Man. If you've never experienced an Arizona Undertaker Marathon you have to put it on your bucket list. The buggy's alone made it buggy porn and the skill sets were actually better than the buggies. For those that aren't aware, the AZ Undertakers have a massive club run each fall. They choose a set of trails at Florence Junction and a set at Table Mesa. They divide into 2 man teams and you have 12 hours each day to run all the trails on the list, both rigs... and these aren't baby trails. LOL

That being said, I was fortunate enough to be invited to tag along on the Table Mesa day of the Marathon. The TM trails on the list were (in order of running them): Die Hard, Collateral Damage (1 & 2 since they are combined as one trail now), Anaconda, Lower Terminator, Upper Terminator, Predator, and Annihilator (my ancient nemesis...). Any one of those is a great day of wheeling, plus I love Table Mesa, so I couldn't pass up the chance to do all of them in one day. Unfortunately, I only had three tires due to my racing experience a couple weeks go. Andrew hooked me up with a 37x17 old style Goodyear (that was 8 years old) and after pounding the rim from the race back into shape and mounting the tire, I was ready to roll. I had an open seat that Mr. Daniel Avis promptly filled and away we went!

We connected with the Undertakers a little after 7 AM on Sunday. Miller, Bernie, and Fred has run both days worth of trails on Saturday, but there were over 25 buggies a the BTG came site, ranging from Ashman and Andrew's Ultra4 cars, Woody's Tetanus Shot "XJ", to things that were on the set of Mad Max. Simply epic and I wish I had take pictures of all of them... but I wanted to wheel, so I didn't. LOL

Since we weren't part of a team (technically we're not Undertakers, plus Daniel and I didn't run Saturday's trails... if you miss one trail and you are disqualified from the Marathon contest) so we were put on at the kids table. LOL I love that my buggy was a "baby buggy" out there with 37's. We ran with Shawn Passmore, Jim Rosato, and Dan Felix, all great guys that I'm friend with and we get along well on the trail. It was a perfect day out at Table Mesa.




Since all the Undertakers were making a parking lot of Die Hard (and we weren't in the contest), we started on CD to "warm up". I love that CD is a warm up trail. Sheesh! Shawn's short wheel base with 35's made for some great shots, but all in all, we actually blew through the trail in less than an hour (all 4 of us), taking the line every once in a while, and not blowing up our rigs on the first trail.













Coming out of CD2, Daniel noticed my right rear (The 8 year old Goodyear Andrew hooked me up with) was hissing air. By the time we got to the end of the trail, it looked like this:




Bummer. But, we weren't going to let that deter us from having a great time. I parked my buggy at the top of the hill between the end of CD and the end of Anaconda, and we went on. The game plan was to retrieve it later in the day, get it off the hill and onto my trailer, which I would drive from the BTG campground site to the little road that connects to the main road. In truth, I was surprised it held air at all since that was the bent rim from the Bridgeport race that I fixed with a hammer in my garage the day before. HA!

I hopped in with Shawn, Daniel hopped in with Dan Felix and they became "Double D".

To make things flow a bit better, we opted to run the following route: CD, Anaconda BACKWARDS to tie into Lower Terminator, up LT, out to Pred, which dead ends into Annihilator (which is what everyone was there to see anyway).

Jim showed us that down can be challenging too!










Funny side note... during the process, Jim's winch controller had come loose and at some point he had run over it. The funny part was watching his face as he tried to process the statement "Man, you ran over your winch controller." He didn't know it had come off and evidently physics is his strong suite.

"Mark-Buggy" from right here on HigherGround4x4 membership was also out running with a group that was following us since we knew the trails. His rig is tits and he is such a great driver.




More Anaconda going down the trail...







I have to admit, I really dug the up CD, down Conda, up LT loop and will be including that as a regular run going forward.

Once on LT, we visited all our old familiar friends... Z turn, White Line, Terminator. No issues, no drama, but good footage. It bears to note that once I parked my rig, I became the video guy (and I have TONS of killer footage) while all of these photos are courtesy of Daniel Avis, who was playing the role of Michael D'Avy in this day's adventure... right down to walking the trails. More about Daniel's hiking adventure a bit later...


















No pictures of Predator as Daniel was riding with Dan and that trail is such a quick trail we didn't even stop once. LOL

the REAL attraction of the day was Annihilator. I joke that this is my nemesis. I've tried to run this 4 times now (twice with Geoff, once with Andrew, and then on this day) and something always comes up before we get there that keeps me from being able to run it. That being said, it was the epicenter of coolness. There were vehicles and lawn chairs already set up of people not wheeling, but had heard about the UT Marathon and had set up for the show. These pictures are cool and all, but until you stand next to the waterfalls and see the sheer size and scale of these obstacles, nothing does them justice.

Dan Felix was the first braze soul, skipping the "Hero Line" and taking the "easy line". Ha!




Daniel stepped out from behind the camera and enjoyed the festivities! I'll let him tell you what that was like.




I love Jim running AWAY from everything on this one... upper left.




and then Jim thinking he's stronger than gravity...





Next up was Jim himself. (we had parked Shawn's short wheel base with 35's back at the entrance... trust me. It was the right thing to do for all involved.) The Rock Budda made an appearance as well. I see he's not lost any weight since Cottonwood........










