2nd Annual Chokecherry Canyon Cleanup Farmington, NM June 14th, 2008

[nuggett]

Hey guys! Thought I would let you guys know about this kickass event!

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=17429398579826337653,36.773 710,-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=ad dr


Random Pictures:








Pictures of previous cleanups:



Hope to see you guys out there!!

[zornff]

Choke Cherry Canyon is an awesome place to wheel. I would love to help the cause , but i'll be in the middle of mad prep for the Rubithon. Hope you get a good turn out.

[nuggett]

Thanks man!! Have fun at the Rubicon Were hitting it beginning of july

[zornff]

Do you know the guys at S&S machine. I bet they would help if they are in town. Just a thought.

[nuggett]

S&S machine? No, are they in Farmington? Never heard of them.

Sorry for the late reply, I was in Cedar City for the W.E. Rock event

[zornff]

Yep, they're in Farmington. The owner is Stanley Steel, the # at the shop is (505) 327-9409. Hope they can help.
Mike

[nuggett]

sweet man, thanks for the heads up!

[Trapper50cal]

Love that place, That's upper and lower playground right?

[nuggett]

two are on cobra, one is on waterfall, one is on upper rim, one is on RJ's, and the cleanup photo is next to big johnson.

Not familar with upper and lower playground by the name, but I'm sure I have been to them. There are just so many playgrounds out there it is unreal

[Trapper50cal]

Originally Posted by nuggett

two are on cobra, one is on waterfall, one is on upper rim, one is on RJ's, and the cleanup photo is next to big johnson.

Not familar with upper and lower playground by the name, but I'm sure I have been to them. There are just so many playgrounds out there it is unreal

All of that (the directions) sounds the same. I come down from Durango the back way, through Breen and all that. So I take a left, up a big hill after a softball field, down into the valley, take another left and thats where the pavement turns into dirt with a big sandy wash on the right and rocky goodness to the left. There was a sign a couple miles up to the right (a plastic "milemarker") That said upper playground so I assumed the place below would be lower palyground.

[nuggett]

Right on man! Yeah thats definitely chokecherry canyon.

Not familiar with the plastic milemarker. Usually the trails/playgrounds are marked with steel yellow signs embedded in concrete. That's not to say its not upper and lower playground, it could be.

You gonna make it out man??

[nuggett]

Bump!
This place is dirty

[Medusa]

We were there the last week and April, and it is very sad to see the trash. I hauled half a grocery cart and some other junk out from the Crap Shoot I will be with you in spirit (since it is a pretty long drive from Orygun)

[nuggett]

Thanks for picking up trash from crapshoot!

Chokecherry canyon is one of the best places to wheel in the country, and it is very very sad to see this much trash out there. This area could get shutdown, and it pisses me off that the local asshats don't even care. They continue to dump more and more; knowing we will pick it up for them, which really pisses me off.

We are trying to figure out ways to stop the dumping from the asshats. If anyone has an idea on how we can stop them, please let me know!

If you guys can't make it this year, there's always next year!!

[nuggett]

Bump!

This is looking to be a fairly large event

weeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[nuggett]

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.

[Altan]

I'm in Roswell for work would love to join you if I can. How far away is it

[nuggett]

about 6 and a half hours

Would love to see ya up there if you can!!

-Nick

[Midnightminer]

...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!

[Trapper50cal]

Originally Posted by nuggett

about 6 and a half hours

Would love to see ya up there if you can!!

-Nick

Hey Nugget, sorry I didn't make it, was planning on it up untilk Friday night when my buddy con-ed me into latching onto some other guys going to Aztec Rock Gardens. We were both gonna come help until one of his buddies talked him into going with them. MAN, greediness cost us kharmically---4 trucks 3 broke. My buddy broke a rear longside axle on his 40, I sheered my pinion gear and a big Dodge broke his outer yolk front passenger side wheel. I told him, if we just would have stuck to the plan to help on the clean-up, our trucks would still be intact. Once again, sorry we missed it. (on may counts)

[nuggett]

Wish you would have went, it was good times.

I guess you had some good ones as well though

Next year man!

I'll get pics/vid up in the next couple of days hopefully

[nuggett]

[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:

jeepnmaniac/Chokecherry Canyon Cleanup June 13 15 - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting



Part I of video :

YouTube - Chokecherry Canyon Cleanup-Degenerates



Part II

YouTube - Chokecherry Canyon Cleanup-Part II



Part III

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