Monday, 5/21
I think we have a problem… and I go out on my own…
I awoke feeling much better. We’d ride out the remaining portion of the Battle Axe trail, which I had remembered being an easy ride, a friend and I actually finding our way through once by accident while looking for an additional river crossing.
It turns out it wasn’t so simple, as there appeared to be other possibilities, and I didn’t remember the long, uber-steep climb that we ran into. Scott simply wasn’t feeling up to it, and none of us wanted to get to far into this portion of the trail only to find that it wasn’t actually the way out. We decided that the best thing to do was camp back at the river again and wait until morning, when John and I would do some gear-free recon riding while Scott continued to recover.
The
dreaded cholla. If you ever see one of these, avoid it… hug a
saguaro or prickly pear, whatever, but don’t even get close to a cholla!
More from Battle Axe
More from Battle Axe
Back at the camp we waded in the river while discussing our predicament. I noticed that the square bank on our side of the river would be at just about the same height as the tailgate of my friend Drew’s giant (heavily modified) M715 military Jeep. As long as the river wasn’t moving too swift for the 6700 lb behemoth, he could back it into the river via the beach on the other side, load the bikes and gear, and drive out. Heh, that would be pretty cool, if we could contact him, and if he wasn‘t in Mexico.
While hanging out, waiting for the day to pass, we started to hear what sounded like a motor on the other side. While waiting for the “motor noise” to manifest itself, we discussed what we would do when it did. I said I would ask for a ride somewhere that I could make some calls, particularly to my friend Dan, to get a ride back to town and get the Battle Axe directions I had left in the truck, and to mine and Scott’s wives, to let them know we were okay even though they hadn’t heard from us in a while. My plan for Dan was to get him to take me back to the river camp, carry our gear across the river to his Ranger 4X4, then make his way around to the other end of the Battle Axe trail, while we rode out on gear-free bikes.
The sounds teased us for what seemed like an hour. Then, to our delight, a silver jeep emerged from the woods, and we got their attention.
I waded across the river with some clothes and other necessary items in a trash bag and climbed into my new friends’ Jeep TJ. The ride to Florence went by quickly, and they dropped me off at McDonald’s where I enjoyed a double cheeseburger and numerous cups of Coke and Powerade while waiting over 6 hours for a ride out.
I couldn’t get hold of Dan, but Drew returned my message and said he was on his way back from Mexico, and he would come out to get me when he gets home. He finally arrived around 8 PM, and once we got back to his house and picked up Pat we all went to eat at Manuel’s Mexican Food. While driving I mentioned my idea for his truck, to which he responded with one problem: it doesn’t currently have a front drive shaft… he has 3 though, and one might be the right length for a fit to his new doubled transfer case. Hmm… Dan called shortly after and was up for my other plan, so I decided to push that route. Dan said he’d call me at 10 am Tuesday after he dropped a visiting friend off at the airport.