After a while, the next group - led by Andrew - caught up to us. Andrew choose to take the Hero Line. LOL

Andrew got the nose up...




This shot gives a pretty good idea of the angle and size of the Hero Line. This is not a horizon adjusted photo and you can see the entire length of his stretched Ultra4 buggy fits within the parameters of the obstacle.













Andrew broke a rear axle shaft, but still climbed the "easy line" and the 2nd fall with only 3 wheels. 500 horses makes a difference.


Tom Jacobson (who most of you met at KOH last year and who helped weld my aluminum D60 back at Hammertown, super cool guy!) walked right up the easy line!




Woody put on a clinic.




I will try to collect other shots and go through the 300 shots Daniel took a bit later. Suffice to say, the last obstacle put on a show all day long. Uriel owned it ( https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=450085965037486 ), Ashman owned it (also video below), and there were numerous stories being told all day. Last I heard, it had claimed 3 14 bolts and a 9". Brutal carnage on Annihilator. So good.

First 15 seconds is Ashman owning Annihilator. So very very good!

http://youtu.be/rHVhf9Aekqw

Here is a tiny sample of some of my raw footage. Once I ceased being a driver, my move guy side kicked in. I can't wait to create the highlight reel, but I also got some cool angle footage. This is the big waterfall on Anaconda (with the drivers going down it).




On a side note: Since GoPro announced that they had the GoPro Hero 3, the price on Hero 2's had dropped to $199 for the whole "Motorsports" package (GoPro2 and all the mounts). Mine arrives tomorrow, so I'll be adding a GoPro to the Contour for cool HD video and time lapse.

So... the adventure home.

Well, I asked Shawn if I could borrow his jeep to run up and get my buggy off the hill and then go get my trailer to get my buggy home. The plan was to leave Shawn's jeep at came since he was now on Annihilator and riding with Dan Felix. Great plan. Except for the part where a both comes out of Shawn's lower control arm and the front drive shaft comes apart as I'm turing off the dirt road to head up the hill to my buggy. Daniel and I start up the hill. I get about 100 feet and start wishing there was a Dairy Queen at the top. I get about 200 feet and realize there better be a frickin' hospital at the top (this is the big trail up/down the mountain after you exit 'Conda... the one the Bronco guys rolled on a couple years back and died). I looked at Daniel. I apologized to Daniel. I asked Daniel if he would walk up the hill to get my buggy while I worked on Shawns. My logic was this: we already have a mechanical emergency, we don't need a medical on also. Thank you, Daniel. He not only agreed to go, but did so immediately without a single word of complaining or "dude, it's your Jeep, you go get it". You are a true gentleman and servant and I sincerely appreciate your willingness to help old, out of shape fat guys.

Daniel got my rig off the hill, but Shawn's was jacked. So.... we took an hour and drive my Jeep (full on flat tire) back to camp to get my trailer so we could come get Shawn's jeep. Daniel was a good co-driver and kept telling me there was rubber on the tire, but I only fall for that once. I could feel it. Here is what it looked like by the time we got back to the trailer:




We drove back to Shawn's jeep with the trailer. Shawn wanted to fix his, so we worked on it for another hour and got the lower control arm back in place. The drive shaft was mangled, so he pulled it and drove home in 2WD. As we were working, the "corpses" started rolling by. Mangeled rear axles, shredded tires, folks on the strap... my personal favorite was happing right above us. A buggy broke a knuckle and were trying to get down the big hill that the Bronco's rolled down a few years back (the one Daniel saved my life by climbing for me). Eventually, there were 3 other rigs up there helping to no avail. The solution? They hooked his winch up to the top of one guy's cage and lifted him like a tow truck hook (front wheels off the ground) and hauled him off the mountain and to camp that way! I think Daniel has a cell phone pic of it. Truly "Geoffian" in its creativity and effectiveness. I was impressed!

All in all, we started at 7 AM an I was home by 5:30 in time to shower and head to our neighborhood church group meeting by 6. I quickly uploaded this deck of photos to FB to share the day and then CRASHED. I'm wrapping up at work right now, but can't wait to get home to start working video. That's where I'll be able to contribute.

What a great day! Thank you, Daniel!

Here they are passing us down the hill while we were still trying to fix the control arm issue, pretty awesome.





Also, in case you wanted another look at the tire... lol




I had a great time, walked most of the trails taking pictures but did ride some. Thanks again for letting me tag along Alan! It had been to long.

Here's a better shot of Uriel on the Hero Line (via Simon Saines)

http://youtu.be/Vfr53fX51f4

Tom on Annihilator via Derek Crase

http://youtu.be/5899-tYUEcA

looks like fun

how did Andrew roll? I thought I saw the winch out on the hero line?

offroadaz wrote:looks like fun

how did Andrew roll? I thought I saw the winch out on the hero line?

He used the winch once when he got off line to straighten up. Once straight, he back up and gave it a few more tries.

Here is how he actually rolled. He had the speed but hit a rock right at the point of ramp up and it kicked his rear sideways. That also broke an axle shaft and it went down hill from there.

Here is my video highlight recap (HD available).

Great times!

http://youtu.be/F7nP2TVPPBU

Looks like an epic day! Great write-up...

great write up and pics Alan!

A few more pics from the day...



















A few more pics from the day...

Totally awesome.

It's the trip that keeps on giving! LOL

I pulled a couple of screen caps from the video footage.