The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by ERASER5

In all your trips to the middle of nowhere, have you ever come across any concrete arrows? These are large arrow shaped concrete pads made to direct old time airmail planes flying over, well, the middle of nowhere. I saw some pictures on the net and thought they were interesting.

While there are a few left in AZ, I have not ventured out to any yet. They are a cool relic of the past, so it definitely fits into my realm of curiosity. Might just have to throw it on the itinerary at some point here.

[ERASER5]

Cool!

[mosesburb]

At the beginning of July, I had some days off to use and being my wife and my boy were out of town I got a hold of my buddy Lance and hatched a plan for a day trip somewhere. We both went in my truck seeing as how his truck still doesn't have AC. We decided to run the Hassayampa and see where we end up from there. The Hassayampa is a river that is typically dry on the surface, but like many rivers in AZ, flows underground. The Hassayampa, in the area we were running upstream, flows underground through a canyon that varies in width from pretty wide to fairly narrow. In areas where it narrows, it forces the water up to the surface making large pools of water that must be crossed.



This particular pool seemed to be about the same as the others we had previously crossed, but it proved to be quite deep. We ended up washing the dirt out of the door sills in this pool:



This is at the end of the canyon where the river emerges from underground:



After we got to this point we looked at the map and it looked like there was a nice trail leading north out of the area we were in. We headed that direction and in a while, found ourselves in an area of dense mining. People mining everywhere.

The first area we came to was the old town of Octave. There was a couple buildings here, but with all of the mining and fences, one doesn't leave their vehicle to go exploring.



Some of the year-round miners on site:



Right near that area was Weaver:



Around the hill from there we found this odd building:



Any guess as to where the spider lives??



It even had an outhouse:



Neat looking hill nearby:



The town of Stanton is right in the area of all of these other towns:



This is the old hotel in Stanton:



This is an adobe wall of the theater/dance hall:



It is still in phenomenal condition.

A little bit of history of the area:



We continued up the hill and ended up in Yarnell for a late lunch. There was still plenty of fire damage around from the fire in the previous year.

It ended up being a great day trip. Lots of great scenery and a bunch of cool history to absorb. Good stuff.

[Dieselwrencher]

Cool trip! that's weird but cool on those rivers. Were you ever nervous about ending up down in the river at any point?

[Average Joe]

Cool pixs. Thanks for sharing.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Cool trip! that's weird but cool on those rivers. Were you ever nervous about ending up down in the river at any point?

Thanks!! It is not like the rivers and streams run in an underground tunnel, it just flows through the loose alluvial fill that fills the bottoms of the canyons.

Kind of like a trough half full of sand and a few gallons of water thrown in. Most of the sand is still dry, but the water can move underneath without disturbing the sand up top. When the canyon walls come together it is like the trough is narrowing forcing the water on the bottom up to the top of the sand until it gets past the point of the narrowing and goes back down to the bottom.

Originally Posted by Average Joe

Cool pixs. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks!!

[piratexpress1369a]

always great trips and pics

[1leglance]

Thanks to Nick I have amazing A/C front and rear so we can get back in that area and check out more stuff.

[ERASER5]

Originally Posted by 1leglance

Thanks to Nick I have amazing A/C front and rear so we can get back in that area and check out more stuff.

Pics or it didn't happen.

[1leglance]

Yeah Yeah....
Pretty soon I will have to pay Nick to update my build thread along with updating my rig

Or I could just wait till my rig appears in HIS trip reports and then just comment

[ERASER5]

Originally Posted by 1leglance

Yeah Yeah....
Pretty soon I will have to pay Nick to update my build thread along with updating my rig

Or I could just wait till my rig appears in HIS trip reports and then just comment

For some strange reason, I like the way you think...

[1985-GMC]

Hey where did you get that pull cable "cruise control"?

[1985-GMC]

I'm glad I searched Google for the post instead of going back through the pages. I thought it was just a few months back lol. http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...&postcount=837

[justcuz]

Nick,
I don't know what type of synthetic gear oil you are using but I've noticed that due to its thin viscosity it will evaporate when hot. I check my gear oil every six months now. Last year I changed the gear oil in my 2000 and returned to synthetic. I was running regular gear oil after installing a Lock Right a few years back. The Lock Right was a replacement for a blown G80. This January when I checked it, it was 3/4 of a quart low! No leaks at any of the seals or gaskets. When I checked my daughters 2004 Tahoe, same deal. I think GM started using synthetic gear oil in 1999. Both these vehicles see extended periods of highway driving, so I'm guessing the gear oil evaporates through the vent tube while on highway drives when the oil is really churning around in the housing.
Since you have invested a lot in this rear axle, it's something to keep in mind.
Hoping to see more trips posted. I always enjoy your pictures and narratives.

