Cleveland Rock (worse than it looks)

Forget Iron Chest. I predict Holy Cross is going to be the highlight of your weekend. That's the really fun one. There's an obstacle at the end called Cleveland Rock that's quite something. I don't predict anyone in the 33" and under crowd is going to make it up. ( ) Steve, it'll be a prime place for you to leave a little bit of Arizona behind.

If you're interested, here's a description of Holy Cross from a club I go out with sometimes. (Click on their member reports for more descriptions and lots of pictures.)

 

Wow !!! Another Coke Ovens. Truthfully that does not look that bad. Mike Nevitt smashed his rear bumper on a water fall, with water in it, simmilar to that.

We'll see, if Hunt does it, I might consider it.

 

Yea right, you know the picture never shows how difficult it really is. He,he,he, good to hedge with, "I may consider it"




Two words....Got Spares?

 

I've got 33" tires, and when somebody tells me I can't make it, I'll find a way.

I just mounted a set of Rancho 9k 9-way adj shocks which should really improve the highway as well as off-road manners of the 4Runner. The big challenge now is how to protect thos shocks from trail damage. A rock crushed one of my last set of shocks. Don't need to have that happen again.

 

oh, and SteveS, you can do it. U Just need a good spotter. As you recall, when Carole and I drove in AZ, I spotted and she walked right up anything we took on.

 

This is good: Planted that seed of challenge, and now we're assured some good entertainment (and video) on the run. I've seen some vehicles do it (no Toyotas, though), so I know it's possible. It's just hard.

 

 

I havn't been on Holy Cross yet. But, based on that picture it looks totally doable. Especially with a front locker and gears. I would expect all the big boys in this group to give it a go.

 

I stayed in the same camping site the last 2 days as where we'll be this coming week. I was there with some Colorado Isuzu wheeling buddies.

One significant change (to me at least) is that the campground owner said they no longer allow groups to have individuals pay the office directly. Apparently groups couldn't be trusted to enforce that everyone stopped by the office. They now require everyone in group sites to pay their group leader. Then the group leader pays the office for the total amount. With tax it'll be $5.50 per person per night that you'll need to pay ME when you arrive. And I don't have a credit card reader. Then I'll pay the office the total each day. So you can go straight to the camp sites T10, T11, and T12 starting Wednesday afternoon.

I didn't get to run Holy Cross, but I heard the stories from the Isuzu guys. The crossing at French's Creek is definitely more difficult now than in previous years. There's now flowing water right up to the base of the gnarly obstacle in this pic. That pic is from last year. (The photographer was standing in the stream). The "easy" line to the left isn't easy anymore either. People who have a winch might actually get to use it there.

I'm not expecting to have enough time to go beyond the city. So we won't even see Cleveland Rock. The normal destination is the ghost town/Holy Cross City anyway. Typically only extreme vehicles go beyond there.

I did Chinaman's on Saturday. It's a bit more eroded this year than last. The notable thing about Chinaman's is that there's now private property blocking the trail junction at the far east end of the loop. The U.S.Forest Service has blocked the road for a 100 yard section and built a bypass trail for vehicles to go around the private property. The flags are still on the trees to show the new route. There are a couple difficult obstacles in that new section. I had to winch one guy up it and a few of us (including myself) took a strap. I tried a different line and got high-centered. One guy almost tipped over there. I'll try to post pics of the new obstacle as soon as some of my Isuzu friends post pics. My camera is presently broken.

On Sunday I quick ran all of the first half mile of Iron Chest. I got up the entire boulder field in 15 minutes. Then it took an hour to get down because 3 other vehicles were coming up and it's not easy to find passing places anywhere in there. I never had to engage the front locker on Iron Chest (but I did several times on Chinaman's, but that's partly due to a lot of optional obstacles).

 

can't wait for the action to begin.
BTW, if you all have been paying attention to the news, the West Nile Virus is in Colorado. If you have pets, spray em down, or try and protect them somehow. We have decided to leave our dogs to make this trip a little easier, plus we just have to spray ourselves down. Little easier to manage.

