Yesterday, Patti went to Yuma to do some shopping with Becky, Jo Ann and Doris.
Bob and I went on the Wednesday Jeep ride. Dennis road with Dave. Junior and Missy were in their jeep. We met up with the other jeepers at the fire station at 9:00. When everyone arrived we headed north to Parker where we topped off the jeeps gas tanks. One of the drivers, Roy, in his Tracker was late because the tracker had a flat tire. Eventually he showed up and we took off for the trail that Tom (dark blue jeep) had entered into his GPS. The trail was supposed to go around the back side of Finger Rock, on the California side of the Colorado river.
The trail started in a wash and went for a couple of miles before it headed up hill.
The trail got pretty rocky after we left the wash.
There were several challenging spots along the trail but everyone was able to negotiate them.
At the top of one hill we we stopped to check out a grave site.
From the grave site we headed down hill for a while where we came to one particular spot that was very steep with a big rock at the top.
Going down without flipping was challenging. It was toughest for the Tracker
and the Jeep Cherokee. They decided to connect a strap to the back of the tracker to keep the rear wheels on the ground.
The Cherokee made it with only a small dent in the left quarter panel.
When we all got to the bottom of the hill we turned left and headed up the wash. We only went a short distance before we came to another challenge.
It was decided that the Tracker and the Cherokee would have a hard time getting through. Dennis in the white jeep with Tom, today’s leader, went across the obstacle
and drove up the trail a short distance until they came to a locked gate. They reported that there were more bad spots to negotiate and there was no way through. Unfortunately GPS maps don’t tell you the location of locked gates or private property. We turned around and followed the wash in the other direction and after negotiating other obstacles
we came to another gate. We were hoping we wouldn’t have to try to go back up the steep hill with the big rock at the top. Fortunately there was a trail going up the side of a canyon in the direction we needed to go
so up we went.
The trail was pretty steep and kind of rough in a few spots
but everyone made it to the top.
From there we got on the original track and headed down toward the main wash. We had to renegotiate one spot that we crossed coming up the trail.
It was almost as tricky on the way down as it was on the way up.
The gouges in the rock are from many Jeeps and ATV’s scraping across the top.
All along the trip we saw burro’s
and blooming Beavertail Cactus.
It was a fun day with a lot of kidding and some technical driving experiences.
Oh! here’s a picture of our pet tarantula “Shelob”.
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