Unbelievable Overland Disasters in Arizona

[Music] good morning what a beautiful night last night I slept so good there's just something about the cold air that just makes you sleep so much more sound it was a great night uh camps a buzz this morning everybody's uh up and making breakfast having coffee uh I'm about two cups of coffee in I was I was up about 5:30 this morning I was up pretty early uh but uh I was just awake and ready to enjoy this this incredible view up here and uh I thought I'd come up here and just walk around and check out uh check out this old mine it's a lot of ruins but it's interesting because you know this mine was from I think 1905 all the way to like 1984 and so there's old stuff and a little bit of modern stuff uh integrated into all this so I just want to walk around and check it out what a massive operation this must have been this is the borana mine deposits of tungsten were found here back in 1908 and by 1915 production had increased and eventually became the second largest producer of tungsten in the United States the mine was in operation until 1980 and it was 1,00 fet deep and included nine levels this was a massive operation today most most of the mine openings have been closed off and All That Remains are crumbling buildings a few mining structures that are still barely standing and many tailing piles in the area now as I was walking around and exploring and checking out many of the ruins in the area I came across something that I did not expect to see up here so I just walking around to the top of the mountain here and there's this uh little spring coming out of the mountain here and uh kind of a little Pond here it's got some pretty good size goldfish in there I can say with certainty I have never seen goldfish in any other place I've camped and the fact that they have prospered here is pretty incredible when you think about how cold it must get in the mountains in the winter and the heat that must bear down on them in these Arizona Summers my understanding is goldfish are an invasive species but I don't think they're doing any harm up here pretty interesting folks are starting to pack up and we should be having our driver meeting here shortly but if you remember from part one of this trip I asked some folks in our group to share their worst adventure stories so let's hear a couple more before we head out this morning our worst Adventure was back in 2021 uh shortly after we had built our four uh fourwh camper flatbed build and we were out exploring in Moab one of the trails we were running was a Schaefer Trail which if anyone's been out to that trail knows it's a very uh Cliffy shelf Road Trail if you're if you're not fond to Heights one you probably won't like and I got a little too close to the rocks and uh ripped the awning off of our brand new camper build that we hadn't even had four weeks yet um all right he's not giving it enough drama so we're driving and it's brand new so you know he's being cautious and all of a sudden we hear this noise and he's like what was that and I look in the side mirror cuz I'm in the passenger seat I'm like oh your awning is laying on the ground and he's like what yeah yeah sorry so you meanwhile traffic is stacking up there upcoming traffic there's down comom traffic you you know that trail is not wide enough to pass on and so we're scrambling to try to you know pick the awning up I can't leave the trail trash out there it's laying on the ground we shove it in the closed camper and we continue you know down Shafer Trail we get down to the bottom I open the camper up and in the process of bouncing down the trail not only had I ripped the awning off and done all the damage to the outside of the camper um it also then bounced around on the inside of the camper and ripped stuff apart and tore a bunch of stuff up after the adventure and we got back home and I got with four-wheel camper and I I done over $7,000 in damage to the camper not our best adventure not my finest moment but uh yeah why do we still do it after all that because it's still fun it's still fun yeah I mean I I always like to say you can't ever have a good Adventure without a little bit of adversity so let's see my most challenging Adventure I'm going to say that I've had a lot of different adventures and they've all been pretty cool it would say the most challenging one I've ever had was actually one of my very very first I was actually uh still in high school one of the first times I went camping with my buddies and the car I was driving with at the time uh without getting into a whole bunch of detail and it basically blew a head gasket so we were camping up above Crown King and I had to limp the thing all the way down to the I17 on the center Highway you know shutting it off coasting downhills turning it back on you know because it kept overheating so that was probably the most challenging one that I can think of offhand but you know we got through it and obviously it didn't ruin me because I've still been I've still been doing this for you know 25 years later so uh you know there's a lesson learned and it was uh you know take better care of your car I love exploring I love seeing what's around the next Bend I love getting off the beaten path I mean we're only I'm going to guess right now we're less than 15 18 miles from the 93 which is the major highway that goes from Phoenix to Vegas and those guys would never know that this beautiful place that we're in right now exists and I love stuff like that just getting off the beaten path and and uh finding out you know what what these mountains or what that that Valley and all that stuff looks like that's that's what keeps me going so all right so the plan for today we are going to continue on into the wapi uh and we are actually going to cross over to the other side we are going to be visiting yet another mine site but this one is really cool it's got a couple of buildings that are um let's just say really unique so uh that right there at the mine is a pretty rough section is probably the the probably the roughest Wheeling we're going to