Bull Springs Road/Gardner Canyon Run

[rkeegstra]

o8k and his friend Glenn and I did Bull Springs Road south of Tucson. It didn't rain on us at all (although the skies were threatening), but it had obviously rained a lot in this area in the last few days - many washouts and ruts.

I didn't get a good lineup picture, but here's my Libertad and o8k's CRD, with Glenn's Ram50 in the background:

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The remains of Alto Camp:

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Scenery from around the highest elevation of the trail:

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We had a little water running through washes crossing the road at times:

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...and then when we were done with Bull Springs Road, we went through Gardner Canyon just a bit further north:

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All in all a fun day. Nothing broke, no one had to break out the tow straps, and I only got a little sunburned.

Russ

 

[desertkj]

Nice! Looks like a fun, easy run. That sky looks pretty intimidating in the last one.

 

[o8k]

driving home now, had way too much fun thanks russ for taking lead and great pick for the trails, glenn had a ball, i think he has the fever now too

 

[ceaty]

Nice to see different places! We don't see much of that down here in Canada!
Like the picture running through water!

 

[rkeegstra]

I didn't get many pictures of trucks driving trails, but here's one of Glenn and his Ram50:

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I surfed the skid plates and bounced on the hitch a couple of times but these trails were certainly "stockable". Although I had originally planned to go in on Amado Montosa road, which goes *through* the Santa Cruz instead of Elephant Head road which has a bridge - a little early recon discouraged that idea, as there was over two feet of water flowing fast over the Amado Montosa crossing from the recent rains.

Yes, the skies were threatening in spots, but we had some blue sky and sunshine almost all day.

Russ

 

[o8k]

o8k's trip report:

I have a few photo's of russ going up a hill or two and what not, and a lineup of us on a ridge but my photo bucket accnt seems to be spaced out so nothing to post for the moment. =(

Glen, Did a fabulous job of keeping his Ram50 on the trail all parts attached in original shape (sporting the lowest ground clearence of the bunch), there was an obsticle on the 2nd trail that was esp challenging, darn if we missed the photo ops on this one tho, but he ran it w/ no bottom outs, a bit of tire squeal'age and w/ grit and determination, a place where having a clutch made things esp challenging.

Russ, really did "cowboy" this trail w/ much confidence this time arround, as he bounced off several rocks, the light blinked in and out of view from his undercarriage, i could only think he ran this trail like this place was his back yard, and from his seemingly endless knowledge of the area, i believe this truely is Russ's back yard =p A bit of a contrast from his style at crown king. Either way you look at it, his new sliders got a bit of action this time arround and no damage was done.

ME: I was out testing my newly installed Super Skid and it saw some action too. Very happy w/ its performance, i reccomend to anyone thinking of doing it, its worth it. I had a fantastic time, the trip WAS a good mix of scenery, and a few places where i had to think and concentrate on the trail, but nothing terribly scary to get my pucker factor up too high to enjoy my surroundings.

General:
The first trail was bull head springs rd and perhaps due to the rain the day b4 it was easy for about 500ft then immidiatly made you concentrate on what was going on. It meandered south for a bit along the bottom of the mountains to the east, and the valley to the west, then punched up the mountains to the east and over to <NAME>. At this point it was reaching afternoon and w/ it came creating a beautiful contrast of colors not usualy seen in the desert. Its monsoon season here, and if your from AZ i suppose this may be old hat, but for me, and to readers of beyond here Ill explain how that works best i saw it. The rain clouds where so thick little light penetrated their deep blue color. They scatterd the landscape and where heavy and omonous. The grass lands to the east had not gotten enough rain yet to be green but many of the cactus and shrubbs were in full green. So the bright sun was punching through the sky all arround the dark blue clouds and lighting up this yellow and green, i honestly couldnt help thinking of van gough's paintings the colors were truely amazing. As for the geology, glen found and really wierd pach of rock and so we starting paying attention, and there were a number of different rocks arround every corner. THe first we noticed seemed to look like large river stone agrigate concrete but it was quite natural as russ pointed out the veins in it. THen as you can see from russ's other photography, there were these Deep Red rocks too. Well guess if your into rocks and stuff, there's plenty to keep you busy up there. Well thats all i can think of for now.

i have a few pics of it all but russ's nikon shames my collection taken from my camera phone, need to get my other camera out of storage.

 

[rkeegstra]

i believe this truely is Russ's back yard =p

Eh, I had the map. I think that's the only reason I was in the lead. A special Grazie goes to ExpeditionsWest web site, where they post GPS tracks of their runs. I was just following them, as it were.

 

[o8k]

so modest, hehehe ok maybe ur right, but u where playin capt gung ho just a little =) wells spoke of a big rock in the road, even had a pic, i didnt see the rock, must have bailed down the hill er somthing =)

 

[RAM 50]

The Trip wasn't too bad, I really enjoyed the trail that we took, with exception to the Stairs, I do have to say that the Stairs were kinda hairy with the M/T. Other then that I think the Gardner Canyon area would be a great camping site. Casey and I ran up the Closed road a bit and found nothing blocking the way but it had plenty of camp sites still available . Here are some pics of Casey going up from the rear, one of Russ Libertad overlooking the stream in Gardner Canyon:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10409964@N04/909476472/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10409964@N04/909476320/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10409964@N04/909476706/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10409964@N04/909476992/
Casey Splashing in the water, Rear View

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10409964@N04/909476938/
The Mine Shaft on the Trip

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10409964@N04/909477042/
Russ Libertad looking over the Creek

 

[o8k]

Yay welcome glen to kj country

 

[o8k]

those photos of the RAM 50 look like catalog shots!

 

[o8k]

ok got my photobucket accnt back up, cuz its the weekend now for me and im not dead tired....

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ok not part of the trip, but one of my favs, pechinco pass central cali april, east of gilroy.

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glen up a hill

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closest to a line up i got

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russ up a hill

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more rain to the east

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a seemingly tippy spot cool shot, but not a tippy spot

 

[RAM 50]

Tires Finally gave out

My right front tire on the Truck finally blew... I was on Old Nogales Highway going south and the right front side wall finally gave out, lol. Looks like I’m looking for a new set of tires for the Truck, I'm thinking of getting some General A/T 2 tires from TireRack. But I won't be doing that until I can get the Truck Smogged, which I'm having issues with right now...

 

[o8k]

those 15" or 16"? wonder what all would fit....