Despite a large number of last minute dropouts, we had a good turnout
for the Clear Creek trip.
The trip started with a pleasant drive through rolling ranchland. We
made pretty good time into New Idria, in dramatic contrast to the night
before when Bruce & I had managed about 10 miles an hour along this stretch
due to thick fog.
Just past the collection of ramshackle mining buildings that comprises
New Idria, we passed a sign: IMPASSABLE WHEN WET. Fortunately, there
had been a week of dry weather prior to our trip and conditions were
about perfect. The roads were mostly dry, but not dusty, and there
were enough muddy places left to make driving interesting.
We overshot the turnoff to the first trail and rather than turning around
eight vehicles in front of Yahoos, instead powered up a 40 degree hillside
to rejoin the trail. Guess there's a bit of yahoo in everyone, even LROs.
At one point, a particularly large mudhole caused me to stop Spot and
call for wellies. Just then a group of dirt bikers blew past us and into
the mud. They stuck to the edges though and I couldn't be sure just how
deep it was. The last two bikers obliged by driving side by side directly
through the middle, splashing mud everywhere, and showing it to be only
about 18 inches deep. We all then drove easily through.
Our next challenge was a long muddy uphill. Walt looked like he
was having trouble in his Rangie when he started back down the hill,
but it turned out he was only showing off, reversing down so he could do
it again. Ben failed to climb the hill on
his first few tries. Turned out he was trying to do it in two wheel
drive. Once he locked his hub, he climbed right up. In his defense, Ben
stated, "The oddest thing happend. My right front hub disengaged on me. I
had engaged them the previous night. Somewhere along the way it backed off
half way. I shudder to think how much it was working my front diff. This
has never happend before and it makes me wonder if my hubs are going
bad."
Late in the afternoon we sent people down various trails to explore.
More than one vehicle was forced to back out. Rick and Ben found the
toughest. The road was crusty on the surface, but very soft once you
broke through. Ben watched Rick drive/slide past a rusting pickup body,
narrowly missing as he slid sideways several feet on his MTs, and decided
to hold up. The consensus was that the pickup simply must be moved.
Then followed a very entertaining, but essentially pointless exercise in
Moving The Obstacle Out the Way (But Not Really). Over and over, Ben
would use his Hi-lift jack to raise some part of the pickup and then
all the boys would try to push it over the cliff. They did manage to
rotate it on its axis, but left the front of the frame sticking out into
the road arguably farther than the body had been initially. Ben then
accelerated forward with bodies for ballast, blasted over a bump and
nearly lifted both tires on the right hand (uphill) side. Ballast bodies
dropped like flies, but no one was hurt. Ben didn't stop for 100 yards.
After the adrenaline rush died down, we all headed back up the hill and
off to the campsite.
From Ben's point of view:
I think this part of the story must have been related poorly by
either myself of Rick to the others after they caught up. Rick was in the
lead heading down a trail. The trail sloped down to the left at about 20
or 25 degrees with a ditch a the bottom. It was kind like this in
cross section:
_./
__ _./
/ \ __./
/ \./
/
To the left of the hump was a steep slope.
At one point Rick slowed down and then slid sideways into
the ditch on his left. So he pulled his left side up on the left bank and
stradled the ditch. I tried to stay high, but soon I slid into the ditch.
I tried 3 times to get out, but each time I lost confidence when the Rover
approached 40 degrees of list. So I followed Rick as we both straddled the
ditch.
Rick:
Actually I stradled on purpose. Seemed a lot more level and easier going.
Then I came around the corner and up to the pickup truck.
Ben:
All was well until Rick came to a stop. He tried to reverse out
and failed (I watched both of his high side tires slipping). I assume he
engaged his air lockers and backed out of the ditch. Then I got to see
what was stopping him. A pickup, sans axles, blocked the way down. It
was placed just right to block where the ditch was shallow enough for
us to get out going forward.
Rick:
When I realized there was a pickup in the way and that it wasn't going to
move I decided to try and cross over back to the high side of the ditch.
Obtained a real fun 30 degree plus angle trying to. My front tire wasn't
biting though to pop me out of the ditch and I was getting ever closer
to the pickup. At this time Ben had come around the corner and
stopped. I couldn't back up the way I came (stradling the ditch) as
Ben was getting stuck just back of me. I decided to
stop screwing around. Enabled the diff locks and backed out of ditch
next to Ben and drove forward around the pickup. I drove down to a wider
point on the trail and turned around. Drove back up to see if I could
winch Ben out or the pickup out of the way. But on the loose side slope that
seemed to be out of the question. About that time the cavalry arrived as
the rest of the group caught up with us.
Ben:
Since I didn't have the airlockers to assist, I tried to get out under
my own power. Dora went to about 35 to 40 degree list. I got out (by
climbing out the passenger door) and saw that I'd have to increase the list
before it would not get better. So we called for assistance. Walt came down
with his Range Rover. He offered to winch, but it we were worried about
pulling his Range Rover forward into me (and there was no good place to anchor
him) So some of the ditch was filled in to make a better ramp out for my
left side. Then it was decided to try to move the pickup to allow me to get
across the ditch without making a radical uphill turn (which would increase
the changes of rolling).
From my point of view, I wanted the tail end of the pickup moved
about 3 feet to the left to clear my escape path. We did that on the first
two lifts. After that the efforts were mostly pointless and may have
increased the risk of panel damage when I got out. But it did clear my
intended line out of the ditch and safety margine.
I pulled out of the ditch in
1st gear high range. The revs were about 1000 rpm until I cleared the ditch
will all 4 wheels. At this point I assumed that all of my ballast would have
jumped free (I know I would have if I was ballast). So I aimed as high as I
could (just in case I would start sliding sideways into the exposed front
horns of the pickup). I picked up speed to keep moving and was ready to turn
towards the lee side if the high side lifted. I never shifed out of first
gear, high range and stopped at the first flat spot where I could pull off
the trail (which was about 100 yards away). After reloading everything,
I turned around and when back up the hill without any further excitment.
Stephanie:
Despite the large number of Yahoos about, we managed to snag the main
camping spot at Spanish Lake (more accurately, Spanish Mud Hole), where
we engaged in the usual camp activities of eating, drinking and talking,
and for some people, sleeping.
On Sunday, with our numbers reduced by two early departures, we
negotiated tougher trails. The most interesting was a long slippery
downhill, followed by a long talus slope. Just before rejoining the main
road, a relatively steep and narrow off-camber turn caused some excitement
for Bruce who was in the lead driving Ben's Dora. As he came down, the soft
dirt gave way beneath his left front wheel and he turned abruptly left down
the bank to avoid a rollover. He managed to drive down the rest of the
way while sitting in the pasenger seat together with Jan, the offical
passenger. After we had piled rocks to fill the spots where the roadbed
had given way, everyone gingerly brought their vehicles down the way they
were supposed to. Not as exciting as Bruce's descent, but easier on the
heart rate.
After a pleasant lunch along Clear Creek, which happened to coincide with
a major ladybug hatch, two more vehicles headed for home. The remaining
four spent the rest of the afternoon traversing the lunar landscape of
the serpentine barrens.
On our way out we encountered the Mysterious Toilet Paper Barrier. Some
hillbilly types had strung a piece of toilet paper across the main access
road, for no discernible reason. In the interest of treading lightly,
however, I carefully held the barrier aside while we all drove past, and
then replaced it. I suspect this mystery will haunt me for a long time.
We called it a trip at the gas station at the Panoche Rd exit on I-5
about 4pm. All in all, another fine expedition. This area definitely
deserves further exploration, particularly since we only managed to do a
tiny portion of the trails.