Beacon Trail, the name of it gets me to daydreaming about the day I will actually drive up over the Pinnacle in my Cherokee without assistance. A favorite trail of many, it always poses the threat of damage and many exciting moments either on the trail or standing by the side watching one of your buds try to finesse or slam up the Waterfall (known by many as Full Frontal). This trip was no disappointment.

The weather could not have been more perfect. A cold front swept down out of Canada on Thursday, driving out the heat and humidity that had held the region under a wet blanket for a number of days. Friday dawned crystal clear and relatively cool. The drive up to Chester was magnificent; sunny, clear and cool. In fact, at highway speeds, it got downright chilly in an open truck. A number of us arrived at Walker Island Campground at about the same time, 4:30 or so in the afternoon, and proceeded up to our little colony up on the hill to set up camp. Throughout the evening more and more trucks rolled in; the grills were lit, the fire ignited and the "trail conferencing" proceeded. We were visited by members of Hudson Valley Four-Wheelers, who were also at Walker Island to do area trails. Here is one time that one of the silly Walker Island rules saved us from embarrassment. You see, at Walker Island you must keep alcoholic beverage containers covered, so when the guys from Hudson Valley came over they couldn't see that we were all just girly-men drinking Seagram's Ice and Mike's Hard Lemonade, but probably thought the bottles and cans were beer, like manly men would have been drinking.

Girly-men . . . and a girl!

Saturday morning dawned. Early. Scheduled to meet at Carm's at 9:00 AM most of us finally made it down the hill and finished feeding, airing down and disconnecting by 10:00 AM or so. With Wrecker Reed in the lead, we took off up Main Street to the turn-off for the Beacon Trail. We hit the first little obstacle; it has no name but should be called the Sifter. If you can't climb over this little rock-face then you probably shouldn't try to go any further up this trail. If you stay to the right on the Sifter then it can be quite tough to climb over. The least difficult line is to squeeze way over to the left, straddle the ditch and pop up over to the right.

Immediately after the Sifter is an obstacle that has been referred to as "Mess-your-pants." This is a double rock ledge that is not so difficult as it looks but is very unforgiving to minor errors. I had to pull out my winch to clear the last four inches of the obstacle, and here was the first damage of the day. Trevor broke his front drive shaft as he torqued up over the first ledge with the beefy 350 smallblock under the hood of his CJ.

Mike levels Scott's classic on "Mess-your-pants"

This was not to be Trevor's day. Evan also performed some aerobatics with the resurrected EE Rex, popping a wheelie as he came up over the ledges. Meanwhile, Trev swapped in a whole drive shaft and was soon back on the trail. As we wound up the mountain we had to decide as to whether we would bypass the Waterfall and go right to the Pinnacle or if we would do the Waterfall first and then on to the Pinnacle.

Trevor's drive shaft, Trevor's CJ in the background

The most and or loudest voices called for the Waterfall first, so we pulled on up the trail to the base of the Waterfall, where we found the five trucks of the Hudson Valley Four Wheelers extricating one of their own who had broken his transfer case. Moving our trucks around to give Hudson Valley guys room to get out, the hardcore nuts went at the Waterfall. Most who tried made it about two thirds of the way up the trail before the winch cables were pulled out.

Wrecker Reed bounces up the Waterfall

Jay and Eric "cartooned" up the trail, bouncing their little Toyotas around like, like . . . like toy trucks. Jay had to have taken at least 4 feet of air as he bounced his blue machine up that trail. Mark Silverman calmly walked up the trail as only he can in his beeyootiful white YJ. Here, Trevor, running only a few minutes at a time because his super-dooper cooling system (for his small-block) had quit on him, got frustrated and tried a little too much oomph to climb up the Waterfall and broke a front axle u-joint. Now seriously limping he was pretty much done for the day. The Pinnacle had become a spectator event for the Boscos (Trev brought his wife, one of the bravest women I know).

Jay, Mark, Evan, Eric, Yaron, I think, made it up the waterfall. The rest of us turned around and headed back to the bypass around the Waterfall to the Pinnacle. No one took the Pinnacle bypass; we all went up and over, except for Trevor and poor Bob Blair in Howler. All day the Scout was balking and giving Bob trouble. After he swapped in a clean fuel filter its behavior improved, but still was a little bit of a problem, getting it started and shifting into the lower gears. Bob spent a lot of time rearranging Howler's guts.

