Charleau Gap

April 14-15, 2007

We had four vehicles arrive at the Cracker Barrel for the run, Matthew and Stephanie in their XJ, Kurt, Toni, Patrick, Bagel and CC in our XJ, Pat, Donna and CJ in their TJ, and Matthew “Skeeter” and Mike in their Liberty .  It was exciting to have an all Jeep run.  We made Oracle just in time for the end of some sort of country ho-down, complete with a parade.  We stopped at the local Circle K and topped off with fuel. 

  The trail is just outside Oracle, so we were there is short time.  We were a little concerned when the Liberty had a bit of a challenge with the first hill.  A few line adjustments and it made it through fine.  The trail was challenging in some areas and we really did not see where the fire from a few years back impacted the area.  We only saw a couple of other groups.  We passed a small mineshaft up on the hill and decided we would turn around and check it out.  While trying to find a turn around, we ran into another group, about six TJs.  Having no good area to make a pass, we had to turn around into the river and we did some rock crawling back to the mine.  We stopped to inspect the mine.  It was an interesting mine shaft, but it did no go in very far.  We moved on through the wash and found a great lunch area.  After lunch we made it to the waterfall climb.  It was just as we remembered, with the exception on one additional path. There was the waterfall, the slick rock slope that was there before, and now there is an alternate path bladed in during the fire fight to bypass the tough spots.  We all opted for the slick slope and all had no issue.

  A few miles later we found a great suitable campsite.  It was tucked in behind the trees and has just enough room for us.  We all enjoyed watching Pat and Donna set up their Trailblazer camper, quite a quick task.  We had a great campfire and the usual fellowship.  Patrick brought along his “boogie ball”, a fun electronic game that kept us entertained for a while.  It was better than that old alligator tooth game he used to bring! The stars were out if full force and it was a great night.

Pat Neveau

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