As we often do, we met up at the Chevron station, Carefree Highway and I-17. We were rolling out of there by 8:10am on our way north. I took off slightly earlier so I could grab Dwayne Nahorodny for a passenger as I passed by New River Rd. With beautiful blue sky everywhere, Dwayne asked me if I expected rain and I laughed at him. Of course he’d looked at the weather forecast and seen the 20% chance of rain, accompanied by the little “lightning” icon. I still laughed and said yeah right. What I should have been saying was that it might rain 20% of the day.
Aired down at the end of the pavement and we were on our way. A total of 8 Scouts, with six Scout II’s and Dale and I representing the early Scouts. Jason rode with Dan, as his Gumby Scout has gone back into hiding. At the mine, we caught up with the ArizonaK5.com crew, I think they had about five variations of Blazers and a Zuk built for wheeling. Leaving the mine, we passed them, then later in the day when we stopped for lunch, they passed us. We traded places a couple more times during the day, and ended up reaching Crown King at the same time.
A ways past what we call “Dana 30 Hill,” Teresa had the first flat tire of the day. A sharp rock got the best of her driver’s side front. The thunderstorm that had been building spit a few droplets at us while we changed the tire. Unfortunately, the spare I supplied her with a few months ago was a junk “Pathfinder” all-terrain, and it lasted at least 50 feet. If you ever plan to take your rig off-road in AZ, don’t waste any money on Pathfinder tires. As we changed the tire again, I encouraged Teresa to seek a better tire supplier next time, not a “friend” getting rid of junk by attaching a “Pathfinder” to her tire carrier. Luckily, Dale was nearby and willing to loan his spare. Of course, he didn’t know the fate it would encounter. Within a mile, it dismounted from the rim in protest, while the rim received a nice bash. Meanwhile the rain started pouring down in earnest. I felt lucky that I had a tarp the correct size to throw over the Scout and still let me drive, while others got really wet.In the creek, the water was running good and covering up the rocks, so they were sharp, slick, and hidden. Fun stuff and that’s where the third flat of the day occurred. Jack it up, change it in the creek, and we were on our way again. This time Dustin was kind enough to loan his spare, and before mounting it up, both he and Teresa gave the tire a stern talking-to about its future behavior. It seemed to do the trick, as she didn’t have any further trouble on that corner of that Scout. However, the creek did seem to have a bit of a pretzel effect on her draglink. Hmm, can’t turn as sharp anymore.
Finally out of the rain, and on up to Crown King. Found the town stuffed with people. Turns out the volunteer fire department was having their annual benefit event. Luckily The Mill restaurant was practically empty when we got there, so we lined up several tables for our “party of 18” or whatever it was. Got some food in and had fun chatting about the adventure. While we were in there, it rained hard again for quite a while. Eric & Leslie had headed south from Crown King to camp for the night, hopefully they didn’t get dumped on before they had a chance to set up camp. After dinner, we straggled down the hill. Of course, Teresa had one more flat tire to work on. Turned out she was last down the hill, and just a bit above Cleator another sharp rock took out a rear tire. She sent a text message to her daughter Mia, who was riding with Bob and was further down the hill. At the bottom, Mia saw the message and alerted the rest of us. We grabbed the spare 33” off Dan’s truck, and Dwayne and I headed back up the hill with it. Bob and Mia followed us. Got back up there, got it changed out, clearanced the fender a bit to clear the 33,” dumped some fuel in my tank, and we were on our way. Just like Baja, right? I think I made it home around 11:45 or so.......
Ronnie R.