This is being written for April, the Duncan Family, and Ron Duncan?s friends and fellow 4x4 enthusiasts and off-roaders. I will try to cover the last few days of Ron?s time with us and the love he had for Jeepin in general.
I?m not sure where to start - so I guess I?ll start things off with the series of phone calls I made to Ron and Aprils house starting a couple weeks ago. I recently retired, and my plans to wheel for at least 2 weeks were beginning to be all planned out. I called the Duncan home, and as usual April answered the phone and quickly called Ron. He knew I?d be coming his direction soon. We went wheeling locally close to Las Vegas only a couple weeks before and we?d talked several times about going to run the Caanan Mountain Trail. I was leaving San Diego and coming his way, however - he had two doctors appointments he needed to go to, so we spoke about doing it in a week or two once I returned to his area of the country.
In the mean time, I spent a handful of days in Moab, and a few more in Colorado with great friends doing trail runs and visiting. Once I finished these, I called Ron just before leaving Colorado giving him a heads-up that I?d be close to him in about 1-2 days. After discussing a few possibilities on a departure date and time, we decided that this past Monday the 23rd would be a good time to stop by in the morning, chew the fat for a few minutes, grab some of Aprils fantastic coffee, and then set out on our way to southern Utah.
We both towed our Jeeps behind our trucks, and left Boulder City, Nevada, approximately 9:00AM. We started north on I-15 and quickly arrived in Southern Utah near St. George and then headed east, towards Hurricane and then Colorado City. We made a quick stop off at Phil Howell?s home. As some know - Phil was the senior editor for 4WD & Sport Utility Magazine for several years, plus numerous other similar jobs, and has recently been offered work at Off-Road Magazine. Phil has been to this area we were going to visit, and we wanted to talk to him face to face about a certain location of the trail, and to chit chat for a while since he and Ron are friends, plus I wanted to meet Phil for quite some time since he and I have many of the same friends and we both have a history in the 4WD business and share a few common things. As things went, Phil shared some information with us and we started the rest of our track east and north towards the Caanan Mountain Trail area.
Ron and I stopped off at a filling station and small convenience store that serves fast food near Colorado City so we could pick up the last of our supplies and fuel up. I bought us both a fantastic hamburger, french fry, and soda lunch, then we headed out.
We parked our rigs at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes staging area, and transferred the remainder of our junk to our Jeeps. We then headed back south about 5 miles to the trail head, then headed west and southwest. We quickly began part or the trail which has countless turns that are narrow and this portion of the trail has a deep, mostly smooth sandy bottom to it. I was totally unfamiliar with this area, and not knowing which direction was what - Ron took the lead and we drove for about 5 hours off road before deciding on a place to camp for the evening, stopping occasionally along the way to enjoy the view and take pictures.
It was close to 8:30PM by the time camp was set-up and we started grilling hot links and beans for dinner. The campsite was somewhat sheltered from the wind, and we laid our sleeping bags out directly on the sand, deciding to pass on setting up a tent. The weather was absolutely perfect, and we could easily sleep under the stars and clear skies.
We sat up talking till past 1:00AM. We spoke about all sorts of things. April his loving wife, and Ron?s other family members were talked about a lot. Jeeps Unlimited, JeepBBS, NMVJC, AZVJC, and Colorado4x4 members (plus many others) were talked about and became the center of discussion too for quite some time. I?d like to be able to make a list of all the folks we discussed, but I don?t want to leave names out, so I?ll leave it at that. But be assured, many, many, many folks were talked about and he loved everybody! Those who he may have been at odds with from time to time to some extent, he mentioned are some of his most dearest friends in his heart. He mentioned respecting their views and wished things were better, but also knew that things are what they are, and that was just the way it was going to be for the time being.
We broke camp about 7:30AM Tuesday. We discussed attempting to find an old wood mill that?s in the area. Ron had tried to find it before, but had no success.. As we headed deeper into the trail, we came upon an area called The Mail Drop. We stopped off here for a while and did some exploring. After a bit, we continued west in search of the wood mill, but with no success after about two hours of searching. We had topographical maps on his laptop PC and GPS, but these didn?t point us in the right direction to help find this mill.
We then turned around and began to discuss staying an extra night we hadn?t initially planned on. We both wanted to head into town to pick up extra supplies, so we made our way back towards where we began our trail run. Ron and I intended to talk with his wife April and my sister Marie, to clarify some things and make arraignments for our upcomings events.
We stopped late in the afternoon for lunch probably around 3:00PM. Ron ate a tuna fish sandwich, and shared some cheese with me, while I ate some of my grub. We cleaned up the area as always & started another leg of our route back to our tow rigs.
After about 2 more hours of trails riding, we came upon an optional obstacle. Ron explained the line that he said worked in the past, and I attempted a similar one, but failed. Without going into too much detail - this is where our trail run came to a sudden close.
These are a few of the pictures I took along the way of our trail ride.
Please enjoy them!
Regards,
Joe Dillard
Thank you all for taking the time to read, view the pictures, and the nice comments in the threads. The outpouring of care from folks has been truly amazing and I know that April, Ron?s Family, and his friends appreciate everyone?s support!
Those who have contacted, visited, and spent time with me have been extremely helpful in beginning to put my head back on strait. Also, reading and hearing from folks means more than I could have thought possible. Thanks for all the prayers and support, we will not forget and it is much appreciated and helps. There comes a point where the pain begins to heal - and friends are the medicine which has provided me with the formula to begin this process. I truly thank all of you.
Ron Duncan, you were my friend. R.I.P.
Your Friend,
Joe Dillard