Yesterday my son and I went to an orchard located in a remote canyon to get some Champaign apples for everyone, and then we were going to go up the canyon and around to a camp to take my wife come cold meds (she is on retreat). Mapquest said we could go up that way, but it was very harsh. We crossed a stream 25 times and got all the way to the top of the canyon only to find a VERY locked gate made out of railroad track (ie too heavy to crash!!!) By this time we were beat up, but we didn't want to give up because going back around is about an 80 mile detour. We took two forest (roads?) going up things that an extended cab truck shouldn't go up (my son is a good spotter) but ran into dead ends, like massive trees laying over the trail.

We had to punt, drive allthe way back down (crossing the stream 25 more times) and back around the LONG way. I noticed at about half way there that my headlights were out, so I checked the fuse, which was OK. The right headlight however was hanging down like Marty Feldman's eye, the headlight bucket having proken loose from it's mounts. The left side is safety wired on already. Both relays had failed from the G-forces I inflicted on us and the truck, and I had one spare that I connected to the low beam side. I also noticed that my intake pipe had come off of the BHAF .

I scraped a nice big groove in a rock while 4 wheeling with my front diff, but it looks fine. I do have a new leak at the yoke seal on the rear diff....

I also noticed that my breaks were locking up at low speed in low range. I must have some broken springs or something. I also had the bottom half of one of the front spring packs turn on me, but that already happening. Looks like the u-bolts are a bit loose over there.

Anyway, it was a 12PM to 12AM trip.

Lessons learned: don't trust Mapquest alone, don't go bizerk over ruff terrain, and don't try to jam a giant Diesel truck into jeep (and goat) trails.

Now I need to safety wire my other headlight bucket!!!!

 

Well, that sounds like a fun adventure.

Let me see if I got this right; you were trying to get some cold medicine and apples to your wife, who is on top of a mountain, so you got directions from Mapquest, the directions took you through 80 miles of terrain so rough only half your truck remained when you reached the top, and then you had to turn back around when the gate was locked.

Moral of the story: Never leave home without a blow torch. Never.

 

That sounds like a trip to the grocery store after a hurricane.

 

Great post. I liked the Marty Feldman line

And MapQuest sucks

Also don't leave home without a chain saw

Dean

 

Yea, that's about it. As much as I respect personal property rights, I would have been VERY tempted to cut that dude had I had my torch. Oh wait, my torch wouldn't have survived the journey anyway! I though I was going to blow a roid on that trip!

 

Except I would have frozen to death had I broken down. It was full on fall back in that canyon, the leaves were changing and everything, and COLD!

 

And of course nobody knew where you were?

 

MAPQUEST knew.

 

I never thought about the cold. It's still 80 degrees here. I'm still running A/C

 

I use Google Earth to look at real pictures of the terrain. In some areas the detail is astounding. I turn on the "terrain" feature to get a more 3d view. The degree of detail varies a lot from place to place but where it is good it is VERY good. I once tried to take my 2wd up Box Canyon in AZ. I had to give up and turn around because some one had blocked the trail with large rocks that only a short wheel base, high clearance truck could go over without risking serious damage. I was alway curious about how close I had come to getting through the canyon. I found out that I was more than 2/3rds of the way through when I went through it on Google Earth.

 

I actually did look at it in Google earth (had the printiout with me) but the ponderosa pine canopy is too dense to see the road in most places. I could tell it was going to be challeging, but couldn't see specifics. Besides, New Mexico doesn't rate the really high res satellite shots in Google Earth yet.

Many people knew my general flight plan, but if I got stuck back there it would have taken a bulldozer and the Marines to get me out!

It's amazing, at 4:00pm it was so dark back in there I needed my lights (which by then were incapacitated). It was already in the 40's, and I heard it frosted last night. Anyway, I was figuring we were on borrowed time coming back down that canyon (wonder how many fish I killed) but when we popped out it was still daytime, and much much warmer. I had an hour of sunlight left to get down the road and fix my headlights before heading back into the mountains from the other direction to delever my wife's much needed medical supplies!!!

I love this state, you can drive 10 miles and go from scorching desert to alpine glory!

 

Only comment i can add is, id loaned ya a very old beat up jeep.

 

If I had any idea as to the terrain I would have taken out '93 Grand Cherokee with the 2" lift, but I sure love roadies in the Dodge!

It frosted at my house for the second morning in a row, and was 28deg at 7:00 AM! I wasn't ready for this....

 

Mhuppet that 3.9 cummins in your sig your looking for, that i can help with.
http://arsco.com/cummins.htm

bought one from them 700 bucks and runs. keep checking they get em in all time.

 

Thanks for the tip!

On the Death Drive, my 45 year old guts still arn't quite over that thrash. I hate getting old!!!