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 well-liked mining space. The space is nothing wanting a maze of previous mining trails that wind their approach 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 occupied with. With that call out of the way in which, we left the fuel station and drove down the highway 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 have been all prepared, we headed down the dust highway 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 admire that entrance axle droop? Ross is operating 38″ rubber on his CJ-7. He made it look approach too straightforward!
They caught an image of me climbing up on a number of the rocks which are in all places within the wash. I opted round quite a lot of the obstacles and determined to save lots of them for an additional day after I was extra outfitted to deal with them.
I caught John and his son going up considered one 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 stay 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 cross for now, however Ross stated he was slated to run it subsequent month with a number of the different native of us. I may need to sneak on the market and take a look at the exercise on that day. It should would possibly show to be very entertaining…..and I at all times study one thing from the path fixes.