The XToys Off road club recently went up to give the new Shredder trail a try. It's a short trail but it's a good one! Shredder is just a few miles east of Palmdale in southern California. It's also known as Santiago's Revenge because this new trail was created to replace the Santiago Canyon trail that was closed allegedly to monitor rare frogs in the creek.
Many of the rocks on this trail are of the volcanic type and are very sharp. This type of rock affords excellent traction with little wheel spin. A few cut their hands on the sharp rocks, I am surprised we did not have anyone slice open a tire.
There are quite a few tight spots on the trail, and many of them combine a tight turn with a steep climb and/or off camber position. Larger rocks were everywhere just waiting for a chance to rip open a door like a can opener!
We started with our group of 11 Toyota's trucks, 4Runners and Cruisers at about 10AM. In just a few minutes we were at the first obstacle. This is a great start to trail. It's a climbing turn with a twist. As you climb up the the trail pulls you to the left. Several trucks were dented and scratched on this one, including Drew's rear view mirror amputation below.
On the first obstacle Drew Persson slipped off his intended line and showed us why it's called Shredder! Just seconds after the left picture was taken he slid into the rock and snapped off his rear view mirror, Ouch!
As we continued on we found one short hill climb after another. Most had an added twist, either narrow rocks or turn or other surprise. Most of our trucks were well equipped and over all we suffered little damage, mostly just body dings. One Land Cruiser burnt a fuse on his fuel pump, but that was easily fixed. We finished the trail around 3:00 PM, said our good-by's and headed off. Fun was had by all and I am sure we will be back again soon. It's a great day trip for most of Southern California.
The trail is only about a mile long and is slow going. There is not a lot of space between the challenges. The rock affords good traction (we drove through on a dry day). While it's rocky canyons look similar to the Hammer trails in Johnson Valley it's a notch or two easier. If you interested in running this trail I would recommend at least 33" tires, rear locker, good nerf bars and lower transfer case gears.
If your looking for some fun and your truck is set up for rock crawling I recommend adding this to your list of must run trails.
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