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Senteney Rock Run April 22, 2007 NOTE-Photo's of run are below the story! When I awoke on Sunday morning, I was happy to see that the rain had subsided. Taking advantage of the moment, I hurried up to the garage where I have my trailer stored and brought it back and loaded my Bronco before the rain started again – Yes! The next step was the most painful; both my F250 and Bronco were empty, so I took a small loan out on my house to fill both tanks! I motored to Hanson’s and arrived about 0800. Shane Baum, his friend Lonnie Lounrenzo and their two boys had just ordered breakfast. Shane just sold his Cherokee so they were riding in Lonnie’s ’86 CJ7 which was very nearly stock, except for the wheels and tires. We all had breakfast and by the time we were finished, Dave and Coleen Cole, Rusty Ward, and Steve Freeman came in. Since I was the only one trailering a rig, I decided to start before everyone else, so they wouldn’t have to wait for me. As it turned out, no one caught up to me and I was the first one to the “Corrals” It had been raining pretty hard and the river was up and looking ominous. Since I was elected trail leader for this run, I got the honor of crossing first. With a little consulting with Steve on the proper line, the crossing proved to be easier than some of the past crossings. Lonnie was especially worried, because his Jeep had virtually no lift, but he made the crossing just fine. Once across the river, we followed the road up the mountain towards Senteney rock. I mistakenly took a turn off the main road thinking it the Senteney rock trail. After about ½ mile the trail ended, but it was a fun climb. Rusty and I make it to the top and waited for the others to arrive. As it turned out Lonnie’s rig got stuck in the mud that Rusty and I churned up and had to winch himself up the hill to get out of it. On my way down, I pulled to the right to allow Lonnie to come up the hill, but my rig started sliding to the edge of the bank when I tried to get started again. I had to be winched back into the main wheel tracks to get started again. Everyone had a great time, and Lonnie got to try out his new winch! Next we came to the turnoff to Senteney rock. The trail is not particularly difficult, but there are a couple of technical challenges and overall it is a lot of fun. Everyone did very well climbing up the trail. As we got near Senteney rock, it started to snow! The actual climbing of Senteney rock was our next challenge and everyone climbed it easily. Steve decided to take a much more challenging line than the rest of us, but wasn’t quite able to make it, mainly because of the wet rocks. Regardless, it gave us all a thrill to watch him!! After the traditional photo op, we were back on the trail and headed up the muddy hill with the big ditch. This obstacle wasn’t as challenging as past years. We figured Lonnie and Rusty would be the most challenged because of their open differentials, but they both made it in only a couple of tries and lots of wheel spinning! Dave and Coleen’s rig did well and I think they made it on the second try. Actually it looked more scary watching Dave back down the hill than watching him climb it! Steve showed us how capable his rig was by pretty much idling up without breaking traction. From there, we continued on towards the Forest Service road, but just before we came to it, the trail was blocked by a downed tree. No problem, we hooked a strap to the tree and were able to move it far enough out of the way to get by. We were on our way again, and the road started to climb in elevation again. We went about a half mile and came across some heavy snow drifts. This was exactly the same place where we had the same challenge two years ago. First I tried breaking trail, but I wasn’t having much luck and was unwilling to lower my air pressure below 12 psi. After I gave up, Steve Freeman took over and made some progress, but ultimately he too gave up. I decided to give it one more try. I used a line that Steve had initially started, but had dropped it in favor of another one. I was surprised on how much traction I got and could build up some speed. I used the brute force method and ultimately blew through the main drifts, but did get stuck near the very end, and Steve and I had to do some shoveling of snow to keep me from going over the edge! We went a little farther and encountered another tree across the road. I got out my axe and we started chopping. It went pretty fast, and by the time we chopped through the log everyone had caught up. So we had plenty of people to roll it out of the way. Everyone was having a great time with all the challenges! We picked up another trail and followed it down. It was very steep and rough. Lonnie and Shane decided to stay near the top since Lonnie’s rig is stock. Part way down the trail we came across another fallen tree, but it was much bigger than the others. It was getting late, but Steve and I decided to give it a try and started chopping. Rusty brought out his hand saw and between the axe and saw, and taking turns on both, we managed to chop through it and move it just far enough to get by. We were off again, but after a while the trail started getting very steep, so Rusty decided to play it safe and let us go on. Steve, Dave & Colleen, and I continued on to the end of the trail, and then started back up. Dave was in the lead and I followed him and Steve brought up the rear. We were back to where Rusty was when Steve got hung up a bit and asked Rusty for a winch. Steve said to go ahead and he and Rusty would follow. Dave & Colleen and I continued on, and I must say that Dave & Colleen’s rig worked great (even if it was a Jeep!). We were about ½ mile from the top when we met Shane and Lonnie. There was a nasty section of trail that was very off-camber with a vertical bank on the low side and lots of mud! Dave did the wise thing and went around it. Not me! I tried 4 or 5 times but could not make it. There was a rock with a vertical face about 24” high and I simply could not get enough traction with all the mud to climb over it. Also, I managed to get some more body damage to my left rear quarter panel from a root that was sticking out of the bank. I was ready to give up when Steve called saying that Rusty rig wasn’t running and he needed help winching him. I turned around and started back down the trail to give assistance. Great, I was going to get to do it twice! When I arrived, Steve was winching Rusty up a very steep part of the trail. As it turned out we both had to hook on to Rusty to get him over the top. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that it would be a very long day (and night) if we had to winch Rusty clear to the top, so we decided to try pulling him with a strap since the trail had flattened out a bit. I didn’t think I could pull Rusty by myself, so we hooked all three rigs together, me in the lead followed by Steve, and Rusty. This actually worked pretty well and we were able to make very good time. I’m sure it must have been a very exciting ride for Rusty! During the “train” experience Rusty got his rig restarted and ultimately was able to drive out on his own power over the last part of the trail. Once again we came to that nasty off-camber section, so I had to try it one more time. Still no luck. In fact, I was doing worse, and on the second or third try I heard air coming out of my left rear tire. Now I was stuck, so Steve had to winch me out of the hole. There was so much mud on everything, I couldn’t tell if I had torn the sidewall or what – definitely not a broken bead, since I have beadlocks! The rim was so full of mud; I didn’t relish the idea of changing the tire, so we decided to see if we could pump it up. It was a challenge simply finding the valve stem in all that mud. I must say that I was thankful that the stem had a cap on it. I fired up my onboard air and the tire started to inflate. The hole proved to be an old one that I had plugged last summer and all that spinning must have pulled the plugs out. Steve and I stuffed 3 new plugs into the hole and it stopped the leak! I was happy and it is still holding air after a week! The rest of the way out was uneventful – thank goodness! When we got back on the road to regroup, I noticed that Steve’s passenger door was crescent shaped instead of straight. Not sure what happened, but he must have slide into something too. Dave had been waiting for us for quite some time, so he had decided to air up rather than driving back to the Corrals with low air pressure – big mistake, because he couldn’t get through the snow drifts on the way back. He had to air down twice that day! When we got back to the Corrals everyone aired up (including Dave) and I loaded my rig back on the trailer. I can’t remember exactly when we started home, but I think it was around 6:30 p.m. It was a long day, but we all had a good time and the run proved much more interesting and challenging that what we thought was going to happen. Even though there was some carnage, I think everyone had a great time and all the vehicles performed well. Now the only question remaining is whether we’ll see Lonnie at our next meeting!
Happy Trails, Mike Eagan Click on thumbnail for larger photo
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