[mosesburb]

So, about a year ago, I had read about an abandoned train tunnel on an old alignment of the Santa Fe railroad in northern Arizona. I had seen a few pictures of it and thought it would be a fun day trip, so after doing some research on the area, I threw the boy in the truck and we were off to the great unknown.

The tunnel is east of Ashfork, west of Williams and north of I-40. After exiting I-40 we crossed a very old alignment of Route 66:





Along the way we passed Johnson Crater. I don't have any good pics to post of it, but it is kind of funny reading what people think caused it. It is a volcanic sink hole, but some people believe it to be an impact crater from a meteor. No idea what the rationale is behind that idea?? Anyways, before too long we find ourselves on an old railroad grade:



One nice thing about railroad grades is they are a nice gradual grade.



Shortly after this we came upon this seemingly insignificant obstacle:



It doesn't look like much, but we are on an elevated grade here and this area is washed out and the cut into the road is very deep. Now, after we returned I was doing some more research on the area and found a post somewhere that had some Toyota FJ Cruiser guys stopped dead in their tracks here because they said it is impassable by anything wider than a side-by-side. Good thing I didn't read that before we went as I would have known ahead of time that my Suburban would not fit. Not knowing this, however, allowed my very narrow and svelte Suburban to pass this obstacle with no troubles at all. Live and learn. I'm glad my truck is not as wide as an FJ....

Railroad remnants:



This picture shows some of the shoring used on the hillside to keep the grade in place:



A trip report wouldn't be complete without this:



First view of the tunnel:



A little closer:



I have read that the trail directly in front of the tunnel was a trestle and when they got rid of it they just back filled right over the trestle eliminating it as a fire hazard. I don't know if that is actually true or not, but I found it interesting nonetheless.

If you look a little above the tunnel and to the right, you will see the remnants of some history pertaining to the tunnel. Let's go back in time to WW2 when this line was the main line connecting the ports and factories of the west coast with the rest of the country. This tunnel held tremendous strategic value to the United States as well as those wishing to do her harm. It was decided that the tunnel needed protection from saboteurs. A guard shack was built up on the side of the hill offering a grand view of many miles of track leading to the tunnel from the west. I have read that there was also a tunnel on the east side, but I was not able to locate any remnants of it. Anyway, an armed guard was stationed in the shack to provide 24hr protection of the vital tunnel. This is what remains of the west guard shack:



We wandered around the hill on the outside of the tunnel where there was remains of a "service road/trail". My guess is it was used during construction as well as by the security crews. We found several can dumps along the way, indicating that it may have been an area used for preparing meals for the crews. Interestingly, the camps used by the tunnel construction crews is way up on top of the mesa above the tunnel. I have talked with a couple people that have hiked up there and they said there are no remnants of anything left up there.

The east end of the tunnel:



Because of the significant importance of the tunnel in east-west shipping, it was determined that the tunnel would benefit from a steel lining on the roof to protect from cave-ins. They used 3/8" boiler plate and hot riveted the stuff together in place. What a job.



It really adds a stunning element to an already super-cool tunnel.

As with so many places we go, the craftsmanship of the bygone era is very impressive. This is a 100% utilitarian tunnel, but instead of just slapping some grout in the walls, they actually took the time to trowel it off and strike the joints. Pride in workmanship.



So we came out the west end of the tunnel and we were wandering across the filled in trestle back toward the truck and I heard it first, but my boy saw it first:



It's right in the middle of the picture.

A cropped in cut of the picture to highlight the item:



It blends in pretty well, doesn't it?? I knew we were in no danger as we were on the right track of a two track and it was on the left side of the left track, but that didn't help my boy. He pretty much lost it right there. I then realized he had never seen a rattle snake in the wild before. If you've been following along, you know we have seen many snakes in our travels, but not a rattle snake when my boy was with me. It took some time, but I finally got him to calm down some. The whole scene traumatized him for awhile and it wasn't until we went over to my buddy Russ' house a few days later, that he finally started to believe what I was telling him about what they can do and how far they can strike etc. Russ is a keeper of snakes and very knowledgeable on the subject and was able to impart upon my boy the things to look for and distances to maintain for maximum safety.

So with that behind us, we ventured back to the intersection of the trail and the railroad grade where a section house once stood. We found some items abandoned in the area:



I thought this foundation was from the section house, but after some research I found it was actually the foundation of a bunkhouse. In my research I found a copy of the title when the railroad sold the section house to a woman after the line had been bypassed. I found a plat for the site too.

Bunkhouse foundation:



So we went wandering around the area and found, on the other side of a fence, the junk pile from the bunkhouse.



