Calvary 4-Wheelers

Spring Creek was a lot better than last year! The high cost of gas seems to be keeping many people home as we were the only two vehicles on the trail the whole time. The trail was completely free of partying rednecks; I've never seen it so empty.

Chuck Fleharty and Charlie Heaton drove Chuck's Jeep Rubicon and I drove my Cherokee with my wife Wendy. After a brief prayer and skipping the trail guidelines (all in favor), we aired down and headed up the trail. The first obstacle, the rock face, looked worse than in years past. Videos on YouTube showed groups winching and struggling so we were a little intimidated. As you can see on our video's (you are watching our Calvary YouTube site aren’t you?), Chuck and I walked the rock face like it was flat. We agreed that the others just need real 4x4's.

The double back corner got a little harder, that's good, although it wasn’t good that I bent my right outer tie rod. You'll see me bump it in the video. The rock garden proved way more fun, partly because the lack of moisture (although there were drifts in the trees that were still 3-4 feet deep in June!). I was able to take a good hard line and almost made it through when the Jeep tilted to the drivers side and scrubbed the rock bar pretty good. I thought I was coming away ok but Spring Creek had bitten my driver's door a little just for spite. When I told my son Daniel, he said "welcome to the club!"

Chuck did well, this being his first hard trail outside Moab and his first rock crawling. Leaving the Rock Garden he did get hung up on the rear diff, though, and it stopped him cold. Rather than tear things up we decided to give it a tug with his winch and he was free. After that we wandered around up on Ute Creek getting lost and going in that darn circle. After a while we met up with two other Jeeps and finally found the trail down and to home. I must say that on a Saturday afternoon I've never seen I-70 so barren either.
[Trip Pics]

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