Canyon west of the lake bed

[JR]

What do you guys think? Can it be done?

[Tool Pimp]

what lakebed Means, Soggy???

It can always be done if you got the balls..............................

[zcarczar]

When I get my junk back together I will try it, just need some other buggies to go with me.

[Scott@Rockstomper]

West of Means, I think about 1/4 mile south of Resolution.

[fj40forlife]

why? whats wrong with it. just wounding. Hard trails? or what

[Beat95YJ]

Sure. I'll drive the Bronco (Yours) No sweat.

I would like the full coverage, no deductible insurance plan though!

[Scott@Rockstomper]

Originally Posted by fj40forlife

why? whats wrong with it. just wounding. Hard trails? or what

In my best John Cleese voice: Very small rocks.



Fun stuff.

[JR]

The canyon is steep and raw, but a person could weave his way through it.
The biggest problem is it's length. It just goes on and on.

[Scott@Rockstomper]

I think it can be done, it's just really raw. Not unlike the continuation of Hwy 20, but I'm pretty sure this one's a lot longer.

[Mustard Dog]

Is there an exit, or is it up and back?

[JR]

Eric, I think there is an exit. We drove most of the way up the first "hill" and then hiked.
The first hill seems to be about 1/4 of the total distance from what we could see.
After cresting the first hill, the canyon opens up considerably into a vast, upwards shelf with three possible exits. I say possible because the theoretical exits are a long way off and hard to judge as far as being drivable.
The three exits would be right, straight and left. Scott thought the right path might be possible, which would direct you towards resolution. I didn't think it was doable. Going straight looked a little easier and to the right looked the easiest (although the right path veered to right far enough that it was out of sight and we couldn't see the actual exit)
It's hard to get a good reading because of the vast distances.

It would be nice to do a full hike to the top to plan a route up and over. Driving back down the first "hill" was pretty hairy and I wouldn't want to do it again.

[Scott@Rockstomper]

Originally Posted by JR

Eric, I think there is an exit. We drove most of the way up the first "hill" and then hiked.
The first hill seems to be about 1/4 of the total distance from what we could see.
After cresting the first hill, the canyon opens up considerably into a vast, upwards shelf with three possible exits. I say possible because the theoretical exits are a long way off and hard to judge as far as being drivable.
The three exits would be right, straight and left. Scott thought the right path might be possible, which would direct you towards resolution. I didn't think it was doable. Going straight looked a little easier and to the right looked the easiest (although the right path veered to right far enough that it was out of sight and we couldn't see the actual exit)
It's hard to get a good reading because of the vast distances.

It would be nice to do a full hike to the top to plan a route up and over. Driving back down the first "hill" was pretty hairy and I wouldn't want to do it again.

I think the right is also possible, but it puts you coming down the next northward draw, which has a 12-ish-foot-vert drop about halfway down it, in the middle of a fairly open steep slope. I don't have the stones to drop a 12-foot-vert, particularly not when there's nothing to stop me from taking a three-turn tumble to the bottom, so that vert rules the right path out for me unless it's "remodeled".

Straight, I think, goes up the ridge to the top of the draw that the bomb was found in on Resolution a couple years back. I'm not sure, I didn't hike to the top, but it's way way way steep and loose, and coming down the bomb chute into Resolution would be hairy at best--one bad slip, and you're tumbling top to bottom.

Left goes up a wide open canyon that (I think) will eventually meet up with the exit from Resolution. The canyon is long, probably a half mile or more, and not terribly steep, but it's full of rocks that look to me like somebody just threw in a whole bunch of refrigerator boxes. Really blocky, all big rock, no filler. It looks workable to me, but it'll take a while to pick through. Of the three, I think the left route would be best.

Dustin has said that from Google Earth and topo map work, he believes the left route does indeed eventually connect to the exit from Resolution, but that descending from the ridge that it crosses at the top, is in the mile-ish neighborhood, and it's all loose 45-degree-ish sidehill.

I'd like to walk the whole route with a GPS before going back in there again, just to find out where it goes (if anywhere) and what the exit is like--driving back down the first stretch was rough, driving down through the refrigerator-box canyon would be worse (I think) and getting to the top only to realize that there is no way back but to turn around and come back down, would be miserable. But, the day we went in there, it was 114 on the lakebed, and there's no shade anywhere out there, plus we had six people and maybe a dozen bottles of water among us.

