What a fun day running moderate/hard trails. We did Lower Amado and Coyote Canyon. The whole area saw heavy rain both Friday and Saturday before the trip. All of the arroyos saw some amount of flow. Judging by the debris, the main arroyo (Arroyo de los Pinos) had a flow of at least 6 feet. The arroyo that is Lower Amado had a flow of about 3 feet. Arroyo de Coyote probably had a flow of 2 feet. While a few rocks had moved on the trails, the most change was that sand and gravel have been washed out, exposing more of the rocks. The holes below the ledges along Coyote Canyon trail may be been a little deeper.
Jack Dickey got more seat time in his TJ crawler while leading the group. In the rockiest section of Lower Amado, his rig was turtled on a boulder and hung up on the belly pan. Both driveshafts got lightly scuffed on the rock and a driveshaft boot got munched. With an easy tug from Mary Turpin's winch, repositioning, and some spotting, he was moving forward along the trail. Along Coyote Canyon, his rig bellied out on a ledge resulting in the front wheels digging holes past the lip of the ledge. With repositioning and using steering to search for traction, Jack's rig crested the ledge. Other folks took different lines and avoided the holes Jack had dug.
Mary Turpin got to test out the new suspension and tires on her 2-door JK Rubicon rig. She and her rig did great, except for needing lower gearing in the axles. At one point, while letting out the clutch, her rig rolled backward and crunched a taillight and fender on a large boulder. A time or two, later in the day when she was getting tired, Mary need a little extra spotting and confidence building from Jack.
Doug Elkins cruised along both trails without any drama in his 2-door TJ Rubicon.
Pedro Estavan in his stock 4-door JK Rubicon on 33 inch tires had a great adventure. With spotting, he made it through the rocky sections with some dragging of the rig's belly. When dropping down an embankment along Coyote Canyon he got hung up with only one tire touching the ground. An easy tug back by Steph and Oly Olson and taking a different approach got him moving along the trail. At the exit of Coyote Canyon, he took the hard line without being spotted and creased the driver side rocker panel and rubbed a fender on a rock ledge. Pedro learned alot about rock crawling and his rig's capabilities. At the end of the day, he was grinning ear-to-ear and had a list of modification in store for his rig.
Steph and Oly Olson brought up the rear of the group. With Steph driving their 4-door JL Rubicon and Oly spotting, they made easy work of the rocky section of Lower Amado and ledges of Coyote Canyon. Unfortunately, on one tight rocky turn along Coyote Canyon, their rig leaned into a tree and caught their cellphone booster antenna breaking it and moved the window cover/rack, scuffing up the hard top.
It was a great day with a group of people and rigs suitably matched for the trail condition. Everyone learned more about their rigs and had a good time doing it.
