TrucktheJake86
Registered Member
In April of this year, I got invited to do a section of the Arizona Peace Trail with some family and friends. Let me start off by saying unless you have nerves of steel and a serious roll cage, i would not recommend this portion of the trail for full size rigs. Its do-able obviously but being so high along such sheer mountainsides brings a serious element of danger beyond a typical roll over. We started in Kingman around 8 am and finally got to the trading post in Wikieup around 11 pm. Some of the older guys dont prefer to tent it too often so we stayed at the motel.
I had done some research on the trail before hand and saw some YT videos and didnt think much of it. Plus the group i was going with had already ran every other portion of the APT which is typically mild wheeling.. i knew going into it that it was a narrow mountain road but i think the run off from the melting snow made it a little more hairy.
We had 7 guys split between my 88 k5, a 4 door rubicon and a humvee. The trail itself was mostly mild but was a little narrow for comfort especially around some extremely tight turns where some big rocks were protruding out if the hill side. Bascially had to hug the rock and let your rear rim drag around it.. Also the snow melt had caused some serious ruts in the trail which took a bit of patience to get through.
A couple of breaks made it particularly challenging toward the afternoon. The passenger front shaft on the humvee broke and busted the break caliper and a brake line which we had to crimp shut with some vice grips. Then borrow a few bolts from elsewhere to re attach the shaft... this happened around 3 pm. The "band-aid" bolts broke again right after the sun went down. My blazer ran great, however around the same time as the first humvee break i hit a rock a little too hard i guess and my high pressure powersteering line burst and dumped all the fluid which made things all the more interesting.. We got the the trading post and then busted out the beer.. i think everyone was trying to keep their wits about them all day since the trail was a little sketchy.
After it was all said and done, i got to see some cool stuff like the Boriana mine and put my driving skills to the test. If invited to go on this portion of the APT again however i would most likely decline as the level of danger exceeds what i would like to put myself in as I have a young family..
I had done some research on the trail before hand and saw some YT videos and didnt think much of it. Plus the group i was going with had already ran every other portion of the APT which is typically mild wheeling.. i knew going into it that it was a narrow mountain road but i think the run off from the melting snow made it a little more hairy.
We had 7 guys split between my 88 k5, a 4 door rubicon and a humvee. The trail itself was mostly mild but was a little narrow for comfort especially around some extremely tight turns where some big rocks were protruding out if the hill side. Bascially had to hug the rock and let your rear rim drag around it.. Also the snow melt had caused some serious ruts in the trail which took a bit of patience to get through.
A couple of breaks made it particularly challenging toward the afternoon. The passenger front shaft on the humvee broke and busted the break caliper and a brake line which we had to crimp shut with some vice grips. Then borrow a few bolts from elsewhere to re attach the shaft... this happened around 3 pm. The "band-aid" bolts broke again right after the sun went down. My blazer ran great, however around the same time as the first humvee break i hit a rock a little too hard i guess and my high pressure powersteering line burst and dumped all the fluid which made things all the more interesting.. We got the the trading post and then busted out the beer.. i think everyone was trying to keep their wits about them all day since the trail was a little sketchy.
After it was all said and done, i got to see some cool stuff like the Boriana mine and put my driving skills to the test. If invited to go on this portion of the APT again however i would most likely decline as the level of danger exceeds what i would like to put myself in as I have a young family..
