Located SE of Phoenix within the Florence Junction space, the Upper Woodpecker Trail is tucked away within the rolling hills of what as soon as was a preferred mining space. The space is nothing in need of a maze of previous mining trails that wind their manner by means of the washes and over the hills.
Ross and I met up with CJ John on the close by Texaco station at Florence Junction. It took about 30 seconds for John and Ross to speak me into operating Upper Woodpecker as an alternative of the path I had been serious about. With that call out of the best way, we left the fuel station and drove down the street to a spot the place Ross may park his tow trailer and unload his CJ-7. While doing that, John and I aired down and I pulled the pins on the TJ’s entrance sway bar. When we had been all prepared, we headed down the filth street to the path head.
It wasn’t very lengthy and we got here to the Fire Hole. John noticed Ross by means of the impediment whereas I snapped just a few photographs. Can you respect that entrance axle droop? Ross is operating 38″ rubber on his CJ-7. He made it look manner too straightforward!
They caught an image of me climbing up on among the rocks which might be in every single place within the wash. I opted round a lot of the obstacles and determined to save lots of them for one more day once I was extra geared up to deal with them.
I caught John and his son going up one in every of a number of traces by means of this impediment. It was steep sufficient to nearly (however not fairly) catch the underside of his spare tire. John has spent a good period of time out on these trails and I sit up for operating a few of these with him as time permits.
At the top of Upper Woodpecker, one other path begins, that being the Hi-Way to Hell Trail. This easy signal marks the start of the path. Axles shafts and stubs, u-joint, a hoop gear, and another misc. items adorn this fairly rustic signal. We walked a couple of quarter mile up the path to get an thought what it was like. I’ll go for now, however Ross stated he was slated to run it subsequent month with among the different native people. I may need to sneak on the market and take a look at the exercise on that day. It should may show to be very entertaining…..and I all the time be taught one thing from the path fixes.