the field and the other half in an afternoon race. I love this because I get to spectate a race and enjoy relaxing before my race in the afternoon or vice versa.
Here are some pics from us pacing our friend down the highway and then waiting for him at the road crossing.

Hard on the brakes before jumping the road crossing and turning right at a 90 degree turn.


New limit for my 4runner. I went 105mph in the 4runner trying to keep up with Bucky's race truck along the highway.

MY FAVORITE SHOT OF THE RACE:


Kincaids nice truck.





The telephone pole was plastered with sand by the end of the race.

Herder blew all of the oil out of his motor and was done for the day. Too bad, he was killing it in first place by quite a bit.

The Greers kept losing belts and ended up calling it a day.


The Greers have one mean looking truck. How would you like to see this in your rear view coming at you doing 130MPH.

I hopped in our car and road with Brent for three laps. I had to relieve myself, but there was NO TIME so I slid over into the drivers seat and Danica got in the co-riders spot. It was her first time at a race and definately her first time in a race car. Brent and I raced the first couple laps with a flat right front. We had no idea it was flat. Its such a stiff tire it held up pretty good for a while! We had it changed at our driver change. The only other issue was the tranny. Brent switched it out the day before the race because it broke during prerunning. During the race we had to hold the shift lever in fourth or it would kick out. Danica helped by holding it in gear on the straits so I could give my arm a brake. Enough excuses. It was a great race and we were hauling. The other guy just had a faster car that day.
The only other... item was that we did kinda run over a photographer. He was in the course and thought we'd take the corner wider. We didn't...
We saw him at the award ceremony and I mentioned that we almost hit him. He reassured us that we had in fact hit his leg and he was just fine. No hard feelings!!
Always an adventure...




Sliding into the finish line. 2nd place!




Some shots from the campsite we stayed at.

Lessons learned

I learned a few lessons this weekend. Get a real axe, don't offroad at night if alone, and if there is a tree in the road there will be more. All of these things seem self evident. I don't often hold commonly accepted truths to be self evident though. I just have to learn things on my own.
Here is how I learned them. On the day that Arizona got more rain than we've had in a year I headed to Sedona. I know what you're thinking. Red mud, slick rocks etc.
I was pleasently surprised. The rocks were grippier than ever and I don't think I hit more than a couple patches of mud.






Toyota Commercial!


Broken Arrow was wonderful. Not a single other vehicle on the whole trail. This trail normally has lots of traffic on it so it was exciting to have it to ourselves.
The steps were intersting in the rain. Definately exciting.







POSERS!



We then headed off to do Soldier Pass.

It was nice to actually see water in the 7 pools.



We actually saw our first other vehicle of the day. A red rock tour jeep. It was actually nice to see we weren't the only ones out there.
We then headed off to do Oak Creek Homestead trail.

No way we were crossing that river!



I know I know! What have I learned so far. No hard lessons yet, just a great day!
We went our seperate ways. Wormhole was heading to camp and we were headed for Shnelby hill road. Well, we headed for Jerome instead. Had some dinner and headed out to camp on the road to Smiley rock.
We found a great spot, but this old feed trough, bed... who knows what creeped us out so we kept driving.

The trail went from easy to hard fast.


How do you know you're still on the right track? Follow the scrape marks on the rocks. Its somewhere around here that there is an adorable rock with a happy face on it. I wouldn't know, I didn't see it. At this point I already knew I was breaking all the rules being on a new trail, at night, and alone. I was on a mission just trying to get through it all.
After all of the hard rocks is where I started to realize that there is more to this outing. The uphills were muddy and this is what greeted me ahead.

After some hacking with an axe and a tow strap I conquered!

Look at me... so cocky. So stupid.
We came to another log in the road. Again, a tow strap pulled it out of the way and I just cleared the parts of the logs left and we headed out again.
Then we get to our third fallen tree of the night.

Well, I was pretty confident at this point that I could tow it out of the way. I towed and I towed. This log was heavy and would not leave the road. At this point the off camber trail was getting muddier and my tires were twice their normal size and covered in what looked like black road tar. The mud was bad. Everytime I tried to move now I would slide closer to the edge of the trail. My left rear was a couple inches from the side. I couldn't move without fear of sliding the last critical few inches.
It was now about 8 at night and I had to get the tree moved so I could get past this part of the trail.
I took out my axe and started hacking...

3 hours later I was cold and exhausted and only about half way through the log. It was about 20 degrees now so I was a little cold. Mud was everywhere. In and out of the car. The good thing about carrying your bed with you... we went to bed in the back of the 4runner to fight again in the morning.

Get a real axe! After sharpening this one several times during the night it had almost had it.

Victory!
As a bonus the mud and water had all frozen solid. When I put it in gear the car didn't so much as slip.
The rest of the trip was a beaut! Nature let me off easy this time. Lessons learned. Learn from my mistake or call me when you learn your lesson. I'll take sympathy and come tow you out. :)






Nice drive through Prescott and wickenburg! Tomorrow, a new axe...