I wasn't sure we were going to wheel on Saturday.  The weather forecast called for heavy rain and the skies were really dark on Saturday morning as I loaded up the trailer. On the way out to the meeting spot I got hit by a downpour, had to drop down to 50mph for a couple miles due to near 0 visibility.  By the time I reached the parking lot I saw Jack waiting in his truck and the rain was steadily falling from the sky.  We waited in our trucks for a bit, it started to hail, then Scott showed up.  After some discussion we decided to go for it, wheeling in an open buggy in weather like this is what separates the men from the boys :) 

We suited up in our rain gear and decided to just explore some of the mining roads instead of running a trail.  One of the roads we were on came to an abrupt end at this washout. 

We proceeded in on foot and discovered the entire wash the road was in had been stripped bare of soil, it looked to be down several feet in most spots.  This went on for over a mile.  Scott and Jack kept walking, I headed back down and took some pictures, most of which didn't turn out due to getting rain on the lens. 

We regrouped back at the rigs after a good hike.  

We backtracked down the wash, despite the constant rain the rocks were really grippy, the tires never slid once.  

Scott heading down the wash.  It was weird seeing all the tree roots exposed like they were.  Mother nature must have flushed several tons of dirt out of this place!   

This was a good test for my wiring.  I tried to tuck everything in under the dash to keep it away from the elements and it looked like I did a good job.  I didn't see any water running down the firewall.    I was a little worried about the gauges, they are not waterproof but appear to have a good enough seal on the face to keep water out as they had small pools at the bottom all day long.

Scott testing one of the river crossings.  The water was moving really swiftly and his back end started to drift.   

The weather started to clear up about noon but we were unable to get to the trailhead to the trail we wanted to run. We hiked down it and discovered mother nature had rearranged everything in this wash too!  New obstacles had sprouted and the ground was so saturated that many of the sandy patches had turned to quicksand.

It looks like the winter storms have helped make some of the trails quite a bit more difficult, can't wait till things dry up a bit.