ZR2'ers Unite!:

Kyle and Jauri beat me there by a few minutes, so we waited for Swampy to show up. I was just getting ready to drive around to see if he was waiting at another location for us as he pulled up. We talked a bit and made some decisions about the upcoming trip.

We were operating off of directions in a 4X4 trails book that Kyle and I had, and there was a little confusion at first in getting to the trail. Price Road, the turn off from pavement to dirt, is NOT signed! We passed it once, and almost passed it again the opposite direction. We saw a jeeper heading down the road and a sign for Box Canyon Ranch. That was good enough for us and we headed east on the gravel road leading to the trail. For reference, if you decide to do this trail, Price Road is between Hunt Highway and the railroad tracks. Look for the sign to Box Canyon Ranch about 100 meters from the turn off.

Except for the lack of signage on Price Road, the directions in the book were good and lead us right to Box Canyon. And quite a box it is! You hardly even know you're there before the canyon tightens up to barely wider than the vehicle. A full size can make it, but some of the tighter sections might require a spotter. Our ZR2's fit nicely though.

The canyon was actually fairly busy that day, largely with folks on quads and dirt bikes, but also with other wheelers. There aren't too many places that are wide enough for two vehicles to pass safely, which made for some interesting situations. It definitely helped to have radios to communicate with the rest of the pack.

We wound our way up the canyon, crawling over rocks and splashing up the stream, and generallyk marvelling over the beauty of the place. Once we found a place that was large enough to keep the road open, we stopped and enjoyed a nice lunch in the canyon.

Not long after our lunch stop, we exited the box part of Box Canyon and entered some steep mountainous terrain. We decided to do a little exploring at this point, and just started taking roads that suited us, with Kyle taking the lead at this point. We started up a steep ridgeline that lead to some interesting off-camber sections that were loose, and fairly difficult to climb. Due to his short wheelbase, Swampy even did some three wheeling on the way up and TWO wheeling on the way down! (two wheels on the ground and two in the air, which made for a little excitement)

Eventually, we got to a very long, very steep climb. I stayed back at a relatively flat spot while Kyle climbed the hill. He got to a very loose, off-camber section and got stopped. While trying to climb the obstacle, he had gotten into a situation where he was close to going off the road (and potentially down a very long hillside) so he asked for a spotter. That's when I became very grateful that Swampy had his Manik grill guard! I got out of my truck to walk up the hill and help Kyle, thinking that I had my truck in gear. Whether my truck was only "partially" in gear, or whether it wasn't in gear at all, I'm not sure, but as soon as I got out, my truck started rolling backwards on the hill. Swampy and I came to the same disturbing realization at the same time. As I scrambled back into my truck, Swampy tried to back up. I didn't do a fast enough job of finding the brake pedal (hindered by the lack of power to my power brakes) and felt a fairly solid hit as THE BEAST rammed Swampys BlaZeR2. At that point, I felt about as dumb as a post, and reluctantly got out of my truck to inspect the damage. Much to my relief and surprise, there was no damage done except for two places where my dirty bumper had left marks on the Manik grill guard. If Swampy hadn't had the grill guard, my higher than stock rear bumper would have gone clean through his headlights and grill.

With that little mis-adventure over, we both headed up the hill to investigate Kyle's predicament. After some discussion, and me stating that I wouldn't try to climb the section Kyle was at with the roof rack sitting somewhat vulnerably in the back of my truck along with rather heavy tires and gear, it was decided to help Kyle back up down the mountain he had just climbed. It wasn't much of a big deal, except that we knew there was a rolled over vehicle off the trail and down a ravine very near to where Swampy and I had parked. Obviously the trail had beaten someone.

When Kyle was safely back on (relatively) flat ground, we decided to investigate the rolled over vehicle down below us. As it turns out, the accident was one of our own! (of sorts) The vehicle at the bottom of the ravine was a mid-90's vintage Chevy Tahoe with Z71 logos on the side. The accident appeared to have happened within the last couple of weeks, but it was already fairly stripped down (hopefully by people who knew the owner and were salvaging parts for him). We also hoped that the driver even survived the crash, as his side of the cab was mashed clear down to the dashboard level.

As near as we could tell, he had gotten off the road somehow (perhaps while backing down the mountain) and got to the steep incline off the trail. His front drive axle was at the top of the hill, so we think that it broke as he struggled to get back on the trail. That probably spelled his doom. From the tracks and scars on the hill slope, we think he was on his wheels most of the way down, but rolled somewhere near the bottom of the hill. My guess is that it was not a fun ride. The cab was mashed, the front end was mashed and he had also "driven" over his own rear axle.

After we had completed our accident investigation, we turned around and headed back to the main trail and on towards home.

It was another great Arizona trip to a wonderful area. And despite antics from their "Fearless Leader" (me) like this, everyone decided we needed to try to arrange another trip to the area to explore all the trails we didn't get to.

If you're in the Tucson area, drop me a line and we can go wheelin' sometime.