28th Annual High Desert Roundup
(Stoddard Valley OHVRA)

Wow! All I can say is this was one of the best trips I have ever taken I  thoroughly enjoyed the trip, and got to finally do some extreme 'wheeling with my newly locked Cherokee. I got in on Thursday night and met up with Kelly and Tom. Perk was there, too, but hadn't yet found the camp. We hooked up with him the next day and reserved a somewhat larger area for the campground. Friday brought many more people, and by 3 PM, pretty much everyone was there. When we all got settled in, it was time to go out and have some fun. On to Pumpkin Eater!

There were seven of us on this run. Tom took the lead and showed us the way to Pumpkin Eater. On the way there was a nice little obstacle up a waterfall. As we pulled up, we saw a group of Jeeps trying to climb it. I should mention here that on the way in we saw a CJ5 being towed out. All Right! Looks like it's time for fun! We pulled up to the obstacle just as the Jeep that was trying (and failing) backed out. Tom walked over and asked how many more were going to try. They said we could go for it. They had a group of ten Jeeps with them. Out of the ten, only 2 made it, and 2 more had broken. Always wanting to show off, we all decided to try the obstacle. Tom went first, showing off the awesome abilities of Rockhaus. Kelly went next, making it look easy. Then it was my turn.

Following Tom's expert spotting, I planted the tires of my Cherokee on the right path and started up. As I was going up, I could hear the onlookers saying "There's no way that Cherokee's gonna make it" They were still hurting from their attempts, and were eagerly waiting for me to fail in my attempt. No such luck. Gumby walked right up the obstacle without hardly spinning a tire. Yahoo!

Every truck in our group made it up the obstacle, no problem. The last to go was Jim in the Bronco, and after he made it, you could hear the sighs of defeat from the other group. IE4W scores again! After clearing the obstacle, we continued on to Pumpkin Eater.

As we approached the entrance to Pumpkin Eater, I noticed that I was running a little warm. No problem. I clicked on my newly installed Electric fan and continued on. As we got deeper into the trail, I started to boil over. My heart sank, because I knew this was going to be the coolest day of the weekend. Not wanting to be stuck in the trail, I quickly pulled off the trail on a convenient escape route to try and cool down. As I was nearing the top, I heard a distinct "pssssssst". Darn...cut a tire. This was just after 5 PM. Everyone came to my rescue, and as Super D and Randy worked to cool my engine, Larry and Jim stepped in and quickly got my tire changed. I was desperately trying to get a hold of Americas Tire to see if I had time to get a new tire. Sure enough, they were open, but they were in Victorville, and I was still on the trail, in Barstow. Would they stay late for me? They said they would probably be there till 6:30, but not to expect anything. By 5:30, my tire was changed, and my engine was cooled down, and off I went trying to make the south side of Victorville before they closed the store. I made a mad dash down Hodge road, and believe it or not pulled into Americas Tire at 6:09 PM, just as they were starting to close the garage doors. They held the store open for me and got my tire changed in under 15 minutes. Too cool. A quick stop in town to re-fill the radiator and get some food, and I was on my way back to camp.

Saturday morning dawned HOT, and I was worried about my ability to keep the engine cool. I got up at 6 and started working on the new fan I had bought. I kept thinking that I must have done something wrong, because I had never run as hot as I did the previous day. Sure enough, I found that I had wired the fan backwards, and it was pulling air from the engine, instead of pushing air through the radiator. No WONDER I overheated. The two fans were working against each other, creating zero air flow across the radiator. I deserve a fine for that one, even if I am still a guest.

Great! I'm ready for my run! I chose to take the El Diablo run, since I knew I couldn't make Pucker Canyon (at least, that's what I thought). So, me and Bruce line up for our run while the rest of the gang heads off for "Empire Strikes Back". We get about an hour into the run, and then Bruce has some trouble on a long, loose hill climb. About 2/3rds up, he started having stalling problems due to the severe angle. Then, he ran his battery dry trying to get started. The rest of the run started to get ansy, so we got Bruce off to the side of the trail. I elected to stay with Bruce rather than continue the run, and another couple in a nicely built later model Bronco also stayed behind. We all headed over to "Empire" to watch the fun. And what fun they were having.

When we got to Pucker Canyon, we found them with about half the group up the canyon. The second waterfall was giving many people a very hard time. Kelly was there doing winch duty, while Perk kept watch at the beginning of the canyon, guiding people in to their doom.

We watched for about an hour, and then Larry decided to bring the group that had already finished over to Dinero. As I was getting ready to follow, the kids all came up to me and asked for a ride back to camp. I guess my big 4-door truck looks like a bus. My kids were getting hot and tired, too, though, so I decided to bring everyone back. We went back to camp and had lunch, and then headed out to play around for a bit while we waited for everyone to come back.

That night we hung out at Randy's awesome hospitality suite and Laughed while going over the day's events. And who could forget the awesome potluck dinner?? The food was wonderful. If there's one thing this club does better than anything else, it's food!

As the sun went down, we started talking about a night run. Tom went around trying to drum up support for the run, but several people had fallen victim to Super D's awesome Iced Teas, and wisely bowed out. Still some of us stayed, um, alert, and were up for the run. Julio required some convincing, but finally agreed to ride shotgun with Laura. Kelly was up for it, as well as me and Tim and Jim, so around 10 PM we all headed off to Casualty Canyon. I have to say that following behind Kelly on a night run is the best place to be with his rock lights. They lit up the trail perfectly, and showed me the way. Well, most of the way, till I took a wrong line and wound up high-centered on both diffs. A quick tug from Kelly, and I was back on the trail. After some helpful advice from Julio and gang ("Just hit the gas!"), I made it to the top with only a couple of new scrapes to add to my collection. What fun. Since it was late, we all headed back to camp, and headed off to bed, topping off a perfect day.

On to Sunday (there's good pics here)!