encounter on the trip um I think we'll be fine everybody's got lockers and rock sliders and and all that stuff I really don't anticipate uh having much issue at all so we're going to check that out um but we do have a pretty long day today so I enjoy how cryptic Trent keeps these drivers meetings just a little bit of information to build enough anticipation to keep everyone intrigued I have to admit though where we are heading today I've actually been to once before and you're going to find ourselves working our vehicles pretty hard but the reward will be worth it and before the day is through I believe everyone will have made some new Everlasting memories [Music] we have been climbing and climbing elevation and boy the views are just getting better and better on both sides of this Ridge line now I have been to the north side of the walapai mountains before I came here actually twice and the very first time that we came here Marco's Jeep Wrangler 392 was only a week old and uh we went to this Trail which we are going to today and there is a very very cool building an old mine there uh and and I'll wait until we get there to share that with you but it's definitely worth it but the trail ended up being a lot more rugged and treacherous than we anticipated so I kind of know what we're in for and the interesting thing was it was Josh Marco and I and we were just out for fun that day we weren't filming so this is the first time that I'm actually going to get to share this Trail and the mine and the building with you guys so it's going to be uh it's going to be a good day you guys are going to enjoy this one the haipai mountain range has many trails from easy to difficult that wind and twist their way along the ridge lines and dive deep into The Valleys there's a dramatic range of plant life here depending on the elevation the slope Direction and The microclimate so there's something new to see around just about every corner the wildlife in this area includes black bear elk mule deer Javelin and mountain lions it's likely you'll never see a mountain L but they'll probably see you this is the ideal place to escape the Heat the Arizona summer and do some exploring over a few days in fact I've already marked a handful of nice primitive campsites this morning because this is a place I'll be coming back to all right it's just after 10:30 and uh we've been on uh we've been on this Trail for a while it just kind of windes up along the ridge of the mountains and uh We've climbed an elevation quite a bit we're about 6,900 ft lots of pine trees up here now but we are getting ready to turn off onto Moss wash Trail and thank are going to get fun things are going to get exciting because this is a difficult rated Trail but working through it is going to uh it's going to pay huge dividends when I show you guys uh what we're going to see down there it's going to be pretty cool [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right we're in it now there's some good ruts few rocks some tight turns uh but there's more to come uh as we get closer to this mining area things get really technical this is kind of just a little bit of a Breakin but you know I I always have second guess my decision on putting 35s on this thing but when it performs on stuff like this and it really doesn't Flinch uh I know I made the right decision but things are going to get uh a little more technical here soon so we'll see we'll see if these 35s still hold up I think that [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] all right guys that was uh that was a fun section of Trail getting here uh you know I actually remember it being a little harder but Marco reminded me that when we came through here we had the trailers and we were going up it I think down is a little easier but we made it to the gold king mansion which has a really cool story behind it this place is super unique this would be a really interesting place to Camp like on Halloween night or something like that let me uh let me show you around and then we'll tell you uh we'll tell you the whole story about this place this is the gold king mansion and it was built in the late 1920s by the gold King corporation which used this once ornate building to entertain wealthy investors the gold mine never reached production levels that the gold King corporation had hoped for and ultimately the stock market crash in 1929 and the subsequent depression brought an end to the mining and the Mansion as a residence the mansion's roof and walls were made of poured concrete and you can see it appears that there was actually electricity in the mansion from evidence of these electrical outlets you can also still see some of the ornate crown molding along the ceilings I can only imagine the challenges it must have been to get the equipment and supplies up here to build this cuz as you will soon see the trail leading out isn't any easier than the trail we just came in on the Mansion is a perfect place for us to take a break and have lunch but let's hear a couple more worst Overland adventure stories the worst are for me was the one that we met up with our friend Jim to dead Valley I was in my JK and it started giving me a bunch of engine coats it ended up to be sensors and sensor wiring and all that I was really worried about that because I was pulling the trailer we were all the way there far from home and I didn't know if I was going to make it home but you know I got on a freeway on limp mode uh that was frustrating cuz there were trucks behind me my buddies were just waiting for me and but I got home fixed the thing and here we are back to the do the things that we love because once you go out there and you see places that you've never seen before then you thankful to have a vehicle like like a Jeep or any off-road vehicle even though it gives you those problems one of my worst Adventures was a pyute draw with a group of friends probably about six of us we had just pulled out um a friend's jeep we had to use a couple of hydraulic jacks to lift the differential up and get it over some rocks and so we had just finished that almost up to the waterfall and uh wasn't paying attention and I was looking at the sights and then within about 2 minutes of that I had ran the front of this Cherokee right up over a ski jump and so that the front differential went up it and down and I couldn't even know I didn't know what happened and so I ended up trying to put it in reverse and it wouldn't come out so got outside and looked at it and it was perfectly hung up to where I could have changed a tire so we got all the tools back out that we had just stowed away and had to use both Jacks again jack up the differential and then the very vehicle we recovered had to pull me off so everybody was laughing I enjoy it because that night around the fire we were all laughing about it and it just kind of washed away the day and then we all had fun and it was just part of the experience when you run into altercations like that all right my worst Adventure ever uh was early in our deep Overland days my husband and I had built a uh Overland LJ and we were headed out to meet a new group that we barely knew packed everything up drove 6 hours get into this Canyon it's it's dark we got one friend behind us following us and we finally find the group that we're supposed to be meeting and they're up camped on this old mine and they're all all the tents everything's out we're like oh we're so excited and they're flashlights and they're pointing and they're like oh go up this so we're like okay well that that looks kind of complicated and it's all bumpy and Rocky and so we're bumping up there and it's boom Jeep shuts off we snapped our fuel line we go bumping back down everyone's up there they come running down they're like oh this sucks oh man so we have to Camp down below all these people that we don't like barely know are up there in the morning we're going what are we going to do like we're down this Canyon Tiny Town far away and they're all like well we got this run planned so they just take off and they're like I don't know we got one friend that's like I'll stay behind and help you so we just Patch It Up book it out as fast as we can run out of fuel like a good couple like two miles we still got 20 miles to go we end up having to leave the Jeep and it's this back and forth where we're like What do we do how do we get out here how do we get home we're able to get parts drop the tank fix it all on the trail in the heat like in this weird place that we don't even know and then it's like 4:00 we have an idea of where the other group is and we look at our friend and we're like do we do it should we meet them or do we go home and he's like let's do it so the Jeep's running and we basically have to get out go all the way around a good 2 or 3 hours and we they didn't give us coordinates they're just like we're going to be off this road about 20 mil we think we're going to be over here so in the dark we're going along and it's like I don't know are we just going to have to camp here we got 10 more minutes if we don't find them next thing you know we pop over there's their tents and you just hear everyone's cheering we roll in and they're like how did you do this like how are you here also how did you find us why we still do it is that feeling of like we did it we fixed it and it's persevering and then showing up and having that camaraderie with everyone else [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh yeah this Trail has plenty of obstacles to keep you engaged just takes a little bit of patience and a little tire placement you can work your way through here I think for me my Gladiator on 35s this is probably the upper limit of capabilities that I really want to push this vehicle to I Really Don't anticipate taking this Jeep on harder Trails than this so this has been a great test today and I'm very very happy with how it's performed everyone else carefully and slowly worked way through but the Tacoma did get a little high centered so the team shifted into recovery mode and within minutes they were back up and running again [Music] [Music] so we've got a few more yards of moss wash left and then uh then we're hitting pavement and we're going to go get some fuel and start looking for camp this evening it's already uh it's around 3:00 so I think uh by the time we get fuel and uh get back on the dirt and look for Camp it's going to be it's be ready for some chow time so hopefully we may get to Camp early tonight but man what do you guys think of that trail I really really enjoyed that trail I mean it's just got some fun technical sections some scenery and of course the Mansion uh just is the Highlight so it's a great Trail if you're out here in Arizona I highly recommend that one k so after about an hour on the freeway uh we stopped in a I don't even know if you would call it a town uh we stopped at a gas station in a place called Solomon I think is how you pronounce it Soloman uh we all filled up grabbed a couple little supplies and then uh right there we hit the dirt and now we are heading deep into this beautiful area that's got some kind of Rolling Hills and mountains off the background and we didn't even air down we're just beining for Camp right now which I think we're all okay with uh get to Camp a little early and uh just kind of unwind and relax and uh kind of Reminisce about our day though that was H that was an exciting day I think we all have some pretty good stories to tell all right so we're at this little signin station here now this is uh this is one of those checkerboard areas that's a combination of presc national forest and a private Ranch so there's alternating sections of private Ranch Land and public land and so there basically the US for servic has made an agreement with the Yavapai Ranch um that they'll the Yavapai Ranch allows access on any of the existing roads but they do like to keep track of who's passing through especially in regards to Hunters and Wildlife there's actually a thing right on the sheet about um you have to report any Wildlife that You' bagged of course you know with proper permits and all that stuff so we're just camping so we're just going