Brother-in-law Jonathan, sis Dana, and I tried to get people involved in outdoor events at our old church and that kind of worked for a while. We did this hike/swim a few years ago and had 3 church people actually sign up for the open invite, making our group 9 strong.
www.higherground4x4.com/forums/showthread.php?3433-Tonto-Narrows-7-5-10/
This time with a new community at hand, we sent an invite out to only a select few we knew could hack it. The day before, we had a little over 20 people in. After the usual percentage drop, we ended up with 14 people out on the "trail," including HG members Avis, Silversides, and LostOffRoad.
I use trail in a loose sense of the word because it really is a total off-the-beaten-path experience. There's plenty of internet info on the area all dead ending in a small secluded town being pissed off at too many party goers and trash leavers at the end of their car accessible road with only a gate leading to the wonderful clean creek water behind it. Now there are 3 gates up and a plethora of signed private property parcels between people and the creek, requiring a grand reach around to actually get to the playground of the Narrows and beyond.
So became the reason to high clearance it away from the town for 2 miles by truck, then ridge-walk game trails for 3 miles, then drop off-trail into a canyon, rock hop a creek for a few hundred yards, and then weave through sandy shored cat tails and reeds to legally access the water's edge only to do it all in reverse on the way out.
After all that, the creek prize is yours along with all the jumps, swims, falls, and small rapids you want to play around at.
We had a pretty solid group of people with us and I was impressed at how many people made it back to and then even climbed the waterfall at our stopping point. It was freeing also to not have to bring the "good camera," all while nervously trying to keep it safe wrapped up in a dry sack. Alan let me borrow his gopro and waterproof housing so everything was easy to document while not missing any of the fun.
Chris on the bigger jump
Me about to jump
Avis, friend, and sis made the climb under and up the falls
The giant reach around
