September 2002 - Axle Alley

Trail Rating - 4.5

Trip Leader: Chris Villarreal

Photos submitted by Chris Villarreal, Erik Malm

After a successful weekend of wheeling last weekend I was ready to try out the new setup on some waterfalls.  The night before I managed to get a really good deal on some 37" tires, so this run was a test run for those as well.  I have to re-arrange my front bump stops, I have a minor sheet metal issue due to tire rub :) 

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(Click for larger images)

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Axle Alley starts out with a couple notches.  There are no go arounds or bypasses due to the trail being very narrow. I think there are 6 or 7 waterfalls to climb total.

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The notch before the first major waterfall. 

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I tried driving the third waterfall (it was pretty much a vertical wall) but my wheelbase was about a foot too short to have a realistic chance of climbing it.  I ended up using my winch to keep the front end down and I crept up the face.  Erik was up next.  We tied the strap to the front as a safety measure.  He easily got to this point and it looked like he was going to do it but the tires just dug in. He started working the wheel back and forth and we heard a loud popping sound.

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The drivers side u-joint caps tried to evacuate the u-joint.  In the picture on the right you can se why he wasn't climbing, his cross member got hung up just enough to stop forward movement.  Two spotters would have been nice here since I was leaning into the strap after his front tires came up a little and couldn't see what was going on further down the waterfall.

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We tried pounding the caps back in and then tack welding them to the axle ears.  Erik tried the fall again but after pulling him to the top we noticed the caps popped their welds and were working out again.  I think two batteries isn't enough to get good penetration, with three the repair may have held.  At this point we decided the best thing to do was to head out the way we came in.  I lowered him back down the fall and then used my winch to repel my Zuk back down.  Afterwards we ate lunch and scouted some of the roads in the area,

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Here's the final climb to get out of Axle Alley.  It's a really nasty loose and steep hill with no winch points up top.  I know a lot of groups leave a rig up top to use as a winch anchor for the rest of the group.  The trail got the best of us today but we'll be back.