The fun weekend started off meeting Saturday at noon at the Carefree gas station. Lee and the kids, Ryan, Mark & Shannon (w/friends) , Thomas, Andy G, Travis & Brody, Steve & Otto, and myself all met and headed out for FR42. The trail was easy but fun. There was a couple tippy spots for Mark who had 6 pallets on top of his X for firewood. Some small water crossings and little hills.
The weather and people were great.

Right before we got to the 7 springs recreational area, we met up with Marshall, Sharon & Jody and eventually Shanna. We were all craving a river camp spot so we decided to drive out to the cleanup area and camp by the Verde. The group got split up on FR532 and Sharon and Jody had to turnaround for home because of new tires rubbing on fenders. Sorry Sharon~ Had we all been together we might have been able to park your X and haul your gear out there.

Marshall, Thomas and myself went ahead to find the camp spot that I had been before. To get there you must do a river crossing and after all of the rain in Az lately, it was MUCH deeper than the last time. Crossing first, I went too far to the left and submerged my hood and almost stalled. After learning the hard lesson to stay to the right, everyone else made it over.

The camp site was great- away from everyone and nice soft sand to sleep on. Steve set up the master grill and everyone had full tummies and some people took a hit off Lee's knob. :-)
It was now time for the fire and although it started off normal, there was a lot of wood and pallets we needed to get rid of. It grew and at one point, was about 10 feet tall. Warm? You did have to stand back about 30 feet and I'll be going for my skin graphing next week to repair my burned legs.

There was a poor performance given by Steve and myself playing guitar, but Steve did play us 1 note of a song that he figured out. Brody and Thomas had an Easter egg hunt, Travis fell over backward on his chair, while Marshall and Andy had a debate. Shanna, Andy and Thomas won 4 wheel vendor shirts playing Xterra trivia~ FUN TIMES!!

The next morning while everyone wiped the sand out of their eyes and got packed up, Ryan and Marshall went up to the Ranger station to meet Mike & Kerry, Scott Moore and Dirt girl~ Marshall's friend with the Aztec X he's been trying to get to an event for the last year.

The cleanup part of the weekend was pretty easy, really. The area was in pretty good shape, so we were able to continue the cleanup all the way back to main road. Stopping occasionally for a good hill climb of course!

At the end everyone played on some gnarly hills and then headed to the Ranger station to drop off the trash.

Next was Dairy Queen for ice cream and good fellowship with the crew and swapping stories.

What a great group of people that showed up! Several Jeep drivers and others complimented the AZXC on volunteering and cleaning up the area that we all enjoy. The shirts gave us some nice recognition and the area is cleaner because of US!!

Send your pics to thomas@tekbytes.com so he can update the gallery.

Well - Sharon's not going to be happy about this - but I have to speak my mind. I'm not too happy about how the weekend worked out for her.

It was a well-known fact that Sharon was having issues with her tire clearance. This fact was posted and discussed on the very thread planning this excursion, and was the very reason (also stated on the same thread) why we were meeting up with the group near the Seven Springs campground rather than starting out from the freeway and taking FR42 along with the majority of the club.

This being the case, I can't understand why, when the decision was made to camp where the group ultimately ended up, no-one bothered to take into consideration Sharon's predicament and simply warn her that she might have problems. Instead, we found ourselves rushing to put away our chairs and dogs while we watched the leaders tear off down the road, destination unknown. If not for a few members, Spooky in particular, we would have been left behind.

We never expected anyone to make any concessions based on our vehicle's condition. But it would have been nothing more than common courtesy to explain the situation before dragging us along to waste another hour of our day, and another 1/4 tank of gasoline, only to find ourselves balked at a hillside (which would have later been a river crossing and who knows what else).

Sharon was really looking forward to this excursion - very excited to be a part of the group. She's done her very best to fit in - making all the meetings - helping out with the X-Terra triathalon... everything she could to show her support and do her part. I think it's a shame the decision-makers couldn't take 10 seconds out of their precious day to explain the situation to her. She was very disappointed to not have had the opportunity to camp with the group. And the fact that she was disappointed when it could have been easily avoided makes me rather upset.

Finally - this is NOT targetted towards any of those who stayed behind long enough to show us the way, or who tried to help find us a path up the hill that ultimately balked us. I sincerely appreciate your kindness, and I know Sharon feels the same. Thank you.

Keep in mind, these are my words - not Sharons. She doesn't even know I'm posting this. She's going to be upset when she finds out I did. So I don't want to hear any replies directed towards her. If you have an issue with what I've written, I'm the one to respond to.

I had no idea that the tires were THAT bad and could not make it over the hills. Call me car dumb, but by "rubbing" I thought she meant that it was getting stuffed inside the wheel well like Craig's do sometimes because they're bigger. If that were the case, she could have made it back there. Again, I apologize- it was a misunderstanding on my part.

In case you weren't aware, the camp spot was the same destination as the cleanup area. She wouldn't have made it back to do the cleanup either.

In any case, I understand why you're pissed and that's why I said I wish we would have parked her X and hauled you guys and your gear down to the river in our trucks.

I already emailed Sharon to see if she was ok- I felt and still feel bad that she wasn't able to go, because she was looking forward to it.

I just hope you 2 aren't soured on being in the club. I would have to say that it is the first time it's happened and I take full responsibility.

She said she has the lift on the way. Please let us know when you get ready to install it, so we can try and make it up.

First, I want to say that you guys had a great spot picked out for us and for the all the squeaks in my truck this week I think maybe we should have stayed there instead of crossing the river twice where we did. I went a little too far to the deep side Saturday morning on the way out.

If the knobbys are not all gone on those 31x11.5's yet and you did not know you were getting in for at least twice the price of the tires and rims when you put them on then I would proceed directly back to the tire store and start raising holy hell if they won't show you tires that fit for your trouble and the same dollar.

There were two obstacles on the way in and out that were worse than the ones that turned you guys back. Everybody rubbed something at least once. And the highlight of the evening was driving through the hood deep river to camp knowing the only way back out was back across. I think every spring under my truck squeaks. Spooky had a great description for it, like a cricket on crack.

And on a mostly different subject, Kudos to Scott for making it to top of the hill climb he should have slid down backwards.

Yeah, unfortunately IMHO, the only fix is either a 3" body lift or putting on the factory rims with the proper backspacing. A suspension lift will only fix the rubbing on-road, since the suspension will still need to cycle through it's normal articulation off-road. It won't rub all the time, but when you go through the moguls, it will still be hitting hard.

Thanks for all the comments guys.. FYI. We're looking at new rims and Discount Tire will swap them I like the tires so I'm keeping those. A 3" lift is in the works (slowly) and for most of what we want to do I think we'll be ok.. and if not.. we'll make more changes. Found some cool fiberglass aftermarket fenders (larger wheel wells)

Anywhobe.. nuff said by everyone..
See ya all later...
Sharon