Here's the roll call and a brief summary of the run.
We had 5 rigs show, which was a smaller group than I'd hoped for, but many others wanted to come that just couldn't swing it.
In attendance were:
Rob Shelley-XJCrazed
Mike and Jani-Mikal
Grant and buddy-Gcb17
Jared-DeadEye XJ
me
Jerry Harrison showed up at the staging area to meet us but his Jeep was hanging in the shop awaiting some steering mods. We'll definitely rely on his experince for future runs in the Cache Valley and Idaho area.
We aired down and disco'd and headed to the trailhead which was snowpacked and slippery. We made good progress until the grade became steep, just below the quarry. We all had some kind of TAD with the exception of Grant, who found this section somewhat of a challenge, but through perserverance and searching for traction we all made it up the first leg to the quarry.
The next leg was more of a challenge and Jared and Mike were able to make it past the rock garden but I struggled with worn KO's and snow polished to ice on top of rocks. We decided it was close enough to lunch and with light snow falling we broke out the coolers and chairs. After lunch we make the short but steep hike to the waterfall that is feed by Spring Creek.
Jared then need to bail for work and Mike went along as well. Sorry you and Mike bailed early, we had some real fun after you left!
With 3 rigs left, we decided to give the upper trail another shot.
The snow conditions had changed after lunch, allowing for better traction so we pushed on up the canyon. Good tires and TAD's were a plus, you really needed both but Grant did quite well with open diffs, especially considering that this was the first real snow wheeling that this Georgia boy had done.
This trail has been different everytime I've run it and this was no exception. Definitely more technical with scattered snowcovered rocks and mud as you make the winding, narrow ascent. This was the most challenging run I've made up PC to date and crawling was definitely out.......... gettin' it was the order of the day, with momentum being your friend.
We made it to about the Mathews Hollow fork, where the trail was completely snowpacked, when a slideoff required breaking out Rob's winch. After some strategic tugging and snatching off some helpful trees (no trees were harmed during this proceedure
) we were ready to press on to the upper valley. No doubt we could have made it to the summit of Mt Logan, as the more challenging sections of the trail were behind us but due to commitments later that evening, we decided to call it and head down.
We'll be running PC again in the early summer and exploring more of the trails in the Cache Valley area for those of you that couldn't make it.
I had a great time and got to meet and wheel with some new folks .........good additions to our soon to be formed Utah Chapter.
Wish I could have been there. Thanks for the report Jeff.
