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Day 23

   Wind! All night long.  Up at 7:00 AM headed to the Texaco at Apache Jct. to hopefully meet up with some other jeepers. Before we got to the Texaco station we stopped some jeepers headed in on Mineral Mountain Rd. they said they where going to go do “Axle Breaker” (they were all “big boys” i.e. 35” tires) I opted to continue on to Texaco.  Got to Texaco at 9:15 and waited. One group of 3 jeeps showed up, I went over and explained why I was there, they said they where going to do Martinez Canyon, but did not invite me along. So at 10:30 we went to Florence.

What timing, we arrived for the “Tour of historic Florence” festival.  The local glee club put on a skit. They where so amateur it was cute. All the museums and Historical buildings where open and free.  A local church was having a BBQ Rib dinner for $6.00. Well I had to go to that!  You got a choice of ribs only, chicken only or ribs and chicken. With beans, greens, coleslaw and desert. The ribs and chicken were authentic southwest BBQ tender and juice and the BBQ sauce was not sweet.

 With our bellies full it was time to mix up our lunch with some off roading. Back to Mineral Mountain Rd. to finish the trail around Picketpost Mountain.  Remember we were forced to turn around with a flat last time.

 This is fun! After passing the point where we had turned around last time the trail was definitely less traveled but still easily passable. The trail ran around the eastern base of Picketpost Mountain. The mountain is volcanic in nature, made up of multi colored rock. Not the one color we get in the Northeast, granite. After you pass Picketpost Mt. there is a sharp turnoff to the left follow this for ½ mile and you come to an overlook of a Canyon (Telegraph Canyon). Back on the main trail you quickly come to a quarry at which point there are a lot of roads. The main one looked like it was washed out and was impassable, however when you got up to the washout it was real easy.  Just stay on the main Rd till it “T’s” into a paved road turn left it will curve to the right and viola Rt 60.

 If you turn to the right on Rt 60 you can go to the town of Superior, an ex copper mining town.  Town is dead 80% of the stores are closed.  A wedding just got over at a local church and the longest limo I have ever seen was doing a U-turn on Main St. Main St is 5 lanes wide even so the limo was so looooong it had to do a 6 point U-turn. There were only 3 other cars in the procession I said “that’s all just 3 cars” Sue said “ya but half of the town is in that one limo!” We noted that while the town was dead the houses where well maintained and many had newish cars in the driveway. ?.  Back to Rt. 60 west.

 In a couple of miles you come to an arboretum.  This arboretum is of desert plants and has walking trails outside.

 To reduce the wind we were getting we moved camp around the corner of our hill.  This worked great, we could hear the wind howling around the corner until 8:00 when wind changed direction for the first time in a week!  Now just as windy as before.

 I am sitting cross legged in my tent with the lap-top on my duffle bag the wind is howling the tent is flapping, my legs are going to sleep for the second time and this is killing my herniated disk… I love it! We got to go down the road less traveled, saw multi colored vertical rock faces on a craggy mountain (I would call it a butte) while standing on the edge of a 200 ft. cliff looking down a canyon. For now you too can do this.

Telegraph Canyon

Picket mountain,   two views

GPS for trip past Picket Mountain to Superior

Day 24 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Day 24

Martinez Canyon;

Got up at 7:15 temp last night was 36 degrees and the wind howled and howled until 6:30 AM. Got to the Texaco station at 8:40 and today there are jeeps lots of them.  In three distinct groups Suzuki’s of Arizona had 15 jeeps, 12 other jeeps and another bunch of quads and dirt bikes.

I went over to the jeeps and introduced myself.  They were heading to Martinez Canyon that’s great as I wanted to go do that canyon. They wanted to run Box Canyon first.

Box Canyon see Day 18.

Overview of the trail;   This trail starts off mild up to the old mining community, but after that you get into the real rocks. Up to the old mining community I would give it a 3. A stock jeep will make it this far without too much problem. From here on however a stock jeep will have a tough time if not impossible and will leave lots of skidpan paint on the rocks to follow back out. I would give it a 4. (Picking the wrong line could easily result in body damage.)

So off to Florence (again, I can’t seem to keep away from that town) where we start up Box Canyon.  At one point we were working over a rough spot when a full sized PU caught up to us and promptly got HIGH centered on an obstacle we had just finished.  One of our group tried to give him a tug, that did not work.  Since he outweighed us by 2 to 1, I demonstrated the “SNATCH” technique. You put a snatch strap between the two vehicles, I use a 20 ft strap, (DO NOT use a strap that has attached hooks they are lethal!) make sure the strap is attached to a suitable place. Then with about 15 ft of play on the strap, GO LIKE HELL!!  The strap will stretch up to 30% and when the truck comes off the rock he will experience acceleration like a dragster!

After you exit Box Canyon you come to a fork in the wash with a yellow sign with a black arrow pointing left, you take a right.  Shortly after you enter the canyon there was a hollowed out area on the rock face with a steel door that was ajar and behind that is a mine shaft (horizontal) which goes around a corner and dead ends at a door. The bottom of the door is broken and light is coming in. I go outside and around the corner and I can see the hole where the light was going in, except it was not a door but cement and rock made to look like the rock crevice it was in.  Why camouflage it?

Four or five hundred feet up the trail the ground got wet for us, there is a spring, which means

 water so some real trees, BIG trees, cottonwood I believe were growing here. One of them has a trunk 4 ft in diameter. It is so dry here the spring only kept the ground wet for about 100 ft before it  evaporates.

The next stop is an old mining community where we stopped for lunch. Three buildings are still standing and a tin roof with two diesel generators. In the early afternoon the sun was directly behind a huge rock spire. The rock spire had a halo from the sun!  One of the buildings dated from 1947 it had a floor made of grapefruit sized stones, this building was in the AZ Highways magazine in (1997?).  It ain’t no highway here now! We did have a full sized Chevy PU show up at the mining community, the same one I had strapped earlier when he was HIGH centered in Box canyon! From here, the trail gets real interesting. Large rocks, you have got to crawl over and around, entire stream beds made of boulders 2 feet in diameter. This apparently is a very popular trail as we ran into two other groups of jeepers enjoying it and lots of ATVs.  When you look up, the canyon is very reminiscent of the sheer rock walls of the higher peaks in the Rocky Mountains, very sharp and craggy, and all colors of rock from red iron ore to grey.  When you get to the diesel generators, there is a fork in the road, if you take the right fork it will bring you to the remains of a rusty large industrial building.  I was headed towards this building up a bouldery wash when the little red light on my dash that reads “brakes” came on.  When I stepped on the brake, sure enough, my foot went to the floor.

I backed down the boulders to a flat spot and called on the CB that I had lost my brakes and got out and looked for a leak.  While I was looking around under the jeep another head popped into view and said, “Here is the leak”. A custom made steel wrapped brake line snapped at the fitting.  Evidence of rock dust indicated that I had whacked it on a rock. I disconnected the fitting and hollered out for some brake fluid on the CB. Sure enough, shortly a small bottle of it showed up on my fender. Trying to think of a way to plug the brake line without having to crimp the good metal line, I took the fitting off, made a ball of tin foil, put it inside the fitting and tightened it up. Works like a champ.  One of the leaders came over to me and said that up ahead the trail was going to go over some switchbacks up the steep side of a mountain, and then coming down the other side that is almost as steep. That will bring you back to the mining community.  I said I was ready, “I’ve got three wheels with brakes.” He said “OK as long as you know we have steep switchbacks to go down with loose rocks, the choice is yours just let me know,… I don’t want to be in front of you!”  Whereupon, my smarter half said, “We are not going up it.”  Period. I thanked the club for letting me join them at which point three other people also decided that the trail was too rough for them and they left. We headed back to camp.

This is a custom made brake line by Dynatrac which means I will have to order it Monday, get a hotel room Tuesday so they can have some place to ship it to. (If it is in stock).  While I’m at it I will have Lou from Elias 4WD Center send me 2 adjustable lower control arms so I can get rid of my front drive shaft vibration. Back to camp make dinner, read work on website… bed.

We come back an do this trail on Day 29. For GPS see Day 29.

Go directly to the second have of Martinez Canyon

Martinez Canyon

Entrance to Martinez Canyon

These two pictures are in the right place!

Day 25

 Woke up, called Dynatrac, Yes they had the parts yes they can ship them to Apache Jct. by 1 day air, OK now call Lou Yes he can get them to me on Tuesday. Great I’m all set. I call Apache Jct. motel No Rooms!! Only one smoking room available, OK got it.  Stayed at camp the rest of the day and worked on the web site (this is a lot more work than I thought).

Day 27

We waited till 11:30 AM no parts. Registered for another night at Apache Jct Motel, off to do more errands. At 3:00 the parts came in! By 4:00 I had brakes on all 4 wheels!!

Day 28

 Valentines day, up and out by 8:30 we are off to Kinko’s and to see Taliesin West (Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter camp near Phoenix).  Quite an interesting place. What he does with space. Some grocery shopping and back to camp, and the tent is still there! Back at camp I make some phone calls to see what is coming up this weekend.  I find that this weekend jeepers will be doing pre-runs in preparation for the “Chili Challenge” in Los Cruces NM next week end. Now pre runs are the most fun you can have!  It is usually a small group of people that know how to jeep so you aren’t waiting at each obstacle for 15 or 20 amateur jeeps to make it through.  I said “I’ll be there”. “Fine give me a call when you get here and I’ll have a meeting place for you” Homer said.

[Video, Jeeping 101]

[Welcome page]

[Track info.]

The Odyssey

[Odyssey] [Day 8-14] [Day 15 -21] [Day 22 - 28] [Day 29 - 35] [Day 36 - 42] [Day 43 - 49]

[City Answers] [Foliage Answers]

Articles

[the shaft] [airing down] [Salsa] [Air Compressor] [Cooking Meatloaf]

[Trails]

[Choke Cherry] [Holy Cross] [Death Valley] [Chili Challenge] [Caballo Mts] [Gila NF Trip] [Titus Canyon]

[Woodpecker Mine]  [Picket Post]  [Box Canyon]

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