March 2002 - Twisted
Trail Rating - 5.0
Trip Leader: Chris Villarreal
Photos submitted by Chris Villarreal
My friend Chad and I were planning a little Sunday wheeling but were going to decide on a trail at the meeting place. The night before some friends gave me directions to a new trail they had run that morning/afternoon. After hearing all the gory details I knew we had to go check it out on Sunday. Using their directions I found the wash on the maps and printed one out just in case I got lost.
(Click for larger images)
I invited some other guys but with such short notice it ended up being just Chad and myself. We found the trailhead easily enough and started walking the trail to analyze the obstacles. The trail is pretty much a tight, extremely narrow canyon that twists and turns for about a half mile or so. There are no exits, no bypasses and no way to turn around, so once you get past the first turn you are committed unless you want to back your way out.
The second picture shows the first major obstacle, A waterfall followed by a tight, off camber turn. Chad is pointing to where someone's tire marks are.
The next major obstacle (second picture) is located where the canyon narrows, you pretty have to wedge your tires in the notch and drive up the canyon walls.
Ok, so we walked the trail and it didn't seem to bad. Our small vehicles looked to be an advantage on this one. I started in with Chad and his friend Jeff taking pictures (thanks guys, you got some great shots). Right off the bat the canyon seemed to get a lot narrower, I could hear the rims on both sides dragging across the walls.....
Flex is your friend on this trail. There really isn't many options for lines so you have to be able to absorb some big holes and ruts.
It took a couple tries to find the right line for my wheelbase on the first obstacle. The key was to steer towards the drivers side of the wall and at the last minute steer to the right, then back to the left when the front tire crested the wall. The sidewalls on the claws pulled me right up. In the second picture you can see the ledged under the passenger tire, you want to keep a tire up on that.
I didn't and got wedged. We hooked up the winch and tried pulling forward with no luck. I took another look underneath and saw part of the rock wall in front of my passenger side wheel well. The walls here are pretty loose so we were able to loosen up the dirt enough so I could push thru it.