The Repeat

It seems I have been hitting up NM wheelin spots in pairs, I went back to Rio Puerco yesterday. My parents came into town this week to visit and I wanted to take them wheelin. We tried a spot closer in Santa Fe, but it was closed due to "wet conditions", which means the snow is melting and making the road sloppy muddy. So we went down to dryer climes. I was able to find my way back into the Puerco without a guide, which was reassuring as last time we heard stories from our guides about people getting lost. It was fun to show my father around, see what his tundra could do, AND wheel toppless for the first time this year!









The other first for this trip was bringing our dogs on the trail. They were great. They rode in the back on the main trail, and got kicked out for any of the hard stuff. My Dad's dogs were in attendance and were much worse about getting in front of the truck as we tried to drive. I was proud of our dogs.




As far as the wheelin is concerned. I had allot of fun and showed off on many of the same obstacles I was shown last time. I did find one new very steep climb and have decided the 4-runner is a really good climber.



Here is my Dad's Tundra crawling up a sandy hill climb. The V-8 is obviously useful.



Deuces,

Leni

FINALLY!!! New Mexico Rockcrawling

Before I expound on my first NM Rockcrawling adventure I first have to tell you all about sleeping in the snow.

I decided one day that I needed to go backpacking in the snow. So I loaded up my bag one day and had Maggie drop me off at the edge of town. I spent the rest of the day getting very lost and slogging through hip deep snow. Los Alamos is surrounded by trails, but with 2ft of snow on them, I was having a hard time following the trail.

Once I finally got tired enough to stop and set up the tent the cheese/milk mixture in my backpack for mack-n-cheese had frozen. The hot noodles that I boiled only warmed up the cheese to room temperature. Despite luke warm mack-n-cheese, I was still full and happy.

The next mornings oatmeal was hot, but it still didn't make up for the frozen shoes. I walked really fast for the first hour to get those things warmed up. Despite the 12* midnight low I still had a blast.

Ok...on to Rockcrawling. I went down to Albuquerque to go wheelin in a new spot. Albuquerque is about 2000ft lower then Los Alamos and therefore has no snow. The place is called Rio Puerco. We arrived at the entrance and met up with some Samurais from the "Desert Ninjas". They are a great group of guys.

When you first get to Rio Puerco it looks like a motocross course. Once we got going we went up and over a big sand dune and down the other side. We went down into a dry river wash and followed the wash all day. We stopped periodically and followed trails up into the banks. Some of them actually got me twisted up.

















The real fun came toward the end of the day when we got into some "slick rock". We found some really good V cracks and ledges to climb. This is where the dual t-cases and rear 4-link really shined. My truck even impressed me.






I actually climbed this 3ft ledge.









The praise does go to Maggie for the best documentation of this trip. She is getting really good at taking pictures for me.



I will leave you with a little of what Maggie saw from behind the camera all day.

New Mexico Snow Wheeling

I will start my blog by documenting my first wheeling adventures in New Mexico. I will first say after moving to NM I joined the High Desert Cruisers a TLCA chapter out of Albuquerque. They are a good family oriented and relaxed group of wheelers.

Being that we moved to NM in the winter my first introduction of NM wheelin has been a couple of snow runs. First a New Years day stocker snow run, and then another trip to the same place after a big snow for a "Hardcore" snow run.

The New Years day snow run was a blast. Sans chains, I still did well because the snow was not deep. We drove non-stop all day, and no one got stuck, which means the best documentation the trip even happened is in my head. Here is the only proof I have of even going on this trip.
















The second run was more adventurous. We went to Paliza Canyon, which is in the Jemez mountains to the west of Los Alamos. An hour drive through the mountains got me to the trailhead and a waiting group of trucks. My adventures started with a pair of borrowed chains. I have never put chains on, much less chains that barely fit my worn 35" Goodyear tires.

After 30 min of guys standing around giving me orders I successfully installed a pair of chains on the rear tires. I would learn latter that might have been a mistake.

After chaining up and airing down we set off on the trail. Things were going great with Sean at the front in a FJ-40 with a 350 and 39" IROK's. The snow got deeper as the day went on. We eventually ended up in 4ft deep snow. It was great.




















When we got into the deep snow I realized how much my 4-runner sucks in the snow compared to the Land Cruisers. Pappy in a FJ-40 with 35" Goodyear MTR tires (same as mine) was able to get to the front and plow fresh snow.










I on the other hand had problems just keeping up in the tracks. I just kept spinning the rear tires.



















The biggest adventure came after we had turned around at the top and started back down. I needed to let Ali by me in his FJ-80, so when I found a wide spot I moved over...

Well I also got stuck, the only person to get stuck this trip. Oh well...it was fun.

The rest of the trip we just cruised back down our tracks to the trailhead and went home. It was a great trip. Next time I am going to put the chains on the front and let a bunch more air out of the tires. 15psi is way to much for the snow.

The next outdoor adventure I tried out here was a backpacking trip....more on that later.

Deuces,

Leni