Exploring NH - Mt. Washington and Class VI Roads

I've explored a lot in the past 2 years, and I am still always searching for new places to check out, as well as finding a dying breed on the East Coast, free legal wheeling trails. I explored Bald Eagle and Delaware state forests last year a bunch and found some free camping, but the lack of hard trails was disappointing. We did Potts Mountain last year which was also a blast, but after running VA twice last year, I knew I had to set my sights elsewhere.

This lead to the idea of going North. Vermont and New Hampshire are only 6-7 hours from NJ, and have some excellent Class 4 (in VT) and Class 6 (in NH) roads that are basically legal offroad trails. They are technically roads that are no longer maintained by any township but are still legal to use for 4WD vehicles, and also are part of ATV and Snowmobile systems.

I have been sitting on a set of tracks I got from another member for about 2 years now. There used to be an event called Overland Challenge in New Hampshire that would run these trails, and the people competing would take photos or do winching challenges to get points and compete in this event. It seems the last one was in 2016 and the event has not come back. I am not surprised though, these roads literally go next to peoples yards/properties and seeing overland rigs bombing through their property probably really pissed them off.

Here is a report from one of the events as an example of what we expected we were in for:

http://roadtrekusa.blogspot.com/2015/10/new-hampshire-overland-challenge-92915.html

TLR - Lots of broken parts. Something we thought happened because they were retarded and flying through the trails, seems it was partially that, and partially that these trails are just rough on rigs. More to come on that later.

Going into this I had a couple expectations/hopes for this trip. I was hoping for real adventure vibes, good free camping and hard wheeling with huge boulders. We got almost all of that, and more.

As always when I said I was planning a trip, @Rockbaron1 said he was down. We ran Potts together last year and I was happy to have him on board again. We also had @avw4x4 joining us who came fresh off a trip to Potts Mountain with a couple of the other Jersey guys. We all were stoked, really had no idea what to expect and did all the prep we needed for this trip.

I had the biggest prep to do, and cut it damn close for this trip. In May I decided to do some major modifications to the truck, including fully boxing the frame, swapping and raising the gas tank 2", relocating the rear shocks, u bolt flip etc etc. I also had a leaking axle seal that needed the bearings rebuilt, so I pretty much rebuilt everything on that side. I got done just in time for departure.

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Shock relocate stuff by Michael Halat, on Flickr
Shock relocation by Michael Halat, on Flickr
Shock relocation by Michael Halat, on Flickr
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Huge shout outs to Pat, @6 gearT444E and @HomerTaco to help me get this done on time btw. Pat let me borrow his welder/helped run some beads for the the boxing of the frame, and Ant and Craig helped me cut the plates as well as working with me on cycling the rear end to do the relocation. We put in some serious work to get this done in time.

This was also my first trip taking Macaroni with me for an extended period of time. She's a kick ass Australian Cattle dog mix who I have taken camping on several occasions, but never for this type of harder wheeling and never for this long.

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The plan was to meet up Tuesday night at camp, and start the first tracks Wednesday AM. I got up there first at our first potential campsite hoping there would be a free site. Thankfully I was able to snag the last site at around 10PM and sent a satellite message to Pat and Andrew on exact coordinates. Cell service was complete garbage in the White Mountains so it was my only way to relay the information.

Soon after Pat, Heather and Andrew showed up around 11:30 PM and and we all ate a little bit and bull shitted around the campfire for our expectations of this trip.

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We knew the first day was going to be all pavement, with the highlight being the visit to Mt. Washington and driving up the auto road. We eventually went to bed way later then we wanted to, and woke up exhausted.

We ate breakfast and prepped to hit the road. Both Mac and Zuma were out exploring camp and I took some photos of our rigs while they were still nice and clean.

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We eventually left camp and checked out the end of the road where the other campsites are. The view was pretty awesome.

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We started the loop through the White Mountain National Forest, heading towards Mt. Washington. There were several scenic view parking lots to be able to stop for photos but eventually we just kept pressing on towards Mt. Washington after the first couple.

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Eventually we got to the base of Mt. Washington and put on our extra layers since we knew it would be cold up there. It was about 85 degrees at the base of the mountain, and 50 degrees at the top that day.

