Mariko and I spent most of the morning, with temperatures in the 50s and under sunny skies, driving to the trailhead for the eastern trail to the Baboquivari Peak.
The first quarter of the drive, I was able to drive in 2WD. Once things got seriously rocky and "technical" with large dips, furrows, boulders, fist-sized rocks or bigger along with lots of loose gravel, it was time for 4WD.
I even had to go into 4 Low on the transfer case for the steep bits, both up and down. During the whole outbound leg, I kept wondering to myself how the heck the guy with the Class C motorhome did it!
What Class C Motorhome you ask? Last year, when I rode Yagi, my Yamaha TW200 on this trail (and struggled at certain points), I had been surprised to find an old Class C motorhome camping out near the end of the trail! See LINK for that ride.
Next two pics, I posed Mariko right where I saw that old motorhome last year. That thing had to have been 4WD!
There had been some tough spots to negotiate prior to the campsite above, but they weren't as bad as what presented itself as I got closer to the trailhead! Besides the aforementioned ruts, boulders and rocks, there were also a couple of rock shelves with big embedded boulders to make life more interesting.
Still, Mariko made it, here she is at the trailhead. You have to walk from this point forward. Having tried it last year, I didn't try it this year.
Retraced the route to get back to the main trail. Managed to stall Mariko several times, even when in 4 Low. Mainly while pointing downhill and with clutch pedal fully depressed, which you'd think would have kept the engine running but nope.
Each time I stalled the engine, I had to use the "flooded carburetor" procedure to restart the engine. Still, each time Mariko started and we kept motoring along.
I liked the shades of blue among the distant peaks
Here's Mariko, safely back from that drive. She did great.
After 2PM, headed out again on Mariko as it was only 60 degrees Fahrenheit and breezy, which made it feel quite cool even under sunny skies.
I motored on into the wildlife refuge using Arivaca Road, noting again the presence of the three Border Patrol vehicles. They were sitting at the road junction, monitoring traffic I guess.
I drove up and down the main camping site access trail and only found 7 other campers and their rigs. Some of the campers were just truck campers and two were just cars. I eventually ended up near the admin buildings for the staff working for the NWR and from there back onto US286.
Returned back to the campsite, checking out the other three campsites on this side of the highway, that are close to my site. No one around. Nice.
6 comments:
The mountain peak is very distinctive and prominent looking, even from a distance.
I'm sure the peak's appearance was a major factor in the native american religious beliefs associated with it.
A friend of mine in Fairbanks has a class C built on an Dodge chassis cab w/4WD and Cummins diesel. He picked it up from the factory in Indiana.
And it sounds like it's time for the engine swap with EFI.
I want to say the Class C I saw appeared to be built on a Toyota Hilux chassis, but the pictures I took of it as it went by the campground later do not give that detail.
I never realized how much EFI had spoiled me when it comes to cars!
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