Triple Trail Trek

July 25-27, 2008

Written By Keane

 

The 2008 Triple Trail Trek started with a few of the regulars skipping the run and a change of plans. Instead of the normal Long Canyon, Strawberry, Deer Valley trip the group decided to go for Deer Valley, Slick Rock, and Corral Hollow (at the last minute).

This year featured George and Gene in the Tan Tornado (TJ), Larry and Cole in the Maroon Marauder (CJ7), and Keane in the White Wheeler (4Runner). The group met at Safeway on Friday morning and headed for Deer Valley. We hit the trail around noon and everyone commented that it was much harder than we remember.

Things were reasonably uneventful until Gene spotted a bear cub in the woods. Larry tried to hunt it with a camera but we all came up empty. We moved on quickly to avoid finding the mom. Nobody had any real trouble, but George’s front fender lost a battle and picked up a little dent.

We got off the trail after a couple of hours and decided to find a camp site near Lake Alpine. The campground was packed, but Larry grabbed the last site. It was cozy, but we all fit.

Keane proceeded to take care of some routine maintenance by fixing an antenna that came loose and zip tieing his grill so it would stop rattling.

Following a loud night in the campground and some serious snoring we headed out.

The next morning the group excited headed to Slick Rock. None of us had run it and we were all looking forward to it. The scenery was incredible and there were enough challenging obstacles to keep everyone entertained.

After going for a while, we took a quick break to disconnect Larry’s sway bar and fix a leaky ARB. According to Larry, it made all the difference in the world. I’m not sure he’ll every put it back on.

I don’t have any idea what any of the spots are called, but here are a few good pictures of the trail.

Coolest sign ever.

When we got to the end of the trail, we all wanted to run it backward (uphill) since it looked much more challenging, but the lure of another new trail proved to be irresistible so we headed to Corral Hollow.

Corral Hollow is about 13 miles of some of the most dusty trail I have ever driven. It is essentially a dirt road with great scenery, a couple of hill climbs, and one heck of a lot of dust. Really, it was dusty.

We headed back to camp for a dinner of steaks and burgers, played some Frisbee golf and relaxed until we realized that we had everything for burgers except for the beef. Fortunately, we weren’t far from a restaurant and were able to grab something to eat. The waitress didn’t have time for a group of dusty four wheelers and nobody there smiled, but dinner was decent.

This was a great run and I’m already looking forward to next year. I’d skip Corral Hollow (because it was dusty) and run Slick Rock backwards. It had a great mix of obstacles, scenery, and not dust!