It was raining a little when we got to Wickenburg at 9AM. Shad Bruce, Todd Zuercher, Winston Brown, and Dean Hathaway brought the four Broncos which made the trip. Shad had a friend along as passenger, named Richard (I think).

After we settled into the McDonalds for breakfast a tour bus pulled in and tried to swing around Todd's Bronco, stopping about a fraction of an inch from hitting his front bumper with the side of the bus. He moved his truck out of the way.

Mike McCarthy showed up soon after. He said he didn't want to take his Bronco out in the rain because the top wasn't installed and the unpainted roll cage was too rusty already. We went up to his new house in Wickenburg, where he loaded his family, including his visiting parents, into his F-350 Superduty 4x4 crew cab pickup. He also got son Robbie gassed up and ready to act as trail scout on his Honda XR80 motorcycle.

The rain had stopped by the time we left McDonalds and never started again, leaving it a beautiful day. Robbie led the group out to the river bed and was invaluable at picking routes, finding gates, opening and closing gates, and even carrying messages between vehicles as the strung out convoy meandered up river. Having seen Robbie since he was tiny, riding quietly in the back of Mike's rigs, it's kind of hard to adjust to him being such a competent little rider and guide.

We had lots of fun running damp sand and shallow water for miles and miles. At one point we stopped at a play area with many trails up and down firm sand hills. We played there for a while and then went on up river again.

Progress finally stopped when word came over the CB that Mike had taken the big Ford F-350 as far as he was willing to. The rest of us came back to where he was and had lunch, swapped gossip, etc.

After that interlude we went back to the play area again and Shad and Brownie posed for pics climbing a little berm.

After that the group split up as Robbie led the Broncos out a shorter way to Highway 93. Once at the pavement Robbie set out down the edge of the right-of-way looking for a way home without riding on the pavement. It was a good thing we spent some time airing up tires at this point because Robbie was soon back, explaining that he had come to a drop off he couldn't negotiate. After puzzling over what to do for a while, we loaded the bike in the back of Todd's Bronco and headed back to Mike's house. The entire McCarthy clan was nervously pacing the yard when we got there because they thought Robbie was coming back with them along the river bed, but he hadn't gotten the word.

Aside from the anxious family moments just described, it was a very fun and relaxing trip.

-deano