September 19th Box Canyon and Coke Ovens

[Chuy]

Sounds nice, still work :/

Cough Cough, sick day?

[pinchel (Rob)]

How many permits do we have already??

[pinchel (Rob)]

Just saw this trail update taken from www.experience-az.com

"August, 2015 - I ran through Box Canyon yesterday and attempted your northern bypass back to Cottonwood Canyon Rd. (the blue line). At 33 12.672, 111 17.259 I ran into a fence on the back side of the wash. You can see the trail continue but the fence has no gates and no way across it. I turned left and ran in the wash to 33 12.574, 111 18.276 where another fenced blocked me from continuing onto the trail, however, there is a faint trail along the east side of the fence that I followed to 33 12.363, 111 18.318 where I found a gate and was able to cross over to the main trail and make it out to Cottonwood Canyon Rd."

Not sure if this is going to affect us or not. I am researching it on paper maps.

[pinchel (Rob)]

So we meeting at the trail head a 10am?

[Chuy]

So we meeting at the trail head a 10am?

Seems like it but there really is no trail head at the posted address we are starting South and Heading North?

[Hammer (Avi)]

Google says my original map violates terms of service  So here is where to meet, right were 79 brakes for Price, I figure that should be an easy enough area to stop and air down at.  https://www.google.com/maps/@33.0812692,-111.3084597,13.25z

[Hammer (Avi)]

And yes 10 AM.

[pinchel (Rob)]

And yes 10 AM.

Sounds good to me. Not sure if we will be there by 10am exactly or not. The kids have a dentist appointment at 8am and we'll head out afterwards.

[Chuy]

Big thanks to Avi for hosting this run it was a great time, so much has changed over the years. It was really fun to re-visit this area and see the differences. It looks like more parts of the trails have been blocked off, sadly that has been the trend over the years. I didn't bring a camera for this trip but wanted to post some old pictures from the previous times I was in the area.

Some vintage Box Canyon/Martinez Mine pic's for comparison.

The shelf 2011, you can see the holes are all filled in by the rains with sand and rocks, it was practically a road at the time


2013, not hard packed like before but still mostly filled in by large rocks without any big holes, my buddies stock Jeep had no issues.


2012, I thought I had run martinez mine more recently but it looks like it was a while ago. This is the area at the bottom of the red play hill, its all blocked off now by a cow pond and cows.


Imagine being stuck behind this group while we aired down in Box Canyon


Here is a shot of me in the old beast negotiating the little squeeze area approaching the cabin.


The tallest vehicle with the most clearance in our group did not negotiate the squeeze so well


The entire group made it through with only that one vehicle taking damage.