Forward.
The finger is a spire that sticks up from the mountains north of Parker on the California side of the Colorado river. The trail is pretty rough.
You can see the finger in the right side of this picture.
Wednesday Ride.
We met the rest of the group at the fire station and by 9:00 we were on our way north on 95.
We crossed the Colorado. The river is pretty low today.
On the north side of the river we turned east and drove for a few miles. We could see smoke in the distance.
The closer we got the more it looked like a brush fire but there isn’t that much brush to burn.
It turned out to be some guys burning a pile of trash in a little canyon next to the highway.
The Trail Head.
We stopped at trail head to air down. You can see the finger in the back ground.
After airing down the tires we headed out the trail.
The trail follows the power lines for a while.
Here is the first sort of rough spot on the trail. The trail gets better or maybe worse depending on your perspective.
The trail gets a bit narrow in spots.
We got past those rough spots after a bit and on a little better road where we could move along at a reasonable speed.
Grave site.
We climb a steep ridge for a mile or so.
At the top we came to a grave site.
We could also see the smoke in the canyon from here.
Going down?
We left the grave site and continued north and down into a rocky canyon.
At the bottom of the ridge we dropped into a wash and turned left along it.
The wash brought us to the first big obstacle. A water fall that is under cut on the right side but has an easy way to get up the on the left side.
Next?
We continued driving down the wash. Occasionally taking a by pass around parts of the wash that are unpassable.
Back in the wash we went through a narrow canyon that has been washed down to bed rock. In previous seasons, this spot was pretty tough but this time it is silted in so it is a lot easier.
We continued on the trail going over a few smaller obstacles.
This one looks a lot worse that it is.
Barrel Cactus on the Rocks.
As we moved along Patti notices this group of Barrel Cactus growing out of the rocks.
The Bad Spot.
Eventually we came to the most challenging spot on the trail. It is an under cut waterfall.
Someone has pilled up a bunch of rocks in an attempt to make it easier.
The Jeeps with front and rear lockers didn’t have to rough a time getting up it. With good spotting from Dennis M they made it over the obstacle.
My Turn.
I have attempted this on three separate occasions and haven’t managed to get over it yet since I only have rear lockers.
This time was no exception.
I tried to get up the waterfall a couple times on this ride but eventually decided to let someone pull me over the top before I broke something.
Moving Right Along.
Once we got past the waterfall we continued along the wash. We went through some narrow spots…
and over some more rocks.
Lunch.
Around 12:00 we found a shady spot and stopped for lunch.
It is a good thing we have learned to pull off the trail when we stop for lunch, because we were not there for more than 20 minutes before a group of ATV’s came along.
We BS’ed a little with the ATV’ers and then they continued on.
Continuing.
A short time after they left, we finished our lunch and headed north along the trail.
And over more rocks.
We got another nice view of the finger.
We went through more rough rocky spots. . .
and a couple more tight spots with some big rocks to get over.
Broken Jeep.
We had just come through one of the rocky areas and into a section of sandy wash. As we rolled along I could hear a noise like we were dragging something. I stopped to check it out and found that the passenger side, front, lower, control arm had been ripped off.
I crawled under the Jeep and removed the control arm. In this picture you can see the broken mount still bolted to the bottom of the control arm.
To keep the axel from moving around we bolted a chain to a spot on the axel and hooking the other end around
I couldn’t use 4wheel drive so it was an interesting ride getting out especially going down steep hills. Fortunately we were past the hard stuff so I didn’t really need 4WD.
We slowly made our way along the trail. Eventually we came to this mining area. The sheds in this picture are all filled with old crumbling core samples.
After hanging out here for a while we eventually got back on the trail. The trail is much better here.
We had to stop one time because the nut holding the chain fell out and had to be replaced.
With that fixed we continued along and eventually got to the staging area near the pavement. Here we aired the tires up and got on the highway and very slowly made our way toward Parker.
I found that I could only drive at about 30 mph. If I went over that the front started a death wobble and I had to hit the breaks to stop the wobble.
Along the way we saw a few wild Burro’s .
Tow Job.
Eventually we made it to Parker. I drove through Parker to a gas station on the south end of town where they have a huge parking area.
We pulled in here and called AAA. In a short time the truck showed up to take us home.
Home Again.
When we got to our place I had the tow truck guy to unload on the street so I could drive the jeep onto the cement pad behind our RV.
I guess you could say that we had an interesting time as in the old Chinese curse.
Thursday.
Thursday morning I jacked the jeep up and started removing parts.
I got everything off except the axel; for that I needed a second set of hands. Dennis M came over and helped remove the axel.
We got the Axel out.
Then we had to lift the axel into Dennis’ trailer to make it easier to work on and to take it to get welded.
The Ordering Parts Fiasco.
Wednesday 01/24 evening I ordered what I thought was the correct part.
On Monday the part arrived but it was the for the opposite side. I called the parts place and had them send me the right part. The part arrived on Wednesday 01/30 Dennis and I checked it out on the axel and found that it was still wrong.
On Tuesday 01/29, while I was taking stuff off the front of the jeep I noticed that the upper control arms were real sloppy so I removed them.
Here is one of them.
Wednesday 01/30.
The upper control arms aren’t too expensive so I got on line and ordered a set.
Right after I did that Dennis came over and told me that he had two upper control arms that were like new and I could have them.
I immediately called the parts place to have them cancel the order for the control arms. While I was on the phone with the store I ordered a set of front, lower control arm mounts. I paid $23 for two day shipping so we would get the parts by Friday.
That would be cutting it close as we are supposed to go to Borrego Springs on Tuesday 02/06.
I called a welder in town to see if he would do the welding for me. He said he would but he only works weekends welding as he has a full time job elsewhere.
Okay it will be close but getting the welding done on Saturday morning will give us plenty of time.
Friday 02/02
We waited all day Friday for the parts to come in. By around 4:30 I called the parts place to see why I hadn’t gotten my parts.
As it turned out who ever I ordered the part from screwed up and didn’t ship it.
Therefore I had to reorder the parts. Unfortunately they won’t go out until Monday 02/05 so we won’t get the part until some time in the middle of the week.
That means we won’t be going to Borrego Springs this year.
Big Bummer!!!!
So that is where we stand now. Our jeep will be on blocks for a week or more. Fortunately our good friend Dave R is loaning us his jeep so we will have wheels for around town. Today we are returning the jeep to Dave because they will be going out for a jeep ride on Tuesday with Denis and Sue. Dave is going to loan us their white Ford truck.
Blog Update.
I have been having a bunch of problems publishing the blog.
My blog host has been experiencing some problems for a week or two. Also we keep running out of our allotted data on our Jetpack hot spot. We go through our 10 gigs of data in about 6 to 10 days.
This has to be changed some how.
Verizon Wireless.
We went to the Verizon store in Blythe. I asked them if I could get more data on my jetpack but they said no.
Patti’s phone is a dinosaur and is starting to giving us a bunch of trouble so we decided it was time to upgrade any way
It cost a bunch of money but now we have a smart phone with unlimited everything.
Now I have a Hot Spot with unlimited data so now I don’t have to worry about running out.
And now Patti has something to keep her busy learning how to use it.
Okay that catches us up I hope.
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