 |
 |
 |
April 2008
|
CALICO CRAWLING What do you get when you mix sunshine, wind, friends, a rugged trail and about 50 jeeps? These were the conditions our group encountered on our Calico Trek. The trip began with nine jeeps and ended with about forty. Patience was the theme of the day, as it turned out. Up Mule Canyon and across the mud hills to Odessa was just the warm-up route. At Odessa is where the excitement came! Through the narrow walls of Odessa and across the rock obstacles (it seems to get tighter every year), we came across a Jeeper under his rig welding a U-joint back together. Around the corner was the first water fall, where we came to a stop. That is where we came upon a group of a half dozen vehicles scratching and clawing up. In this group was a "bone stock" TJ having a rough go of it. Our group pasted through without any problems. Steve Beck asked me, "Is this as tough as it gets?" I replied, "Be careful what you wish for!" A couple of turns later everything stopped again. We came upon 40 Cherokees and jeeps trying to get through the asphalt wash out. We were there for about an hour while we ate lunch and watched the entertainment. All of those Cherokees struggled through the pass and that stocker was strapped up. I was proud of our group though, we all got through it clean, no problems. One of our guests for the run, Dan McDaniel and his wife Cheryl, who have an ’06 Unlimited with a 6" Nth degree suspension., just slithered up like a snake. It was impressive to see. I thought the hard stuff was behind us, but up around the corner we stopped again. It seems that a buggy jeep was trying for some "extra credit" and rolled. When we got there, they were winching it back over. After the winch lesson, we hit the trail once again. When we reached the Bismark Mine area, we found that half of the group that was in front of us decided to stop for lunch. So we elected to "leap-frog" the group, continue down Dornan, and bypass Wall Street. Finally, we were making time until we came upon the Cherokees again at the waterfall. One broke down and moved off the trail. At this point, there was a group heading up as well. With some negotiations, we carried on and finished the trail around 3:00 p.m. We stopped to over-look the "Gate Keeper" and to look at a large group attempting the "monster", but it was getting cold and you could see weather coming in on us. The hardest and strangest part of the run probably was the trip home. The group that didn’t stay over, hit a snow flurry in Hesperia that reminded Bob and Pat of New England. Did we call this a "Snow Run?" Probably not, but we will call it a good day of wheelin’! Guests: Ryan Primosch and Cathy, Steve Beck, Tom Wanertus, Dan & Cheryl McDaniel. Members: Paul Coursey, Bob & Pat Matula, Rick Schaffer, Dave Trice, and Jon & Dale Rice.
SIERRA TREK Mark your calendar for Sierra Trek August 7,8,9. Cal Four Wheelers has reserved the Cisco Grove camp grounds for the 6 through 9 of Aug Other than that no other news about the Fordyce Canyon run is available.
JOSHUA TREE The April run to Joshua Tree will be an off-road geocaching run in the Old Dale mining district just east of Twenty Nine Palms. We are going to see how many of the 25 caches that I have downloaded we can get, probably about ½. There are over 90 caches within 5 miles of where we are meeting. If you don’t have a GPS you are still welcome to join us and see how offroading and geocaching work together and see if geocaching is something you might be interested in. If you decide that it’s not for you, you might want to leave us and drive through Joshua Tree National Monument and take in the wildflower display that is currently going on all over the park. If you plan on attending and putting your GPS to use please let Ric Jones know about a week before so he can send you a file with the waypoints.
Please check to make sure that you meet these minimum requirements. Click here. |
Copyright© 1999-2004 Fun In The Sun Fourwheelers. All Rights Reserved.
