2nd Annual Chokecherry Canyon Cleanup-June 14th

[nugget]

Alright guys here is your chance to help keep Chokecherry Canyon open to the public. Chokecherry is located in Farmington, NM. The BLM (Bill Papich) has always been friendly to us but recently more and more crap is happening over there. We are holding a cleanup June 14th in Chokecherry Canyon. BLM is providing gloves, shovels, rakes, buckets, dumpsters, and everything necessary except trucks and people. Please attend if you can, this area is being threatened of getting closed down.  Also, there will be wheeling afterwards!

I will post more info as we get it and directions to chokecherry soon.  Please help if you can!

[Midnightminer]

Bump!

[nugget]

Description:
Chokecherry canyon is a very unique place in that buggies, very modified, slightly modified, and stock trucks can run the same trail and everyone will have fun; optional lines is what makes chokecherry amazing.  Don't want to do an obstacle?  Go around.  Can't make an obstacle?  Try another 30 feet over.  This area really is a huge playground for any type of vehicle. 

The cleanup is going to be Saturday, but if people wanted to come out early, to get the most out of the wheeling trip, by all means come out early and we can show you around.  Last year's cleanup lasted about 4-5 hours, which left a lot of time to go wheeling afterwards.  Sunday you can go wheeling as well if you feel so inclined.

Meeting time will be 8:00am-noonish Saturday Morning (June 14th, 2008) at the staging area (directions below).  We will be splitting up in groups to hit different areas that need to be cleaned up.  After the cleanup, we will all gather around and decide what trails to run and what trails everyone wants to do.       

Staging will be located at the entrance to chokecherry canyon, which is at the intersection of pinion hills and glade rd. (a large dumpster will be there).

Map of staging location:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=36.771411,-108.209796&ie=UTF8&ll=36.772236,-108.209796&spn=0.015916,0.029011&t=p&z=15

Direction to Camp:
From Pinion Hills Rd.
Turn off on CR1980 aka Glade Rd (chokecherry canyon)
There has never been a sign or anything to mark it whatsoever. But there are land marks.
* It's a canyon bottom at the base of a pretty big hill.
* it's on the right (north) and paved
* It immediately curves to right and becomes gravel/dirt
* there are street lights if it's dark.
* there is large wash on the right (east)
Stay on the main road. At ~+2miles you'll pass the "Glade run rec area/BLM" sign
You will then cross over the wash, then cross back after a ways.
2 TOTAL WASH CROSSINGS
After the 2nd crossing you'll come to a fairly large, well used "T" intersection on the left.
PASS IT!
Take the next trail that peels off to the left. It's just a few yards past the intersection.
You'll pop out in brown spring. Which is kind of like a parking lot surrounded by a big slick rock bowl. That's were we'll be camped.
Total distance is ~3 miles from pinon hills

Map of where camp is located:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=17429398579826337653,36.773710,-108.193470%3B13201069828820386689,36.808481,-108.177934&q=36.808481,+-108.177934&ie=UTF8&ll=36.809319,-108.177953&spn=0.015908,0.029011&t=p&z=15&iwloc=addr


Random Pictures:








Pictures of previous cleanups:



Hope to see you guys out there!!

[nj85toy]

Man i've heard how amazing farmington is and this is a great excuse to take my junk there!
I read the thread by mike about marlin going to farmington http://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=35581.0;highlight=farmington+takeover
and infernals trip out there http://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=35988.0

Can't wait!

[briansc33]

Yes sir!! Good 'wheelin for every level for sure!! More importantly we're helping keep the area clean and showing the BLM that (once again) we care about the area and want to keep it prestine for everyone to enjoy for years to come.
It is unfortunate how the area gets abused because it is so close to town and accessible to any average A@#hole to dump their trash. As true 'wheelers I believe it is our responsability to keep the area clean so we do not lose the privilege of 'wheelin such a fantastic area.
Please come out and join us if you can. We can use all the help we can get to keep the Choke Cherry Canyon area free from trash and open for all to enjoy!!

[nj85toy]

word man! can't wait

[nugget]

BUMP!! 

Couple of guys went for a quick recon last weekend, and holy crap this place is dirty  . This really pisses me off!!










[IMG]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t236/midnightminer/t9.jpg[/IMG

[DTB]

that makes me sicker than looking at the Disgrace to Off road pics thread 

[nugget]

yeah its bad out there

Every year it seems to get as dirty or dirtier, it pisses me off....

[Midnightminer]

Bump!

[nugget]

Bump!!
This is becoming a large event. 

Come show your support!!
The official starting point ***Saturday 8am June 14th.*** Is the parking area at the intersection of Pinon Hills and the Glade Road.

All permitting has been taken care for camping on Friday and Saturday in the Brown Springs/TO area. Encourage folks to come out Friday night and stay through Sunday if they want. Camping is "Primitive" style.

BLM will provide everything required in the way of tools, gloves, soda, water etc...

Rumor has it that the companies working the well fields in the area are going to do something nice, like lunch... but left it vague because they may freak if 200 people show up.

[Midnightminer]

   1802.148 in reply to 1802.147

*****New Directions to camp site****
C&P at will!

...The response for this event is amazing! So much, in fact, that we are moving the camping site to an area just east of Brown's Springs. The camping area is a large, flat grassland area and on the opposite (east) bank of the main dry wash.

