Several Range Riders spent Labor Day camping, exploring trails, and having a great time in the Chiricahua National Monument area.  The group camped on Pinery Canyon Road, east of the actual monument.  Gordon & Kathy, Roy & Tabitha, Bruce & Georgia, and Mitch & Susan arrived early.  Stacy, Angela, Justin, Lisa and their friends Jerry, Nikki, Heather, Matt, and Faith showed up Saturday morning, since Stacy had to pull duty with the Army on Friday night.  Leon and Dorothy showed up Sunday.

We had a nice camp spot under the tall trees, but the area was crowded with lots of other campers.  John Winters showed up with the sand rail group from Sierra Vista.

Roy, Gordon and Mitch explored Rustler Park and Methodist camp road on Friday.  The Methodist Camp road was really washed out; they stopped when they came to a 4 to 4 ? foot cliff dropping into the wash where the road had been.  The guys decided to wait until Saturday to start out early and explore it.

Saturday Gordon rode with Roy who led the group up Methodist Camp road.  Bruce in his blue Jeep and Mitch and I  in our TJ followed.  We ran into the sand buggy group who were planning on working on building the road.  They politely pulled over and let us go first since they did not wish to hold us up and figured we could get through much faster.  The entire road was pretty dramatically changed from the rains.

The first major challenge was where the road had completely washed out into the 4 to 4 ? foot drop into the wash.  After studying the situation and putting their collective brains together, the guys found a slick slide drop to go down into the wash through the brush.   Roy led the way and found a small hole at the bottom for his back tire.   Roy winched out, has he given the club it?s dollar yet?  A lot of the road was gone ? we were pretty much finding our own way and blazing our own trail.   Gordon walked a good portion of the trail ahead of the group scouting the way.   There were quite a few interesting parts we had to figure out how to maneuver through but we finally came back out to the road.

At the top of the trail where we met the road again, the sand buggy group was awaiting us and applauded as we came out.  The trail had proved to be a lot more difficult than they had thought and their road building would have had to have been very extensive, so they had given up.

When we got back to camp Stacy and friends had arrived.  We all sat around the campfire sharing great stories and planning the next day?s run while trying to stay dry from all the rain that they had brought with them.

The group planned on going to Hann?s Pass where there was supposed to be a tunnel through the mountain.  A couple from Benson who camped next to us told us how the tunnel had been used years ago.  Horses used to take kids through the tunnel to school in Bisbee and then at night they would have to ride the horses back through the tunnel to go home.  The tunnel now is filled in.

We started out exploring with the GPS to find the famous tunnel.  We made a short stop at the mine.   We followed an overgrown trail to a cabin, and then a trail to another mine.  Stacy then found a special trail with an interesting play spot.  However, the trail then became so overgrown we got bushwhacked every which way ? but that did not stop Stacy.  We came to the end of the short road and turned around.  I had sticks in brush in all kinds of places and it wasn?t comfortable!

We then took the road back to Rustler Park, a very scenic drive.  On the road, I heard a rattling sound and looked down in time to see a rattlesnake slithering under the Jeep across the road with its tail rattling.   Mitch?s Jeep has no doors so I quickly jerked my foot inside.   That got my heart racing even more than Mitch?s driving.

It was a really nice scenic ride other than Stacy?s bushwhacking trail.  I think he and Mitch had it planned just to get me beat by the bushes.

We had some great times around the campfire.  Although the area was crowded everyone was friendly and we all had a good time.

We only had one incident on the way home when the tire on the trailer loaded with Mitch?s Jeep started throwing rubber.  We had to stop on Davis Road and replace it.  Mitch and Stacy are still trying to blame my driving for it (but I let Mitch pay for the new tire when we got home  ? after all, he should be thanking me for not wrecking his truck, trailer and Jeep with that bad tire!).

Thanks to Gordon and Roy for the trip planning and especially to Roy for leading the runs!

Here's some pictures from Mitch: