Agreed. Just need the time. Mid November through mid December will be the prime time for preruns.

Let me know when you guys are gonna run Payette. I 'll try to get out there with ya.

If you mean on the run itself, that's already posted in this thread. Payett is one of the things we really don't need to prerun....we can, but we don't need to.

I dunno if there is a update planned but I thought the last couple of years was a good mix of challenging trails and the scenic stuff but this tentative itinerary seems a bit soft/easier than past years for some reason?

I know it’s early, hard to find the right mix, lots of work, you guys put on a great event, and it’s not all about the wheelin but my thoughts:

What about some more dedicated rock crawling trails out in the Crown King Area: Terminator, Raw Deal, etc: 4 to 4+ trail for one of the first couple of days

Day 1 – After running the coves a couple times I'm wondering about a return visit, was fun but the terrain; sand, rutted hill climbs, etc is a lot like we have in some areas of CA I recall. Maybe I missed the attractions? Water was nice don’t get me wrong but is there any rock creek type trails?

Day 3 – 4 2.5 rated trails in the foothills sounds kind of boring.

Payette = run it twice, fun trail would prefer something different otherwise is the same as last year kind of thing.

Day 6 - dirt roads??

What about something in Northern AZ?

I don’t mind splitting up into small groups and meeting later for the group camp but driving on easy dirt trails for half the run?

Anyway just thowing my 2 cents and stirring the pot

I can point you to more challenging stuff you haven't run on those couple days if you want. You have to remember there are near stock rigs on these runs too, and yes, this is not the toughest run we've put together. I try to keep the trails as close to one another as possible to avoid long pavement stretches and trying to keep a group together going through town with stoplights, etc., like we would if we ran north phoenix trails. Plus, the camping out around Terminator, etc. sucks. No cover. No scenery.

Crown King itself is no more difficult than anything else we have planned.

The coves are not much for rock crawling and you described them pretty well. With the options and bypasses, they're as tough as you want to make them.

On Day 2, we're doing a fun (albeit fairly short) trail on top of the ridge just north of 4 peaks. this one is a 3.0-3.5 trail and is a lot of fun. The views are phenomenal. (something the out of state guys from Tx, etc. enjoy, along with myself). There's some long dirt road running to get there, unfortunately.

Day 3 isn't fully planned yet. That's what we're going out in a couple weeks to figure out, hopefully. Since we'll be half a day getting off 4 peaks and down to the area, I need to find a good 1/2 day trail with a place to camp. I'm strongly considering running last year's Day 1 trail in the opposite direction. The hillclimbs would be pretty fun that way, but I'm not certain on this yet.

Day 4 is an easy day on a 2 rated trail. We'll dip down through the East Verde River and climb up on the rim. The first half is 2wd and dusty; hopefully everyone will have some fun on the second half. It's stock rig friendly.

Payette has only been on one AZ run, and everyone liked it due to it being as tough as you want to make it, and it fits in the continuity of the run. I'm trying to avoid pavement as much as possible.

Day 6 - that's the day everyone breaks camp and goes home. If anyone wanted to, we could run the fire roads along the rim and come out on Tonto Creek - very scenic.


As for stuff further away from Phoenix, I'd love to, but I have to prerun all this stuff and think about getting 25 trucks on the trails, finding places to camp, ensuring we can get fuel, etc. and I like to have it all planned out before we start. Those distances make it tough for me to prerun an AZ run the way I like to do it.

AZ Run IX will be back in the Florence Jct area with Rockcrawling galore. While I want every run to be fun, I don't want them to all be the same either.

In any event, Day 3-4 are not yet set in stone, depending on what we find on our next couple outings.

We'll do some research and see what kind of fun stuff we can throw in the mix. There are a LOT of washes between Saguaro Lake and Payson.

We could also do a side trip to run part of the Sandy Beach trail if you guys really want some technical stuff.

Depending on the road work we may be able to get in to Lower Sycamore or something.

are we doing crown king on 8?

quote:

Originally posted by System-F:
are we doing crown king on 8?

Wasn't planning on it. Was thinking more of an AZ Run VI type outing, but it's far from being set in stone.

I'd love to do an entire run in that area - CK backroad, Desoto, Turkey creek, and others, but there's no way to get gas up there, and I don't think we could carry enough.

We could have someone truck gas up the hill. 20-30 jerry cans in the back of a super duty would do it.

Well, I'd need some help arranging all that.

Isn't there a gas station at CK or am I remembering wrong?

There is a gas station, but it is very expensive, has limited hours, and I dont know how big their tank is. I dunno if they'd appreciate us running them dry.

My 2 cents....


Keep the run were we have it this year. There is different stuff all through there to do.

Instead of the Coves, there is all that Sycamore stuff to do right across the Highway is someone wants to get into something different.

There is Willow Springgs in Bulldog that is supposed to be real challenging ( I haven't run it.)

Who knows what we will find by the North end of Roosevelt Lake that still needs to be explored.

And this wasn't ever supposed to be a hard hitting, break your stuff, only rigs as good as ______ need come along type of thing....

It's difficult to plan for all that and where do we all camp and where do we all gas up etc etc.

Just let Andy plan it, come on out and have fun.

It has been working pretty good that way so far.....

Now back to your regualr programing.

Duh Stone , Andy just said something about Crown King in a post above and I was pretty sure we weren't going up there, but wanted to double check. I learned my lesson about how hard it is to plan chit on our Bachelor run to CO this year.

I am one of those out of state guys....

#1: my truck is diesel so I hope these fuel stops have diesel. I can go an easy 200 miles on one tank in 4wd low pushing the truck hard and can carry 5gal. more. That is about my range though off-road.

#2: I am hauling my truck a long ass ways, fuel alone won't be cheap to do that. While I enjoy nice views and all that I would like some difficult trails as well. I am spending a lot of money getting my truck set up so would like to push it a bit.

#3: I am cool with trails that allow me to make things more difficult. Most of the trails here can be done in 2wd mid-summer unless you pick a fun line or it rains and snows. Point is I am used to making trails more difficult than they typically are.

There's something for everyone on this run. It won't be the hardest core run we've done, but we will incorporate some fun into it. Day 4 is the easiest day. Days 1 and 5 are as hard as you want to make them, and Day 2 will be fun after we get up the main road to get to the trail.

Day 3 is still not decided yet.

Hey guys....just thought I would put this out there now that all my plans are firming up.

Leaving this Friday morning to go to Vegas & LA. Won't be back until 2nd of January, plan to be in Vegas for New Years!

I fly out for South America on the 8th of January and won't be back until the 4th of February. Then I fly out again on Feb. 8th to Australia and won't be back until the 4th of March.

So what I am saying is I am not around much to plan or communicate with people before the run. On top of that it will be a big rush and crunch to get my truck loaded up and be in Arizona by the 10th. But it shouldn't be a problem. The shop working on my truck says they will have it done by the 5th of March no probs....hope they can keep that date.

The Patrol will be fresh out of the shop with little to no trail testing. Real excited and looking forward to the run just hope nothing fails or breaks on me!

Sure would like to be in contact with a few of you by phone during the few days I will be home in the next 2-3 months.

Ian

PMd you my phone number.

Itinerary in the first post has been revised.

Very close to final.