Stoddard
Valley, October 2004
The Empire Strikes Back
SUNDAY: Today we did a rock garden that scared the out of me,
Fred says, "It's a quick morning run and we'll be back for lunch". He didn't
tell me that this rock garden had VW sized rocks!!! At first my survival
instincts kicked in and I said no, no, no, but as usual after I watched
Fred and Brian make short work of this garden I decided do give it a shot.
Lots of noise and more noise as my rear bumper landed on almost every ledge
and rock (boulder) I dropped down, but the little Toyota that could kept
fighting and crunching its way through. I made it to the end only to have
Brian tell me that my front right shock had decided it no longer wanted
to stay attached to my truck. Fine then, if it didn't want to be there
I'll just take it all the way off then. Since Fred said that it was
a quick run I pulled out all my stuff, including my tool box so I had to
bum a wrench from both Fred and Brian.
Fred pulled a Steve Miller and got us lost and we ended up coming in
on top of the trail we were looking for, but the little side trail we took
was fun. Once at the mid point intersection Brian wanted to go to the top
and proceeded up. His nimble little Sammi danced and hopped up to the top,
and once we got to the mine he decided not to take the drop-off and side-hill,
turned around and went back down.
Fred didn't want to go up since he didn't have a rear locker but did
go down through the rock garden to the trail head. I was going to turn
around but Fred talked me into giving it a shot.
We all had a great time and I hope Fred and Jorge can get their rigs
fixed in time for Los Coyotes.
