In case any are interested

[skivviss]

got this spam from 4wheelparts

[p-saurus]

Too bad I'm still Jeepless.

[skivviss]

Originally Posted by p-saurus

Too bad I'm still Jeepless.

distract your brother... his jeepster is bored.

[p-saurus]

That's a good idea. Maybe I could talk my dad out of his 3B for the day.

[skivviss]

i may regret it... but i'm going to head up for this.

some wheelin', dust and free barbeque. can't be all bad.

[catfish]

pics, carnage, fables?

[randyd]

what he said.

[skivviss]

sooooooooo many jeeps, it was pretty amazing to see that many (mostly built up) rigs. there was everything, from military 6x6s, full-size pickups, jeeps of every variety to those golf-cart things.

they had 3 runs staging when we arrived at 8:30.

advanced on lower ajax

intermediate on woodpecker

basic on box canyon

originally i was queued up to go on the intermediate run, but as i realized that the line for this run was well over 100 rigs i bailed.

here's a shot from my place in the queue:


i really started having doubts about being on a trail with 100-150 rigs, so i jumped to the shortest line for box canyon. lisa hadn't seen it yet so seemed a decent compromise.

here are shots from my place in the line on box canyon, total of 51 rigs and i was near 15ish in position:



there was so much dust, both lisa and i were not feeling well by the end of the run that we bailed and didn't even head back to the expo. went and found a nice clear stretch of pavement with almost no dust and learned to breathe again.

that said, it wasn't all bad. yes, very dusty. yes, very over crowded and sloooooow. but there were great rigs of all kinds, and the convoy of ~300 rigs moving down arizona farms road to florence must have been a sight to see from the outside or a distance.

[RiponredTJ]

Excuse my less arid Canadian ignorance, but why so slow?
Were there any real obstacles or was it just to let the dust settle

[skivviss]

box canyon is an incredibly easy trail, but any of these in combination slowed us down:

- varying levels of driver experience. what was not an obstacle for one driver may have scared the crap out of the next one
- varying levels of rigs. sure the stock jeeps made it through no problem on any part eventually, but some of the other stock vehicles like a huge dodge full size had trouble navigating some very tight switchbacks and narrow canyon parts.
- and box canyon truly is a beautiful area. this album has some great examples of the terrain: Martinez Cabin - via Box Canyon. that led to lot's of photo-ops for those that have never seen it before.
- and we had two break-downs. an alberta canada CJ cracked/tore a fuel line somehow; and a newer toyota FJ wouldn't turn over. but with 51 groups, both issues were resolved pretty quick considering.

all things that affect runs of 2-n rigs, just compounded when we had 51 rigs.

i sort of wish i'd endured one of the harder trails, just to see what that would be like. but maybe i'll surprise myself doing one of the easter jeep safari moab runs on a hard trail with 50+ rigs. trial by fire on obstacles and crowds.