This Sunday, we're running amok on trails north of Phoenix. Not sure if we're meeting at Fudd's at I-17 and Dunlap, or the bar at Carefree and Lake Pleasant - still have a couple days to decide. Table Mesa is on the agenda, for sure Anyone interested?

 

I am!!

And we will be meeting at Fuddrucker's I-17 and Dunlap at around 9 AM.

Should be quite interesting with all the weather we've been having. Probably don't need to say it, but for this run, we should probably do just 4wd trucks... There are some other trails we can get the 2WD's out on...

 

Is Table Mesa and Raw Deal the same trail? I used to wheel a trail called Raw Deal that was up there by Table Mesa Rd.

 

Not sure. I know that Table Mesa is Rd41...maybe Raw Deal is a nickname?

 

Nope. Raw Deal is a Jeep Rock Crawling trail off Table Mesa Road. (It's an easy trail to recover from. Most use it as a shakedown, just to test stuff before moving into the serious stuff up there.)

We wont be on any of the Rock Crawling trails. We will drive by some of them, though.

The loop we will be on is a long one. Plan on All day wheeling and sight seeing.

 

OK. Kelly called and is having hydroboost issues and wont be making it.
I did a Highway recon of the area, and it is going to be rough wheeling. It's going to be muddy, the river is up, etc.
I am planning on taking the Jeep out there, no way I'm putting a $50K truck in that slop! !
It's going to be a FUN trip!

If you have an expensive truck, ($20K plus would be my cut off) you may want to think twice about bringing it...

 

Well, As it turns out, I overestimated the amount of mud and difficulty level of the trail run. It was actually not too muddy, and the stream crossing i thought we were going to have trouble with, ended up giving us NO trouble at all... However, Usually Boulder Creek has no water in it and crossing is NEVER a problem... until we decide to go up there and try. Turns out the water was pretty deep, and would have swamped the floors of the trucks, so we turned around. I crossed it in the Jeep, and then crossed it again after turning around.

I took the Jeep out there to keep from damaging my truck, and so I could be the Guinea pig for mud holes and water crossings. It only took that one water crossing that turned us around to make it a worthwhile choice to have the Jeep out there...

We never made the full loop. After turning around, Ron cut a sidewall, and we had to change his tire.
Wisely, Ron and Lou turned around and went back, no sense in pushing your luck without a spare, since it was now on the truck. Also, some Rock damage was sustained to their chrome tube steps.

Chris and I pressed on, going up the end of the loop we would have come down on had we not had to turn around. We saw some cool mine stuff, and mining Ghost towns.

We ended up going up to Black Canyon city to air up and eat some Dinner.

It was a good time!

Airing down
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Agua Fria crossing.
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I have been through that crossing many time and it seems to never have the same amount of water in it each time!! It always seems to be deeper than it looks though. I took one of my quads through it once and ended up getting a little wet cuz it was deeper than we thought!! Sounds like you guys had a good time. I would have loved to go with you guys but I came down with a cold on Thursday night and have been pretty much out of commission since. I'll definately be up for the next trip.

 

Looks like a great time...I miss AZ