Old Ward Canyon 1/25/14

[moab_cj5]

What a fun day! I was having so much fun, I didn't think to take any pictures until the end. Hopefully the others that were on the run will post theirs up.

We met the first group at the Chevron on 400 N in Bountiful and headed up to the B. We met the rest of the group there and started up Old Ward Canyon. We had a very diverse group of vehicles: Jeep JK's, TJ's, an XJ, an Isuzu Trooper, a Range Rover, a 4 Runner, and a Tacoma.

It was muddy, slushy, icy, and fun! I tried to climb straight up the hill, the way I usually go up, but with the slick mud and snow, that wasn't happening. We all ended up going around the easier way. The only hiccup was getting the Taco up to the easier road from play area.

While some of us hung back to get everyone up the first part, the other part of the group came across a guy in a ZJ that was stuck and spent the night on the hill. Sawtooth will have to comment on the whole recovery as I only saw the last part, but it ended with a tow strap, a Range Rover, lots of throttle, and plenty of wheel spin and tries.

Once that fun was over, we headed up the trail further. The next tough spot wasn't much further up where some had issues getting through a large rut that was pretty icy. Once through there, we made it to the upper meadow without issue. From the upper meadow, we rounded the corner and into the North exposure of the road. The snow got deeper and was a real sugary consistency. I tried breaking trail for a while before giving up after only making it about 60 to 70 yards. We turned around and headed back down to the play ground right above the B.

Most played around in the mud and snow for a while, then we dispersed and went our separate ways. I hope everyone had as much fun as I did! I think if we had started from the top and run down we would have made the whole trail, but I wanted to start from the bottom so we could turn around if we ran into an issue.

Here is the only picture I took. I took a video of the last few vehicles coming off the hill, but I don't know how to post a video here, and there isn't anything interesting going on... LOL

Anyone else that has pics or descriptions of the day, please post up!

Until next time!

 

[Troop92]

Good writeup above, nicely sums up the day. Those two sections that hung a few people up were pretty gooey/icy and off camber, so traction definitely wasn't in abundance. Where's the fun in an entirely uneventful ride, anyway?

I got a few shots on the way down, nothing of all the action on the way up though.























Had a great time, nice to meet a few people. Can't wait to get out again.

 

[sawtooth4x4]

Had a great time. Rescued a Jeep Grand Cherokee from the bottom of a hill. The dude had spent the night up there. Not sure why he didn't walk out or use his cell phone. He said he worked for Fat Bob's. He had just installed the lift and bald tires and decided to go wheeling Friday night.

Anyway I winched him up about 100 feet. That was slow going but got him out of the steepest part of the hill. Then I borrowed a tow strap and dragged him up the hill. Took about 20 minutes and he was free.

I didn't take any pictures. The older I get the lazier I get.

Had a lot of fun.

My buddy took a bunch of video of it. He is splicing it together so hopefully I can post that later.

 

[Troop92]

Not sure why he didn't walk out or use his cell phone. He said he worked for Fat Bob's. He had just installed the lift and bald tires and decided to go wheeling Friday night.

Maybe that's why, didn't want all the ribbing and jokes to be about him for the next month...

 

[sLcREX]

It was a really fun run, most of the trail was pretty easy to get through except one off camber section where I spent a good amount of time trying to get past but I would just keep spinning on the ice. After airing down the tires I was able to get up it on a second try, always impresses me how much airing down helps lol. The last section was just too deep of snow, watching the JK try breaking trail ahead you cold see how deep it got, on another occasion we will run the whole thing.

Here's a higher res version of the panoramic photo http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7295/12142684454_ac46d40f21_k.jpg

This is the only section that gave me a hard time, and apparently I need to fix my brake light

 

[sawtooth4x4]

It's like my brake light. Always burning out. One feature I hate about my range rover. Tail lights burning out every other month.

 

[sLcREX]

Let's hope this one doesn't develop that habit. This is the first it's burned out but not sure when it happened. I'll replace it today

 

[Troop92]

It was a really fun run, most of the trail was pretty easy to get through except one off camber section where I spent a good amount of time trying to get past but I would just keep spinning on the ice. After airing down the tires I was able to get up it on a second try....

Not sure if your Runner is like my old Taco, but mine never did anything until it was good and ready to. "You want to go up that? Meh, give it a few tries and I might think about it." You made it up - even if you did get a little sideways at one point!

It wasn't WOTR, but it was far cheaper and just as fun!

 

[sLcREX]

Yeah it was too much of a simple bump in the road to even think about giving up, but I just wasnt getting any traction trying to go across it. I kinda felt like my driver side rear tire was dead in the water though, it wasnt really moving much at all, even by mistake lol. I was bumping the e-brake trying to get the tire to hook up and it didnt respond. Makes me wonder if something is the matter with it.

 

[Troop92]

Do you have an e-locker on the Runner?

 

[sLcREX]

No it's open, the locker is sitting in the garage waiting for me to get motivation lol

 

[Troop92]

Haha, nice. Not too surprising that you were spinning. Icy snow and slick mud doesn't equal awesome traction when all flexy.

 

[sawtooth4x4]

I had my tires deflated to 15 psi. it seemed to hook up fine for me that way. Luckily the traction control on mine works like limited slips front and back.

 

[Troop92]

I didn't air down, but my limited-slip def helped.

 

[moab_cj5]

I didn't air down either, but lockers helped me until the 2 feet of sugar snow stopped me. Next time we'll have to try from the top down.

 

[Troop92]

Still looking at those pics with a grin. Fun day.

 

[nnnnnate]

Man, thats a good looking puppy.