We hit the trail at 10am Saturday morning hoping that we would beat the crowds. To our surprise, we only saw 8 other rigs on the trail all day. In attendance for this trip was Ryan, Chad, Brett, Ben, and the newbie Frank (who helped build the Red Cone sign).
We approached the first major obstacle at the rock wall, and only Ben had a slight hiccup. Otherwise it was a pretty smooth crawl. Chad let his girlfriend drive this section.
After the rock wall comes French Creek. Ryan was the first in line at this point after leap frogging Chad, and he choose a line up the middle of the creek.
With not too much hassle, next was Brett, who took the far right line up the waterfall.
Chad, and Ben followed Brett right along, and then came Frank, in his 4cyl YJ with no lockers and 33 inch tires. The creek finally showed us why this obstacle eats people up and spits them back down the hill limping and crying for momma. Frank had a hell of a time and did manage to climb the far right water fall line with no assistance and did manage to make it out of the creek, but that would be the farthest he would make it without throwing out the winch line.
With everyone out of the creek, and all vehicle in tact, we headed up to Holy Cross City for Lunch. After lunch we made a trek up the last couple obstacle before Cleveland Rock.
Chad was obsessed with climbing this beast of an obstacle, and so he set up to drive the line just right of the smooth face. Tried and tried as he may, he never made it more than halfway. Out came the winch, and Chad finally made it to the top.
Ryan planned to make a quick pose on Cleveland but didn't actually plan to attempt the obstacle, so he started up the smooth line on the left. After a giant, undocumented driver wheel stand, Ryan backed down a few feet for his photo opportunity.
We headed down the trail with the day still fairly young. A few quick photos at French Creek again, and the trip ended smoothly as we all made it safely back to camp about 5pm.
With only a busted tailpipe, and tons of rock rash, everyone made it through Holy Cross flawlessly. It was a great day, and an awesome camping weekend. Can't wait for next year!!
Hopefully more people show up for next week's Labor Day runs in Marble!!
