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The Gate Keeper at Calico - Class 5
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Superstition Mountain
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February 11, 2012
Superstition is defined as: A belief or notion, not based on reason or knowledge, in or of the ominous significance of a particular thing, circumstance, occurrence, proceeding, or the like.
I wasn't superstitious before this run, however......
We all gathered at the Indio T/A with myself & Carole, Ben and friend Glen, Steve and friend, Mike & snoop, Alfred, David & Cindy, Randy & Mary Ellen, and Curt. Eight rigs in all. We had a quick briefing on the area we were going and what to expect. About and hour and a half later, we reached the map kiosk of the area and aired down. The plan was to first run a few dunes to get to back side of the mountain then run Wishbone 4. After Wishbone, we would head to the Sand Dam for some fun then run another trail to finish the day.
We headed for the dunes to have some fun on the blow sand. Ben did get high centered on a dune and needed a strap to get clear. Onward we continued snaking around a few trails to get on back side of the mountain. After a short trail ride, we started up Wishbone. I've ran the trail before and I rated it at maybe a 3 but the map kiosk rated at 4+. Just to go on the record, trail rating is very subjective and maybe I should have rated it a little higher. David & Cindy were behind me and after a few rock crawls I
radioed back to David if he had installed lockers in his Suzuki—the answer was no. The noise coming from the Suzuki made me cringe. It sounded like total carnage. We pressed on but three quarters the
way up the trail the dreaded call came over the radio of fluid leaking from the Suzuki. Needless to say, the class 3 turned into a class 4+ for David. The front diff. was completely split in half. Yikes! David and others assessed the damage with David feeling confident he still had 2 wheel drive to get him out and back home. Getting out is one thing, getting back home is another. The getting out of this trail was the real challenge. Steve's LJ moved in front of David to strap him because his rig is more capable than mine. I mentioned to Steve the last part of the trail would require double strapping to get the Suzuki out—was that an under statement! The last 100 yards of the trail has a good size ledge of loose rock proceeded by a steep loose rock climb. I started up the ledge with the fully locked cherokee but really had work it hard. After seeing how difficult it was for the cherokee to get over the ledge, Steve and Ben agreed to winch the suzuki. Steve got up the ledge and turned around to get the winch on the suzuki. I proceeded to the top of the trail, turned around, then headed down the trail to get behind Steve to anchor him. This was some operation but after 2 hours of of winching we got the suzuki to the top and off the trail.
David's suzuki made it to the Sand Dam with no problems. Ben and a few others played on the sand for a while but we couldn't do another trial due to time and damage. A decision had to be made on the best way to get the suzuki out of the mountain area. The shortest way was through sand dunes and would require strapping. The easiest was to take a class 1 trail out but would be the longest. We agreed on the longest. I believe all of us were glad to get back to the map kiosk and on good road.
We aired up when we hit pavement. It was a long and tiring day with Superstition Mountain living up to it's name. Thanks to all for the recovery effort especially Steve's LJ who's winch got a good work out, however, the physical effort was the real winner of the day. My hat's off to all of you.
David, Cindy, and suzuki did make it home with no problems.
Greg Mottino
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