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---Reddington Pass Tank Trap Entrance---------

4WD moderate to hard
20 Minutes east of Tucson on dirt road
Has medium to hard obstacles with bypasses
4 miles, avg. time 3 hours
Excellent Day Trip, good learning trail
Mountain and Desert Scenery, Water formations and water falls (when there is water), old mines

by Mark Eddy

I had just finished installing my Allpro rear bumper and had an itching to try it out. I called up a few friends who love to wheel as much as I do and who could go at the drop of a hat (well almost). I had talked three others to join me on the bumper run, Tom Parcenue with a '82 trekker, locked rear and 38's, Robert Novelly in his '88 4runner, open and 33's, and Mario with a '82 Toyota project truck with 35's. I would drive my '93 4runner, locked rear and 33's, to take up the rear.

the Forerunner

We met on Sunday morning to decide exactly what trail to do that would test the bumper thoroughly. Robert let us know that he had no front axles so he was limited on what he was able to run. With that little obstacle we decided to stay in our own backyard and picked the tank traps on Reddington Pass, which is only about 5 miles east of the Tucson city limits. It has lots of hard parts, if you know where to look, and still was mild enough to let Robert go without breaking anything.

It travels in and out the wash and is about 4 miles long. This distance is approximate since there are several other trails that join or run across that you can do, which makes for a very long day if you are not careful. The entrance to the traps is very mild, we usually do this in two wheel drive. It is a good time to check for any problems and make sure everything is working well. About twenty minutes later we were at the tank traps.

view along the trail

The site was slightly disappointing, no water at all. The water is what makes this part very tricky and difficult. The whole trail in this area is usually filled with about 6 inches to 4 feet of water and sits atop slick rock. You really need to pay attention as to where you place wheels or you slide off and either high center or damage something. Without water the lines through are fairly easy and require mild attention. Here I decided to play on some of the bigger rocks and see if I could "set" the bumper. I succeeded. It planted against a large rock with a resounding thud. Everybody let me know that it worked

We proceeded to play a little longer while Robert took the bypass. He did not want to get left out of the fun and found a nice sandy spot to bury himself. Oops! Had he not had swampers on, he would have needed a pull. He buried the rear tires going up a sandy hill and found water about a foot down. He got those swampers spinning and slowly pulled to the top.

Mario's truck flexes through the rocks

From here to the next spot is fairly easy and very scenic. Gorgeous pictures of the mountains and of the plains. More slick rock and no water, but this area is a little easier and has good spots to test suspension travel.

With the trail dropping in and out of the washes one can usually find a great place for lunch. We chose a large open area, where several other trails come together, with large oak trees for shade. We ran into several other people out for the day who stopped and talked for a second or two. After lunch we decided to forgo a long trek into and then out of Cheva falls since Robert would probably have to be pulled out of there. We chose to leave the area via the chute, a favorite among everybody. There is usually a crowd joined at the top that likes to watch people come in and out.

Somebody is always either almost rolling or doing some type of body damage (usually myself) or just plain wowing the crowd with their stupendous feat. The trail out has some fun parts and hard parts depending on which line you choose. In between these obstacles is flat open areas with some wash crossings along the way. One of the more fun parts and a great photo opportunity is cresting the top of a large hill and if you know the right line you get big air every time. Around the corner from this spot is another good spot to test your vehicle. There are two, possibly three, ways to go up or down this part of the trail. Going down is fairly easy, just pick a line and hang on. The right side of the trail had medium boulders and makes a sharp turn a midpoint. This turn usually makes for an off camber lean depending on how tight you turned the corner, yea baby! The center had a large crevice down the side and either you straddle it and hope not to fall in or you stay on the side of it and lean into it, another off camber ride. The possible third way seems relatively new. It climbs straight up the side of the trail. It looks like someone needed a harder line and created this one. Not sure it practiced the tread lightly motto, so we chose not to even consider it.

Tom goes 3 wheeling

This particular day there was a group of jeeps that were showing a newbie some hard stuff and he broke, so we had to take the center line and be vary careful not to roll and hit the other guys. While conversing with these guys they let us know that there were a lot of people at the chute, as always, and it would take a while to get by. We were okay with that since we like to show off there. It took us about twenty minutes to get to the chute and sure enough, there were some newbies trying to figure out how to get down without doing damage or rolling. Now the chute had been The obstacle since I started wheeling and had become quite the rage. Everybody either comes in or goes out this way, and over the years the trail has become very bad on the bypass and worse in the other areas. There are now six different lines out of this area. Two we have made and used several times. One is fairly hard and will do damage if you are not careful, the other is a long, straight, loose, rutted, you get the idea, way out. The bypass has a large ledge in it and requires a little throttle to get up and will do damage if not enough clearance. The other ways are steep, off camber slick rock with dust on them, and the chute itself. The last two seem fairly new and again do not practice tread lightly, so those are out.

Robert chose to do the slick rock, thinking that enough horsepower will get him up and it did albeit allot of dust and burning rubber. The rest of us decided to use our second way out. I usually do the one that causes damage, but since my wife would kill me if I damage the runner this soon I choose to this way also. Mario got stuck about halfway up the hill and almost rolled it over on its side, but managed to straighten it out and get to the top in a cloud of dust. Tom usually makes this easy with his 38's and a locker, but this time he caught wrong and almost got stuck. He pulled it out at the last minute goosing the throttle. I had not done this line, ever, so i was slightly apprehensive.

Robert heads down

The people at the top just looked down and smiled, saying things like, no way, he's going to hurt that pretty thing. My friends just sat back and said "pay close attention and he will show you how its done." When I get in these kind of spectator events I usually try and show off a little, but not this time. I picked what looked like a good line and drove up. I did not spin a tire, loose traction, nada. I was totally floored, as was everybody else. They wanted to know what I had in there, etc. At that moment i was very pleased with the way the "caddy" was set up. I offered to do it again, but everyone declined saying that I cheated and made it too easy (I remember when I used to say that).

The last obstacle is a long, turning, uphill, boulder strewn, trail that is about 1000 feet long with a 100 foot flat spot in the middle to rest. It does have a bypass, but the bypass has become so hard that a new bypass was built to go around the whole thing. Robert had the hardest time of the day and almost had to be strapped up. He eventually found just the right line and made it. The rest of us tried it in two wheel just for fun and almost made it. We were done and appointments need to be kept, so we parted ways and agreed to do a harder trail as soon as Robert got his truck fixed.