 

The picture is decieving then, because it's not "totally doable." I can understand your perception, because I even thought that when I was there. It wasn't until I actually saw rigs on it that I recognized its true difficulty. It's one of the toughest obstacles in the state. It can be done, but not without a struggle.
I would sure like to see us veture up there if time permits. Both times I've done Holy Cross with groups, we drove on up to Cleveland Rock. And we didn't get early starts -- we're talking 11:00 at the trail head. By contrast, our group should be there by 9:30. And we've got the advantage of going on a Thrusday when there shouldn't be traffic on the trail to slow us down. From what I know, the crew we got signed up is pretty build. (I think I'm the only one without a locker.) So we should made decent time. I'm not trying to mutiny, but just registering a strong preference/vote for going up there if we can. I think the out of state guys would enjoy seeing it.

 

Maybe if you had a rear locker you would have a different opinion.

Maybe if you had a front locker, a rear locker and basically 3 stock transfer cases in a line, you might have a totally different opinion.

I can't wait to see your Hooters Girl !!!

 

Schaefer, You have 3 T-cases? I though the marlin crawler mod was putting 2 cases together? I can't wait to see your rig in action!

 

I haven't tried it myself. My perception is based upon seeing other (fully locked) vehicles try it. From what I recall, the obstacle is very steep, and the stairsteps are very large, making clearance very important and squirming very probable. However, it's been a little while since I've been there, and most of the vehicles I've seen attempt it have been short wheelbase. As I recall, the steepness is such that crawler gears just make your wheels spin slow rather than fast.

But you may prove me wrong.

 

Mike - we can consider going beyond the city, but we'll see.

I agree that we'll probably start on the trail about 9:30. I've gotten to the city in 2 hours when I was with just a few other vehicles. I expect it to take longer with our number of vehicles. Yeah, we're all pretty built on that trail. I wouldn't be too surprised if we'll be eating lunch at French's Creek while winching/straping people through. I put Holy Cross on Thursday to minimize the likelihood that we'll have a few-hour traffic jam waiting for other people ahead of us to get through French's Creek. I've heard other's stories about traffic jams of 30+ vehicles waiting their turn to get across French's Creek.

As I see it, the upper section of Holy Cross isn't the main attraction for a gathering like this, especially when we can get back to camp at a reasonable time and socialize more back there.

 

Fair enough. We could just play it by ear. But I doubt, even going to Cleveland Rock, we could end up with a longer run than the runs we had last year. (Of course, last year the whole group was together on the runs, so having a long run didn't so much cut into the socializing time.)

 

My tires are now rebalanced, my skidplates are reinforced, my jerry can is full and my front locker is being less annoying. By this time tomorrow I should be into Nebraska and solidly on the way.

Oh yeah, did I forget to say I am excited???

I want to see Steve use his winch. I tried really hard in Arizona to need a pull, but always snuck out unscathed.

It looks like there will be a lot of hardcore 3rd Gen wheeling happening, and that is super cool!

 

YES - I just talked to the parts manager at Stevinson West Toyota. He recognized me right away. He donated some Toyota promotional items for us last year, such as keychains and hats. Some of the hats were REALLY nice Toyota hats. He said he'd be happy to donate some items again this year. I'll pick up his promotional items on Wednesday, so I don't know what they'll be yet.

Hey Adrian - you won't be the only one with a 2nd gen 4Runner there now! Mike Caskey from ORS just signed up for Friday and Saturday. He has the SAS'ed '95 4Runner on coil-overs and 42" tires. So he'll be on Iron Chest and Chinamans.

 

That's awesome! Mike's a nice guy. I've never off-roaded with him, though. Should be fun.

 

Wow, this thing is going to get some notoriety one of these years. Though I think ~30 rigs is plenty. I'm glad to see this thing is starting to have a better mix of vehicles. Though I think I would have some kind of a complex if I parked next to Jerry's or Mike's rigs, or the like.