Coke Ovens/Battleaxe Road

[jeffryscott]

John Shotts, myself and some folks from the Arizona Land Rover Owner's group met up Saturday morning for a fun and full day to the Coke Ovens near Florence. John had his beast, the 80-series Land Cruiser. I had my little Suzuki, which wants to be like the Land Cruiser (and followed it around like a little dog which admires it's older and much bigger friend) one Jeep and four Land Rovers (including my old one, sigh).

Boy was it a fun day. A few challenging spots. Some pucker factor on one of the optional fun hills for me and overall a fairly mild trail, but one you have to pay attention on. This was the first real challenge for the Suzuki since I put the rear locker in, so I decided to try to follow John Shotts as much as I could just to challenge myself. His rig makes almost anything seem like a speed bump. With just one or two exception I followed and am quite pleased with the results. Glad I have rock sliders and complete skid plates though.

Later in the day we drove through a very scenic area to Battleaxe Road, which comes out on Highway 177 near the Ray Mine just north of Kearny. The trail isn't on my GPS' topo map or in any of the books but Mike McDonald (pres. of the Land Rover group) was familiar with it.

Anyway, here are some of my pics:

http://homepage.mac.com/jeffryscott/PhotoAlbum18.html

 

[DaktariEd]

Jeff,
Looks like fun! Great photos!
I've never been but would love to go.
We should get a small group together from this forum perhaps and run it...
:victory:
Ed

 

[jeffryscott]

Jeff,
Looks like fun! Great photos!
I've never been but would love to go.
We should get a small group together from this forum perhaps and run it...
:victory:
Ed

Definitely let's go. I have to wait a month or so before I'm gone for a very long day again, but I would love to go again. More photos from Jon Christenson (a Land Rover club member) can be found here:

http://www.azlro.org/gallery/2006-01-07

 

[flyingwil]

I am sooo Jealous! I have been aching to go to the coke ovens since I learned the history of it! I definately want to go there!

Nice pic too!

Wil

 

[Ursidae69]

I've done the Coke Ovens trail maybe 3 or 4 times. It's one of my favorites, really beautiful desert out there. Great photos, glad the Suzuki performed well for you.

 

[datrupr]

Jeff. looks like a good time was had by all. Glad to hear the Zuk can hang with Shotts Cruiser. I have lived in AZ for more than 20 years and still have not seen the Coke Ovens. I would love to go and check it one of these days soon.

 

[jeffryscott]

On this trail I could hang with the Cruiser, for the most part, but there is no doubt that thing could crawl all over mine on most any trail it wanted. Although, I'm sure there are places I could squeeze through that he couldn't. All told, I'd gladly trade him straight across if he offered.:ylsmoke:

We definitely need to get a Portal outing, there seems to be a lot of interest. Maybe John could lead us ....

Let's plan something for February? Maybe Chuck can come from Los Alamos?

Talk to you all soon,

Jeff

 

[vanguard]

Neat pictures, it looked like a great day to go wheeling.

It's interesting to compare east coast to west coast wheeling. We have a lot more vegatation, which is beautiful too. But when I see your wide open sky I wish we had a few more breaks in the vegatation so that we could see out a bit further. Of course, right now everything is a big snowy/muddy mess in the mountains.

Here's a trip that my friends went on last weekend: http://www.ncttora.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1940

 

[Scott Brady]

The Coke Ovens trail is a perfect spring run. Wait for the rains and then enjoy the challenge, wild flowers and great area history.

A camping run would be a good idea, then you could include a side trip to Cochran and the route out to US60.

 

[ShottsCruisers]

Jeffry's Zuke was the beast of the day. Sure, the Cruiser has lot's of clearance and big tires but the Zuke was a miniturized billy goat.

I must say I was in shock watching it several times. That rig is another example of why I like running with various rigs. I'd luv that thing to show up at a Land Cruiser event. :ylsmoke:

It was a blast of a day. Battleaxe was SWEET.

 

[kcowyo]

That Zuke is super fast too!!

I really like this pic! - :clapsmile

 

[jeffryscott]

coke ovens, the movie.

Thanks for the compliment John and KC. I'd love to go out with the Cruisers sometime and if my wheelbase in the pic above was just another inch or two longer, I don't think I would have cleared ...

Tonight I played more with making a little movie, well, not so little, but a long movie of the trip.

Lot of video of John's sweet Cruiser.

Here's the link:

http://homepage.mac.com/jeffryscott/iMovieTheater19.html

I'm sure it is too long, and there is no lovely scenery like the Jeep commercial in another thread, but the countryside is nice and it gives a nice sense of some of the wheeling that still photos can't give you.

Enjoy,

Jeff

 

[kcowyo]

Great video Jeff!

Do you have an outside-of-the-Zuke camera mount or were you just holding it as you were driving? My speakers are shot, so sorry if it was explained in the audio.

What's the latest with your 109?

 

[jeffryscott]

Great video Jeff!

Do you have an outside-of-the-Zuke camera mount or were you just holding it as you were driving? My speakers are shot, so sorry if it was explained in the audio.

What's the latest with your 109?

Thanks KC. Nah, nothing fancy with the camera, just wedge it in tight against the mirror and hold on. Works pretty well, but when I actually have to pay attention, it doesn't work too well.

The 109 is still in pieces, stripped down to the bulkhead. Going to take a week s vacation this spring (I hope) to work on getting the bits transferred to the new frame. I hope to drive it sometime this year.

Jeff

 

[ShottsCruisers]

Reallllly nice video. Great job!

Gotta disagree on the favorite Zuke picture. :ylsmoke:

Here's my fav:

I lied. I have 2 fav's. Another: