AZ Tour

Also made it to hotel in Sierra vista; not much rain to speak of!!!

 

Just waiting on @Ace115 to arrive!

 

Enjoy, stay safe and warm.

 

Hell ya guys! Rock on! Call if you get into shit! My friend Elliot owns Arizona Offroad Rescue and Towing. Tell him Carter sent ya! Hopefully ya dont need his services! Sorry couldn't make it guys! Be safe!

 

I took a pass on phase 1... hope to meet up for phase 2 tomorrow! But here’s a pic of all 4 of us

 

How was the ascent to joes peak?

 

Did they make it?

 

Sounds like @Phessor broke down in benson and is looking for parts to get home. Wish I could help.

Been thinking about them read last night on the azt group that canelo hills had up to two feet and that's the area they started in

 

We’re about to do Winkelman to Globe

 

Az Tour Part 1

All the different drivers will add photos and documentary/notes when available

Fri 2/22
The Weather took over!

We had planned to meet between 10-11am on Friday morning. Ridiculous traffic due to the unusual weather had me running late. The others beat me to the meet spot at Montezuma’s Pass. Here’s a photo from the way up.



The weather went from bad to worse but the cows didn’t mind.



The trip down from the Pass to Sonoita was relatively easy going. Snow, snow and more snow. Sonoita was a ghost town due to the weather.



We topped off our tanks and grabbed a quick bite and the Cafe, the only place serving food at that time. Everything else was closed because of the snow.

From there we headed on to section two.

 

Favorite pics so far...

 

Link to get access to all the pictures!

https://1drv.ms/f/s!AuIyZxbzzbWznmjSsgPDfJmu-5f2

 

Camp from the first night, We woke up to a cold 13 degrees morning. We all had frost on the inside of our tents. This was section 2 which we actually cut short due to the snow and the additional difficulty that would have caused taking the route @Ace115 originally took over New Years.





@Phessor had the front driver side wheel bearing start to give up the ghost Saturday afternoon and ended up having to drop out for repairs. We got him back into Benson and since it was so late in the day and still pretty cold, we decided to get warm and stayed i a motel Saturday night. Totally worth it after that 13 degree morning!

I think we ended up having 4 pretty deep water crossings from all the snow melt.







Saw some really cool train trellis bridges just below Winkleman.





Our camping spot Sunday night was found purely by accident after we went exploring off the trail for a ways up a river bed. We discover a sport that was next to the river but at a higher elevation, surrounded by mesquite trees and was so green, we couldn't believe we were in Arizona still. I didn't get any real good shots of it but it was almost magical how nice this spot was.



There was a memorial near the spot we camped. This is looking over towards the camping spot that is hidden up to the right in the trees.





Monday, we continued on the trail above Winkleman but ended up having to cut that short later in the afternoon. As we were gaining elevation, the snow on the ground was getting deeper and making the trail way more treacherous than it was worth risking.

 

Damn that ended up being pretty crazy, Was not sounding too bad at first, then I started seeing trail reports Sat/Sun from AZT guys in Canelo hills and Patagonia, one guy had to be rescued by DPS helicopter after hunkering down for 36 hours and getting frost bit on AZT. Then I saw pics of the Freeman road trailhead out by Dudleyville and almost a foot of snow at 2k elevation and knew it was going to be much worse than I ever imagined.

 

Friday night/Saturday morning kinda sucked because of the cold weather. We all hit our tents at about 7:15/7:30pm Friday night because the wind and snow kicked up and even around the campfire, there wasn't much warmth. I think we were all very well prepared for the very cold temps though and did just fine through the night. The trails themselves, specifically section 1 coming down from Montezuma Pass wasn't too bad in the snow as those trails are mostly flat. Saturday, Sunday and Monday were great until we gained elevation on Monday afternoon and the trail was getting really bad due to the snow.

 

Damn guys!!!! @Ace115 @xtremewlr @Sapnjack @Phessor

Looks like an awesome trip despite the weather. I'm definitely kind of wishing I would've just went! Snow I definitely dont mind and it seems as if you got more snow then mud!

That being said, I will be doing the bottom half myself April 12th, and look forward to picking a date for the Northern half.

Any advise on the mapping and route? How was GAIA working? Any sections to not take or bypass off the AZBDR route?

I am happy to see you gentlemen made it home safe, please PM for any, trips, tracks, runs down south you guys go on..... I will make the drive, hell was in Oro Valley on Tuesday!

 

@Carter'sTaco
@xtremewlr
@Phessor
@Sapnjack

GAIA worked flawlessly. Make sure you download the maps/gps/routes prior to making the trip as there is a majority of the trail that doesn’t have cellular reception. Just a bit of advice on that, the GPS on my iPad was a little jumpy which caused us to blow by a few of the turns, so keep a close eye especially coming in to the town of San Manuel from Benson.

As far as sections not to take, we decided to do the bypass on section two to avoid that loop and then the highway between Sierra Vista and Benson. That ‘easy route’ as it is called on the AZBDR website is mostly paved roads which we would not have done had we known that in advance.

We had to abort completing the leg between Winkelman and Globe due to deep snow at the higher elevations creating treacherous road conditions. We have already talked about getting together to finish that leg. It may work out that we can meet you during your attempt!

 

Ya April might be a good time to try? Snow should be melted by then I’m guessing? And i have a full set of 4 max tracks now haha

 

Hell ya guys! This old man is definitely a little jelly he pussed out!

I will ABSOLUTELY be doing this in April, I was hoping to do it in March but I will be getting my Kings 2.5 w/adjusters, ICON RXT leafs, and Demello Baja Low pro front bumper (w/ 12.k syn winch, BD Squads and 30" BD LED), Snorkel, roof rack put on the second week of March. This way I can have it ALL dialed in before I go. I plan on doing the ENTIRE Route as well continuing through all the way to Utah!

I would be delighted to have you gentlemen meet or accompany me on this part!

I do appreciate all the advice too!

What is or was the bypass route?

 

See notes on pic attached: