Mt. Peely and Sycamore Creek

In our continuing efforts to get out of the Valley of the Sun and leave our cell phones behind we packed the Jeep the dogs and some food and headed North. Intent Payson....but we stopped by Sunflower to check it out and decided to stay in the area. So we headed out looking for a campsite......

The weather continues to be perfect in AZ despite the look of fall in the hills. This photo was along the Mt. Peely road. The fire scar is from the 2005 Willow fire. A fire that took out almost all of the Ponderosa Pines, and now there are only snags and brush. Jennifer was reminded of North Carolina along the drive thanks to all the colors.
Since we found no campsites along the Mt Peely road, we headed back and checked out a few side roads. One of which sadly put the first Desert Pinstripping on the Jeep. After dodging Manzanitas and Oak Brush a turn around came to and we retraced the "nail's on the chalk board" route back to a good road. Then tried to tackle the backway into the National Mine, but being alone and the 3.5 rating of the trail Jonnie decided it wasn't worth it.
We finally found a campsite right on Sycamore Creek. Of course, the creek is dry, but it allowed us to start unpacking and get a fire going.

Thanks to good note taking from the last trip....Jennifer remembered the air compressor so we didn't have to swap blowing up a huge queen size air mattress with sheer lung power.

Perfect spot! No traffic. We had cell coverage and let the Hewitt's know where we were. They headed up and where there in just 2 hours! Not bad for living in a city of 5 Million! and being to get away to a quiet spot like this with 70 degree temps in November!

Jennifer enjoying a Blue Moon and nice little fire.

The night was great. It was really nice to have John and Lauren and their little friends show up. Lots of Beer and Sangria later lead to good nights sleep. Unfortuantley with 4 dogs, one is bound to wake with the first squirrel!

Jennifer made a great eggs and bacon breakfast for everyone. Then we packed up camp and admirred how our blond dogs, were all grey. It would be bath time when we got home!

First we needed to explore more. We took the Jeeps up to Garden Grove and hiked the Saddle Mountain trail. It was good fun and an easy trail.

Canyonlands

The JK took it's first long adventure. Jonnie and Carl packed up and headed to the Canyonlands outside Moab UT. The plan, thanks to the strict itenerary set by the NPS, was to travel the White Rim Road, a 100 mile cruise that put us midway between the top of the canyons and the Colorado River. The fuel, beer, and tents were loaded and the JK departed Moab for the 4 day 3 night trip.

The White Rim Road is an excellent way to see the Canyonlands. With amazing vistas and easy accessibility it was a great way to exlpore and capture some great shots.

Monument Valley

Gooseneck Bend of the Colorado River

Airport Tower looming over day 2 campsite

desolation and dependance on the vehicle

Murphy Campsite (49 miles in)

The Jeep JK Rubicon Unlimited

So after having a few offroad vehicles, and wishing I had just one particular one I finally pulled the trigger. Before it was even purchased I knew much of the modifications that were going to happen to it to make it a more capable platform. The entire vehicle has been built for gas mileage, daily driveability, exploring, and camping in remote places.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A really nice feature the Jeep came with was the navigation unit. It does not have very many offroad routes, but most major Forest Service roads are built into the unit.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bumpers both front and rear are LoD stubby. The styling is amazing. The toughness is bar none. The ability to have all the extras is perfect.

The front LoD bumper houses a Warn M8000 winch with MasterPull synthetic line and a stylish Poison Spyder Customs hawse fairlead.
For lighting we went with the HidX 4" lights (our favorite in the desert washes) and the factory fog lights.
2 D-ring shackles with toilet bowl washers (to stop any rattling) to add in any recovery situation.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The rear LoD bumper houses 2 Pilot 4" fog lights, the Hi-Lift jack, 2 fuel cans (10 gallons total), and a cargo basket. There are 2 recovery tabs in case we ever need to be pulled out of something that we shouldn't be in.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some additional lighting added were the Vision X Tantrums. These lights are intended for the Fast and Furious crowd, but with a simple pull of the brain box to these lights and we have a very simple under carriage lighting. Why? Because stepping on a snake or scorpion in the middle of nowhere is no fun!!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All of the lights are powered from an sPOD management system. The fuses and relays are tucked in really nice and water proof. The system has a battery low voltage cutoff, if we where ever to leave the lights on to long, the system shuts down and allows the Jeep to stil start up. It looks factory. The switches are mounted up in the cab above the rear view mirror.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The tires and wheels were a bit of a splurge as the factory setup is realy nice, but with a taller tire the Jeep gained 2" more ground clearance at the differential.
Tires are 35" Goodyear Wrangler MTR's with Kevlar built in the sidewall.
Wheels are 16" ProComp 7069 in matte black.
Held up with 2.5" Teraflex coils and controlled by Bilstein shocks.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I added a locking gas cap. It came black and I took the extra time and painted it to match the bright silver of the Jeep.





-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The lowest point on the Jeeps breakover is the Evaporation Canister. It's a giant hunk of plastic that helps with emitions. Why Jeep choose to put it at the lowest point is beside me. The fix: a 3/16" Poison Spyder Skid Plate. It's 1/2 the price of replacing the Evap Can.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A firefighter on the trail would be ineffective if he didn't have an ABC Fire extinguisher at his disposal. It's munted with steel band clamps and velcro to the roll bar.