to sign in and uh respect uh you know respect the agreement and stay on the existing roads so simple as that [Music] [Music] all right guys here we are all right we made it to camp and this is a nice wide open spot nice and flat plenty of room for everybody tonight and uh got some beautiful views off in the distance of the mountains nice flat area here with a fire ring and then the sun we might get a pretty nice sunset tonight it looks like it's going to be setting behind those uh those mountains here but uh I'm going to get set up and uh tell some good stories today I think [Music] what an absolutely incredible Sunset I don't recall the last time I've seen one so rich in color I think we all just stared in it in a peaceful quiet for quite some time truly truly breathtaking Jesse and the guys got the fire going and everyone began to cook up dinner the air was filled with Savory smells and I think it's safe to say everyone this evening was very content I cooked up a simple dinner just sauteed up some mushrooms and cooked up a delicious ribey what more could a guy ask [Music] for all right steak's done medium mushrooms are sauteed smells pretty good just going to take a quick taste test here mushroom [Music] steak mhm yep perfectly tender perfectly juicy to go J the guys over by the fire [Music] good morning guys it was a a great night here at Camp a little chilly this morning but boy the sun has come up and just warmed everything up and that sunrise this morning H you got to love Arizona sunrises and sunsets okay so it's been great great to hear everybody's stories about you know their worst adventures and why they still do this but I said at the beginning the video I would share my story with you and it all goes all the way back to the very first time that my son Jordan and I went camping in the silver Jeep our JK for the very first time and we were out in the desert we had our backpacking gear we had just the basics we found a pretty nice campsite we set up and the wind started getting stronger and stronger and it started to get really really bad and uh I had an old Coleman stove that I had grabbed and I didn't even have a table we were cooking burgers on the ground and I couldn't keep the flame lit there was dirt blowing all over the burgers so we weren't going to be able to eat dinner and the wind just kept getting worse and worse and it was blowing dust in our faces and it got so bad that it flattened the little ground tent that we had because the poles just couldn't stand up to the wind that's how bad it was and so uh we didn't pack up we threw all the here in the Jeep and drove home and I think we got home at around 11:30 that night and it was pretty rough uh I remember being pretty pretty exhausted when that was all said and done but the next morning Jordan and I were talking and we were starting to laugh about it and uh and now it's just a great story that we have and ever since then it's just been you know yeah we're going to have some challenges out here whether it's weather whether it's mechanical whatever it is you know it's part of the adventure and you just got to persevere through it because being out here is therapeutic for you disconnecting enjoying nature there's nothing better than this and so yes there's going to be some challenges along way but some of those challenges make for the best stories we had had a nice slow and relaxing morning but Trent finally brought us together for a quick driver meeting to share with us just a hint of what to expect today I don't think any of us were looking forward to this adventure coming to an end today but we were eager to get out and do some more exploring and the dogs were anxious to get out on the dirt so it was finally time to put down some miles and make our way farther [Music] north because we will be Crossing through many different types of land areas today we'll be opening and closing many gates but you don't see many gates running across a cattle guard it looks as though the guard has just been filled with dirt and maybe this was the easiest way was just to add a gate that would be my guess anyway it was a little strange [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] all right guys we're going to be making a left off the road and it looks like there is another gate right here all right Jess Zach you know the drill copy that [Music] it's crazy what a little elevation will do we uh We've climbed up pretty good I don't know where we probably a little over 6,000 ft in elevation and there's juniper trees and pine trees just all over the place and uh up till now the trail has been pretty easy and wide open but now it's uh you can see getting a little more rugged maybe a little more technical uh maybe we'll get into it a little bit but honestly it's been just kind of a nice peaceful morning kind of had the radio off just kind of you know kind of clearing my head and just enjoying the drive in the scenery it's uh it's been a great morning so far love Arizona if I mentioned that before probably a th [Music] times the air up here is cool fresh and just filled with the smell of Pine and there's still an abundance of water up here from the recent rain so a few folks took advantage of doing a little freshwater wash down to rinse off the several days of dust they accumulated we soon found a nice shaded spot just off the trail and enjoyed some lunch and some good conversation we'll say this is a great group of people and I have thoroughly enjoyed spending time with all of them they just have the right mindset when it comes to persevering through challenges and having a great attitude R wheel with these folks any day [Music] [Music]

Channel: TrailRecon

Views: 134,190

Keywords: trailrecon, jeep, wrangler, overlanding, 4x4, adventure, trail, review, light, lift, tires, led, overland, rock, crawling, desert, forest, rubicon, socal, California, product, jk, tj, yj, cherokee, toyota, fj, cruiser, overlander, truck, bronco, four wheel drive, offroad, off-roading, off-road, overland vehicle, news

Id: DDZOnIMRgLw

Length: 35min 52sec (2152 seconds)

Published: Sun May 12 2024