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We paid our fees and started the climb up. It was really cool being able to compare this road to the climb up to Pike's Peak that my wife and I did in our rental car in Colorado last year. This road was much tighter and much steeper than Pike's most definitely. It was also an interesting comparison because even though Pike's Peak had an elevation much higher than Mt Washington, the elevation gain was relatively similar. The base of Mt. Washington starts at 1,565 ft. and ends at 6100 feet. The elevation gain on Pike's Peak is 7,800' while the elevation gain is 4,500' for Mt. Washington. And while the elevation gain is significantly smaller, you still felt on top of the world up there.

The one thing I did not expect was how hard the climb would be on the trucks. I went up in first gear going about 15 MPH heading up there. About halfway up I realized my needle was rising and the truck was starting to over heat. Of course I was running the AC and not thinking much of it because in all the years I've owned this truck I have never ever seen the needle move. Not once. Not in all the crawling in Moab, all the stupid hot summer trips crawling at Rausch, never. But of course I haven't had AC in about 3 years too. At about the same time Andrew comes over on the radio saying his trans temps were spiking. At this point the spots to pull over 3 trucks was limited so I cranked my heat and opened my windows and picked up speed to try to get more air going to the radiator while Andrew pulled over to give his transmission a chance to cool down. Eventually we got to a safe place to pull off and Pat and I waited for Andrew there. It was a gorgeous spot so I used the opportunity to grab some photos. Eventually Andrew joined us and we all waited there for Andrew's transmission and my engine to cool down. Pat had no issues since he was running a Champion 3 core radiator.

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I got some photos with a less than cooperative Mac, while Andrew got some great photos with Zuma.

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Eventually we made it to the top and had some lunch.

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The views were pretty incredible. Honestly after being to Colorado I didn't think I could be impressed by the East Coast anymore, but I was mistaken. The views up there were awesome.

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Mac loved it up there, especially all the people.

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The next time I am up here, I will be hiking it with my wife and Macaroni.

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We got off the mountain with no drama thankfully, putting the trucks in low gear and not needing the brakes.

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We worked our way around the national forest and found a place to camp for the night. I marked it as cheap camping, but it was slightly terrifying at first since it seemed like it was at someones house. But as we explored the ground more we found a nice spot next to a creek, at the end of the property. This let us be far enough away from people to be as loud as we want and keep the dogs off leash. Pat went for a swim in the creek and hit up the rope swing across the way. We cooked some dinner, drank some beer and talked about how cool the views were that day. But the consensus around the fire was also the same, we were ready to hit some dirt. We went to bed knowing the next day would be our first day on the trails, and we couldn't be more stoked.

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Awesome. Just awesome. I’d like to be able to reach this level and learn as I go. Hope to both find the trails you do and meet up with guys like you. Thanks for the write up.

 

Moar please

 

Awesome!

 

Sweet!

 

awesome pics! hope your're enjoying the area some GREAT food up that way, check out moat mountain brewery if you can! looking forward to more pics of the trails!

 

Awesome pics Mike

 

Thanks everyone!

Day 2: Finally hitting dirt.

Of course we did not listen to our bodies and get to bed early once again. But who cares, we knew we would finally be hitting Class VI roads today and that's what mattered most. Macaroni was as shot as the rest of us the next day.

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We hit about an hour of pavement before we hit our first dirt road. It was this sign that got me excited again. And it would be the first of many signs we saw along the trails throughout the rest of the trip.

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Finally we were getting to the good stuff. We aired down here, in order to prepare for the rest of the day. It was definitely a hotter day than the day before, and in the woods the mosquitoes and flies were out like crazy. It was apparently also a really bad tick season too so I liberally applied a ton of bug spray to myself and some natural tick repellent to Mac.

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The trail started easy enough, slightly more difficult than a forest road. We hit our first mud hole, and learned quickly how sticky the mud can be up there. Since we were so early into the trip and my gear was relatively clean, I eased into it... and immediately got stuck. It took locking both the front and the rear to back out of it. After that I decided to ride the one edge of the grass where I see others have before me. Andrew decided to take a different approach and hammer right down the center, and was successful. Pat felt the same as me and took the edge as well.

We continued down the trail and aside from some bridge crossings across some streams with optional ledges into the streams (that we obviously hit) it was pretty tame. It was harder than a standard forest road, but easy compared to trails most of us are used to.

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Then we hit our first big water crossing. It was a pond, and it was pretty deep into the trail at that point. You could see that you basically have to drive at the edge of the pond to the other side, but could not see the other side of the pond from where you were standing. Now I am not sure how I would have approached this if I didn't know other rigs already have completed these tracks. But since I did, I decided to say fuck it and just give it a go. It got relatively deep, and was much longer than I expected. I was pissed at myself for screwing up part of the way in, I started out in first gear low range which was WAYYY too slow, and shifted to 2nd in the water. This is a big no no for manual transmissions (or so I have been told? honestly never dealt with it yet), but thankfully I did so before I submerged the transmission. I had a solid wake going in front of the truck the entire time, but was stoked to make it out okay and did not get stuck. I radioed to the other guys and told them to stick as far right as they could coming through and that they should be fine. I immediately setup on the bank and got videos of both Pat and Andrew making their way across, both agreeing that it was a pretty fun crossing.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B0Yevx3AJZm/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Not long after we stopped for lunch on the side of the trail. We bull shitted a little bit, and felt like we really were doing well. We all expected getting to camp really early since it looked like there really wasn't more trails left for the day. Famous last words right?

We finish eating and start pressing on. Then Pat came over the radio, "Andrew, I think you have a flat." Well fuck. He did, and we have no idea how.

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Andrew went to work changing the tire as we discussed options. We still had a trail to finish out that day. Andrew was the only one on 33's and now was the only one without a spare. We had no service, but once we got some we started calling local tire shops. Nothing had anything like what he needed nearby. Our next best bet was to call shops near where we would be camping that night. There were some shops that could get him a tire that would work, even if it wasn't the exact size he had. He had to make a decision there on whether or not he wanted to break off from us the next time we got out of the woods or to risk finishing the day with no spare.

He decided to risk it, and we were all so happy he did.

The trails got just a bit tougher than the ones from before lunch, but not by much. The scenery in the woods made up for what the trails were lacking.

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We took another break so I could let Mac stretch and so I could take a leak. This was one pf my favorite places because I loved how the lighting was and how the photos were coming out.

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We finally got to what we would learn was the last trail of the day, and it turned out to be the most fun. This was apparently the way you go to bypass the fun section:

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Of course bypassing hard shit was the last thing we wanted to do. It was the type of wheeling I was hoping for when I planned this trip. Big rocks, the entire trail covered by giant rock formations, dipping in and out of deep puddles. It was a trip and my stoke level skyrocketed when we first got on the trail.

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Excuse the blurry photos, we did get a bunch of videos, but the low light in the woods made it harder to capture and Pat was too fast for me to adjust my ISO.

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This entire section was just a cool trail. There was a mix of everything. Deep water with big boulders hiding in it, muddy sections, and just big rocks all on the trail. It was probably one of the most unique trails I have run on the East Coast because of this.

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The new shocks have been performing great minus the fact that at ride height I am almost on the bumps fully loaded. The Dakar's are shit for the amount of weight I am carrying in the back.

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How cool does this trail look though?!

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This was one of the long water sections. We all made it through with no issues but with had bad some of the mud was, there were definitely some concerns. Andrew actually hit it first and killed it.

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There was one section I remember very clearly, you kinda needed to turn left into a puddle, crawl up a big rock out of it, and pivot right around the rock and a tree to keep going. It was a cool feeling.

Part of the way through we found an abandoned pathfinder that some scumbags had left. It seemed pretty fresh. Our theory was local teenagers.

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The trail was pretty much over after that. A couple minor obstacles but not much. When we got out of the woods we were greeted by some amazing sunshine and an incredible view. I told the guys that now that we were out of the woods I can finally say that I was SO HAPPY that Andrew decided to press on. I would have been bummed if he missed that trail.

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Afterwards we decided to cross the river into VT to camp at Wilgus State Park. We ended up getting lucky yet again with another epic camp site. This is where I was a little frustrated with NH though, NO FREE CAMPING. Like how can a state who's motto is "Live free or die" have ZERO free camping opportunities? Regardless, camping here in VT was stupid cheap, about $22 for all of us for the night at one camp site. We also got luck again getting the site at the end with the best view, and far enough away from everyone to be able to keep the dogs off leash.

Not a bad view behind our site:

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While I had good lighting I took advantage to take some shots of Mac. My wife really loves these photos I get of her on these trips.

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As the sun was setting it was time to setup my tent and get cooking.

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I am assuming at this point Pat had realized his radiator fan had snapped one of the blades. He said it was running a little funky after the first water crossing, and he theorized that it was causing the engine to become a little unbalanced. So that also became a priority to address the next morning if we could.

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My camp lights got a work out this trip, it's sooo much easier than cooking with a head lamp.

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Mac was shot from another long ass day.

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I made myself a bomb ass grilled cheese and everyone pretty much called it a night relatively early. We needed to reset after two nights of little sleep.

I decided that before I went to bed I wanted to try my hands at some astrophotography especially since we had perfect conditions for it the night before but I was too drunk already to concentrate enough on it. My stock lense does not have an infinity focus marker on it, so I did my best to focus as best as I can on the brightest start I could. A bunch came out shitty, but one came out great.

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This was my first ever successful Milky Way capture. I was really really stoked about it. With that I went to bed knowing I would try to squeeze in a shower in the morning while Andrew was out trying to get a spare tire. It was a successful first day in the dirt and we were looking forward to more.

 

Day 3: Where the hell is the trail?

Andrew woke up early and headed out to address his lack of a spare tire. I slept in a little bit considering it was the first good nights sleep I had gotten in 3 days. I eventually made some coffee, got my first HOT shower in 3 days which felt fucking incredible, and ate some breakfast while slowly packing up. Pat and Heather did the same, and Andrew already came back with a slightly used 285. Eventually we were all ready to rock and start the day.

We cross the bridge back into NH and get to the first set of trails. According to the map, this was going to be our longest day offroad. We only had one time constraint, and that was to get to AutoZone before they closed so that Pat could pick up the fan blade he had ordered.

The trails started right up with a fun little rocky section and a terrifying bridge that you were unsure would hold us. Lot's of creaking and snapping when you crossed it.

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Already this day was starting more fun than the first day offroad with heavy rocky sections, fun climbs with different lines, and big rocks.

I couldn't resist stopping and getting a flex shot with the truck while rocking a t-shirt my wife got me for my birthday. It represent a big opinion I have with the exploding popularity of "Overlanding."

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We could tell we were in a pretty rural area, you know when the signs have bullet holes, you are in the country.

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This section was our first "big" obstacle of the day. It wasn't very hard, but still a ton of fun. I actually tried to approach it in its steepest section and accidentally rammed my bumper into the rock wall.

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As with a lot of this, videos will follow eventually. I figure the videos were much more entertaining to look at during obstacles vs photos.

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Eventually we got out of those sets of trails and hit maintained dirt roads. We followed them for a bit while following our GPX tracks at the same time. We bang a left onto what looks like a road, but also looked kind of like a driveway since there was only a single mailbox at the end of it. We keep driving and literally end at someone's house. From where I was, I could not see any trail at all. My nose was pointed towards this house, I can see I am not on the track, but where the track was on Gaia, it looks like it goes through where there is now a fence.

Then Heather and Pat come over on the radio and says they see a faint hole in the trees. They start going through the hole and alas, there was a trail back there! I back up and am tail gunning now behind Andrew. I see him go into the "entrance" and literally see him disappear into leaves and branches. What I saw coming through myself was awesome. It was a gradual hill climb, very rutted out and littered with larger smooth boulders with high sides. Erosion did a number on this section from rainfall and it was fun as hell.

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I took advantage of being in the back again by taking some photos of the trail.

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I later found out that Pat tagged his bedside pretty bad trying to squeeze through a tighter rocky section.

It seemed this particular old road had some history.

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We ate a quick lunch near there and then hit the trail again. We knew we had to keep moving if we wanted to make it to Autozone before it closed.

Not long after, we get to our second pond crossing. We already dealt with one so we didn't expect this one to be too much different. Andrew was leading and went first while Pat followed relatively close behind him.

All of a sudden Andrew came over the radio, "Holy fuck! It's deep guys! Holy shit!" At this point I was already in the water following Pat so I knew I need to either keep going or wait. I kept going and heard Andrew made it safely across, and can see Pat still going in front of me. Then I hit the spot Andrew screamed about, it drops about a foot down deeper than the already deep water halfway through the crossing. I see water splash completely over my hood and go halfway up my windshield. I hear the motor start intermittently bogging. Shit. What did we get into.

Andrew has a snorkel, by both Pat and I have our intakes raised up near the cowl below the windshield. Mine definitely tried to suck in the splashes of water, but I did thankfully make it safely across. I would say for a large portion of the crossing the water was over the winch and after the drop off it was as deep as the top of my satoshi part of my Toywerx grill.

Here you can see all the pond shit stuck all over my trucks front.

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You can also see where the water hit on my windshield since I had the AC on, it made condensation immediately.

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And the very end of the pond crossing:

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You can see a little bit of land after the first puddle and then before that was all deep water about as long if not longer than our first pond crossing. This was the first time I wished I actually had a snorkel. I checked my airbox, and sure enough it had water in it, but thankfully it did not make it passed the filter. I also had water come into my cab from the steering column hole. We were all very happy that we did not stall, get stuck or flood.

As we continue down the trail, I realize that my window controls stopped working. Great, the motors dead. But I then I tried the passenger window on the same control, and that didn't work either. But my switches on the passenger door work fine, so does the window. Hmm. We took a quick rest stop and Andrew grabs his panel from his truck. We swap panels and sure enough his works. Well at least we narrowed down the issue. He helps me roll up my windows at least so I can keep the giant horse flies out.

We continue along the trails and found another fun rocky section, nothing crazy though.

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We actually end up crossing some of the same tracks we passed this morning (near the bullet hole riddled sign) and head up another fun hill climb. In the middle of the hill climb I see a busted VW bug. And then I spot something hilarious... a giant NOOB sticker.

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Now normally this wouldn't mean anything to anyone. But I know that NOOB sticker. I'm the reason for that NOOB sticker.

You see, back in the day I was a huge asshole. I mean I still am, but I also was back then too. Rewind to the Northeast Toyota Takeover in 2016. It was the first day, and I came to wheel some hard trails. BUT there was a group of guys, @Subway4X4 @stairgod and @HolyHandGrenade, to be exact who all had fully armored rigs but were still wet behind the ears wheeling experience wise. So I volunteered to do my part and show these "Noobs" around that I so kindly called them behind their backs. Of course in that same trip Karma bit me in the ass and I blew my spider gears.

Well thankfully they all are good hearted dudes, found out I was calling them that, and Tim embraced it and they called themselves Noobs from then on. They even made up stickers and everything. And now I love wheeling with those crazy sons of bitches.

So when I saw that NOOB sticker, I immediately remembered Tim ran some trails in NH a couple weeks before we did. So what are the odds that two NJ guys end up on the same trails, 7 hours from home, a couple weeks apart? I was stoked to see it.

After we got through that rocky and rutted climb, we take a tour through some sketchy maintained dirt roads and switchbacks. And not sketchy like the road was washed out, sketchy like there were entire junkyards of abandoned cars in the woods and it was looking like Deliverance.

But eventually we ended up at what would be the most fun obstacle of the day. There were about 3 lines that the obstacle had. Straight up the center, off to the right, and off to the left. The center was by far the hardest to try, because you needed to try to straddle a giant crack in the center, hold the line and try to get over a big rock right in the middle of the line, which of course throws you off the line. The left looked the easiest but still off camber and sketchy, as Andrew found out. And the right was rutted out pretty bad.

I tried center first, was unsuccessful, and went right. It was annoying as fuck not having a working window to see how my tires were planted. I had to keep opening the door to check the way I had them pointing. Eventually with a Toyota wave I got up. Pat also tried center, was unsuccessful and went right. And Andrew was unsuccessful going right and ultimately went left.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

I put a quick edit together of each of our attempts since really the videos are best for shit like this.

Me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7Sgvugauhw

Unfortunately no video of me trying the line Pat tried in the center.

Andrew:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkgg3iWyRRQ

Pat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blzVXvDrYtQ

Honestly after that section we were all pretty tired and were kinda over the day. Especially since the rest of the day lead to nothing all that exciting, just constant larger bumpy rocks that were annoying to drive over but offered no real challenge.

