XJEEPER
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Highland Springs
Our group consisted of myself, Dr Moab, JRU, OB1, Aaron (yellow TJ) and John? (yellow TJ), along with several passengers. We met up at Maceys' in Providence and then headed to the trailhead.
The new road up Providence Canyon is pretty nice and in the area where avalanches often bring down debris from (?) side canyon, they've moved the road from the river bottom to the North side of the canyon. The road has been widened and you can easily drive a car to the quarry. There has also been the addition of a nice mtn. bike trail in this area that weaves through the oak brush. It has lots of berms and some jumps, looks like a fun run.
Above the quarry, no changes to the trail have been made and as usually, Prov didn't fail to provide some challenging wheeling conditions. The trail was icy and strewn with the usual basketball+ sized boulders, so we paused here to assess rig setups to determine if the trail was doable without dual lockers. I made a run up the first icy section, which required 4LO, locked F/R and momentum to keep from stalling on the icy conditions. I made it to where the ice diminished and then came back down, next sending Aaron up in his open/open TJ to give it a spin.......and spin it did! He made it up icy several sections, but eventually hit a section with not enough rock and dirt to maintain traction, so he had to turn back. Dr Moab lost a front ARB line that was too close to his exhaust, but I had a spare piece of 1/4" line, so he was able to repair it quickly.
The group from Rockslide/Mt Logan showed up and we let them play through, only to catch them shortly after, due to a slide off. They eventually got out the winch and cleared the trail, but the trail was now pretty chewed up and slippery in this section. I made it to the top of the hill, only to stall out with no traction........my rig acted as though I wasn't locked up, and looking down, both ARB switches were turned off! It was now my turn to deal with the slide off section, I had Dr Moab winch my back end over and after a couple of passes locked up, the trail was passable. Black Bear lost traction on the slick section at the top, so instead of risking a slide off by backing down, he just winched the last 10 ft to good traction.
We had a couple of rigs peel off for home, some folks had other commitments for the day, so it was down to myself, Dr Moab and OB1. The snow depth increased as we continued up the canyon, but we made it up the last hill into the basin without incident. Once in the basin, we headed for the trail to Mt Logan, but decided that steep shelf roads covered with snow and ice with no place to turn around were probably not the best way to spend our afternoon, so we headed over to the warming hut for our lunch break. We had no problem breaking through the 2'+ drifted snow on the trail as we made our way to the warming hut, where we ran into the Rockslide group again.
I noticed side by side tracks in the basin when we arrived and someone had been nice enough to start a fire in the stove in the warming hut earlier that day, so we enjoyed our lunch in 65 degree temps with the Rockslide group.
After lunch, OB1 and wife headed down the canyon and the kids played in the snow. Dr Moab brought along some pumpkins and we had an assortment of weapons to put the pumpkins out of their misery. We found a suitable location and set up for a punkin' poppin' good time. Dr Moab was kind enough to share his AR-10 (.308) with everyone and we all took turns throwing lead at the punkins, before heading back down the canyon. Back at the quarry, we spent some time with the kids exploring for fossils and hiked up to one of the falls and then called it a day.
It was a great day on the trail, with no major breakage or stuckage. For those who couldn't come, you missed a fun day of snow wheelin.
Here's some shots from my P/S camera, I grabbed a few from Dr Moab as well.
The new road up Providence Canyon is pretty nice and in the area where avalanches often bring down debris from (?) side canyon, they've moved the road from the river bottom to the North side of the canyon. The road has been widened and you can easily drive a car to the quarry. There has also been the addition of a nice mtn. bike trail in this area that weaves through the oak brush. It has lots of berms and some jumps, looks like a fun run.
Above the quarry, no changes to the trail have been made and as usually, Prov didn't fail to provide some challenging wheeling conditions. The trail was icy and strewn with the usual basketball+ sized boulders, so we paused here to assess rig setups to determine if the trail was doable without dual lockers. I made a run up the first icy section, which required 4LO, locked F/R and momentum to keep from stalling on the icy conditions. I made it to where the ice diminished and then came back down, next sending Aaron up in his open/open TJ to give it a spin.......and spin it did! He made it up icy several sections, but eventually hit a section with not enough rock and dirt to maintain traction, so he had to turn back. Dr Moab lost a front ARB line that was too close to his exhaust, but I had a spare piece of 1/4" line, so he was able to repair it quickly.
The group from Rockslide/Mt Logan showed up and we let them play through, only to catch them shortly after, due to a slide off. They eventually got out the winch and cleared the trail, but the trail was now pretty chewed up and slippery in this section. I made it to the top of the hill, only to stall out with no traction........my rig acted as though I wasn't locked up, and looking down, both ARB switches were turned off! It was now my turn to deal with the slide off section, I had Dr Moab winch my back end over and after a couple of passes locked up, the trail was passable. Black Bear lost traction on the slick section at the top, so instead of risking a slide off by backing down, he just winched the last 10 ft to good traction.
We had a couple of rigs peel off for home, some folks had other commitments for the day, so it was down to myself, Dr Moab and OB1. The snow depth increased as we continued up the canyon, but we made it up the last hill into the basin without incident. Once in the basin, we headed for the trail to Mt Logan, but decided that steep shelf roads covered with snow and ice with no place to turn around were probably not the best way to spend our afternoon, so we headed over to the warming hut for our lunch break. We had no problem breaking through the 2'+ drifted snow on the trail as we made our way to the warming hut, where we ran into the Rockslide group again.
I noticed side by side tracks in the basin when we arrived and someone had been nice enough to start a fire in the stove in the warming hut earlier that day, so we enjoyed our lunch in 65 degree temps with the Rockslide group.
After lunch, OB1 and wife headed down the canyon and the kids played in the snow. Dr Moab brought along some pumpkins and we had an assortment of weapons to put the pumpkins out of their misery. We found a suitable location and set up for a punkin' poppin' good time. Dr Moab was kind enough to share his AR-10 (.308) with everyone and we all took turns throwing lead at the punkins, before heading back down the canyon. Back at the quarry, we spent some time with the kids exploring for fossils and hiked up to one of the falls and then called it a day.
It was a great day on the trail, with no major breakage or stuckage. For those who couldn't come, you missed a fun day of snow wheelin.
Here's some shots from my P/S camera, I grabbed a few from Dr Moab as well.
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