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
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