Departing the Memorial day camp site about 8AM the following members left for Mansfield Mine and canyon: Gordon & Kathy, Mitch & Susan, Dave & Vicki, Leon & Dorothy, Stacey & Angela, Lisa, Justin and assorted dogs.  As promised, we waited at the Patagonia School until 8:30 AM and left for the Temporal Gulch trail head.

Waiting for us at the trail head were Ray & Kenny and Peter, for a total of seven vehicles into the breach.  As we turned left off the Mansfield Mine road into the canyon, Dave noticed the road marker was missing.  We need to have the Forest Service replace this marker.

The first obstacle, left around the rock and up the hill was successfully negotiated by all.  Low  4wd up the canyon, through where the fence and gate used to be. Some new barbed wire laying on the ground indicates the rancher using that area intends to re-fence.  We need to make sure the USFS insist a gate be placed there.

Leon led the Range Riders 4 Wheelers run on Sunday, June 25, 2006. There were 4 vehicles:  Leon & Dorothy and grandson Anthony, Peter, Troy and Janet Weiss, and Mitch & Susan Hohstadt. The run went through Ft Huachuca west gate and to the back side of the Huachucas where we explored Scotia Canyon.
It was a beautiful run in the forest with some interesting spots for Troy and Janet to try out their new Rubicon. Club members provided great advice for first timers Troy and Janet on driving and conquering the trail. Since Peter has a Rubicon he was able to give some great specific advice on the Rubicon. Troy and Janet made it successfully through all obstacles with only Arizona pin striping. 

Met & left Mustang Corners. No problems on the way to Tucson. First stop was Circle K at Speedway and Houghton, for gas and last real restroom use. First problem of the trip was that Glenn had a dead battery. Electronic problems again. That put it at 2 weekends in a row. We had everyone else go the real meeting place Circle K on Redington. We got Glenn to the closest Checker store for the battery problem. At this point we were running behind on time so we called ahead, and had the rest of the group start to the trail head. (2 of us can travel faster than the main group.)

Susan and I arrived in the camp site Friday afternoon after driving most of the way in the rain, leaving us with a jeep full of water and hoping it would dry out before we had to ride in it the next day. Jim, Gordon & Kathy, Troy, and Hugh & Rosie were already all set up and ready to enjoy the night. After unhooking the jeep and setting up the RV, we were ready to sit around the nice camp fire ourselves.

Saturday morning dawned clear with no sign of the previous day's rain. It promised to be a beautiful day. Jack, Troy's father, joined us for the weekend of camping and we went exploring. Jim found a fun looking side road and we all followed him (what a mistake!!). Jim went up a little hill climb, and I followed. After reaching the midway point, I began to hear air escaping from a tire, not a good sound. I had sliced a tire pretty good. Gordon came up behind me, and he had also sliced a tire. After getting the tires changed on the hill side, we decided to not try our luck any further and just turn around and head back down the hill. This is where it got interesting. Gordon decided that turning around in the space provided by the road was too boring and wanted to charge up the hill side, dodging trees, scaring the !?%* out of Kathy, seeing if the cloth top on the Commando could survive a tree close encounter (it can't). When he finally got stopped he was wedged between trees behind and in front on a very steep side hill. I broke out my camp saw and cut the tree down behind him, allowing him to back down the hill and finally get turned around. On the way down the hill Jim discovered a fuel leak in his truck, so we decided we should head back to camp to regroup and relax a little after the morning's excitement. After Jim got his truck back in working order again, we decided to relax a little and play some holey board. After Jim beat everyone pretty soundly we decided to go exploring again before dark. We decided to go on a short loop trail close to camp that is pretty fun. Nice rocky sections, awesome views, a nice ride. Shortly after starting up the trail, Hugh broke a rear leaf spring. This caused his axle to move and rotate, and destroyed one of the caps on the u-joint in the rear drive shaft. He got strapped to Jim. Troy broke a front shackle mount, causing his front axle to move, causing his front drive shaft to pull apart. Troy got strapped to me. Eventually we limped back to camp for further repairs in the morning. 

The group of 4 vehicles departed the Shell station about 9AM Sunday, 12 Feb 06. Group leader was Dave. Members attending were Dave & Sue, Gordon & Kathy, Bill & Barbara, Tony, and Donnie (from Benson). 

Well, I started out from home to the Galiuro Mountains about 9AM Friday, 13 Jan. Maybe that was the problem; Friday the 13th. Heading east on I-10, down hill from Texas Canyon, I hear, on the CB a plaintive wail from Kathy: "You better drive this jeep and find out what was wrong. I'll drive the pickup with the tent camper." Uh Oh!!! Kathy never tows anything. I knew there was trouble for sure.