Raptor and rail better than golf cart?

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I came across a killer deal on some Tensor DS 33s and for once was able to make the purchase before somebody else swooped in. I also picked up some Raceline beadlocks since my front wheels are 16 inch and my rear wheels are too wide. Had my first experience mounting tires on beadlocks, which I will say is slightly easier than mounting a dirt bike tire.

 

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We went to Ocotillo Wells for New Years. I haven't camped in Ocotillo Wells in a while but our campsite was the exact same spot we camped over 25 years ago when we first started coming out with our group. Seeing kids on 50s in the foothills took me right back to when I was that age tearing it up on 90 three wheelers.

My first ride of the weekend was to Truckhaven. We were camped off of Cooksy Trail, we headed north to East Bank wash, to Pumpkin Patch trail, to our first stop just a little past the Pumpkin Patch at a giant golf ball mail box. From there we took a wash towards the S22 and paralleled that until we got to Jack in the Box. After a some curly fries and a shake we took the frontage road to Coral Wash. We took Coral wash up, past the arches, towards the phone booth. At one point our group was separated when we stopped to let another group pass by. Its been a while since I've been to the phone booth, and even then it was on a dirt bike so the route I somewhat remembered probably wasn't possible in the car. We went to climb over a hill to get to the next wash over and there was just enough of a bump at the top of the hill that caused me to get high-centered. No big deal, just radioed to my friend who gave me a quick pull with the winch and we were on our way. At that point it was late in the afternoon and we decided to just head back. We started south towards our usual camp spot on the bluffs near S22, then headed east to Pole Line Rd and made good timing getting back to camp.

New Years Eve was a good time. Lots of fireworks in and around camp, cigars, and a couple of christmas trees to burn at midnight.

 

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The next day was a ride to Superstition. We left camp and grouped up with a couple other cars in the San Felipe wash next to the Blue Inn. The dust was ridiculous and following a V8 with 35s didn't help. Made it to the trestles and had an "oh crap" moment when I came up to a drop off a little quick. I jammed on the brakes and slid the car a little sideways but the soft sand was forgiving and I came out unscathed.





After that it was a quick ride over to the swing set, Layne's Place. My first time visiting here, pretty cool little set up. Had to show my boy how to jump off the swings.





Reppin with the Clean Dezert shirt.


From there we went to the Sand Dam. The place was pretty quiet compared to Thanksgiving weekend.


This time we went north and took the back way out. Its was a little rocky, but not super narrow or anything that wasn't manageable. That led us to a nice wash with some good berms. The group stopped fairly quickly and I was smelling engine oil. Thinking it was one of the buggys I went around checking the engines. Nope, it was one of the RZRs. It wasn't a complete catastrophic failure, he said it was starting to lose power so he shut it down. He lost some sort of seal and oil was steadily dripping out. We put him on the tow strap and suddenly everybody was relieved to have a buggy in the group. Somewhere in the dust we missed the turn to Old Kane Spring road (or we turned off of it, looking at the map after the fact). We ended up in a spot that looked like a wasteland with a bunch of dead trees and vultures hanging out. When we went to get out of the wash there was about a 4 foot ledge to get over. No way were were towing the RZR over it so we disconnected it, got the buggy up and turned around, and then winched the RZR over. It took me multiple attempts to get out with my car, I just kept getting hung up in the ruts and getting high-centered. One of the guys in our group told me to "get it" and I finally gave her the beans and popped out.

We managed to find Old Kane Spring rd and got to the power line road where a truck and trailer were waiting. We finished off the ride going down Pole Line road and then paralleling the 78 in the dark. Dust was horrible and I used just the dust lights because everything else just lit up the dust and your field of view had no distance. My phone died on the last stretch, but I figure it was close to a 50 mile ride. Just another "epic journey".