This ride got scheduled over the internet, and as the day drew near the crowd grew. Then at the trailhead, the group grew some more with the addition of three Rovers (two Series and one Defender). So we wound up with a United Nations contingent: Jeep, Ford, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Isuzu, Rover. And one huge yellow Willys.
Immediately, we headed over to Twister. The first several vehicles up had no problems at all. Then Scott in the tan Series Rover tried it with open diffs and struggled a bit: after bouncing off the walls and rearranging the old British steel, he made it. His friend (sorry I forget his name!) in the green Series Rover really struggled as well: he was bouncing around, mashing the gas, not making it more than half way up until plink! He broke a rear axleshaft. So Scott went on down to help him, and they headed out.
Next it was on to Upper Twister. The built rigs and Ken's Ranger made it look easy. I struggled mightily but got whooped and had to back down after bouncing the truck around. The bypass scared the daylights out of me when, coming down, I cut the line a little sharp and felt like I was going over. Fortunately I wasn't near rolling, and everyone else made it down without drama.
We then started up the trail to the Powerlines then turned back down a very fun, rocky and rutted trail that everyone handled. From there, we split into 2 groups and ours dropped into the (dry) creekbed while the others went into the hard part of the creekbed. Then up the Powerlines, allowing time for people to pose, then we looked for a way out.
A quad rider told us how to get out, but we took a wrong turn and wound up back on more hills. A motorcycle rider told us how to get out from there, so we headed down the main trail to a "Y" then veered left. The trail down had a giant notch all the way down the center which required a very slow and careful approach: it wasn't difficult, it just required good driving. Well, the Defender dropped into the notch and was in quite a pickle, when evidently the driver tried to gas out and got one end out but dropped the other in. I didn't see it, but Chris said he nearly end-o'd down the hill were it not for a blip on the throttle to escape. From there on out, we ran a tight brush-covered trail (wide enough for ATV's - more scratches!) to the tracks, then out.
I don't remember the names of all the drivers and I have shots of maybe half the vehicles. :-( Sorry.