It was pretty neat as back then garbage was thrown over the fence and that was that. As typical the organic and paper had long since decomposed and or blown away, but the cans and glass were still there. One neat thing we found in the garbage was pieces of the dinner china used in the Santa Fe dining cars. Some routes had their own china and different time periods had different pieces as well. Really neat finding this stuff out there.





An old coffee cup:



So after we had our fill of junk, we headed back down to that old alignment of Route 66. We headed west to a place called Stone Dam:



In the early days of railroad the steam engines needed water--a lot of it if they were pulling a hill. One thing that northern Arizona is not known for is surface water. The railroad built a steel dam years before the stone dam, but it was quickly realized more water would be needed so they built the larger Stone Dam. It is very utilitarian and not much to look at. The Steel Dam, however is quite different.

The approach:



The underside with paint test information on it:



The business side:



Pretty neat. I had never seen anything like it before. So we got back out of where we were and back on that old alignment of 66. we went past where we had crossed it to go to the train tunnel and found ourselves heading down a surprisingly nice piece of old road:



We were on a shelf road on the side of a hill when we came to a washout:



On the other side of the washout was modern day:



Looking back the way we came in:



So we decided we had seen what we wanted to see for the day and got turned around and headed toward home. On the way back we stopped at a neat old alignment of US89.



It was really neat with the two old bridges right next to each other. I asked my boy if he wanted to head down the old alignment and meet up with the new road or if he wanted to head back out to the new road now. He opted for traveling the old road. My choice too. Maybe not the best idea though. The old alignment showed to meet up with the new road about 7-8 miles south of where we were according to my map. Well, it kind of did, but there was a game fence the entire way. We continued on looking for an opening in the fence, but never found one. All we found was more godforsaken pinion pine trees. The further we went the closer they got together and the narrower the trail became. I ma still cleaning that crap out of the truck to this day. We ended up having to back-track all the way to the new road to get back on it. No big deal other than dealing with the pinion pine debris. Man that stuff is resilient. We got back on the road and headed south. We stopped in Prescott for some food and came back through the Black Canyon as usual. All in all it was a fantastic day trip that will probably never be forgotten by my boy.

[stersam]

It's the simple day or weekend trips that I want to build my truck for. Only once in awhile for week plus trips. I love reading your stories, keep them coming

[ryanroo]

That steel dam and the riveted plate in the tunnel are sweet!

[Dieselwrencher]

It's funny you showed the pic of the rattler. I was just thinking, man he's crazy. I bet those stupid rattlers are everywhere out there. That tunel and dams are pretty sweet! It's pretty amazing what amazing things they made back then and they still look in great shape today.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by ryanroo

That steel dam and the riveted plate in the tunnel are sweet!

They really are. The pictures do not do any justice to the magnitude of the roof liner job. Amazing work considering the equipment they had available to use back then.

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

It's funny you showed the pic of the rattler. I was just thinking, man he's crazy. I bet those stupid rattlers are everywhere out there.

There are plenty to go around, that's for sure, but really, they don't want anything to do with humans. This one must have gotten spooked or something because it really was in no danger and had no good reason to be taking a defensive posture toward us. A rattle snake knows he can't eat us, so any rattling is defensive in nature. If he is within range, he could strike, but with us not being food, it would solely be to get rid of us. Usually a snake will remain quiet and not draw attention to itself while letting the perceived threat go away.

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

That tunel and dams are pretty sweet! It's pretty amazing what amazing things they made back then and they still look in great shape today.

It really is, considering the technology of the steel used is so archaic compared to the special alloys and engineered coatings that would be used today if such a thing could even be legally built anymore.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by stersam

It's the simple day or weekend trips that I want to build my truck for. Only once in awhile for week plus trips. I love reading your stories, keep them coming

Thanks!! That is a good plan for building your truck. I have seen so many purpose-built rigs that very rarely, if ever, see any dirt. It doesn't take much of anything to be able to go out and have a nice day/weekend on a trail in the wilderness.

[stersam]

I have a 73 c20 with a canopy and a friend is basically giving me the parts to make it 4x4.

[Average Joe]

Great trip with cool pix. Like you and others have said that is amazing workmanship on the tunnel and dam both. I really enjoy the history that comes with each of your adventures. Great experience for your son as well.

[piratexpress1369a]

Those are some awesome pictures and that tunnel blows everything out of the water with the workmanship
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[lower50's]

Really cool trip. That tunnel looks awesome!!!!

[Dieselwrencher]

We went to the Lake of the Ozarks last week. I saw a trail on the side of a hill and thought of you. I whipped the Excursion down it and my wife thought we were going down a hill side. It was hilarious, to me. Anyhow, the Ex needs a beefy rear sway bar to do the stuff you do. (And a front drive shaft) I had to turn around about 5 miles in it when the hill side was just gone and turned into a rock wall. No way the hi-way tank was doing that. LMAO!