Sycamore Creek - Off Road Trip (56k FATAL - seriously, don't do it)

[TomCat]

This is the Quartz Mine Trail at Sycamore Creek in Arizona, off Highway 87 East of Phoenix. We went out of Saturday afternoon and stayed the night. It was a pretty good time. We ran the Quartz Mine trail towards the end of the afternoon. Usually the creek bed is dry as a bone, but this weekend it was running strong. Lots of rain lately and melting snow from up north, no doubt. So I got to test my Toyota's seaworthiness this weekend, many times. And it did great. I didn't get stuck once and didn't have a single problem. The Toyota did me proud. And the new rear locker helped out a lot.

Only 5 of the trucks took the trail. The other Toyota was acting up, and since there was water in the creek and the truck is mostly stock, the owner decided against going. We decided to let the purpose built crawlers take the lead, just in case.











Some followers who chickened out.



The guys in the lead kept saying that all the tire marks they came across were old. No new tire tracks since the rain and flooding. So we were probably the first group of vehicles through here for a few days. Which is odd considering Sycamore is a hot spot of everything offroad and there were some huge parties raging this weekend.



Note: those are 38" SuperSwampers

















Fun little part of the trail. Wish I took more pics here, it was like a Disney Land ride.







We had to cross the river 7 or more times during the trail, but it was good fun.







The tubed-out Suzuki Samurai with a 4.3L Chevrolet V6 and full size axles.





They say if you can't get up this first (real) obstacle, then you won't make the trail.








Made it to the top:

The view down:


All the rock you see in the background is actually quartz, hence the name of the trail.



The rest of this is very loose gravel. Seriously, you're safer inside the vehicle then trying to walk down on foot. Slippery stuff.

















Getting late... and dark.







Trying to find a place to cross. The water was flowing good now.













My brother got stuck crossing the river here. Turns out he blew the bead on his rear passenger tire. So he was pretty much running on 1 wheel drive in the front. Was a bitch getting him out, but once his spare was mounted, he drove right across. But the water did flood his cab and engine bay. It reeked havoc on his electrical for the next couple hours, but was back to normal by morning.







Well, I think I destroyed enough bandwidth for one day. Hope you all enjoyed the pics.

[Crazyjeeper]

Great pics. Looks like you had fun. I like that CJ with the electric fan on the hood.

[WellsieTRD]

What? No shots of your weapon in action? Looks like some pretty tough offroadin there. Its a stark contrast the the tracks we have down here where its more clay and mud than gravel. Good stuff though

[TomCat]

Originally Posted by Crazyjeeper

Great pics. Looks like you had fun. I like that CJ with the electric fan on the hood.

Thanks! That Jeep was cool. I don't know the owner though, and he seemed really impatient the whole time, so I didn't get many photos of his rig.

Originally Posted by WellsieTRD

What? No shots of your weapon in action? Looks like some pretty tough offroadin there. Its a stark contrast the the tracks we have down here where its more clay and mud than gravel. Good stuff though

These are just my pics. A couple others had cameras too, so I might be getting some action shots of the Toy. I know one of the passengers in the Jeep got a pretty good video of me crossing the river at one of the deep points, I'll have to see about getting it.

That's the good thing about the desert though, it's very dry. Get good traction most of the time.

[Blind_Io]

Looks like loads of fun. It's hard to tell from the photos, but I'm not sure our Land Cruiser could do that in it's current stock condition.

One of these days I will build that into a proper trail rig and tackle trails like that.

[TomCat]

Originally Posted by Blind_Io

Looks like loads of fun. It's hard to tell from the photos, but I'm not sure our Land Cruiser could do that in it's current stock condition.

One of these days I will build that into a proper trail rig and tackle trails like that.

It was a great time.

I'm pretty sure the Land Cruiser could make it. Without body damage or a flooded interior... I don't know. Does it have low range 4WD?

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Looks like you had a great time. Love your brother's truck!

[JipJopJones]

Looks like you guys had fun! I jelous! I need to get a truck!!!

[TomCat]

Originally Posted by BerserkerCatSplat

Looks like you had a great time. Love your brother's truck!

Thank you. On the way back to camp, after spending a couple hours in the dark trying to get him out of the river and change out the tire, my brother's tailgate broke off it's mounts and fell off. His flat tire and a bunch of his gear fell out. I had to slam on brakes to avoiding running it over. Which is hard, when you're laughing your ass off.

Originally Posted by JipJopJones

Looks like you guys had fun! I jelous! I need to get a truck!!!

Yeah, what's up JJJ? Where's that truck you're going to buy? You're slacking.

[JipJopJones]

Originally Posted by TomCat

Yeah, what's up JJJ? Where's that truck you're going to buy? You're slacking.

lol... It's coming! I'm hoping for late march early April. It'll be a nice birthday present to myself!