[zcarczar]

I'll be out there this weekend and I should have some time saturday to hike the trail, I'll grab my GPS and camera and take it with me to try and map it out. Im not gonna have the buggy so I wont be doing any driving up the trail but I should be able to get through a lot of it. I will report back.

[Tim Florian]

I think it's doable and plan on making a run at it Thanksgiving day. I want to start early. Ive only been up there at night, but I got up the first section pretty quickly. I only had one rig (Hobie in his f-toy) with me and he broke an axle so we had to turn around. There is actually two seperate canyons right next to each other that look doable. It would be nice to see the topical image and to know exactly where were gonna end up. I think it would be awesome if it could take us to the top of Resolution. That would be a fun loop!!

[Tim Florian]

Originally Posted by zcarczar

I'll be out there this weekend and I should have some time saturday to hike the trail, I'll grab my GPS and camera and take it with me to try and map it out. Im not gonna have the buggy so I wont be doing any driving up the trail but I should be able to get through a lot of it. I will report back.

That info will be very helpfull!

[zcarczar]

Does anybody have the GPS coordinates of the entrance? I've been on google earth trying to find the entrance and from what I found it looks like its off the wash that heads into Back door, I'm assuming this is correct?

[Scott@Rockstomper]

I'm trying unsuccessfully to locate Backdoor and Resolution on Google Earth; if I can confidently find them, I'm pretty sure I can MSPaint the canyon we're talking about onto a sattelite image.

A couple years ago, EW4C put together a sattelite pic with most of the known common trails of the time, their GPS coordinates of start and end, etc., and handed it out at the Jambo. I'm pretty sure that it was, at some point, posted on PBB too... does anybody have it handy?

[Tim Florian]

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp...y=US&geodiff=1


Using mapquest I was able to locate backdoor/resolution very easy. I just can't figure out to save the picture that's on myscreen so I can mark it up?

[Scott@Rockstomper]

Originally Posted by Tim Florian

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp...y=US&geodiff=1


Using mapquest I was able to locate backdoor/resolution very easy. I just can't figure out to save the picture that's on myscreen so I can mark it up?

Tim, I believe Control-Printscreen will copy it to your clipboard, then open Paint and select Edit...Paste and it'll stick it into Paint.

[Tim Florian]

The yellow circle is backdoor. If I zoom any closer you won't be able to see the whole mountain range. But if you show me where you think it is I can try to do a better image at the next zoom level

[mobil1syn]

http://www.extremewheelers4christ.org/map1.html

this has gps for back door and resolution

[desertoy]

What yellow circle?

[Tim Florian]

I am sorry I am not very good with Paint eat shit

[Scott@Rockstomper]

OK, I think I've got it.



Aqua is Backdoor/Resolution, I think, based on the EW4C map I found. The A thumbtack is Google Earth's "Means Dry Lake" location.
Red, I believe, is the west canyon that JR, Val, and I went into last spring.
Green is the right exit; about halfway down, is a big vert drop.
Yellow is what I thought at the time was the climb up over the ridge into where the bomb was found on Resolution a couple years ago.
Blue is the left turn up the refrigerator-box canyon.

Blue stops at about the point at which (guessing from aerial view) I couldn't see how much more canyon there was past there.

Here's farther zoomed-in, with my own Paint scribbles on it (colors match, no BD/Res colored in):



If I zoom in much farther, the resolution turns to garbage.

JR, am I even reasonably close to where we were, do you think?

Edit: Aqua is what it shows up as on my laptop; on this desktop (crud box) aqua and green are the same color. Hopefully this makes sense to others.

[JeepRecoveryTeam]

There are two different canyons... the one on the left is the one you guys are talking about. It start out fairly flat but down in a crack and then opens up. I have not driven that one. The one on the right starts out with two BIG climbs and a third one loose one between them. I made it most of the way up the third with no rear locker but it was getting ugly quick.

I think there are better exit options on the left canyon. I'll be out there next weekend.

d