Well, we started out meeting at our usual spot at the Chevron Station on Carefree Hwy & I-17. We had Gumby (Jason, Steph & Dan), Eric in <Not Lisa>, Bob in his "Bad Ass Scout", Jerry in his Scout and myself - Teresa in Lego Scout, show up for the run. Pete, Dustin & Tamra in his Scout II and met us at the air down location at our turn-off on the east side of Table Mesa Rd. after having to wait for an auto parts store to open due to an oil changing (as I was told...), leaving 2 quarts of oil in the driveway problem.
After airing down, chatting and catching up with everyone, we started our run going east. We ran into a fork in the road in which one went to a residential spot, we turned and went left. After traveling a ways, making a few turn arounds, we ended up at the edge of a deep river - yes, the normally dry river with a bunch of large rocks that had been exposed by the recent rains and high / low fluctuation of the water and mud that was like quick sand & jello combination. After a bit of exploring & rock collecting by Jason, Steph and Eric we decided to turn back and try another route while at the same time it started to sprinkle. We were going to try another route.
Jason was leading in Gumby and went down a section that didn't look too steep. The weather was starting to change and the skies were darkening as if the rain was going to really pour down at any time. I was the third vehicle back, behind Eric, and suddenly we stopped just as Gumby's top went out of my view down the hill. I got out to see why because the guys were gathering and looked as if they're trying to figure out something. Then I hear that I'm to strap on to Eric's truck and Bob to mine (he was behind me), while Eric's winch was going on Gumby. I suddenly saw why, while Jason was driving down the "not to steep hill", between the rain and rocks, the hills were slick and he had slipped to the left where there was a 6 to 8 foot drop. His driver's side tires were being held by a tree which looked dead but probably stopped his slide. (Dustin's wife, Tamra, has photos) While Eric was winching Jason, he began to slide even more, suddenly his tires were all but hanging by a piece of dirt - you can see in one of the photos where his drivers side rear tire was off completely. We changed plans and had to use a block to run the cable around a tree to the right creating a safer angle to pull Jason more towards the high bank to keep his truck from going over the edge. It worked enough to pull him back on the road so he could drive down, turn around and come back up the hill. Team work!
We then decided to try the west side of I-17 & Table Mesa Rd.
We drove up past the gas lines, Jason stopped to talk to a few other's who were out playing in the mud and rain with their ohv's, gathering info. Jason had also mentioned something about finding a Jeep that was supposed to have been wiped away and buried by the wash when the flood waters ran through not too long ago. We drove towards the river again and found a concrete "tunnel" of sorts that went under the freeway which had a fairly good step up, Gumby went first, then Eric, then Pete & Jerry, myself and Bob - all making it through without a problem. (see photos).
We continued to drive east and parked under some power lines for a small break. We could hear the electricity coursing through the lines, kind of a zapping sound but omnimous all the same when you think of how much power was running through those lines. We continued on, finding some fairly challenging hills to climb, mud to play in, and we even picked up a pickup with a couple of guys from Minnesota in a pickup who were looking for a way around/out. We made some river crossings, ascending & descending hills, and again crossed under the freeway on our way out. We met up with a fairly good hill to climb with a slight "bump" at the top.
No breaks, no one got hurt, except for the 2000 lb cow Petey tried to take down by himself and gave us some humor...but that's another story - that we can ask Pete to tell.
~ Teresa A. Terranova
Here is a link from one of our members for photos of that run:
http://s597.photobucket.com/albums/tt53/ddub81/SDS%20Table%20Mesa%20Trail%20Run%2001-23-2010/
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