hey folks what's up? anyone ever heard of Blue Canyon? I've heard about it for years, but never went, until last weekend...
It was about 3 months ago when Sean (Doc83) told me about this run and his interest in participating... i had heard about it, and even tried to find the campground and trail head once... but failed... it was very difficult trying to find information on this run, after exhausting several resources the right key words yielded some results. i found the registration form on the
http://www.cal4wheel.com website. then the phone number to some people in charge...
I found the campground (Bretz Mill) rather easily, after talking to said people and also do to the fact i looked it up on Google Earth. i got to Bretz Mill campground around 3 or 4 am and found Doc83's camp almost right away, so i made a quick trip around the campground to locate the registration booth and found it on the far side. so i pulled up behind Doc's rig and slept in my truck. my 4Runner seats recline almost all the way back and my truck was warm so i opted against setting up my tent and making camp.
Around 7am I drove over to registration and was first in line. Doc Met me at registration and we were off to start the run around 7:20. following the signs and the yellow flagging tape, the trail was actually very well marked... the first obstacle we came to was dubbed " SUICIDE " and i remember thinking, "This aughta be fun!!!" So we made our way up the hill and around to this place where the trail practically made a U-Turn with a fairly large creek running right threw the middle of the turn, we were stopped short due to traffic having problems getting out of the creek but after a quick tug on a tow rope we were all on our way again. Pretty Much the whole trail i did in 2 wheel drive (4Runner with 35"s, welded rear, about 6"s of lift, full armor) with the exception of some obstacles that had a bypass is where I dropped it in 4LOW to have some fun playing around for a while, and a steep down hill where i got up against a tree and had to put it in 4WD to back up. i was surprised how sharp some of these corners were, and also how steep the trail is in some spots. I'm used to being on steep rock, but steep dirt was a whole 'nother experience for me. kinda creepy, but surprisingly stable surface to drive on.
a little farther down the trail was a place called "Dog Bowl" ROCKS!!! something I'm used to!!! we asked the man stationed at Dog Bowl how many rigs tried it yet and he said "no one"... and when i asked him where the line was he said that i could either go up the right or the left or do whatever i thought i could pull off... i thought "wow! I really don't know what i can pull off" so i tried a few things, wound up doing about 7 slightly different lines about 3 to the left and maybe 4 to the right... Doc and I hung out at dog bowl for a while waiting to see if my friend made it up to the run or not... but when a rig busted the flange off his hub, and blew a bead right in the middle of the whole show, we decided to take off and see what else the trail had to offer.
down around the corner there was a hot dog stand (GREAT IDEA!!!) I was getting a bit hungry by this point, a muffin isn't quite what I call breakfast, but it worked until this point so I dug for some change and found two bucks in quarters, just enough for two hot dogs! so after scarfing that down we were on our way.
around the corner from there was James Watt (hill) a steep uphill dirt climb with a few rocks and turns at the bottom. it wasn't difficult in my 4Runner, but they had a jeep with a winch cable ready just in case... so at the top of the hill was a sharp left and down hill we went. the trail backtracked a bit here and we passed up the hot dog stand this time, and motored past James Watt making the right towards the next play area. here we did "Launch Pad", "Extra Chip", and "Barber Pole"
From there, we went on down to two obstacles called "Dumb & Dumber" and "Twister". Dumb and Dumber Was a simple rock ledge, but Twister was fun! i pulled up stuck it in dual ultimate (2.28x4.70) 1st gear. never being here before i let the man stationed there guide my truck up and around threw twister. then i got out and had a Quick chat with Doc. I was kinda ify about him going up it only having a single 4.70 T-case, but i knew he would at least want to try it, and i give him props 'cause with my guidance, he did a very good job! WAY TO GO DOC!!! you got more balls than i do!!! Twister was my favorite obstacle of the whole run... in fact i might go up there to try it again some time!
after twister, there was pretty much no hard obstacles in the way, but there was a lot of driving to do... we took every sign that said "long way" and got back into camp around 3pm. Dinner and raffle started around 5pm but Doc and i wound up taking a trip up to the snow line to recover a rig stuck in the snow, so we missed the raffle. and on the way back to camp Doc's rear axle shifted due to a broken center pin probably from MCR8 last year... so we got into camp shortly after that and with a fellow Toyota Wheeler's donation of a grade 11 bolt we got the job done fairly quickly...
All in all it was a good trip. The both of us had a load of fun and are probably going to come back next year... two thumbs up for the Mountain Topper's club for putting it on, and for a well marked trail with obstacles varying in difficulty... lots of fun.
