It all started over the Christmas party, with talk of a camping trip over the New Year weekend. Stacey and Gordon pre-ran the trip and sent out the directions. Run the high speed dirt road “you can do at least 50mph” on Mule Shaw road. Stacy and family, Gordon and Kathy both left early Friday followed by Mitch and Susan that afternoon. Bill, Barbra and I leaving that night. The directions were great. Mule Shaw Rd was Mule shoe road; and we never did find the smooth 50mph road. But we did make it into camp. We got set up and enjoyed the fire and the company. There were a million stars out, and it seamed that you could reach out and touch them.

The Harker clan rolled into camp about noon on Friday, consisting of myself, Sue, my Dad From California and My brother Rodney all the way down from North Pole Alaska. Oh yea, we also had Kathy White who followed along despite my best efforts to lose her.

Rolling into camp we met up with other Range Riders Bill Garbutt, Barbara, And Mitch and Susan. Once we staked our claim and set camp, it was off to do a little exploring. I had found out Wednesday that the jeep games we were hosting were moved; we had to find the new area and get the lay out for our games the next day. We played in the wash, uhhh set the games up, collected some more fire wood, and headed back to camp for steaks cooked over the camp fire a little wine and some stories told, for some reason all about me. Listening to them you'd think I can't drive, get lost all the time, and have no sense of direction. Not So!

Then it was time to head to the main campfire for the Spook Rally and the Friday night costume ball. Who would think that out in the middle of know where so many people would come together to dance around a fire? There was kids trick or treating, a costume contest for the kids and on for the adults (really big kids) too. Some of the costumes where great, lots of imagination.

On Sunday October 23rd seven Jeeps departed the Charleston Burger King at 8:30 am for a fun run into the very scenic Chiricahua Mountains.

Going were Hugh Richards and “Bo”, Peter Cheesley, Bob, Patricia and Lindzie Norquist with “Magee” the wonder dog, Sherry Nicols and “Taz”, Trilby Arnold and “Foxy”, Mike van de Sandt, and Lutz and Rebecca Dahlke with jeeping dog “Lucky”. To get there we drove via Tombstone, Davies Rd, El Frida, Sunnizona and to the Chiricahua National Monument for lunch on top of Massai Point and for a quick tour of the visitor center to check out some Apache artifacts and a quick history of the “Tree Army” (the CCC - Civilian Conservation Core that developed most of the National Parks and Monuments in the US prior to WWII).

The following is an account of the 1989 Spook Rally. It is intended not only to entertain and tell some taled on club members, but encourage club members to sign up for this year's Spook Rally. Dave Harker has applications.


THE ‘89 SPOOK RALLY
OR
THE TOUR de FARCE GARBUTT, SPEED OF LIGHT HARKER AND WRONG WAY WHITE MEET THE DEVIATE DESERT SPOOK RALLY DEMONS

The 10th annual Spook Rally hosted by the Arizona Rough Riders Four Wheel Drive Club, was held at the P4W Ranch near Phoenix on the night of 28 October. The Sierra Vista Range Riders were represented by three vehicles and their intrepid crews. Dave, Speed of Light (SOL), Harker, wife, Sue and lizard-lips, Tiffany had the vulnerable valiant CJ-5. Gordon, Wrong Way (W3 White and son, David, drove the rock polishing S-15 pick-up. Yours truly, Tour de Farce (TDF), Garbutt and wife, Sandi completed the field with another CJ-5.

Saturday morning was clear and beautiful as Spook Rallyists participated in 4X4 games, psyched themselves for the evening’s ordeal and tinkered with procrastinated vehicle problems. After all, a functional speedometer and odometer are nice to have on a rally based on speed and distance.

Tension heightened as the sun set and the start time approached. There would be no moon this night. Rallyists already on the course were heard to say on the CB radio strange things. “Cock-a-doodle-do. We are here. We are here.” Expletives deleted. Had the rigors of the trail and the terrors of the checkpoints snapped their minds? Was this a coded plea from lost souls to the Rally Master? A S.O.S from desperate drivers who had unexpectedly crossed to another dimension? Our start times rapidly drew nearer as we pondered the evils awaiting us. Was the Rally Master as twisted a deviate as the liability waiver in the entry application indicated? 

Temporal Gulch, Beauty, Artistry, Wheeling: A Special Run

The sunny sky filled with billowing pillows of clouds that shadowed the mountains. Many clear running creeks threaded the spectacular scenery of Temperal Gulch. There a picturesque canyon hike, a class 3 4-WD challenge at trail’s end and a convivial group of 8 drivers with their passengers, cameras and sketch pads in tow made for a spectacular day’s run on Sunday January 30.

Fearless leader Trilby Arnold and her passenger Claudia Apperson and foxy in her YJ, Lady Freedom were met at Mustang Corner at 8:30 by Sherry Nichols and her Canadian guest Artina, in her newly lifted TJ, Gordon White with his truck on taller legs, Cletus Billote in his Zuki with his two dogs, Bruce and Georgia who will be joining our club next meeting with their dog in their YJ, Bob Keen and Glenn Gray in TJs, and Leon and Dorothy Behrhends with the Ugly Toy. Everyone came well equipped with a holiday spirit.

By chance this run reprised Lady Freedom’s maiden voyage made almost a year ago when Trilby led a run on this trail. This time the antelope were tucked in somewhere warm and out of our sight, but cameras were at the ready and we made several stops on route to sonoita including the shell station and the convenience store to purchase delectable munchies for some and breakfast for others.

As we approached Patagonia, Gordon told us of the light in the mountain that Kathy kept seeing when they would return from Nogales. One day he searched out the light and found a shrine where a candle burned. The shrine was dedicated by the Tellez family to fulfill a vow to God in 1941. It is dedicated to the memory of rancher Ward’s stepson kidnaped and killed by apaches in the late 1800s. White settlers in turn massacred a band of apaches. Of course these were not the band which had taken the boy. Much blood flowed across Cochise and Santa Cruz Counties as a result. Naturally we drove to visit this shrine and photograph it before turning back through Patagonia to Temperal Gulch.

A quick run was planned by Roger, Jerry and Jim for Sunday Morning. To test Roger’s new expanded springs and lockers and to test Jerry’s run notification plan. The plan must have worked. We had 12 or so vehicles turn up at Mustang Corners for the trip to Mansfield Canyon.

North of Patagonia is Mansfield Canyon, is a Class 3 run or could be almost a 4 if you take the hard ways.
The trail roughly winds up Mansfield Canyon going past many old mines and a couple of cabins and settlements. The first few miles were uneventful, just the rocky trail and boulder strewn wash. The first obstacle on the run is a small wash out or ditch; this crevasse about 4 ˝ feet wide and 4 feet deep tested both articulation and traction, not to mention driver nerve. With your vehicle laid over at a sharp angle, you try to pretend that this side hill dosen’t faze you. Oh, did I mention the tree just over your head?
Most made it through, just showing lots of air. Then came the Toyota, the high lift jack standing in the back of the bed was a natural tree magnet and you guessed it, it nailed that tree. Everything came to a complete stop so fast that the front wheels of the little toy came off the ground. After numerous attempts at different angles, speeds and running starts and near turnovers, it was obvious to all that the jack wasn’t going to give in and neither was the tree. It was either get out the tools and take out the jack or hit the by pass. So with clutch smoking, I retreated and sadly did the by pass.