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Arizona Voor Pasen

aw12345

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Tabletop  Mesa AZ

 

Headed out Thursday for some fun in AZ. Got to Table Mesa around 4 in the afternoon was a hot drive through the desert.

Met up with our buddy leadfoot Curtis, our other bud/ trail guide Sergio showed up a bit later. Setup camp then shot the bull around the campfire. Last friend and his wife showed up around midnight. Friday early Fred and me did some roaming around and enjoyed the country side. Sonora desert is so different from the Mohave desert. Loved all the saguaro cacti. Those things are awesome, lots of Cholla, Ocotillo, Palo verde and Prickly pears blooming.

After that on to the trails, didn't disappoint tight windy canyons with lots of waterfalls. I really like the AZ wheelin, not as technical as Hammer wheelin, but lots of fun. Sergio's YJ pretty much crapped out and stalled all morning, but we did run 2 trails with him and got it back to camp. After that we drove to the tip top mine and the ruins of the lil town that supported it.

Saturday rocked and we knocked it out the park ran all the rest of the trails. Collateral damage and Anaconda rocked. We got stuck behind a group on Collateral damage that had a hell of a time with both waterfalls. Second waterfall is a real doozy 3 lines on it.

The one on the left a WE rock buggy and a really nice other rear steer buggy on red labels could get up that to save their life.

I aced the middle line, Fred had to work on that one a lil but got it. Curtis aced the scary but easier right line. Mike we had to winch up the darn thing.

Anaconda was a hoot only trail with a fair amount of loose big rocks. Got Mike all riled up when he had a fight with one. Was funny to watch, he ended up kicking and cussing the thing till he pushed it out of the way, had me rolling with laughter.

After that he managed to rip of a fender and cut a sidewall. He recovered from that, was a good sport about it and we ran another trail after that and headed to the Indian fort. Some people did a lot of rock stacking there made for a great defensible position. Anybody know if it was an actual Apache fort? Then we did some scouting for an unnamed buggy trail, scouted and hiked a few canyons, but couldn't find it.

Mike's wife Sharon shot a bunch of awesome video, will post links for that later this week.

I took mostly landscape shots, but here goes

 


 

13960971463_c71bf53e9b.jpgtabletop mesa (31) by aartjestaartje, on Flickr

 

13960978703_bb24bca6f4.jpgtabletop mesa (29) by aartjestaartje, on Flickr

 

13960982173_1bcf9ce1c5_c.jpgtabletop mesa (28) by aartjestaartje, on Flickr

 

13960985733_27536fc580_c.jpgtabletop mesa (27) by aartjestaartje, on Flickr

 

13937823702_6a3ab5e669.jpgtabletop mesa (25) by aartjestaartje, on Flickr

 

13937826892_6b6a3e3c7d_c.jpgtabletop mesa (24) by aartjestaartje, on Flickr

 

13937840881_96cb529730_c.jpgtabletop mesa (23) by aartjestaartje, on Flickr

 

13937834662_b009e6f6c8_c.jpgtabletop mesa (22) by aartjestaartje, on Flickr

 

13937848571_4940f614c0_c.jpgtabletop mesa (21) by aartjestaartje, on Flickr

 

13961010493_28a02afa5c_c.jpgtabletop mesa (20) by aartjestaartje, on Flickr

 

13937856551_2875302530_c.jpgtabletop mesa (19) by aartjestaartje, on Flickr

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aw12345 Newbie

aw12345

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My favorite rock crawler climbed a 90 degree wall. Pretty Gila Monster

 


 


 


 


 


 


 


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aw12345 Newbie

aw12345

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Well Sergio (50yj) talked me into another adventure in the great state of Arizona.  This time it was an Easter Safari in the Table Mesa area.  I asked several folks to join us on the adventure and a small number were able to make the trek to the area. Curtis and his wife, Art (aw12345), and Fred (flatout) made the total to five rigs to hit the trails.

 

Everyone headed out to the trails on Thursday night with Sharon and I being the very last to show up.  Friday morning, we followed our fearless leader Sergio out to the trails.  The day was overcast:


 

The first trail that we hit was Lower Terminator:


 


 


 

The obstacle called White Stripe is a tilty drop that the right line is to follow a white stripe in the dark rock:


 


 

The Z-Turn has several options:


 


 

Regardless of the lines that we took, the audience on the trail was just not impressed:


 

The cool thing about the trails that we took on Friday was that there many optional lines to play on.  Art, who rarely had any trouble on any line all weekend, found the one spot the was his nemesis:


 

But a little tire kiss from Mr. Green put his Jeep back on track:


 

After that, pretty much nothing slowed him down:


 

Unfortunately, Sergio had a fuel feed issue that slowed him down:


 

On a different note, Spring has sprung in the sonoran desert!:


 

 

 


 


 


 

On Upper Terminator, the nastiest obstacle that most people bypass was mastered by Art.  His first attempt failed:


 

But his second attempt was spectacular:


 

It wasn't perfect, but is was amazing.  Video will be forthcoming soon...

 

All of the trails are surrounded by Saguaro cactus. You can't help but notice them, but some are quite interesting:


 

The crew at the top of Upper Terminator:


 

Sergio headed back to camp due to the fuel feed issues and Curtis went with him to make sure that he made it.  The rest of us ran the short trail called Predator:


 


 

After that we headed out to the Tip Top Mine.  Along the way we met some of the locals.

 

Large gopher snake:


 

Cool colored Gila Monster:


 

We started at the Tip Top Mine itself:


 

There's not a lot left, besides the headframe over the shaft and this boiler:


 

The trail to the mine is rough and steep.  This is a shot of us coming back down:


 

Back in the remains of the ghost town, Art and I climbed the foundations of the mill.  Looking back down at Fred and Sharon and the remains of the brewery:


 

The Tip Top Brewery was the first brewery in Arizona:


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aw12345

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On Saturday, Sergio decided to ride along with Art since his Jeep was not cooperating.  Our first trail of the day was Collateral Damage.  This is a 5 out of 5 rated trail and it lives up to its rating.  The entrance from the easy road has a man-made obstacle that is supposed to be a "gatekeeper" for the trail.  It is the easiest obstacle that you will encounter on this trail!

 

Collateral Damage is now added to one of my favorite trails!  It starts out like this:

IMG_1323_zpsca7b9ea3.jpg

 

IMG_1334_zps307c187e.jpg

 

IMG_6264_zps1a546a87.jpg

 

IMG_1352_zps4cbf2d30.jpg

 

IMG_1356_zps73f9bd23.jpg

 

All of these shots are within the first 100 feet of the trail!

 

Besides waterfalls and tilty challenges, there are plenty of articulation tests:

IMG_1375_zpsdbe044ad.jpg

 

But the Pie'ce de Re'sistance is a monster water fall that doesn't seem to have an obvious access at first.  Buggies struggle on most lines.  This one needs a highly modified, high clearance vehicle to make it up.  Then that vehicle needs to be an anchor point for the folks behind to winch off of.

 

Of course, Art and Fred make it up:

IMG_1377_zpsaca889f3.jpg

 

IMG_1391_zps66112826.jpg

 

Which is a testament to their driving because there were many capable vehicles in front of our group that had to winch to get up,  I chose to winch when my front started to unload:

IMG_1382_zps4d181fbb.jpg

 

But the best climb was Curtis.  He walked right up the cliff with his Jeep.  Buggies had to follow his line afterwards!  Video proof is forthcoming....

 

Funny enough, we all had issues with the next ledge that we came to:

IMG_1401_zpsc4125fbf.jpg

 

After Collateral Damage, we had lunch.  Mr Green celebrated Easter while we dined:

IMG_1410_zpseaec89d0.jpg

 

Anaconda was the next trail.  The big (as in tire-sized) boulders that kept rolling around under my tires frustrated me, but the trail is quite fun:

IMG_1423_zps5d8d2756.jpg

 

Afterwards, we found the Indian Fort where lava rock has been stacked around the edge of a small mesa as a defense.  I could imagine Geronimo flipping a bird to the US Cavalry from the top of these rocks:

IMG_1446_zpse644fd1b.jpg

 

IMG_1459_zps303339c0.jpg

 

We went looking for other trails in the area without much luck, but I did spot the Easter Bunny before we headed back to camp:

IMG_1465_zpsf71b1a6d.jpg

 

It was a great weekend with friends.  Collateral Damage is on my favorite trails list!  I need to build up Mr. Green to run this again without having to winch.

 

Great area.  A big thanks goes out to Sergio for dragging us out to this amazing area.  I hope that your Easter was as fun as ours!

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