We decided to work on our new trails over Thanksgiving weekend.  Vince and I, Hammer Hog (Steve Parker) and Catfish (Bob) arrived at Soggy Dry Lake just before 9AM on Friday.   Fred was close behind.  Steve, Bob, and Fred were out for just the day.  Roger and Danielle were not far behind.  We headed first for Lower Shaft Canyon. 

Click here for a photo gallery with captions and a story, Breaking Lower Shaft Canyon.

Click here for a photo gallery with captions and a story, Hammer Hog drives Ballerina Rock.

Saturday found us wounded and limping (vehicle wise)...  Vince's truck had a charging system problem and wouldn't stay running.  This was the maiden voyage for this truck, since a solid axle swap had just been done.  Also, the truck had stock transfer case gears (soon to be upgraded) with 4.88 R&P and 37" tires, so Vince wasn't really ready for hard core rock crawling.  Thanks for coming out Vince! 

My front drive shaft was broken at the CV joint.  We tried to fix it with a spare u-joint, but it was the wrong size.  A spare that was brought from Yucca Valley (thanks Mike) turned out to be the same size as the spare I had.  At least I learned how to replace a u-joint (needle bearings are lots of fun)! 

Since Vince was out of commission and about to head for home, he gave me his front drive shaft.  Thanks again Vince!  It fit, sort of...  the flange that mounts to the front differential had the wrong bolt pattern and  we could only get 2 bolts into it.  Steve Bennett and I decided to do a recon of Upper Crowbar anyway.  I would just have to take it easy.  We had lots of spare bolts, just in case (we never needed them)! 

Roger and Danielle needed to head home mid afternoon so they explored around near camp.

Steve and I headed for the unbroken Upper Crowbar.  Sorry, we didn't take any pictures, we were too busy doing reconnaissance and breaking trail.  We went in the upper bailout and dropped into the canyon.  I parked my truck there.  I didn't want to push my luck with only 2 bolts holding my front drive shaft on!

Steve moved up the virgin canyon...  there were not even any Motorcycle tracks.  After a couple hundred yards it got more serious and we stopped and hiked up the canyon to the end.  The bottom line is that we both believe that the canyon will be driveable all the way to the top.  It will take a lot of work and a dedicated crew that are willing to work hard and push their rigs, but it is possible.  We both believe that if the route we found goes, the upper canyon will not be any more difficult than the lower canyon.  There are several areas that are going to require a lot of work moving rocks around and filling in holes, but most of the canyon will not need to be groomed.  Once complete this will be an awesome trail, very long and extremely scenic, maybe a classic?

After lunch Steve worked a hundred yards further up the canyon on some difficult ledges and boulders.  "Don't get stuck like a plug" I warned, "I don't want to have to come up and drag you out!"  Well...  Steve did get stuck pretty good a couple of times, but nothing that a lot of hard work didn't fix.  Steve also got some body damage to his driver's side front and passenger side rear (on the same rock, on the way up and again on the way down).  Overall, Steve really enjoyed the wheeling.  Thanks again Vince, for the front drive shaft off of your truck.  Without 2 trucks we wouldn't have dared go that deep up the canyon.

We did work the first major obstacle some, loosening and moving a huge boulder.  It is now ready to be winched into position.

We got back to camp just at dark and had a surprise waiting for us...  Ron and Robbie!  Cindy's Mom had some health problems while visiting in Yucca Valley and they had made the trip out from Arizona.  Ron and Robbie couldn't resist coming over to Soggy for a visit since they were now so close.

We learned later that Roger and Danielle had the rear drive shaft come loose on their flat towed Sammy about 20 miles from home!  The flailing drive shaft did a lot of damage, but nothing Roger can't fix!  Bad luck though...

Steve and I packed up and were gone by 9AM.  We beat the holiday traffic and were home before noon.