Cruz Adventures: May 2009

Well, we finally did it! After several months of planning we set off on our trip to the Chiricahua Mountains. Joining me would be my Uncle (Tom) and my Dad (Steve). This trip would take us through many historic parts of Southern Arizona as well as remote camping and back road areas.

Our first stop was lunch in Bisbee!

So, after eating lunch at the Copper Queen hotel we continued our journey, and took an interesting fork in the road....

After some driving and obligatory worried chatter, such as, "are we going the right way", and "what does it say on the GPS" or "lets stop and check the map". Short version of the story is we ended up on the US/Mexico border road! We ran into this guy, and fortunately enough for us Tom was wearing his Blackhawk's hockey hat. The Border Patrol Agent immediately started talking about the team and their playoff run with Tom. It seemed like they were talking for 10 minutes about this.

So, after driving along the border and looking for "people hiking through the desert wearing back packs" we reached Douglas. At this point we made another mistake! Douglas was a planned gas stop before we reached our final destination. The statement as I remember it was "oh, lets keep going, there has to be another station closer to camp". Well, 40 miles later more radio chatter occured. "I sure hope we find something", and "I don't see any major towns up ahead". Well, we were lucky. We snooped around the extremely small and remote town of Rodeo for a couple of minutes and asked where we could find gas. We found this little store with 1 working pump!

After filling up we begin to look for Horseshoe Canyon. On my maps it appeared to intersect with route 80. Well, after over an hour of searching for this road that would lead us into a canyon we gave up and decided to ask another local. My dad, Steve, drove up to a local ranch marked "private, no trespassing and keep out"! He was bolder than we were and the owner pointed the way.

So, we finally found the trail, which was extremely well hidden by a corral. You had to pass through the corral gate to begin the trail. Who would have guessed?

We then located a spot for camp, cooked some brats, drank some beer, listened to some music and passed out.

At about 3:00am I was woken up by something I had never heard before. It almost sounded like a woman screaming for her life.... The screaming was coming from the distance and was advancing toward our camp. Then, the creature stopped right at our camp and proceeded to scream for 10 straight minutes. Sleeping in our seperate trucks, no one dared to make a noise or call for one another. The mysterious creature then turned around and returned from where it came from.

It wasn't until the next morning when we were all waking up when someone said "did anyone hear that screaming last night"? It seemed that all of us had been waiting for someone to say something, because everyone had heard it and had been terrified! After speaking with some Rangers that day, and listening to mountain lion screams on you tube we determined that it was a mountain lion. Check out this link to hear what we listened to that night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKw4OFAu1WM

Exiting the canyon after camp #1.

Playing in some rocks.

Tom's Jeep getting a little flexy.

Stopping for a quick break.

Playing on more rocks. I was testing the articulation after reinstalling my front swaybar with extentions and shorter bumpstops. Looks good!

Dad doing the same. Pretty decent for IFS!

Almost nearing the end.

Finally out of the canyon that practically gave us a heart attack the night before.

We decided to stop and check out the Geronimo Surrender site as well as the old Apache cemetary while we were in the area.

After the cemetary we regretably filled up again at the pump in Rodeo, and began our ascent up the north east end of the Chiricahua's. We were looking for cool temps, and we would find them! In the foothills we stopped in the mountain village of Portal.

Making our way across a bridge with red rock in the background.

Gettin up there!

Finally reaching our destination at 8,400ft and admiring the roof top tent setup! Everyone was envious of the luxury built into the Cruiser.

It was chilly up here, and most of us put on light jackets and sweatshirts immediately. It was a nice contrast to the mid 90-100 degree temperatures we had experienced previously. First step was setup camp and get the food going!

We opted for some thick filet's and spanish rice! Even though I over cooked the meat it was still a fantastic meal!

Camp at night as well as showing off my rear hatch mounted L.E.D., hands free "pee light".

The next morning we woke up and made breakfast burritos. They were outstanding! After we ate we packed everything up and embarked on a hike, that would prove more difficult than initially anticipated.

One of the views offered along the hike.