Spring Trip in the Sonoran Desert

Wow. Its a foreign looking terrain to me. That tent on the top of your vehicle is awesome. You trust that ladder for support? Is that safe?
 
Fiddleback said:
Wow. Its a foreign looking terrain to me. That tent on the top of your vehicle is awesome. You trust that ladder for support? Is that safe?
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The tent is from South Africa and is a typical rig for safaris. The slogan the manufacturer uses is "get off the ground and out of the food chain". The support for the extension is all at the hinge which is behind (inward side) the edge of the roof rack. The last few feet of the extension closest to the camera are dead space to access the door and have no weight. The ladder is permanently attached to the tent's lower deck frame and rated at 300+ lbs. We've never had an issue - unless you have a few too many beers and need to take a leak in the middle of the night :D

Here's a video of someone setting one up: https://youtu.be/fYn0Xe_hKNA
 
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M4Super90 said:
The tent is from South Africa and is a typical rig for safaris. The slogan the manufacturer uses is "get off the ground and out of the food chain". The support for the extension is all at the hinge which is behind (inward side) the edge of the roof rack. The last few feet of the extension closest to the camera are dead space to access the door and have no weight. The ladder is permanently attached to the tent's lower deck frame and rated at 300+ lbs. We've never had an issue - unless you have a few too many beers and need to take a leak in the middle of the night :D

Here's a video of someone setting one up: https://youtu.be/fYn0Xe_hKNA
Click to expand...

I have a friend who lives in Johannesburg, Aubrey here on the forum, who does a lot of wild camping down there and has had his Land Rover set up like that for years with no issues at all. His threads are another that are like mini vacations for me.
 
It has been almost exactly a year since my wife Melissa and I travelled to Phoenix, AZ to meet Phillip (M4Super90) and Meredith for the trip we wrote about in the “Arizona Knife Show & BBQ” thread.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...zona-Knife-Show-and-BBQ?highlight=Arizona+BBQ

At the end of that get together, we realized that we enjoyed each others company enough that it would be fun to schedule a future camping rendezvous in 2016. This trip was the culmination of that idea.

We met at a truck stop in Quartzite Arizona on Saturday morning and headed south to the KOFA National Wildlife Refuge from there. As Phillip already stated, our first stop was an area called Palm Canyon. This place is notable for having the only “wild” Palm trees in Arizona.

This is my wife Melissa well up the trail in the canyon.




Here are Phillip and Meredith with the Palm trees in the background in the canyon between the two peaks.




After the hike, Phillip heated up some pulled-pork for sandwiches from a batch he made the day before on his smoker. We pulled out some homemade salsa and blue corn chips to share while the pulled pork was heating up.




After leaving Palm Canyon, we headed south for ten miles along the highway before turning in another twenty or so miles off pavement to find a perfect camping spot. Phillip & Meredith’s high tech fully equipped FJ made set-up quick and easy for them. Their rooftop tent is really slick. It looked like a penthouse suite compared to our humble tent on the ground.






Speaking of ground, it was more like carpet of rocks with some Cholla balls mixed in to snag you if you didn't’t pay attention where you are going. This is not a campsite to be making barefoot midnight potty runs with no flashlight. Thankfully, our air mattress held up with no leaks.




The Sonoran desert is a ruggedly beautiful place. The plant life exudes a “Beauty and the Beast” character. Beautiful flowers and blooms combined with beastly thorns.






As the sun started going down, we got busy preparing for the evening.






I started getting the fire pit organized while Meredith was setting up the hibatchi.




Meanwhile, Phillip cut up fresh rosemary for the lamb loins while Melissa grabbed the tray of marinated chicken shish-kabobs.




We got the campfire going then started the kabobs as our appetizer before the main course. We certainly ate well that night, enjoyed some good wine, and hours of great conversation before turning in.






Breakfast the next morning was eggs, bacon, pancakes and fruit with everyone pitching in to do something.



Despite her reservations, Melissa managed to survive and enjoy a night of tent camping. Of course waking up to a cup of hot strong percolator coffee made her world complete again.

 
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After cleaning up from breakfast, it was time for our little knife show. Both Phillip and I have done some buying, selling, and trading over the last year, so we tried to bring mostly knives that we had not seen from the previous year. Meredith and Melissa each had their own knives in the mix too.










I think Phillip was most enamored by my Starry Night Hiking Buddy. It was an interesting conversation piece when it was glowing on the dinner table the night before.






I was very impressed with Phillip’s 40 Point “Lil Miss” in 3/32” CPM 154 with a nice high flat grind. Here it is with my Robert Erickson chef knife.




This is an amazing group too. Phillip’s Woodsman is tied for the best I have seen in that model. His Gaucho has one of my favorite handle combos and the Jarrett Fleming Skinner really impressed me with how comfortable the handle was in all holds. Meredith’s 40 Point Jack has a simple elegance about it.




Of course the majority of our knives were Fiddlebacks. Since Phillip is well known for his Bushcrafter (BC) collection, he had to bring a couple of new favorites to show off.




Both of these have exceptional fit, finish, and balance. Look at the tapers on these.




I have owned a few Camp Knives and handled a number of others. Phillip’s bolstered Evergreen custom shop production knife is one of my favorites of all time.




I picked up Phillip’s Wingman for the first leg of his pass-around review. Here it is next to my Osprey Raptor which shares a similar blade shape. I'll post my review of the Wingman in the near future.




After our little knife show was done, we started packing up for the trip home. Hey Phillip, is that my Starry Night Hiking Buddy you are packing in your sheath...? :eek: Yeah I know it was an “accident.” ;)





We enjoyed a farewell lunch in Quartzite before we headed in different directions on the highway. It was a great weekend with great friends. We look forward to sharing more adventures with you.

Phil
 
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Wow! Beautiful photos! Looks like you guys had a fantastic time!

Man, it's awesome seeing my little Tibo hobnobbing in such amazing company :D
 
mistwalker said:
Wow! Beautiful photos! Looks like you guys had a fantastic time!

Man, it's awesome seeing my little Tibo hobnobbing in such amazing company :D
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That is actually Meredith's Tibo now. It is a cool little knife. You did a nice job on the design.

Thanks,

Phil
 
It is a great to get two perspectives on what looked like a fun trip! That's a lot of great looking knives in one place. I have always loved that evergreen production camp knife of Phillips. It looks like you got your padre too Phil!

Thanks for sharing the great pics!
 
Thanks for sharing an some really great photos. The is one is the one with sun started going down with that ray of sunlight in love it. Chuck
 
Comprehensivist said:
That is actually Meredith's Tibo now. It is a cool little knife. You did a nice job on the design.

Thanks,

Phil
Click to expand...

If I'm not mistaken Meredith was the original owner of that one, I was using the word "my" very loosely there because it has my signature on it. Since there were only 33 of those made it's a pretty rare piece, but still cool to see it in such company! Man the taper on that BC is something else! It's as thin as the taper on my Handyman.
 
Looks like an amazing time guys. Thanks for sharing it.
 
Wow! What a fantastic showing from both couples. It was really fun to read along and see what a great trip you all had. Thanks so much for sharing. I love seeing all the good food and camp set ups, but seeing snippets of the knife collections you both have is truly incredible!
 
Wow, I've missed much on the forums lately. Great photos, desert landscapes are scenes that always grab my attention. Your tent top setup is pretty choice, I like that a lot.

Very cool to read some of the bonds formed over this little sub-forum, though I think between the two of you that awesome FJ would be overflowing with bullseyes, burlaps and bushcrafters if you guys didn't hold back showing off the collections.
 
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