2013, May 25th and 26th.
Surprises at the canyon
The rest of Blue tank rd (and yes, there IS a blue tank along the road…) is a piece of cake. An unpaved freeway as compared to what we’ve experienced yesterday. Just another example of how much you can trust maps…
As part of a staging area for horseback riding, there are even some pit toilets about half a mile from where we camped!
Yeah Baby!
Blue tank ends on Rincon, on which we make a right. Then we make another right into the dry bed of the Hassayampa river.
And it’s soft…Waaaay soft! And I didn’t air down…Yet… 4 high and I keep shifting between 1st gear (too much revs for our engine) and second gear (not enough power). This reminds me alot of driving in axel deep snow. Same feeling of only partially controling where the car goes. Left, right and center, she’s all over the place.
Fortunately, there are very few obstacles to hit and soon the sand becomes more drivable as it gets wetter.
Welcome to Black canyon.
Natural flowing waters are relatively rare finds in Az. This short canyon ends… In an oasis..
An oasis that gets the Minnie seal of approval:
This looks like a perfect spot for tonight.
Black canyon is a cool place indeed… But this being Memorial day weekend, the place crowds up pretty heavily for the afternoon with all kinds of 4X4s, quads and dirt bikes. It’s wonderful that such a nice place should be open to motorized vehicles of all sorts as well as non-motorized traffic and this completely free of charge if not free of flies… The little buggers…
When night falls, everybody’s gone home except for us so we look forward to a wonderfully quiet night near the river. We enjoy a nice river side dinner and retreat to our bed around 10ish.
It gets completely dark kind of late this time of the year so we’re probably sleeping even before the last bit of light is out. We must be, because we’re dreaming… Dreaming that we hear one, two, at least three, no, four trucks, with loud pipes (or no mufflers) driving right by our spot. They sound like they’re having fun. A lot of fun. Revving engines, spinning wheels in the sand in total darkness, guys yelling, gals screaming. This guy on a straight pipe dirt bike is… Teaching his passenger girlfriend how to ride and shift in soft sand!!!! He downshifts and I can just imagine her being overwhelmed by the new found power of the bike as she screams her lungs out…
“[To myself. Tabarnak!]”
“Honey, what time is it?”
“Quarter to midnight”
[Outloud] “Tabarnak!”
After a while the noise calms down. I hear them shut engines off and it gets quieter… For a while.
Then: BOOM… PAF…. WHIZZZZZZZZZ…BOOM…PAF……. It’s f…n fireworks time!
This lasts until f…n 3:00 am. We get to sleep in between BOOMS and PAFs and BANGS and WHIZZZZZ…….And OOOHs! and AAAAHs! It’s like trying to sleep in an amusement park !
At 4:00 everything is quiet again, only the river whispers her song in our hears, and then… The sun comes up…
Up early, we check out of the canyon, drive the paved road back to the truck and trailer, load her up and get on going on our long way back home to Québec…
What a mess…
Perfect camping spot:
Late may in tornado alley.
The aftermath:
The truck is more of a go anywhere truck than expected
It’s relatively easy to withstand the heat inside the cab so as long as it is dry heat…
Somekind of a table arrangement is still needed.
Need a new fridge (forgot to mention ours when south…And didn’t want to come back)
…Need a new engine??? (Hope not…)
Still a lot of work to do in and around the truck…
Stay tuned for akk the details and Adventures!
Ride in tours