LOL, what an adventure!!!!!
Well, here's the story...me and TDG were too lazy to recheck this thread before we left on Saturday morning, so we were up early and on the road. Got to Carls Jr. at 715am and waited for Stick-o. We waited till 745, while we gassed up and grabbed our Famous Star meals for the day at Carls. We decided to get the hell up there and that Stick-o had bailed.
As directed above, I hopped on the 15 south and then proceeded to hit up the 79. Evidently, there are 2 79 exits off the 15. Thus, me and TDG drove all the freakin way up into Idylwild, before saying WTF and asking directions at some sort of emotionally traumatized kids home. They directed us back down through a buncha whack-ass towns before finally reaching the REAL 79. We got here, then proceeded to cruise up the road towards Warner Springs. Once we started to get close, we suddenly saw a bigass helicopter rise out from behind a hill adjacent to the road and soar right over us! He was carrying a bamby bucket filled with water. Treking on further we lloked through a clearing on the side of the highway to see a large group of helicopters on the ground near a lake, with one actually hovering over the lake, filling its payload. When we looked the other way, North-East, we could see a trail of helicopters headed to a fire. This was definitely a bad sign to us. Getting closer to town only brought more and more and more water trucks, semis with bulldozers, and a myriad of other fire vehicles. I was beginning to wonder what the deal was.
Arriving in town, we found San Ignacio Road and turned up it. A few hundred feet up, we came across a plywood sign that had spraypainted words saying "closed to camping". I said sheeit and we kept driving. I little ways further, we saw a big work crew on one side of the road with a buncha fire trucks and equipment and two older firemen or marshals or something on the opposite side. Upon questioning about the offrading situation, we were told that it was sorta safe, but they really didn't want anybodyback there, just in case the wind changed and it could burn back again. Soooo, we turnd around and went back to think and chill in the golf course parking lot. We did scope some hotties walking around for the country club, and also we spotted a couple groups of hottie firewomen. Anyways, as I was eating another burger and TDG was messin with his camera, a black 84' Jeep drives by on the highway. Upon seeing us and my rig, he stopped completely, then backed up. TDG walked up to the dudes rig and I followed. The dude asked if we were goin to Los Coyotes. We informed him that it was closed of 4x4in, and that nobody was gettin back there. He then said, shoot blahblah blah, then hit us up if we wanted to go offroading out in Anza Borrego. I wasn't too sure about this one, as it sounded a bit hardcore, but we said, **** we're up for it!! Didn't want to drive 3 hours one way for nuthin.
Sooo, me and TDG hopped back in and followed this dude Ray up to the S2 and down to Borrego Springs. Ray was totally haluing balls in his Jeep down the long grade. Whatever. We gassed up in Borrego Springs, got slightly more acquainted, then got back on the road. We finally got to the trail. It was all the way at the South end of the big Valley. Let me take this oppurtunity to say that it was definitely hotter than hell out there...my guess was about 105 F. We drove down some ****ty graded sand and dirt roads for a while, then finally got to a place with a few rocks that i didn't want to fly over, so I threw on the hubs and popped the muchine into 4x4 L. We crawled over these rocks, getting SLIGHTLY off camber, then proceeded. You see, before I went on this trip, I now consider what I was and all the wheeling I did PANSY-ASS. This was pretty dang hardcore crap for me. What I thought was off-camber before, was definitely NOT off camber. What I thought was extreme riskage of endoing, was NOT. What I thought was high risk of body damage was NOT a risk at all.
Anyways, we eventually got to our first small obstacle, a tiny rock waterfall. We cruised down this with not to much of a problem. It was a good thing fot that, because that began to prime me for the rest of the obstacles lying ahead, wating to scare the hell outta my body or stealthily bash my pumkins.
The next feat we encountered Ray called the BIG SQUEEZE. This obstacle was quite exhilerating, with a high risk of body damage. I first watched Ray cruise through with not too much of a problem, but then Again, he was on 35's, fully locked, double low t-case, granny gear, etc. Afterwards, I hopped back in my truck, then pulled up to the Squeeze, watching Ray for spotting directions. He was an experienced wheeler, so it made it a lot easier to trust my rig's body to him. When going through, i thought for sure that i was going to totally screw up everything. When about halfway through, the left side of my truck, which was already damn close to one of the two rock walls I was trying to go through, dropped down towards the wall. I just closed my eyes and listended for carnage. But alas, I didn't hear anything except for the settling of my springs. I opened my eyes and leaned out the window and looked down. There was only 3 inches between my nice door and that roack wall!!!
I was kind of on the edge of freaking out and being calm, but I remained calm, and accepted that my truck was going to get totally Phucked, and after this it was going to be a trail rig
Ray told me to turn my wheels to the right slightly, and creep forward just a bit. This manuever lifted my left side up a little and away from the wall, but as I continued forward, my right side became very close. I knew that I was getting damn close on the right side when emy mirror folded in automatically from being pushed in by the rock wall. Creeping forward, I slid out of the Squeeze, dropped off the last ledge, and escaped this one with out any damage. Getting out of my rig, stepping in the sand and hearin the claps and gettin the pats on the back made it all worthwhile. We all hopped back into the trucks and headed off down the trail, inching closer to the long, steep waterfall, the feared obstacle lying ahead.
Thats all until next time, I gotta go, I'll finish the trail report latah. C ya!!! (and post a bunch of kick ass pics!!)
I have a pic of this too, but need to get it from TDG first. I said OK, and pulled forward, trying to ease my way over these basketball and beack ball size boulders. I couldn't go slow enough with my stock t-case and even 4.56 gear ratios. Man, I'm gonna get an ATLAS!! ANyways, I sorta had to burn the **** outta the clutch(you could smell it like hell afterwards) and bounced like **** over these rocks. Signalling me to stop, Ray walked alongside my rig and warned me to go real slow because of the high potential for body carnage. I said OK and was about to proceed when one of Rays friends walked over holding a piece of safety glass he had found on the ground nearby. Hey, yet ANOTHER good sign right? Jesus. So, I wasn't gonna back down like a woman, so I gave it soma the good stuff while Ray gave my body(my truck's) a shove on the left side to try to keep the glass off the rocks. I made it through the steep rock garden, then stopped after I got back in the dirt. Everyone was quiet till I stopped, then said stuff along the lines of, "Holy Crap dude you came so freakin close to bashing out your window!!" Ray gave my truck a push when I pulled through, but the truck was too heavy, and the left side dipped down and ended up bringing the drivers rear window within 1/2" of the rock.............
