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We started
early as the Table Mesa area is 25 miles north of Phoenix
and 70 miles from home. I picked up Pete and Sammy just
after 6am and Virgil at about 6:30. A lot of time to
talk but we finally made it to the cleanup base camp about 8:15.
After getting registered and and talking to a few people the
main intro meeting started and we were told what the day would
entail. They needed winches for hauling vehicles out of
the ravines so we volunteered for winch duty!! After
airing down the Jeep and putting up the 4x4Him banners, we
grouped up with Joe and a few others to head to the main
shooting area. I must make a few points here, 1) Table
Mesa is a beautiful area and looks to be an incredible place to
wheel and 2) I have not seen a wheeling area so fouled with
garbage as this one and it was really sad. People can say
what they want about the wheelers but the majority of garbage I
saw was from the shooters and people dumping. Back to the
cleanup, there were 3 vehicles at the bottom of the ravine in
this area, an old Dodge van, an old Chevy truck and a small car
maybe Chrysler product. I lined up on the van and another
Jeeper lined up with me to bring it up, it may have been
possible with one winch but with all the extra garbage loaded
into it and the 4 flat tires, it was best to split the work
between 2, safer also. Three vehicles lined up to pull the
truck up and the work commenced! Through this time, Pete
and Sammy were at the bottom of the ravine hooking the winch
hooks to vehicles and Virgil was helping a group of others
shovel trash into bags.










With the van
and the truck safely up on flat ground and the other group of
winches starting on the car, we headed off to another spot where
there was supposed to be 2 more vehicles abandoned in a ravine.
When we got there, the vehicles we already up on a flat surface
and since the pickups were still busy hauling the the other
wrecks out, we decided to tow these 2 back to base with the
Jeeps. The white jeep hooked up to the first wreck and
headed out and we hooked up to the second. A short way
down the road after bouncing across the rocks at 5mph, we ripped
the rear cross member out of the car and had to hook to the
front cross member and turn the car around. About 3/4's of
the way back, the lower part of the car broke in half and the
only thing left holding it together was the roof. We
limped it the rest of the way to base and the strap broke as we
were starting to pull it into place so we borrowed a chain and
finished the job. One other point to make here is a big
thanks to Pete and he walked behind the wreck a big portion of
the way back to base to pick up the pieces that kept falling
off. There were now 4 wrecked vehicles at the base camp.
With the wreck
safely back at base camp we went back to the area we picked up
the wreck to help in the garbage collection. There was a
roll-off dumpster in that area to handle the trash so we
started working. Virgil was raking garbage into piles and
the guys with shovels were picking it up, Sammy and I were
picking up bigger stuff and filling bags and Pete was farther
back helping a guy with a Jeep XJ, load big pieces on a mattress
and tow it over to the dumpster to unload it. It seemed
that in no time the dumpster was 3/4's full and we were being
called back to base for lunch.




. Once
back at base there was more evidence at the amount of work that
had been done, the dumpster there was full and there were 6
wrecked vehicles around it, there were also allot of happy
people, happy about how the effort was going!! .The BLM
supplied pizza and drinks and the Dirty SOB Quad Club was
there cooking hamburgers and hotdogs for lunch.


After lunch it
was almost time to head back to Mesa but, since it was Virgil's
first time off-roading, we decided to run him down to Lower Raw
Deal and hit the first part of the trail. The trail looks
like it will be real interesting to run full length but we just
did not have time. We went in as far as the crack and then
turned back, besides, we couldn't scare Virgil too bad on the
first run!


After our
little jaunt in the rocks, we headed back toward base to air up
and head home. Part way back we came upon a little (about
6" diameter)
wildlife trying to make it across the road. Not wanting
him to get run over, I got out and coaxed him with a stick.
he was not very happy with me but at least he lived to get
squashed on the road another day! From there we hit the
base camp and aired the tires back up and took one lat look at
part of the trash that had been collected.


All total
there was 114 people that showed up to help clean the desert and
these people FILLED 3-40yard roll-off containers full of trash
and hauled off 6 wrecked vehicles. Even the truck driver
that came to take the roll-offs out commented on the amount of
work that was accomplished. Of the 114 that showed up it
was estimated that about 85% to 90% of them were from organized
OHV clubs.
I also want to
give credit and thanks to the support agencies and 4x4 shops
that helped and supplied materials, food and drinks for this
event.
BLM Game and
Fish Sheriffs department 4 Wheelers Supply (they were also a
sponsor for our Jamboree) Absolute Offroad AZOHVC.
Thanks all for
the help and support of our desert areas.
God Bless
Kreation
Krawlers
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