The campsite can be reached 3.6 miles from the intersection of Pinon Hills Blvd and Glade Rd. and ~.2 miles past Brown's Springs. Turn right at the 4-way intersection, crossing the wash, and continue the follow the road to the right. You will see several very large red tanks and we will be camped in the large field adjacent to them. These red tanks are highly visible from the main road as well as from Brown Springs...when in doubt, head toward the red tanks, eh?

GPS to get you close... 36°48'37.09"N 108°10'27.43"W

Several folks will be rolling in throughout the day on Friday so spotting folks shouldn't be too bad either. We'll be the biggest group out there for sure!

See you out there!



Oh...and lunch will be provided too!

[nj85toy]

trash sucks, trashy people suck, dont suck, help get rid of the trash.

[ajordan1975]

really wish i could afford to go.   

[nugget]

Sorry it took me so long to get this up.  I have been beyond busy the last few weeks...

Degenerates trip report:

I left work at 5:00 Thursday afternoon and met up with Brian in Vegas, NV around 8:30.  He had already packed all of his junk, and we were ready to roll after getting some more Red Bulls and fuel.  We decided a couple days prior that it would be better if we were to drive all night and arrive as early as possible on Friday to unload and get setup for the cleanup.  We left Vegas around 9:00 on Thursday night with me driving.  The road down to Hoover Dam was swervy, and very narrow, which brought the suck.  We bombed to I-40 and continued our journey up to Farmington.  I was chugging Red Bulls and water to stay awake and was feeling really good.  After stopping for fuel 3 times, 6 Red Bulls, and 10 hours we arrived in Farmington around 6:30am Friday morning. 

No one was there yet, so we unloaded the truck and went trail riding.  After hitting RJ's and Arches, we came back to meet up with our other degenerates.  Joe and his wife, and Kevin were there, so we decided to hit Garage while we wait for other degenerates/people to roll in.  After Garage we met up with Danny and Tyler from Albuquerque and made dinner. Nick rolled up with Joe and this other dude (can't remember his name) after dinner (its probably around 6pm or so at this time).  We then proceeded to hit RJ's again where Nick rolled his junk.  Got back at camp around midnight and hung out for an hour or so before hitting the sack (at this point Brian and myself have been up for 42 hours straight). 

Woke up the next morning bright and early to get all the cleanup stuff sorted out.  Chandler and Steven showed up, our degenerates from Arizona!  The show up was rather dissapointing, but we made the best of it.  I would say there were 20 of us, with another 20-30 BLM guys and XTO energy guys.  In 4 hours we cleaned up 3 and a half dumpsters full of trash from the area. 

The BLM guys in Farmington are no joke, and are here for us.  Without them, this event would have been nowhere near as succesfull.  They stepped up in ways that I have never seen any office do before, and we are very lucky to have them in the chokecherry canyon area.  I, and the degenerates, deeply thank the BLM for everything they have done for us, thanks guys!!  Waste Management provided the 4 dumpsters free of charge, which was awesome!!  XTO stepped up big and provided a tri tip lunch with beans, potato salad, catfish, and a whole slew of other goodies.  It was the best Lunch I have seen anyone donate for any event I've been too, it was outstanding.  On their day off, the XTO guys came out and helped us clean up the area AND provided us a lunch, these guys are truly standup guys, and have my deepest thanks! 

After the cleanup it was time to hit the trail, it was nearly 1:00pm at this point.  We hit Ferrin's trail first, where Troy quickly rolled his junk.  After that we hit Beaver Falls where Troy broke his front output shaft on his t-case and proceeded to break his front passenger main leaf spring.  After a lengthy recovery we went back to camp and had some pizza.  After dinner we hit Cobra, and ran into the local 667 Rockers at the end.  We decided to hit RJ's with them, even though it was about 11am in the morning at this point.  One of the 667 boys was fully gettin it on a side obstacle and rolled his buggy hard.  The whole front of the chassis was busted, links ripping off, engine mount tube busted, support tubes all over cracked or busted.  It was the worst carnage I have ever seen.  It was a lengthy recovery, and took till 3:00 in the morning.  We woke up about 9:00am and waited around/rested a bit and decided to hit Waterfall trail.  Here is where we took our time.  We were beat from wheeling/driving the whole weekend (got about 8 hours of sleep in 4 days).  We would go some stop and hang out under a tree and continue.  The trail pretty much took all day and we headed back to camp for dinner.  Later that night we hit Arches and got back to camp around midnight.  We hung out till 1:00 or 2:00am and got up around 9:00am Monday morning. 

We loaded up our junk and headed home.  We landed in Vegas about 6pm, and I decided to continue my journey to Ridgecrest, and arrived home about 11pm.  Got up at 6am and went to work.  The best weekend I have had for awhile   Now for the pictures

About 5:00 in the morning near Shiprock:


Cleanup Pictures




Nick's Roll on RJ's


Troy's Roll Aftermath


Troy's Front Output and Leaf Spring



Rodney of 667 Rockers and his damage


Rest of the photos:
http://s143.photobucket.com/albums/r159/jeepnmaniac/Chokecherry%20Canyon%20Cleanup%20June%2013%2015/

Part I of video :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU3xCRjG1DE

Part II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR9iBP25SSQ

Part III
Will be up in about a week and a half....I will be at the Rubicon