Eventually we got off the trails and headed towards the town where Pat's new fan was waiting for him. We got the fan, I got some wire brushes/contact cleaner so I can try to clean my switch contacts the next day, and Andrew picked up trail spare tie rods since his were loose goosey. We had no camp ground or park in mind for this day, our hopes were to camp off one of the trails. We got into the trail in the dark, and found an open area, protected by trees, one way in and out, and even a fire pit. That would do just fine for us.

Pat and Heather retired early as Andrew and I stayed up late drinking and bull shitting. It was another great day and we were happy to find such a good site.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr
Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

 

Great stuff Mike!

 

Great stuff Mike.

Your adventures are always a great read!

 

Ha! Good stuff Mike



Well, you can kind of see the NOOB on the roof there.

 

Thanks Lloyd!

Psht you just want to show off your rig. Also I spy that #beatnotbabied sticker too.

 

Lol! Nah. I think I’ve posted that pic in like 10 different places now. Plus, I was stuck, that’s why I was sitting still long enough to have the picture taken. I now have an entire Yellow Jacket photo shoot...

 

I did Cathole road this past weekend and the Pathfinder is still there. The tail end is smashed in, my guess is that someone tried to push it off the trail. Great pics by the way.

 

Yeah I kinda wish we dragged it out but we were on a time crunch. Also not sure what we would even do with it if we did lol.

 

Going to try to finish this out.

Day 4 - The day that almost wasn't.

Pat woke up early to try to get his fan swapped. Andrew and I struggled to get out of bed after another late night, but eventually we did and started making some coffee and breakfast. While Pat was working on his truck I decided to try to get my window switch situation figured out. After much tinkering I figured out that the one contact burnt out and warped and the pin was no longer contacting on the top of the pin. Furthermore, the bottom of the pin got covered by burnt plastic and also was no longer contacting. I scraped the plastic off the pin and was able to successfully get my window switch to work again. Our theory was that I tried to use the window after the super deep water crossing, it shorted and burnt the one contact. Thankfully it was a relatively easy fix even though I took the whole damn thing apart for no reason.

Pat however wasn't having as much luck. He was able to successfully get his old fan out, but discovered it threw down some damage when the fan blade broke.

IMG_4351 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_4358 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_4355 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

But so far it hasn't been leaking so we thought he was good. Well when he took the fan out, he must have jostled a fin, and then it happend. Drip drip drip, coolant leaking.

He first tried to fix it with water weld while it was still on the truck, but with it still dripping, it was never curing. So he had to take on the fun project of draining the whole radiator, and try to water weld/jb weld it from both sides just in case. I am so happy I carry a bunch of this stuff in my OSK. I have been carrying it for a while now, and it's first use came from when @HomerTaco 's diff got loose and punched a hole into his oil pan. Never know when you might need it but it's definitely worth carrying.

Here is the fix:

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_4359 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_4362 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

The other thing I always carried with me but honestly never had a use for was a collapsable bucket. I bought it so I could wash camp dishes with it but literally never used it for that. It was perfect for collecting the antifreeze, and Pat was able to reuse most of the antifreeze he collected.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

At this point the sun was going up, and it was getting HOT. We setup ez ups to get some shade while we waited for everything to cure. Andrew came in clutch making biscuits and gravy for breakfast.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

The pups were over it.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Pat eventually puts the radiator back in the truck after it cured and slowly starts adding fluid. It held! We were stoked and finished packing up so we can finally start our last (and supposedly hardest) day on the trail.

We get down the hill and on the trail when Pat says his temps are spiking. Turns out he still had pockets of air in the system and needed it to get hot enough for the t-stat to open to really burp it all out. He added more fluid and we were back on our way.

We were on these trails for a very short amount of time, they eventually lead to some roads again. Finally we drive over a dirt mound at the end of a recently repaved road and back onto another class VI road. This one was definitely gnarly, a steep climb with large rocks all the way through it. I knew I was beating on the truck climbing up it, and even thought I blew my ring gear hopping in the one section. I got to a certain spot and realized Pat and Andrew weren't behind me anymore. I yell over the CB and get nothing. Not a good sign. I hike down to where they were (way further down than I thought) and saw Andrew looking under his rig. It was even worse than I thought.

