Background.

When we got home on Friday Dennis M. came by and asked if we wanted to go for a ride on Sunday. He, Bill and Dennis K. wanted to go and try the obstacles in that wash. We said we would be happy to go along.

Heading Out.

We met at the fire station at 9:00. Once everyone was present we headed for Parker and Shea Road. We turned east on Shea Road and stopped to air down.

After airing down we drove 15 miles to Mineral Wash. We stayed to the left and headed north until we came to the large turnout where the Old Ford Trail starts.

Mineral wash goes through some neat canyons.

Old Ford Trail.

We turned right where the Old Ford trail starts. The trail is interesting right from the start.

Once through the gap you get into some smaller rocks.

Soon we came to the obstacle that gave Dave trouble the last time we were here.

It doesn’t look to bad but it is way off camber and as you try climbing the rock it pushes you to the left side and against the big rock there.

Here I am trying it first since I am the leader today.

Once I was through I spotted for the rest of the group.

The rest of the trail is not as bad as that spot but there are a lot of rock in the trail.

Most of the time you don’t need a spotter.

Out of This Wash

We climbed out of the wash on a narrow trail.

The last time we were here we turned right at the first intersection and after a short ride we came to The Planet Ranch Rd.
This time I decided to turn left at that intersection and see where that takes us.

The trail took us past this mining area.

We walked around this place for a while but didn’t find where the mine tunnel was.

It was time to continue the ride so I had to get the group together as they were wandering around the area.

when we left this area we drove by this old truck.

Washes and Hills.

We drove up and down some more narrow washes…

over some hills…

And back into another wash.

Lunch.

We stopped at a wide spot in a wash to have lunch.

A Tight Spot.

After lunch we continued along this wash and came to this really tight spot.

Here the driver has to make some sharp turns going over these sharp rocks.

With a little guidance and taking it very slowly one can get through here.

On to the Next Challenge

Once we got through this spot we continued exploring.

Eventually we came to this very narrow spot between the cliffs.

We looked at it for a long time and eventually I decided that I could make it through the gap with Dennis M spotting for me.

The first problem I ran into was a large rock in the middle of the trail that caught the left rear shock mount.

We had to break out the high lift jack.

Once we jacked the rear of the jeep up and put some rocks under the rear tires, we had enough clearance to continue.

Now we had to get through the tight spot.

Here is a series of pictures that show the transition.

That isn’t oil on the ground under the jeep. Its Donkey poop.

At one point I had no more that a half inch clearance on each side.

I’m through the gap.

Just past the gap were some big rocks to negotiate.

Once we got through this the wash was pretty open from there.

While we were trying to get my jeep through this spot we decided that there was no way that the longer jeeps (Bill and Dennis K) would fit through the gap. So they turned around and took the bypass trail and met us at the other end of the wash where we drove out of the wash and onto Shea Road.

Vampire Mine Playground.

Once on Shea Road we headed west.
Dennis M wanted to play at a spot on where the Vampire Mine Trail starts. There are a couple of nice obstacles in this wash.

Here we are going over the first challenge.