The locals, especially Evan’s friend Quadboy, call it Stag Hill but I think it should be renamed "The Junkyard Trail" because of all the junk that is strewn around the trail and for the amount of possible carnage that the trail affords.
For the first run of the year we had a good turn out around 27 rigs I believe with a few non members checking out the club but no one from the Pa club that we wheeled with earlier in the month. After having our drivers meeting and passing out 4x44u stickers to those who wanted them we headed for the trail. I was surprised by the amount of snow/ice that was still on the trail.
We headed on in and locked our hubs and hit the bypass first. The bypass looks like it would be fun coming uphill now also. The tail part of the group investigated some side trails and it seems that this trail has more to offer in the way of some hard stuff. I guess that’s the nice way of putting it. The side trails claimed 3 axles total, 2 from Jay’s toyota pickup and one from Mike’s YJ.
| Looks like someone better get the Warn
lifetime replacement axles… |
 |
The rest of our group made our way through the first rocky section and we didn’t have any problems really except for one of the trucks that was checking out our club had 2 front body bushing missing. I would like to impress upon everyone that if your rig is not is proper running order then to leave it home until it is. Also make sure you have all the requirements that are listed at the club website or the list that is available from us. We are going to have a club safety inspection day and those who don’t pass won’t be allowed on trailrides until the problems are addressed. 
If I find that you don’t have all the proper equipment then you’ll also not be allowed to go on the run. We haven’t set a date for this yet but I hope to do it sometime in early April and have a ramp day also. If you can’t make it then you’ll be inspected at the next run you attend. Well enough of the iron-fisted rule for now. Back to the trail ride.
After this the trail is pretty flat with only some minor rocks to deal with until you come to the first of the two water holes. I made it across the first ice/water hole and crawled through it but for the rigs that followed it became more and more broken up and made it a tough challenge. I didn’t get to personally see it but I heard we also had our first female polarbear club member test out the icy waters. I think the noise I heard was almost as loud as Doug’s broken axle.
Right after that is the swamp. With the ice it was passable on the right hand side. Abe was the brave soul to try it first. The middle and left-hand sides looked kind of wet to me when I walked the ice. And as we later found out by the pictures and story of the guy in the late model Land Crusier it was very thin and hungry. He was lucky enough to have a few of our members try and get him out without any success I’m told but at least he got a ride off the trail and some dry clothes for his son.
The next obstacle is a nice rock decent that allows for some cool articulation. 
After that we headed further down to a nice slope downhill section that you turn and go down and work through some rocks on the way down. Everyone was making their way along just fine even the stock pathfinder made it without any problems with a little spotting help from Andy.
Right after that we headed towards the last major obstacle,Lava Flow Hill. As we made our way down the left hand side of the slick goo/rocks all I was thinking was that this is gonna be a bear to get back up. At the bottom of the hill we stopped for lunch and told people that didn’t want to try and climb back up that they could take the off camber exit out and be done for the day or they could stick around and try to make it back up the hill or be winched up.
A lot of cable was pulled on this hill and some of the attempts to get up it were pretty interesting to watch. For the unlocked crowd it was a matter of pure right foot and not caring about your rig if you wanted to make it. None of the open trucks made it and even some of the double locked rigs didn’t. The left-hand side became the harder side after the open trucks moved the rocks around and created basically 3 mini bumps to get over on your way up. On the right hand side it was just slick goo with one major bump to get over. Only one rig went up the middle section, John in the other early bronco.
While winching up the Tan Whale we heard a loud bang like an axle snapping but I thought to myself how would Doug break an axle just from winching? As we later found out he was being winched backwards while trying to also winch the whale up the hill. Well the stress on the front end of the TJ was just too much and as the axle snapped and it also took out the upper/lower ball joint assemble. After talking to Evan since then we have seemed to come to the conclusion that pulling backwards with our rigs isn’t too good an idea. I was doing a similar pull last year at Mabell and snapped a front axle. Just something to store away in the brainpan. 
So after the collective mechanical bs session, the TJ was torn apart and and the balljoint assembly was put back together and we got everyone down the hill and took the offcamber exit out of the trail. This exit is pretty spooky since if you get too far to the right there is a deep rut you’ll fall into, right Rob. If you stay to the high side of the hill it gets kind of tippy and I decided to stay off of the brake as I crested the top of the hill and just sort of did a fast decent down into the parking lot.
This trail seems to have some potential with the new harder side trails that our trusty explorers found on the way in. We’ll be coming back here for sure. Well until our next outting this is Wilbur saying happy trials to you.
-Jim Guld