It turns out Andrews front drive shaft said "Fuck it, I'm out." And grenaded itself. It didn't hit anything, it literally just twisted itself up. So now we had a couple issues. Andrew wasn't exactly in the best place possible to get under his truck to drop his skid, and remove the drive shaft. And the other issue is that now we have to somehow get him off this trail in 2wd.

This is the trail behind his truck:

IMG_4366 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_4368 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_4372 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

So the first thing he wanted to do was to back the truck down to get the truck in a better spot to remove the skid and drive shaft. He gets in and "click", the truck doesn't start. WTF. I decide to climb the hill to get back to my truck to load my backpack full of shit. I could have driven down, but was honestly afraid I did grenade my diff, and I felt I was through the worst of it, so I didn't risk it. I packed my jump pack, my impact, a bunch of tools I think Andrew might need, the dog bowl, water and a couple of beers since I knew it would be a while.

I get back down there and find out that his truck did start again and he was able to move it and get going on the skid and drive shaft. Our thoughts were that the trans overheated and something on the trans was keeping it from starting.

IMG_4373 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

I cracked one open while Andrew went to work, offering a helping hand if I could do anything.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

Eventually the skids were off, and the drive shaft was out. Damn.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr
Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

The biggest thing I learned was how THIN our drive shaft walls are. Holy shit.

So now that all that was dealt with, it was time to try to get him off the trail. The best plan of action was to try to get him backed down to at least a semi level spot, then turn him around so he can drive straight down.


With some careful spotting we were able to navigate him around most rocks, but did eventually get stuck on one set of rocks. With a little winching we got him forward enough to re-approach and get around them. Crazy how fast your trucks ability can be lost when you lose 4wd.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

I guided him back to the road, and he said he was going to spend the rest of the day finding that nights camp site for us while Pat and I continued on, trying to finish out the tracks we had.

We eventually make it up the hill and back onto pavement. Whatever noise I was hearing was some sort of clunk and not my ring gear thankfully.

We come to the next section, hidden in a barely visible entrance next to someones driveway. I could already tell it was going to be fun. It was no more than 1/4- a 1/2 mile long, but it was gnarly looking. It looks like it hasn't been traveled in quite a while.


I was absolutely stoked to run it.

IMG_4376 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_4379 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_4385 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_4389-2 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_4394-2 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_4399 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

While I was taking photos Pat set himself to run up the hard section first.

IMG_4404 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_4407 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_4409 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

And this is what was still ahead of us.

IMG_4405 by Michael Halat, on Flickr


The videos definitely demonstrate this area better.


Pat made it through pretty unscathed, but I had that giant one rock in the way in thew one section and I kept forgetting how far up on it I actually was. I thought I had it on video but at one point of the whole process Mac was like "Fuck this, I'm out" and jumped out the window. Once we got to the top of this trail we started following the tracks right, but we felt we could still explore more and started turning around to continue down the trail more. It was at this point that I realized I had ZERO power steering.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQT-nmIRMjk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBXdrwHsduY

From there we aired up and got in cell range to meet up with Andrew. We agreed on a town to meet in and got some ice cream while we were there before we rolled to where Andrew had found for us to camp at.

We decided to camp in a paid section of the White Mountain National Forest for our last night, Andrew said it would be the best place where we should be able to find safer, less crowded camping. He was definitely right.

IMG_4429 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

We took a side road off the main road and followed it to the very end. We found a perfect spot for our last nights camp, a giant open area at the end of the road, one way in and one way out.

IMG_4418 by Michael Halat, on Flickr
IMG_4426 by Michael Halat, on Flickr

We setup and started on a huge collaborative meal. Andrew had bought steaks while he was finding camp sites so they cooked those, I made instant mashed potatoes and sautéed peppers and onions, Pat and Heather made Mac and cheese and broccoli. It was a shared dinner for the books.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

We all reflected on the trip, chatted about our favorite days and were really happy that despite all our damage and problems, we are still driving home under our own power the next day. Between a blown power steering pump, a flat tire, a grenaded front drive shaft, burnt out window switches, body damage on Pat's truck, a busted radiator fan and radiator, it was a trip we will never forget.

And it was a trip Mac will never forget too.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

 

Epic write up man! Definitely did the trip justice! For sure the wildest trip I’ve done to date!

 

Subbed to read later!