Wooo.

So my best friend Bruce chan came over here from the California, and we were headed to those beautiful pools of water wayy up in the mountains. We took my big blue diesel truck.

Unfortunately it had a flat recently so I had no spare. No big deal! Right?

Right.

I got a flat, way up in the mountains, after I cut a sidewall on a sharp rock. I tried filling the four inch gash with tire plugs and that was a huge nope.

So I took the tire off of the rim and strapped the rim to my backpack. Bruce, me, and our 5 doglets hiked back out of the mountains, and into town 16.2 miles (!!!). The rim weighed somewhere around 50 LBS because it's made out of steel.

We also carried with us water, and I had an extra mag for my Mini Draco pistol.

So we rented a hotel, with our loyalist dogs, then rented a small passenger car (Big mistake, shoulda got the truck), and drove to within 4.2 miles of the stranded blue truck.

Before we left the hotel I got a new tire put on the rim. Truck tires are heavy, and when they're on a heavy rim, they're even heavier. I tried to drag the tire on a big wheeled dolly through the sand in the wash- big nope.

The dolly kept twisting and wanting to fall over, and it was hard as heck pulling it behind me. So i elected to strap the complete tire and rim to my US Marine Corps main pack, which worked surprisingly well.

Unfortunately, what started as a three hour tour aboard a small boat turned into a hellacious trek 4.2 miles uphill, maybe a 600 foot elevation change, through deep sand, all the way up to extremely rocky clay. A guy on a dirtbike decided to stop and check us out whilst we were hiking up the wash... He looked at me and said,

"Dude. You have a tire on your back." Buce told him, yeah, we're going to our truck, which he said is "Wayyyy up there."

He then looked at me and said,

"You poor bastard."

Towards the last 3/4 mile I was telling God, "I'm humping this tire WITH RIM... uphill... and it's on my back... God! Help me!" lol.

I get the tire on the truck and we set off. I get to, oh, within a mile of the road, and lo and behold, my freshly rebuilt steering gear decides to rip right out of the frame. Pictures to come. I literally lost all steering.

So, we hiked back to the rental car, and drove back to Prescott, where I grabbed my other small 4x4 truck, and my 600lb engine driven welder. It's getting late so we decide to stay at the ranch.

The next morning, we drive in my little truck back up the wash, where I try and force the steering gear back into the frame with large "C" clamps. The tearing on my trucks frame is significant, and wide, and the C clamps can only do so much.

So, I pull out a 16MM (Least used wrench of all time) box end wrench and cut the ends off, then weld it inside the worst tear. I manage to weld it up good enough to regain control of my steering.

I drive back to the road and have AAA tow my tuck back to the ranch.

We didn't make it all the way to the pools. My feet STILL itch and ache from all the walking... over 20 miles of walking with significant weight in our packs.

Bruce's doglets did fine, with the exception of his plump female, who suffered quite a bit on the trail. My two loyalist dogs wanted to hike more, in fact, during the last leg, they were pulling me so hard I nearly fell.

Good times. I think.