September 16, Eagle Rock Night Run
Gary Smith was the first one at the Home Depot, with his wife Mikki in their gray JLU. I showed up with my grandson Zach in my yellow LJ. My neighbor Jacob brought his wife Gabby and the twin girls Kinsley and Ryleigh in the green JKU. Finally, Homer and Ainsley roll in with his bluish-grayish patina YJ. We aired down and headed to Gold Camp Rd and our adopted trail Eagle Rock, which we’ve not run since last year. The culvert that we worked to unclog during our work trip in June was still flowing water, so that was good. We expected a muddy, messy winch-fest of an evening, especially with all of the rain we had in the area recently.
The entire trail, but especially the rock garden has changed pretty dramatically from what I recalled from my many years running this trail. There’s a dead tree on the right side that is barely hanging on by its roots that I fear will be falling down in the not to distant future. We were all a bit challenged by this section, but with just a little rock-stacking and patience, all of us made it through, as well as the S-curve just above it. I have to say I was surprised with how well we all negotiated the first half of the trail, with not much drama. We eventually got into the tight tree section I call the “Esses”, and it got a little trickier. In amongst the rocks were mud puddles that made everything a slick, slippery challenge. I’d say that all of us struggled to keep our slippery tires on the larger rocks, and diff-grabbers were in abundance. I’m sure my diffs rolled around a lot of rocks and even some slabs. At one point we had to pull winch cable for Gary when he got high-centered. Unfortunately, his winch would not lock in correctly and just free-spooled. So out came my tow strap and a simple yank had him un-turtled. A bit further up, a tree had leaned over into the trail. I pulled out my trusty bow saw and gave it to Zach. He went at it with gusto, even though I’m not sure he’s ever sawed a tree before in his 21 years. Homer gave his expert advice and between the two of them had the tree cut down and out of our way.
The remainder of the trail was negotiated with not much effort by all of these capable rigs. We found the meadow, stretched our legs, let the girls run off a little energy--it was cute watching Ainsley chase the giggling twins around in the dark!--then we headed down Frosty’s back to Gold Camp Rd. Caution: there are several washouts along the exit road and we needed to be extra vigilant in a few places to drive the high side of the road. From the time we turned onto our trail from Gold Camp Rd until we pulled back onto Gold Camp Rd, we spent exactly 3 hrs. I made it home at 11:30pm, so the entire trip was 5 hours. That has to be a record, especially in the dark, with mud and slick obstacles everywhere!
Mike Borum
