On the basis of better late than never…here is my: Trip report for the 2008 Summer Campout and Newbie Run on Corral Hollow and Slick Rock
Since my wife wasn’t able to go this weekend I invited a long time co-worker Mike L. We arrived Thursday late afternoon at Horse Gulch campground to find it an RV ghost town save for Jason and James who were preparing to take off to go fishing. Picked a spot and got to setting up the pop-up.
Friday morning lined up and headed out with everyone to the Slick Rock trail head. Driving out onto the slab at the trail head brought back the visions of being there in my 4wheeling past life 15+ years ago, but the water crossing wasn’t what I remembered - I still have the memory of going through the water crossing in my Toy at the time with 7 inches of lift and 35’s and the water not being too far from the door seal, and having a stock Wrangler try to go through and getting flooded and having to be fished out and pulling the plugs to get it running.
The point I believe is known as the stair step proved to be a challenge. At one point having to do a sharp turn in the stock long-wheel base on a down slope put all the weight on the passenger front tire and the bead let lose, which was a new experience. Jason, without hesitation, offered get-dirty and jack up the front and with Jim H.’s offer of use of his PowerTank the bead was set in no time. With Jason’s clear and patient guidance was no problem to make it the rest of way through there. Spent a lot of time scrapping on rock rails and gas tank skid plate, but that’s what they are there for.
A subset of us, lead by Ed, then headed over to the Corral Hollow trail. We ran it opposite direction than I had ever done, which I’m sure influenced why very little seemed familiar. My memory of it was it was ‘just a dirt fire road’ but that came from driving it in setup Toy and now doing it in the stock long wheel base Wrangler was a little more interesting. We made a stop at the cabin, which I never knew was there.
Mike L. had forgotten his fishing license and was maybe going to buy one and I wanted to top off the fuel tank to be ready for Saturday so we headed into town. Not knowing for sure whether there would be a chance to go fishing Saturday Mike L. decided against spending the money to buy a fishing license. Topped off the gas tank and while doing so I noticed a Mexican Restaurant across the street - so we cheated and ate dinner in town.
Saturday morning lined up and headed out to do Corral Hollow, this time in the direction I used to do it - but still didn’t seem very familiar (they say when you get older the first thing to go is…, oh I forget).
Proceeded over to Slick Rock, but coming in the way we went out Friday. On the way in the Jeep started to pull hard to the right and why I immediately thought I had bent something and it never crossed my mind about possible having a flat tire. Whether the bead let loose again (same tire as Friday) or whether I did hit something that punctured the sidewall I’ll never know, but once I did stop the tire was shot and had to be changed out for the spare. This did give me the chance to try out the Arb XJack exhaust jack which drew a crowd. The XJack worked pretty good, but because my tail pipe was cut at an angle it was a little bit of a struggle to get it to make a good seal. Not having a spare I made the decision not continue on - just hung out at the river for awhile then headed back to camp.
After everyone got back to camp and rested awhile we busted out some grub and we had a group pot luck - tons of great food. Had to be careful though because every time I got up someone keep trying to snake my chair, but it’s not nice to name names … right Ed (smile).
It was a terrific weekend of wheeling and socializing. Thanks to everyone for the great food for the pot luck, to those that provided the means to have the slide show and movie, and especially to Ed for all his time and effort in coordinating the event and his trail leadership.