The middle March 2002 weekend
was a really pleasant adventure. Given that there were only three jeeps we had
been able to move relatively fast, and run the Jackhammer and Sledgehammer on
Saturday and the Outer Limits on Sunday. Blaine and Garry run the Sledgehammer
twice, since they had to finish the trail go back to the camp, pick up the spare
axle and run the trail up once more to where I had my jeep disabled with a broken
U-joint and a blown hub.
Jackhammer is an extreme
trail. There are three logical parts to the Jack:
Technical: up the waterfalls.
Scary: Climbing the top of the mountain.
Brutal: going downhill amongst piles of giant rocks of all sizes.
Sledgehammer is supposed
to be one of the easiest trails at JV, however I just keep braking parts on
it. The ring gear that one time. And yesterday I launched the pieces of a front
hub flying as high as 25 feet up in the air.
That’s amazing how jeep parts work through the toughest stuff, and then
they give up on relatively easy ground.
The Outer Limits turned
out to be the trail where I was getting stuck the most, and had to have the
highway built for my jeep multiple times, even though I took bypasses twice.
GPS Data:
Jackhammer Trail Head:
N34 24.877 W116 28.466
Jackhammer Trail End: N34 25.240 W116 28.320
Sledgehammer Trail Head:
N34 24.838 W116 28.425
Sledgehammer Trail End: N34 24.415 W116 28.378
Outer Limits Trail Head:
N34 27.273 W116 27.066
Outer Limits Trail End: N34 26.857 W116 27.267