Mad Torque Real World Challenge 3, Papago Park PHX
 

Up next in the “to do” list for my Mad Torque is climbing one of the buttes at Papago Park in Phoenix. A pic from the wall of a picnic area:

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I’ll try to get the Mad Torque all the way up to the small cave on the top left of this butte. The mineral composition here is different that is why almost no vegetation grows on this buttes, they just look like a big swiss cheese made of rock.

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The camera light sensor didn’t work here, this is the first cave.

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After an off camber climb we made it to the top cave. My 5 year old girl is climbing along with me and the Mad Torque, so part of the time I’m checking her and the rest making sure the crawler does not tip over an ends 100 ft. below.
The buildings of downtown Phoenix are visible on the left, and the first ones of “uptown” Phoenix are barely visible between the rock on the right side and the shrub.

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Remember the rock wall from the first picture? You can see it circling the picnic area below. The smaller butte is visible and the golf course that is also part of Papago park. There are more than 140 golf courses in metro PHX, its a favorite snowbird destination. The mountain range on the left is South Mountain, the smaller formation next to it is called the ma-ha- tuak range, the most desolated area of South Mountain. I once hiked there an 8.5 mile loop, in the first 3 hours I didn’t see another human being. The mountain range on the far right is the Estrella Mountains. Long ago, Mexico started from there to the south.

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A view to the south. This is part of the buildings along Mill Avenue in the Tempe area, some of those part of the Arizona State University.

Papago park incorporates this natural area, plus the Phoenix Zoo, Phoenix botanical garden, the golf course, paths for jogging or bike riding and right next to it are a baseball stadium used by the Mariners I believe for spring training, plus the Phoenix Museum of History and the “Hall of Flame”, a museum dedicated to firefighting vehicles and equipment, there is also Tempe Town Lake very close.

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Another view below. Some hikers have died when slipping and falling off this buttes, so we don’t want to peer too close. We waved to a rescue helicopter that circled the butte while we were up here.. don’t worry we’re OK, no mechanical assistance needed for the crawler either. The new Towarpro 13 Kg. servo I just installed to replace the weak stocker is working great, more power and quicker response.

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This is the off camber section we had to traverse to reach the second cave. If the crawler had rolled over, it would have ended like 120ft. below in the next section of the trail. I actually had to help my daughter get down first here, then go back up to drive the crawler down.

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The crawler made it all the way down by itself without tipping or rolling over. It does not look like it in the picture, but the bottom half of the rock wall is nearly vertical. This is the only section where I had to give the crawler like a 2ft. nudge upward when climbing so the front tires could grab some rocks while I was pulling the trigger.

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Part of the descent with a plane on its landing course to the airport. It was actually more difficult with my kid in tow to make sure she would not fall, she climbs better than she descends… the crawler on the other hand had no problems at all, easy…

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Still going down, a couple little caves along the trail

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Back at the picnic area… it doesn’t “look” that tall does it?

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Then I drove around the butte back to the car, there is trail that loops it with an outdoor theater at the back. I’ve done laps here on my mountain bike before, counter-clockwise is harder, I usually do 6:05 min. Per lap.

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The next one will be longer and more technical...