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.
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