Upper Helldorado...the rest of the story.

[Serious One]

So, the long version is a bit more detailed, and a bit more revealing.

Before I start, I call BULLSHIT on ANYONE who says UH can be 'walked'. Hot air, plain and simple. 20-30 minutes total trail time? Yeah right. Now I am not saying I'm the best driver in the world, nor do I know everything, but I have seen a LOT of rigs run that trail, and none of them could have done it in 20-30 minutes.

If you think you can, I'll fly up and document it for the mag. of your choice.

Now....for the rest of the story.

Timm Cooper in his modified V8 109 Series One pickup, Dennis Bell riding shotgun (a friend from Portland), myself driving the Serious One and Josh Weinstein from Seattle was riding shotgun with me. Josh had his Canon G2 with him (sweet camera BTW, I HIGHLY recommend it), so he was able to shoot .jpgs AND .mpgs. He'll toss them up on his site soon. I'll steal some and post them here, he said it was OK.

Sunday morning, had a liesurely breakfast at Slick Rock Cafe (I recommend the Fremont Benedict, fresh trout instead of ham. Yummmm....) Headed up for the trail about 10am, and I was honestly planning for a late lunch around 1 or so. You'll see how well we met that expectation later.

*NOTE* Story will be heavy on sidebars and andecdotes. Fair warning is given.

So, we get to the main road that heads up the canyon to LH and Strike Ravine, and I make a wrong turn and we get lost for about 45 minutes. We took a bypass down from the dirt road we were following down to LH past some old mines and came out by the last obstacle of UH.

We had gone up the riverwash (actually the waterfall isn't the last obstacle, but is considered the last by many. Maybe they are just hopeful??). We went up the next obstacle after the waterfall to the really tight squeeze which I didn't recognize, and turned around to find the waterfall just down the river wash.

I did a 4 point turnaround in the dry wash and Cooper backed out to a spot where he could do the same. We went down the trail to get to the *end* of UH and we checked out the waterfall. It's MUCH more dug out now than I'd seen it last, with the addition of fresh rain just 2 days before had washed out most of the rocks that had been stacked on the obstacles lower down the trail.

We checked the re-bar (still looks OK, but should be redone IMO), turned around and climbed back out the steep off-camber scramble to get back up to the main road. In the process I bent my rear track rod (mounted low, behind the axle, stock RR/Disco style), but not enough to stop and fix it. We continued on.

On the main road to get back to the entrance of UH, I hear this clunking noise and the back of the truck feels light. Get out to inspect the damage. DOH! Broken shock mount (lower, custom, welded tab). Must have stressed it during the previous night-run to the dunes at Behind-the-Rocks. We did some crazy stuff and the mounts just had had it I guess. Remove shock, get in truck, continue to UH.

Head on down the road get to the turn off and another little scramble to get to the entrance of UH (which is also the terminus of LH).

Scout the entrance obstacle and we head on in. I was leading as Timm wanted to make sure he had someone to tug him through the spots he might get pinched in. BTW, Cooper has a 101FC Salisbury front axle and a spooled ENV axle in the rear. ARB in the front with custom inner shafts and stock 101CV's.

We both take the same line coming in from the left, crossing over the wash and head into the S-turn on the right. I get through with a little bumper banging and a pivot on the sliders, much the same way I did it last time. Cooper gets wedged in pretty good and with a little verbal 'coaxing', he gets through unaided.

We head up to the second obstacle (of 4) which is an off-camber squeeze that is being slowly widened due to 'vehicular erosion'. Some careful spotting from Timm saved my windshield and I get through. That's where my rear cage took a good scrape from about midway up the right rear post to the top of it. I lightly kissed the windshield frame on the rock, but just as I did my tire came down and the vehicle pitched away from the rock (that has done a LOT of damage to some bigger rigs).

Cooper got in, got squeezed, got through. Helped make it easier for the next guy.

The third obstacle is a series of 3 obstacles butted right up against each other. The middle of which is an 8 foot drop off nearly straight down into a boulder of which you have to make a hard left turn to allow you to get squeezed between two more boulders and have to scramble over-around-through them to get out of it. (get it?)

Half-way through this obstacle I bent the track rod even more which caused the tires to point in opposite directions outwards at about a 20 degree angle *each* from straight ahead. We decided that to sucessfully get through the third obstacle I'd need to remove it, straighten it, and reinstall it. Which we did, to much comic-relief, grunting groaning and swearing. The track-rod was bent more than I've ever bent one before (so, it was a personal high for me).

It is sleeved with DOM tubing and welded, so bending it back straight was a PITA. We used the rear cross-member of Coopers 109 and got it pretty straight, then to make it perfect (or as perfect as it could be under the circumstances), we placed it between two low flat rocks and Timm drove over it until it was bent straight. Well.....straight enough for gub'mint work anyway.

So, I reinstall and have to winch myself up onto the top of the rock with the 8 foot drop off. Pivot myself around and drive off the other side. That was a rush I have to admit, but I got down OK, and used the winch to help get around/off/above the rock that I ended up being jammed up against when I got down. Pivot to the left and scramble up the exit of the 3rd obstacle and prepare to see Cooper come through.

BTW, this is where Cooper finds a CV star section from either a Rover or a Toyota. Probably Toyota because the grease left over on it was red and not the moly grease we all know and love.

