We joined the Tucson Off-Road Club on the 27th of December 2008 to venture through Charouleau Gap. I was particularly excited about this run when Tat asked me to join him. I spent my childhood traversing the local trails with my grandfather in our 1966 Bronco’s. It’s an unfortunate part of life but my grandfather passed away October 9th of this year……..so, needless to say, this run was special to me.

It’s amazing to see how the sport of 4×4ing has transgressed since the days we took to the trail. Our rigs didn’t have lockers, maybe 31” tires, no winches, we didn’t air down, there weren’t any bypasses…..hell, we didn’t even carry shovels. Yet, we still seemed to manage our way through the trails. The night after the run, I went through some of my pictures and found these of us Shooting the Gap about 15 years ago (the pic to the left).

The run started with a meeting at 8am in the Catalina Basha’s parking lot. We started with 9 rigs I think, 2 of which were full size pickups. The pickups didn’t last very long – just as we started the trail one of the trucks had issues with 4wheel drive. He hopped in as a passenger in the other truck – which peeled off at Kiss Rock as he didn’t want to put any dents/dings and felt the bypass was too narrow.

In all the times I’ve been through The Gap, I’ve never been through when there was snow. There wasn’t a lot, but enough to make part of the trek interesting to say the least. It definitely magnified the beauty….snow, running water, deer, amazing views……not something you’d expect to see in the Tucson area. The most exciting part of the trip in my opinion was when the rigs were playing on ‘The Step’. As one of the club members was making his way up, his driver’s side rear tire came off the bead which caused his Jeep to abruptly move to the left…….right were his spotter was standing. Fortunately it was just a little love tap……notice in the video below that he didn’t even drop his sandwich.

The remaining 7 rigs made it all the way through with no other incidents other than the tire coming off the bead around 6pm. It seemed to take quite a while, but it was a damn good ride. Enjoy the pictures and video from the trip below!

Off Road Trail Tools