ED4, Thank you Sherry for being the “Scribe” this past weekend and thanks to all who participated!! We had a great weekend of work and play!! Ole maned the chain saw on Friday and I took care of a few small trees on Saturday. CJ documented the entire event with 200 plus photos. Watch out Ira, I think you have some competition. CJ’s mom, Val, kept everyone’s appetite in check with homemade banana bread and cookies. Jim kept us entertained with his nigh-time laser light show. I was even lucky enough to find a nice G&P Tactical Flashlight while cleaning up the garbage left behind someone’s shooting spree.
Friday we completed the Corral Hollow Trail by 12:15pm and we headed up the road to do the Slick Rock Trail and have lunch by the river. The weather was great and the smoke was not as bad at the higher elevations. The trail ride was fairly uneventful until we got to the stair-steps at the end. I tried to climb a relatively hard line with too much air in the tires and got so high centered, you almost could spin my Jeep around in a circle. I had to winch myself off the boulder. Everyone else made it up with minor delays in forward progress except for Ed who walked right up it like a driveway. After everyone was on top, I asked if they would mind if I gave it another shot with aired down tires. Of course everyone said go for it, because honestly, what 4 wheeler doesn’t like watching someone else try to roll their Jeep. I elected to try a +/- 70% granite wall off to the left side. With Ole as my guide, I made it up with a lot of luck and a heavy right foot. I just could not drive away from that damn stair-steps again with my tail between my legs. Way too much fun for one day, so we headed back to camp. On our way out, we saw Stacie Albright camping near the reservoir. We talked with her for a while and aired up our rigs and headed back to camp for some cold adult beverages.
Saturday was also fun. We had more people and cooler weather. There was probably a dozen or so large limbs I moved out of the way before anyone could get out of their rig. Then there were 3-4 very large trees across the trail that we easily pulled out of the way. Luckily all of these large trees fractured when they hit the ground, so they did not need to be cut with a saw. There was only 3 remaining snow drifts on the backside of the trail and only one required some digging to help it melt faster. We moved through the first part of the trail so fast that we had time to take an awesome group photo on the edge of a vista. Thanks to CJ and Tom for shooting some very, very cool photos of everyone and their rigs!! Look for it on the web site soon. After lunch, we traveled the last loop and moved a few more down trees. This trail had not be used in a while and tested everyone’s low gears and brakes. We were back at camp by 4pm and had the rest of the afternoon to kick-back and relax.
It was great to get out of the smokey Bay Area for a few days and enjoy the great outdoors with fellow 4 wheelers. I am ready to go back! The summer camp out should be a great weekend!!
Thanks again to all who participated and made this years Adopt-A-Trail a huge success!!!!!!
Cheers,
Jason