Spare Tire Canyon

December 31, 1997

(Trip Report by Todd Zuercher [This was an unofficial, spur of the moment trip])

Thanks to the miracle of the Internet and good old fashioned telephones, we were able to round up 8 EBs for yesterday's run outside of Phoenix. Attendees included Dean 'Deano' Hathaway, Doug Schulz, Jon Hanna, Mike McCarthy, Jason Addink, Mike Lachance, Winston 'Brownie' Brown, and yours truly.

After introductions and breakfast/lunch at the Mine Shaft Restaurant in Cave Creek, AZ, we roared off for what we figured would be a short, leisurely run through 'Spare Tire Canyon', which none of us had previously traversed. The weather was perfect-much warmer than it's been around here lately.

The trail was very narrow from the outset with plenty of brush to keep our trucks from looking too shiny. We soon encountered some boulders in a narrow, canyonlike area. Jason Addink discovered why many AZ folks like to bob their rear fenders as he put a nice kisser on his rear quarter panel on his beautiful truck. In short order the trail widened into a sand wash with some tight turns that brought out the Robby Gordon in all of us; roaring engines, steering with the throttle, throwing sand, etc.

After of 1-2 miles of SCORE racing fantasies, the road abruptly took a hard right out of the wash and started climbing a steep, rutted, not-very-wide ridgeline to the crest of a hill.

The great view of the sun afforded along the narrow approach to hillclimb

I gave it a good shot and got stuck at a not-so-friendly spot. With a lot of heckling, I backed down and Doug Schulz gave it the ol' pilgrim-of-the-throttle try and roared his way to the top. Whew...at least we now had a winch at the top. I tried the climb again and got even more tangled up and off the side of this very narrow ridge. My EFI let me down for the first time ever here as the truck stumbled like it had an old carburetor on it and wouldn't idle right. After turning off the engine and starting over, it ran OK, but I still had some funny noises. I stayed put, wimped out, and let Doug winch me up the rest of the way(a first for me).

After my pathetic performance, McCarthy and Brownie roared to the top in fine form.

Jon Hanna showed us all how it's done too and got plenty of air time as his (t)rusty Colorado truck gave his brand new BFGs a workout.

On his second attempt, Jason Addink practically drove a wheelie up the hill but kept his foot to the floor and made it up too. Jason was one happy guy!

Jason's unsuccessful first attempt

Deano also ended up on the business end of Doug's Warn 9000 as his Carter carb just wasn't cooperating.

For those of you who haven't seen Mike Lachance's truck, it's a bone stock '66 with a 6 cylinder and even hubcaps! The ol' 170 was probably redlined as it and its Dana 30 pulled Mike up in fine form. Man, do old stock trucks work well! This hill was prime video material.

All this hillclimbing took at least an hour and so we were itching to get going again.

I jumped in my truck, turned the key, the starter made an awful noise, and then click, click. An hour later, the starter had been disassembled and a pile of brass pieces and black stuff fell out. Damn. McCarthy called the closest parts store, which of course had just closed for the day. So, minus a starter, Jon Hanna gave me a quick tug up the rocky incline and my truck was running again. The only caveat was that I couldn't turn it off for the next 4 hours!

We idled along a rocky ridgeline for awhile at which time McCarthy started grumbling that all he saw was motorcycle tracks on this trail-a foreboding sign of what was ahead as it turned out. After dropping off the ridgeline, we entered a wash with lots of motorcycle tracks in it and headed south.

We soon encountered a very, narrow canyon with high rock walls on each side and things kept getting narrower, and narrower, and narrower. BTW, this is the type of canyon where they always look for the bodies after the flash floods :-).

We were soon stopped by the vehicles in front so we went out in front to look. Jason Addink was squeezing through a very narrow spot with some help from some spotters but even worse was the scraping sheetmetal sounds we heard reverberating from further down the canyon. A few of us scrambled up the sides and ran along the cliff's edge where we could see Mike Lachance kissing his stock bumpers on both sides of the canyon wall ahead. But we knew Brownie and Doug had already made it through.

All went well until Deano got to the narrowest spot. All the backing and spotting in the world just couldn't seem to get him through.

"Brownie" (big hat) directs traffic, but no go.

Finally, he was wedged, and daylight was coming to an end. What we finally ended up doing was Hi-Lifting his rear end up to get some rocks out from under the tires and then Hi-Lifting his front end so he could drive off the jack. We did this several times and he was finally free.

Bumper gets a 'custom' look

Total elapsed time to get him 10 ft. or so: 1 hr.

Meanwhile, my truck's still idling away back up the canyon :-). Jon didn't have too much trouble and my pizza cutter tires got me through without a wimper.

McCarthy got wedged with his 12.50s as well but about half the throttle travel on his GT-40 EFI motor finally pulled his four rubber doughnuts through. I think Vaseline Canyon would be a fitting new name for this canyon, or perhaps K-Y Canyon??

Thankfully, Doug Schulz had scouted ahead during all this mayhem and discovered we were just about to freedom. After a quick blast up 11 Mile Wash, we were once again to the pavement.

Total damage tally was: 1 starter(me), 1 crunched flare(McCarthy), 1 dented quarter panel(Addink), 1 bent bumper(Deano), and lots of rock scrapes and scratches on several trucks.

A picture Mike McCarthy took from Deano's roof

I've never been in a tighter spot and a Bronco with 12.50s on 8" rims is the absolute widest vehicle that will ever make it through, right Deano?? No wonder we only saw motorcycle tracks up on the ridge!!

Thanks to Doug for winching me, Jon for tugging me to get me started, and all who helped with the starter work.

- Your trip reporter, Todd Z.