First Real Rockcrawling Adventure

We went out to a short trail about an hour from our house today and I got a chance to experience true rockcrawling. The trail is called The Webb and is only .6 miles long. We got onto the trail right before noon and finally hit the end around 5pm. It is a brutal trail. I met Kevin, who brought out a F-Toy to run the trail buggy style.

At the entrance we let our dogs out and then dropped into a dry creek bed with huge rocks. Within the first 50 yards I got a tall rock wedged up into the body behind the front tire.




After a little rock stacking I was able to get up and over this first ledge. After cruising through some easy rock crawling we came to a 3ft ledge. After a few tries Kevin made the climb, and I thought it was going to be a challenge, so I tried a narrower line to the right. After a failed attempt I followed Kevin up the steep ledge and made it. It was the largest step I have climbed to date.

Here is the epic climb:


After another 100 yards we came to another climb. This time after seeing Kevin get his rear end stuck up against a big rock I chose a different line. When I got to the top I turned the wrong way and dropped my front passenger tire into a big hole and lifted the rear end off the ground. The truck almost went over. A quick back up and route correction kept the truck upright.

After some more boulder dodging we came to the last 50 yards of the trail where we spent the most time. I ended up winching 3 times and stacked more rocks then I want to count.

The "hard" section started with another 3ft climb that had a sandy pit at the top. This was the first winch. After walking to the end and scouting the exit we realized by coming up this climb I was stuck on the hard route. The second winch came at the next rock pile where I tried to follow Kevin without a spotter and got totally high centered. A quick tug got me going and I was able to get over the next set of rocks that had kept Kevin busy with some careful spotting. Then came allot of rock stacking to get me up a little section that had a top hunting bus sized bolder that a little rock kept leaning me into.



Then the last ledge before the exit. The camera battery ran out, but I got really stuck up there. After climbing a ledge there was a big rock on the drivers side, but rocks on the passenger side kept tipping me into it. Kevin just leaned in and slid tube along the rock, I slipped in and dented the drivers door in 6 inches. The first real bad body damage for the 4-Runner. To try and get around the rock had me driving up and over some rocks that had a big drop on the far side. After tipping around and almost flopping I winched out again.

After this final winchfest this epic trail was over. This was a great trail. I spent the whole day in low-low, a gear choice I rarely get a chance to use. Today the whole trail required careful navigation. I definitely found the limit of what this truck can do with a full body. It was also great to wheel with someone with a more capable truck.

Sierra and Lucy also had a great time and behaved very well. A few times they even hung out around Kevin.


















I'll leave you with a little perspective of how tall the epic climb ledge is:


























Deuces,

Leni

First Tank Trap Trip

We took another weekday trip this past Friday. Maggie's brother and sister in-law came up for a rare visit to see what rock-crawling is all about. I had been wanting to go to a place just outside of Santa Fe called "Tank Trap". The only frustrating thing about the Tank Trap trail is it is a mere 3 miles south east of White Rock. If I could drive strait there it would be a 20 min trip. However due to a small river (the Rio Grande) and an Indian reservation, it is inaccessible except through Santa Fe.

So on Friday morning we drove down to Santa Fe, and out to the Santa Fe National Forest east of town. Finding the trail was an experience as it hadn't been wheeled on in a while. I actually thought ahead and brought some coordinates for the trail and we used the GPS to find it. It worked really well.

Once we got on the trail we quickly realized we were following a dry stream bed. This created a lot of "boulder fields". basically stretches of trail with big rocks that were the stream bed. The trail was relatively flat. This combination made for more of a technical crawling trail. There were only two significant climbs (or drop offs from the direction we drove, and one place where I almost flopped it. The first drop is down a sandy step in the river bed that water has eroded out. The second is at the end and is a pretty big step:


The only hairy spot was when I tried to stay up on the beach side of a water hole. The passenger side tires were in the soft mud in the shallows of the hole, and my drivers tires were on the rocky shore. With everyone in the truck as I climbed over rocks it tipped the passenger side toward the water. It made for an entertaining few moments before I turned into the water and drove out.


Taking Nick and Claire out rock-crawling for the first time was fun. Claire was very scared anytime the truck was not perfectly level and so she decided to watch from outside most of the day. This helped keep the dogs away from the truck. Our two dogs and Nicks dog ran outside for the whole trail, making for some tired, wet and happy dogs.

As you can see in the video, the water is pretty deep. I think I'll leave this trail for the dryer summer months. It was still a great trail that is short enough and close enough to do in an afternoon.

Deuces,

Leni