He got up on top of the big rock no problem, but he got high-centered on the top of it and over-extended his front suspension causing the slip yoke to come apart with a clang. We all thought he had broken a CV joint from the sound of it, but were all relieved to find it was only the slip-yoke. He thought the splines were too bunged up to put it back together, so he removed it and we had to do a dual 8274 winch pull to get him off and pivoted around and then out of the 3rd obstacle. I had to reposition the S1 3 seperate times to help get the correct angle to get him out. His truck is HEEEEEAAAVY!

So, Cooper is in 2wd and I'm leading. Great! More fun in store for the last obstacle.

There's about a 200 yard scramble up the riverbed before you make a hard right and are confronted with the waterfall. It's basically a 15-20 foot shelf of sandstone that has had a gouge eroded right down the center of it by the river. It had rained hard 2 days previous, so at the base of the waterfall a little pool had been created and there were fresh deer tracks in the mud where they had drank all the water. Kind of a nice diversion after so much grunt and noise from the trucks.

The waterfall only really has one way up, and that's on the right side where the river comes down from. It's a dry river most of the year except for spring and fall (when we were running it, 9/15/02).

The Red Rock 4-Wheelers have placed 2 loops of 1-inch rebar into the sandstone at the top of the waterfall. This is in an effort to preserve the junipers that had the awful luck of taking root in the perfect position to be used as a winch anchor. One of the loops has had one of the ends come free, but the other appears to be solid still. Don't know exactly how long they've been there, or if there are plans to replace them periodically. Guess we'll all hear when one of them fails at an inopportune moment.

I pulled up just short of pulling my tires onto the vertical slab of slickrock and started to run my winch line up to the top. That's when Cooper starts yelling at me to come back and help him up the last step before the waterfall. He's dug in deep into some fresh sand deposited by the recent rains. I back up and he uses me as a winch point to get over the step. Not a big one, but made worse by the sand and 2wd situation.

Back to the waterfall and I get hooked up. No matter how cool and collected it might sound to say you 'just hook up and drive/winch up', it's a weird sensation to be hanging there by the wire (and I use EIPS wire rope BTW). I lightly touch the throttle just to keep the wheels spinning and the idle speed high and I get up. There's a crack you have to straddle on the way up, so you do have to drive it actually.

I'm up and out one shot, straight up. Now for Cooper. Ugh.

I know he's going to need help so I back up the side of the hill behind the rebar loop and face downhill so I can winch him while he winches himself to the rebar loop.

He gets his rig in the 'upright' position and then his rear overhang of the box just pushes his rear wheels off the ground enough to spin.

We both winched until I was nervous, but all it did was compress the front suspension. You *do* have to drive *and* winch up this thing.

So, we picked up a cro-magnon hammer (read: rock) and decided to re-install the front driveline via the CMH. Cleaned up the splines and we got it in and bolted her up. By this time the Q-jet was running rich and was fouling the plugs badly, so we didn't have many chances to do this.

I actually spotted Cooper while he drove/winched and we just left the S1 out of the picture. I knew with front wheel drive engaged he could drive it, and he did.

Damage to the Serious One due to UH: Minor scrapes and dings on sliders/bumpers. A few new scratches and rub marks from front tire rubbing fender (one of my bumpstops shattered at the sand dunes the night before). Long tall scrape mark on roll cage on rear pillar, drivers side. Bent track-rod.

Oh yeah, on the way home on the main road, my other side shock mount decided it needed to break too. So, now no rear shocks.

We were enjoying ice cream sundaes on Main St. in Moab at 3pm.

Did I mention I towed my cooking trailer from SLC to Moab? Yeah, and I had a 9 1/2 hour drive from Moab to Vegas towing that trailer home with the Serious One. Did I also mention I didn't fix the rear shocks?

Got home this morning at 4am after a LOOOONG bumpy bouncy ride.

I don't know which was harder, UH, or the drive home to Vegas *after* doing UH.

Anyway, that's the story.

BIG thanks to Dennis for spotting and words of encouragement, Josh for helping schlep gear and take pictures, and to Cooper for saving my windshield when damage was eminent.

[JSBriggs]

Liar


-Jeff
ok just kidding

[J bradley]

Well it sure sounds great. Call that guyand get us some pics and video !! Glad you all made it home safe and sound

I am sitting here trying to picture the waterfall... anyone have a good link for Helldorado picts and rovers for the time being ?

[RockRover]

Very cool write up my friend! Sounds like a blast!

Bet Coop' is thinkin' TPI now eh?

Can't wait to see the pics!

--D

[Serious One]

Berfore I got all dirty from fixing my truck, I managed to snap off some pics of Coop in the first obstacle, and then (even though my hands were dirty) took a shot of him just before he overextended his driveline. The sacrifices I make for you guys!!!!

[Serious One]

one more of Coop.

I'll get Josh's pics up asap.

[tomw]

Originally posted by Serious One
So, the long version is a bit more detailed, and a bit more revealing.
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( boring stuff deleted )
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Anyway, that's the story.

BIG thanks to Dennis for spotting and words of encouragement, Josh for helping schlep gear and take pictures, and to Cooper for saving my windshield when damage was eminent.

Way to go! More pics for us to drool over!