Rockin’ in Florence
Junction
By
Mike Anderson
Offroad Section Leader
I found out that a
rock crawling competition by the Arizona Rock Crawlers was to be held in
the Florence Junction area for some local 4 wheelers. My friend Mark
“Sharky” Kenner asked me to be his spotter and compete with him.
I jumped at the chance and then I thought about all the work involved.
But I still was happy and excited to try it.
Since neither one of us has
ever competed, except between ourselves and other friends, we weren’t sure
what to expect. Then we talked to a
few of the organizers and the other competitors, and realized just how much fun
this could be. It was going to be
an ARCA style competition that has cones set up to give you certain lines or
paths across several obstacles. The
trail was set up with multiple obstacles and each one has a time limit.
Points are given for each time you stop for more than a few seconds, each
time you back up, if you hit a cone, and for winching or running out of time.
The team with the least amount of points wins.
When the date for the
competition came, it was canceled due to a lack of participation and the BLM
requirements and fees could not be covered.
After much discussion with the organizers and other competitors, we
decided to just go out and have some fun on the course and do a sort of
exhibition for bragging rights. Since
this area is open to OHV use, we didn’t have to get any special permits or
approval to wheel on the trail that had been chosen.
We arrived Saturday evening to
camp out and get ready for Sunday’s event.
Pulling into one of the camping areas we discovered that we had one of
the smallest vehicles of the competitors. (A 97 Jeep Wrangler with 35 inch
tires.) The other vehicles had 38.5 inch to 44 inch tires and we felt like we
should be shopping in the kids section of a department store.
Once we got settled and chatted with some of the others around the
campfire, we relaxed and looked forward to a fun filled day ahead.
Sunday came and we drove to the first obstacle. We were drawn last in line and waited for the others to get through and get a look at the course. This was a course that could make anyone nervous. Once it became our turn for the first obstacle, we discovered that we had a pretty large following of spectators cheering for the underdog. After looking it over, we made our plans, took a deep breath and started.
First, up a steep rocky
incline with a ledge to the left that we had to attack from an unfriendly angle.
Then, over and down the backside with a drop to the right that could easily tip
the vehicle on the passenger side. Finally, a hard left and out.
We finished in the shortest time without any penalties.
Now that the first one was over our nerves got tighter.
We realized that we were in the lead and it was just the beginning.
The second obstacle was
another story. We’ve watched and
talked to others and realized that this wasn’t going to be as easy as the
first. It was a simple, straight
forward ledge about 7 feet tall and after that a few large rocks that weren’t
as intimidating. We went for it.
Starting on the right edge of the rock face trying to get some kind of traction
and momentum up and over. This
obstacle had given everyone a lot of trouble and we were no different.
We got the front over and as I tried to put some weight (all 165 pounds
of me) on the front with a strap tied to the front bumper, we had a problem.
The rear coil springs and shocks decided
to get out from under the Jeep. We
make one last effort before winching over and we hear a loud snap! Broken axle. This obstacle was done with us.
After assessing the damage, we
decided we had the parts and time to replace it and go on. But after the adrenaline settled and we had time to rethink.
(This is Sharkys daily vehicle.) We decided to bow out. Later, as we watched the
rest of the group break parts and roll over, we knew that we had made the right
decision.
A great time was had by all
and the gang from the Arizona Rock Crawlers is already planning to do this for
real in the fall. We will be there
again. Thanks to Sandee McCullen and all the ARC members for a well organized
great time. See you soon.
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