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The Marcanjay Trail

As observed by Jim (Wilbur) Guld from the saddle of Mr. Ed

On this past trailride I spotted the long thought extinct Marcanjay. This rare creature can be best described as slow moving…the two I saw look to be injured in some fashion. We approached, then poked and prodded, and finally got them to move on their own volition. If you come on a run and see one of these beasts I hope you have your camera handy.

This new trail is interesting in that it has some nice rocky sections and some fairly tight stuff to wander through. We had a good turnout, 21 rigs including 4 potential new members. The weather was beautiful and with the leaves changing colors you couldn’t ask for better wheeling scenery. The trail has spots that even the most set-up vehicle couldn’t overcome. The first hillclimb I’m naming Foundation Hill due to the old building foundation smack dab in the middle. About halfway up this loose rock climb is a large boulder sitting in the middle of the trail that you have to skirt around. To the left is the remains of the building foundation with an approximately 3 ft. high wall to climb over. To the right is an area of loose soil which is the edge of the trail. Both sections are nasty and if you loose your momentum you’re done. No one made it up this section; they either winched or backed down. Even if you get past this part of the obstacle the next challenge is a hard right up the hill due to a good sized log jutting across the trail. I was the last to try and was scraping my rocker panel protectors…this will give you a good idea of how big the rockledge was.

After doubling back onto the main trail road we had our trusty guides Sue and John Simms lead us to the next section of trail challenges. We headed towards a short uphill section with a turnoff to the right. This leads to a slightly wet rocky section followed by a short hill climb. It was on this section I saw the first of the two Marcanjays. After what seemed like hours trying to get the injured creature off the trail we headed to the top of the mountain to the lunch spot. It's a cool place to have lunch with fantastic views of the valley and mountains in the distance. Also hovering above were gliders from the local airport just below us in the valley. As our second group made it to the top of the mountain we spotted the other Marcanjay. Luckily this one wasn’t blocking the trail, it was off to the side of the main trail on a section of big rocks. What it was doing there I’ll never know.

After having lunch and finding a bear den we heard sounds of hooting and hollering in the distance and soon realized there was more trail to be driven. We made our way around a short bend and turned right off the main trail to an obstacle kind of like a mini Ma Bell monster rock. I’ll call this Son of Godzilla. Beyond this obstacle is a flat section with a second small hill climb at the far end which leads to a very narrow section of trail more suited for two wheelers. After playing around on these hillclimbs we turned around to head out. Except for a few rigs that tried to get ahead of the trail leader we made it back to pavement without too much difficulty.

This area has other possibilities to be explored along with another trail about 30 minutes north. More details will follow. This is a good club run in that highly modified as well as stock rigs are challenged. It’s also close by. Until next month this is Wilbur saying happy trails to you.