At 11:30 PM I had an urge to go up wheeling at night. I grabbed a newby wheeler but told her to keep her Jeep Cherokee on the main trail and NOT to follow me on the side trails that are 100% more difficult at night. She did as I asked and I took my 4runner with two non wheelers up. I heard a lot of "oh ˟˟˟˟˟s, oh my gods, & your gonna flips" from them. It was quite funny but I scared myself a couple times even. Before they got up to the main road I took a quick run at a side trail called side winder or atleast I call it that. It's the very first side trail and the easiest way to roll a rig if you dont know what your doing. I should have aired down for this night run but I was not in the mood. Believe it or not airing down is a safety measure when it comes to climbing and your tires not having enough give to climb. I ended up in a moment of having a dry throat & swallowing my tongue. I normally straddle the foot and a half deep ruts when aired up but last night I pulled a (screw it) and ran the ruts aired up to 35 psi. I was making it just fine but the pass side drops deeper than the drivers side in these ruts. The higher I climbed the more of a passenger side slant I got into. So I was in such an angle that I knew I would roll if I continued. So I decided I needed to bail out and climb up out of the rut. I chose the pass side being if I chose the drivers side (higher ground) I would get into more trouble. But it was harsh climbing out the pass side. My drivers side tire was the first to lift off the ground. I can only imagine that I was into a teetering position with these ruts. So I was climbing up and back torward the ruts finally dropping back in. My auto trans was already in 1st & 4 low so I was in frogger mode. Once I was all the way in ruts I was out of the worst of this slanting corner & made it out with zero carnage.
My next run in with 4runner death was when I had my passengers with me. I was climibing the big hill & creeping it to give the guys the full effect of the articulating trail. We started up the steepest part at the top and this is where it got scary. There are huge holes where large wheelbased rigs with bigger tires than my 35s just dig. There are three total and for a small wheelbased rig such as my toy that makes for interesting wheeling. With my tires at 15 psi I can crawl through it blindfolder but running 35 psi & passengers both on the pass side it gets crazy. I hit the holes head on thinking my passengers would think I was a chicken chit by staddling the holes. So we dropped in & out of the first three foot hole and it was when we started climbing up over into the second one where my tires lost traction. We were looking straight into the stars. That was a piss poor feeling of "oh my god were going to roll over backwards and die". I quickly yet gently put it in rev. and backed into the lower hole. I tried to grab another line but this time it took us side ways. I gave up knowing I was only going to get frustrated enough and try crazier ˟˟˟˟˟ and then really end up on my roof rack. If I was alone and didnt have the lives of those guys in my hands I may have pushed on trying to tackle the hill. We just ended up back down half way and taking the side trails side trails to make it to the top of that trail. It was really stupid of me to attack these trails with 35 psi at night. But everyone made it back to town to party it up and play some poker. Ben