Florence Junction Arizona Weekend of Wheeling

[wayoflife]

Last weekend, our good friends Greg and Dave of Powerline Patrol invited Mel, Cindy and I out to Arizona to run a few of the trails out in the Florence Junction area. To be exact, we ended up running a total of 7 beautiful and epic trails including Box Canyon, the Martinez Mine Loop, Jack Handle, Orville’s Loop, the infamous Axel Alley, Upper Woodpecker and a better part of Highway to Hell before Mel's steering pump quit on him and forced us to bail out. Now, we've always heard all kinds of stories about how tough the trails are out in this area and I gotta tell you, they're all true. This area is surprisingly lush with vegetation, filled with all kinds of history and has some of the most challenging trails I've ever taken on and with razor sharp rocks to boot. Anyway, here are some pics from our fun filled weekend out in Arizona.

The Drive Out
On our way out, we pulled off the highway near Chiriaco Summit to check out the beautiful Ocotillos in bloom...




Welcome to Arizona!!


Of course, you know you're in Arizona when you start to see these...




It's a shame that they close up during the day but all the Saguaros in the area were in bloom and by night, they would be a real sight to see...


Normally a near leafless green tree, the Palo Verde were all in bloom as well...


Of course, it would be impolite to pass through a town like Phoenix withoug making a stop at one of their local brewries...


Checked into our home for the night and with enough time to get all stripped down...


More pics below...

[wayoflife]

Day 1: Time to Wheel
Mel pulled in late last night and the following morning, we all met up with Greg and Dave in Florence...


Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to make any stops until we got to the Martinez Cabin but, the drive up Box Canyon was gorgeous...


Back down in the valley, the temps were already in the high 90's but up here and under the umbrealla of giant cottonwoods, it was more like a low 70. Hard to imagine that we were still in the desert...








While there was an easier way to get up to the Martinez Mine, Mel decided to take the fun way up...


How could I resist...




Unforunately for me, I got up on a pointy rock and just couldn't get past it so, Moby ended up getting a small tug from EVO 1...


After watching me struggle, Greg found a better line and made it up with little effort...


Pulling up to the historic Martinez Mine - this place is way cool...






Checking out the old equipment at the Martinez Mine...


Belts still hang from the pullys...




Back on the move and heading up the loop...












After negotiating our way up a really narrow, off camber and super tight switchback road, we were treated with an awesome view at the top...


Time to head back down...


Starting my descent down The Luge...


Toward the end, the trail is so steep and lose that your brakes do nothing but kick up dust...


Here's Greg making his final drop...


Did I mention how off camber the drop is...


Everyone down safely...


More pics below...

[wayoflife]

Moving on to the next trail, here's a shot of Moby working his way up the first of several tight climbs on Jack Handle...


Powerline Patrol getting some wicked flex...


Me having fun following them up...


Followed by Mel...


It can be tough trying to get an 88" wide JK through a 66" wide notch...


And, sometimes you don't always make it through without a kiss from the rocks...


Mel is slightly narrower but, it was still a squeeze for him too...


I went a bit higher and turned a bit sooner and was able to miss the rocks. Of course, I didn't have any doors to suck me into them either...


Up on the ridge looking out across Saguaros and Chollas...


This little Cholla jumped up and tried to bite Cindy but got her Mastercraft seat instead...


Dave took this off camber obstacle on Oroville's Loop a bit wide and almost dumped his Jeep...


Mel working his way down...


Greg getting some crazy flex coming down...


Back up on top of yet another ridge looking out at all the trails in the area...


Time to head up into the infamous Axle Alley...


No joke, this is a dry fall about half way into the trail and it cannot be bypassed. As you can see, the camera wasn't even completely straight (about 4° off) but the ledge is still near verticle. Also, you gotta know that Greg is about 6'-5" tall and the top of the ledge is still about 2 feet above his head...


Mel in position way down below and ready to make his climb up...


Whoa Nelli!! His first attempt up leaves him feeling a bit light...




Taking some time to reposition a bit...


With no real good winch points up ahead, Mel was finally able to get up under his own power with the help of Greg standing on his front bumper...


When the break over angle is this steep, there's little you can do to clear it. Here's me giving it my all...


You know, I think I'll just hang out here for a while...


After several valient attempts, we broke out a strap. It was really frustrating to see how little effort pulling it was needed to get you up and over...


Getting Powerline Patrol up...


Greg giving it his best shot...


Who needs horsepower when you've got Mel power. Seriously, after realizing how little it took to get our Jeeps up and over, Mel decided to just try and pull Greg up with his bare hands and.... it worked...


Moving right along, Mel decided to let lil' Mel take on this obstacle...


Like father like son, lil' Mel did great...


The rest of us coming through...


More big ledges to climb...






And one more big ledge before pulling out of the Alley...






More Pics Below...

[wayoflife]

This really was a great time of year to be out in the desert as everything was in bloom. Here are some of the flowers we saw along the Upper Woodpecker trail...








There are some nice petroglyphs that you can find along this trail too...




The entrance to Highway 2 Hell is adorned with a shrine like sign that is made of parts that broke on the trail...








Time to head on into Hell...


Playing it safe, Mel decides to skip Firehole, a pretty severe notch about half way into the trail and head on up to the next tough ledge around the corner...


With a bit of effort and help of his competition Nitto tires, he was able to clear this jagged rock face...


Greg decides to give Firehole a good hard look before giving it a go...


His first attempt was to come in high on the passenger side...


Giving it another go a bit lower and pushing into the rock face with just his shoulder lugs....


Doing pretty good...


BLAM!! He fell in...




Even worse than the fall, the sound of him trying to back out was tough to listen to...


But, the damage really wasn't too bad - just a kiss...




Moving on, I start my way up the same rocky face that Mel went up...


After several tries, I unfortunately had to break out the winch...


Here's Greg trying to make his way up...




Unfortunately, he was forced to break out the winch too...


Once on top, we discovered that Mel's power steering pump was no longer working under 2500 RPM and so, the decision was made to bail out and head back to town. With 6 and a half trails done in just one day, I think we were all more than satisfied to get out of the sweltering heat and call it a day.

[wayoflife]

Dave wanted to show us the kind of trails he gets to run while on the job and so, on Sunday morning, we hooked up with he and Greg again and went out for a bonus round of wheeling. Here we are near Superior getting ready to run the Hackberry Trail...


After jamming across the desert, we stopped over at a low hanging section of powerline to take in the view, see the hair on our arms rise and get shocked touching anything metal...




The Hackberry trail isn't too difficult especially if you're running 40" tires and coil overs but, the loose basket ball boulders will give a JK with 35" tires and standard coils a workout. Here we are dropping into one of the many meadow like homesteads...


Near the end of the trail, we found some terrain that reminded me a lot of Moab...


Mel climbing to the top of this steep sandstone face...


Greg heading on up....


Here I go...


And finally, Dave coming on up...


Almost to the top...


Back on pavement, we stop to take in the view before heading into the Queen Creek Tunnel...




Time to drive through it - watch out for the crazy guy on the bike going the wrong way!!


And, to wrap up the day, we made one final stop over at the old ghost town of Goldfield...




I hope you all enjoyed the pics and following us on our adventures in Arizona. If you'd like to see all the pics we took, simply click on the link below:

Florence Junction Arizona Weekend of Wheeling

A BIG THANKS needs to go out to our good friends Greg and Dave for planning this trip and inviting us out to play in their backyard. We had an awesome time and are so looking forward to doing it again soon.

[ProfessionalDriver]

Looks like a great time! Awesome documentation, as always!

Bummer for Greg and his Jeep... If only he had his California Car Duster to clean up that rash a bit...

[highoctane]

Looks like a great time!

[wayoflife]

Amazing climb by EVO 1 up the biggest waterfall on Axle Alley...

[clarsen]

More video please. Looked like a lot of fun and the pictures rock..

[JKRay]

Looks like you all had some fun and some butt puckering moments haha! Thanks for sharing this adventure!