Then I put in new drive shafts later in the week and wired up the Auto Disconnecting Differential.
Yikes!
It was a bit scary cutting into the wiring for the 4WD ECU, but with some help from the guys at we were able to figure out what needed to be done. I bought a momentary switch and wired it up.
All better and the ADD is now working.
The drive up to our "secret spot" outside of Payson.
The first time we came to this river we thought the road ended, but the GPS and map insisted it went on.
You have to drive with the water down the stream around the corner just a bit and then exit around the corner.
This is the secondary dirt road that we went out a ways. Then we hit a tertiary dirt road that was even more primitive with knee high grass. That's when you know you're remote!
The sunset was great!
Time for dinner!!
NO CAMPFIRES right now. Arizona's largest wildfire on record was currently burning at over 500,000 acres. We did however cook marshmellows over the old Coleman stove. Mmmm!
Time for breakfast and COFFEE.
Some very healthy looking centurion plants.
We followed this old ranch road to it's end on top of a really rough hill. Got to use low range and the lockers at the end of the road. Glad to see everything working properly.
We kept exploring every side trail we came across on the more well used ranch road. When I see a trail is maintained by a local 4WD club I have to assume it's worth seeing.
It was worth it. There was one tight spot where I had to do a 9 point turn around and I decided to push it a bit and speed things up... Well, I put the front end a little to close to the tree and a strong branch decided to rip one of my lights off. Whoops!
A nice and disused fire pit at the turn around spot at the end of the trail.
On the way back we noticed a huge hole off to the side of the trail.
It just kept going and going.
I did the rock test and a small rock fell for a couple seconds before hitting bottom so that's pretty deep!
Next we rolled into Payson for some gas and supplies and saw this beast! Looking underneath I think it was based on a Ford Super Duty.
Then we headed over to another section of the East Verde that we crossed earlier in the day, but much further up stream.
Way to many people so we kept on keepin on toward the town of Young.
Cool trees around here. About 6400 feet.
Headed into Young on a back road. No fun taking the main road through Haigler Creek or from the dirt road. (I should note that ALL roads into young are dirt, but the three main ones have other people and some traffic so I try to avoid them)
D asked to drive!?!? What? This was going to be great. I always want to teach her so in case something happened to me she could get us out of the outback. Or if she found herself caught in some mud, snow etc she would know what to do.
She drove in everything from 2wd High, 4wd High, 4wd Low and even got to use one of the two lockers. Good job!
Nice old ranch house in Young.
Pleasant Valley where the town of Young sits. For more info on this area and the Pleasant Valley War check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleasant_Valley_War
An area that was burnt in one of the other large fires we had a few years ago.
The next days camp site is tucked up on a little hill.
Nice and quiet. Two nights of not seeing or hearing another person. That's how I like it.
This little guy left his shell and was no longer home.
A good book, a good beer, and a good woman. I think I should write a country song now.
As the sun set the view got better and better. This is looking off into Apache land.
The moon making an early appearance.
I think whatever made this web bit my legs throughout the night. Must, stop, itching!!!
Quite a steep hill.
Always leave gates as you've found them or if there's a sign default to what it says. Just for those yahoo's who don't think that if a gates closed OR open it's for a reason!!
Cool ranch name too!
We headed out a road I had been on, actually I had mapped it for the Forest Service a few years go, but I had never gone through it to the end since it's outside of the actual Forest towards the end. Looking down to Punkin Center.
Last part of the dirt before hitting a little highway and then home.
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