Fordyce Trail 8-2-09

Our group consisting of myself (Mike Munson)-91 YJ, Tom Vallee-TJ, his nephew Preston Vallee, flat fender Willy's, Steve Mello, J, my brother Jon Munson-unlimited TJ and my step dad Clark Bowen-Range Rover.

Preston was late so we started around 1:30 and took the new entrance out of the back side of Cisco Grove campground, which drops you into the middle of the trail at the 4th water crossing.

It takes about 45 minutes to get down to the trail this way, however it took us the better part of 3 hours as Jon de-beaded a tire about a 1/2 mile before the water crossing, (in a tough spot to fix the flat!).  After fixing the tire we proceeded down to the water crossing which is the deepest of the four water crossing. The creek was flowing at about 235 CFS. It looked more difficult than it actually was. In the deepest spot it was up to the door handles of a YJ/TJ with a 4" lift and 33's. Everyone got across without any problems. The highlight had to be Preston's refrigerator box that he duct taped to the side of his jeep so the water wouldn't run through the interior. We pitched camp on the other side of the creek and decided to take an evening run south on the trail. We went through the 3rd water crossing and turned around at the 2cd water crossing to head back to camp. I believe we came up winch hill #2 on the way back where Steve Mello broke a u-joint in his left front axle. We limped back into camp around 9:30 that night.

The next morning Steve rode with Tom and we headed north on the trail around 10:30. From here we went up winch hills 3, 4, & 5. All were a lot of fun. The squeeze box was very popular

and quite challenging to get through without body damage; as Clark can contest to. The terrain was very rocky all the way up and would have to rate it as more difficult than the Rubicon, or at least more difficult to get through without body damage. We turned around after the last winch hill and headed back south around 4PM. J Preston had an axle that was breaking retainer bolts ever few hundred yards so he took out the right rear axle and bolted a warn hub to the end of the axle. He was on 3 wheel drive for the rest of his trip. When we got back to camp around 7PM packed up camp and Preston, Tom and Steve (also running on 3 wheel drive) crossed the river and headed back to Cisco Grove. Tom went across first and caught his right rear quarter on a rock exiting the river and got a nice scar; he had to winch Preston and Steve over the obstacle due to their missing drive wheels. Preston had a carburetor problem that was making his jeep run poorly at any type of incline and made him go through gas like crazy.

I understand that they did not get back to camp and loaded up until 11:30 due to Preston running out of gas.
 

Clark, Jon and I continued south that night and camped at water crossing #2. The next day we crossed #2 and proceed south I would say that the section between water crossing 1&2 was very difficult. Winch hill 1 which we went down was the most difficult obstacle we saw. Going up would be quite challenging. We came out on the highway about 5 miles south of Cisco Grove and got loaded up about 2PM.
 

All in all, it is a great trail with a lot of challenging terrain. If I were to run it again I would go in the south end of the trail and run it all the way to the north end and back track to water crossing #4 and take the bypass out to Cisco Grove. It would be a great 2 1/2 day trip. It is an easy drive from Eureka taking HWY 101 to HWY 20 to 15 and taking HWY 80 straight up to Cisco Grove about 61/2 hours.

 

Carnage report: I broke the sway bar disconnects off both spring plates, and bent my driveline which I didn't realize until I hit the highway, and bent my belly pan. Tom Put a dent in his right rear quarter, Steve broke a left front U joint on axle, Jon came down off a bolder hard and bent his tub on passenger side. Clark pushed the Range Rover into the squeeze box and dented the whole right side but had a great time trying it.

Photos Below-Click on thumbnail for large view