Me, Avery (cracker) and DesertJeeper (from Edwards AFB) and his wife and daughters.
We aired down about 9AM and aired up about 30 minutes ago (I told you I lived close to this thing! ;-)
We went up Lookout Train and it was fun. No major excitement on the way up. When we got to the top, we coaxed Avery through the rock pile at the top. It was fun (maybe pictures, I didn't have a camera; but pictures were being taken).
We started down the back and found the Rohwer trail closed on the backside. We worked our way along the ridge (took the wrong turn on the forest service road (more on that later) and decided not to take the road back down to Rohwer Flats. We wanted to see the bottom of Rohwer, where it joins Bouquet Cyn.
We followed the ridge looking for ways down into the canyon and found ones close to 4 wheeled vehicles or closed altogether. We did find one possibility, but could only find half of the sign at the road. It said "ROA". I went down to see if we could get past a part waaaay down below where some guy on a motocycle was walking it. I didn't make it even THAT far. I hit a couple of washouts that I snuck past and some slides that made spooky camber situations before I came to spot in an "elbow" of the road that had BOTH. So you would have an off camber that slide into a washout with about a 4 foot straight down drop - sideways. The path past on the off camber portion was about 5 feet wide in some spots. NOPE.
I got back to the top and worked the rest of the ridge, until we ran out of ridge. Nothing to do but turn around. We decided to skip the road down to Rohwer and correct the error that happened so very long ago. We stopped along the way to help a dirt biker who needed tools and got him and us moving. When we rejoined our previous trail, and it finally started down towards Bouquet Cyn. It was closed. Webbing across the road, "do not cross". Nothinmg to do but go down Rohwer Trail. But we'd get to have fun on the "bump with four paths".
I had been up the (next to) hardest path with the rear locker and 33's a few months ago, but Avery said it was harder since the rains. So I gave it a go and got hung up and backed down. DesertJeeper took a stab at it 'cause his told him he had to :-D and kept the momentum up and got over the top. Avery stepped on the pedal and was off! With a lot of bouncing and spinning, he bounded over the top. OK, time for me to hit this one again! In 2nd gear (I'm the only stick in the bunch) instead of 1st; I went bouncing and jumping and carrening over the top! The height of no-finnesse! When I met Avery back at the bottom and we were doing undercarraige exams - we noticed he had spun the front driver's side U-joint. I guess ARB in the front, 33's and that kind of hurtling don't mix. Luckily, DesertJeeper had a spare! (I have a spare - but it was in the GARAGE - I mean, it was Rohwer Flats! Half-day, bring lunch, beach chair, magazine, etc - but spare axle? I guess you never know!
We swapped out, crawled the rest of the way down, aired up and hit the road. Avery is probably at Arby's having lunch and DesertJeeper is heading towards Palmdale, probably listening to kids sleep and trying to convince his wife that this wasn't an "easy run" (The only ones she goes on! ;-) Good luck, dude...
I am off to the showers and to see if I feel like firing up the grill or just taking a nap....
bburge