Bob and "Young Blair" under Howler

EE. Rex: It's not for sale, but what happened to it?

The Pinnacle is a killer obstacle. It is a double shelf at the top of a steep rocky climb. At the top of the climb one must make a turn to the left and climb the first shelf, more like a wall. Not a lot of room for error, after the left turn directly behind your vehicle is a pretty hard drop-off, which subtly reminds you to not roll back too far after failing to climb the shelf the first (and for most people, every) time. At this point you are sitting pretty vertical. It was winch time here for everyone I saw go over the Pinnacle. Forgive me, Jay and Eric (and anyone else), if you two made it over without winching. After the first step is another, with several lines of attack. To the left is a not difficult pop up over the ledge, to the right a tougher more technical climb. Ruark, in his Toyota Pickup, provided one of the best faces of the weekend when he nearly earned himself an upside down sticker coming up over the second ledge. He was very relieved to find that we were headed back home after his adrenaline session on the second ledge. I could still see his eyes bulging a little when he said he thought we didn't need to go back down the Pinnacle, but the bypass would do. After nose-diving down the Pinnacle bypass we headed back to camp for some extensive provisioning and trail conferencing. And boy, the next thing will show you what a bunch of cut-ups we are.

"A fine mess you've gotten me into this time, Stanley".
Ruark the Turk loves his skid plates

Mikey 'Chow' who had come up in his Suburban without his Jeep (wussie) finally went down to the office to take a shower. Some brain surgeon decided we'd get Mike good, and hide in the woods when he came back up. He'd get there and no one would be there, we'd all just be gone. The cry went up; headlights coming up the hill. We all jumped up like idiots and ran far enough into the woods to be in the shadows. All except for the rebelliously reticent Young Blair, who stubbornly sat by the fire despite the many entreaties to "come hither into the woods." But it was of no consequence, as Mike had decided to seek a cell phone signal at the top of the hill in order to talk to whom he kept calling his girlfriend. So we sat in the woods for a good ten minutes waiting for him until someone said "This is stupid" and we all came back out to the fireside again. Then, when he started down the hill, we all dashed back into the shadows to play our great joke. Mike came into the firelight, looked around, shrugged, got a beer and took the most comfortable chair. Boy, we sure got him good, huh?

Sunday morning was just as early as Saturday morning. Earlier, maybe. Knowing that the xxx Road was not as tough a trail as Beacon seemed to reduce the sense of urgency we might have had in getting out to the trail head, and we were rolling east on Rte 20 towards the trailhead by about 10:30. None of us were totally sure of how to enter the trail, so at first there was a little uncertainty until Mark S. in his beeyootiful white YJ showed us exactly where the trail did not go, and in doing so earned the first Bonehead Award to be given out since April. In leading the trail into xxx Road, and trying to find the beginning of the trail, Mark took a line a little too far to the left and dropped his YJ into a pit of ooze hidden in the tall grass. The frame was resting in the mud. Now, this in itself is funny enough, but what really earns Mark the Bonehead award was not so much getting stuck in the mud like he did, but it was because he was taking, and moreover, following, directions from Mike 'Chow'.

Mark, his beeyootiful white YJ, and the side not in the mud.

xxx had been touted to be an easy trail. Well, it wasn't entirely easy, though it wasn't a Beacon. Much fun was had on the side trail called "Rock and a Hard Place", a little loop trail that swung down off the old unmaintained town road that was the main trial. Basically a jumble of boulders with a couple of mean drops that reminded me a little of "Pick your Poison" at Paragon Park, only about 8 trucks tried the side trail. All made it down under their own power; gravity was a big help.

If I am not mistaken, no one made it back up the trail without pulling cable. I got a fantastic close-up view of what a person's face looks like as they contemplate looming carnage as Jay almost turned his blue toy over for the first time (almost almost: believe it or not, Jay has never rolled his Toyota). Eric blew out a front axle in a most spectacular manner.

Jay's surprise

The Tangerine Dream

Yaron gets ready to drop (no damage!)

Mark in Rock & a Hard Place - EZ does it!