Technically it’s an RV, if you live in it temporarily... right? Ah, well, whatever it is we’ve been putting in a lot of work on our truck since we drove to Canada over a weekend in January to cut the roof off and graft on a Campteq poptop.
It was high time we went out and used it lest we forget WHY we’re doing all of this work.
I’m a glutton for punishment so I decided to head out and run Hackberry Trail, AZ. Here is a little background.
A 4WD trail run to Hackberry Creek near Superior, Arizona. It’s an area rich in mining history and…
It’s a doable trail with 33" tires, lockers and some good underside protection. I have the lockers, 35" tires, but no sliders. I tend to think I can pick decent enough lines to not need to carry them around. (I’ll think this until I hit my rockers of course... when will that be? We’ll just have to wait and see)
So, off we went to Oak Flat, AZ. We aired down and started out the trail. At first the trail is more of a dirt road and we saw various 4x4's camped out. After a little while we got to where the “trail” begins down Chevy Truck hill.
At the bottom of some pretty good step downs, very Moab-like, you see the old truck that gives this hill it’s name.
Being alone and the trucks setup being different than it had ever been we did a LOT of walking ahead. I didn’t want to get into something over my head... Of course, even when we saw something bad my natural reaction was... “I see a line in it.” I sometimes wonder if I’d ever not “think” I see a line.
Did I mention this area is gorgeous?
I felt like my view was either this or looking straight down the whole evening. Kelsey has become a great spotter so I can tell you how nice it is to be able to trust someone’s inputs as if they’re driving the vehicle.
After a really long and really tough hill climb we knew we’d found a campsite where we’d be alone. A tiny pull out on top of a hill that is just big enough for 1 truck. No fire ring meant that most of the rock crawler guys considered this mid-trail and wouldn’t setup camp here.
The morning view from camp had me a little on edge, but not too worried. I knew a section of “switchbacks” were coming up that can be tough. Nah, what could go wrong.
Rubber Ducky Rock was a nice view from camp.
Things got bouldery fast. The toughest part is trying to predict what each one will do under your tires. Will it flip it on its end and up into the truck or will it roll away or will I slide with brakes fully locked for a few feet. As is tradition, nothing shows how steep real life is.
We kept at it for a while eventually making it to a pretty overlook.
Here is a little video: Downhill last part
Eventually, we made it to the end and you can cut over on to what is just a normal shelf trail. This one is two track and although you need to pick a line and be careful, it’s not crawling the whole time.
Shortly after we came across some aircraft seats on top of a saddle. It was a nice spot to enjoy the view. Well, not for whomever was in the plane.
A stack of old bricks nearby formed what looked to have once been a small commercial kiln that was now used as a campsite fire pit.
Lovely eyeglasses came with the campsite.
And with that we headed out.
Per the usual, not quite content to leave dirt we spent an hour heading into a canyon I hadn’t visited in a couple years. It was as beautiful as ever, but being one of our first 90f days this year we weren’t too keen to strike out on a hike.
Still, it was a great spot for lunch.
And with that, our little sub-24 hour adventure was over. Time to get back to work!
