Our group was lead by Nena Barlow of Barlow Jeep School and Joe Daro of Absolute Offroad. Bother very capable and knowledgeable instructors. The trail the we ran was Raw Deal at Table Mesa, AZ. This is basically a short trail in a wash. Not a sandy wash but a rocky, concrete like wash. It has several interesting obstacles but nothing to crazy (I saw that now).
Just getting onto the trail required that we go over this short concrete ledge. At this point I was getting a little worried as I had never even tried anything like this. It looked HUGE from behind the wheel. Looking at the pictures later I feel silly, especially after we got to the first real obstacle.
This was a waterfall ledge about three feet high. We all got out and walked around it and talked it over for about half an hour. Then the instructors did some demos of different lines and the issues that might come up. Then it was out turn. With something like 14 jeeps we all got to see several do the obstacle. This turned out to be good because by the time it was my turn I felt good about doing this. I had a little bumper drag but made it over fine.
Here are a couple more Jeeps on the same obstacle. Both of these Jeeps have higher lifts than mine but I have taller tires. It all seems to have balance out.
Just a little farther down stream we come to obstacle two. This little water fall was about a foot high and we went right through it. After the first one this one did not deserve discussion. Kathy got to ride over this one so she had fun spotting and snapping a few pictures.
After the second ledge we drove down a short rocky section of the trail. This was a little trickier than it looks as these rocks pretty good sized.
After the trail enters another wash we get this part below. This is not sandy at all. The ground is hard as concrete and filled with undulations and dips of all sorts. This picture does not really show how tough this really is.
Farther up the second wash we get to what I call obstacle three. This is a wavy, rutted part of the stream bed. At this part each wheel is doing something a little different and it takes concentration and patience to do it right.
At the end of this irregular section is a small climb. The picture below does not show it well but your passenger wheels have a clean straight climb to the top but the driver side has a double bump to navigate.
After clearing that bump we get to obstacle five. This is a big crack or crevasse. In the picture below I am taking a look at the obstacle as Nena waits. I was little worried as one of the earlier Jeeps cut a tire here.
Once I was ready Nena showed me the line I was going to take.
After the crack we turned around and headed back up the way we had come. Below is the first water fall but going up this time. After all the stuff we had done to this point I was still not sure about being able to do this. This thing looks really tough going up. I had learned so much I was surprised at how intimidating this was.
It turns out it was the cleanest I had cleared an obstacle all day. The Jeep went right up slow and steady.
It was an amazing, long, exciting, exhausting day and Kathy and I learned an incredible amount. Nena and Joe are great instructors and really know what they are doing. Their calm confidence made it easy to just do it. Check back for part two with videos of the cool obstacles.
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