Wow, a long day on a tough trail. From AZXC; Travis, Gabe, and myself. Marshall was there with his cute as a friggin' button of a dog, Cosmo. Representing Swanky were Andy, Matt, Flip, Ben, and Thanatoz(whose name I obviously can't remember, because no one names their kid Thanatoz). Also along was Steve, in his very sweet '98 4Runner. We got a good early start on the trail and made good time until at the top of the first big hill, Flip had to replace a shock which had ripped away at the collar. Meanwhile, as we hung out up top, Andy drove the Blue Meany down a nasty 50-60 ft descent,getting really tippy in it's huge craters. That SU SAS is an amazing little machine. Ben in his Fronty was bouncing hard at the bottom of the hill trying to make it over the first ledge. He bent a tie rod and later was to discover a CV joint disaster also. While making his way up the hill, it was noted Thanatoz' front psngr tire wasn't pulling. Turns out the bolts which hold his halfshaft to the wheel had worked free and it'd come undone. We made it down to meet Ben, who'd parked on bottom of the hill to meet us. We said good bye to Ben & Thanantoz, and got back on the trail. Some med. sized waterfalls and a couple of squeezes along a tight path kept it fun until we got to the Martinez Cabins. We stopped, enjoyed the wind in the trees, (wow, what a great weather day too, overcast and breezy, prolly in the upper 70's, an everpresent threat of rain..), snacked and moved on. Now the fun begins. I'd never driven this trail and knew it's be one of the more technical and damaging than any I'd driven before. The first obstacle is a climb up a crevice and into a boulder field. As I started up the rocks, my psngr front sliipped and sent my slider slamming into the surface below. Now, the slider was broken already at the front brace from a recent mishap, I knew that as I began this trip today. Well, I sat in the truck fearing that the sound I'd heard was the rock folding in my front door. It was in fact the slider, breaking the final two braces clean off . I had Marshall stand on the remaing piece of metal and under his great girth( :p ) it too fell completely off. Now I was psngr side slider free and ready to tackle the rest of the action. The way into the boulder patch was no challenge for the Blue Meany, flexin' and clawin' it's way across. Flip followed and hung up in several spots in his almost stock looking Pathy.. (I say almost because he's got a BBQ welded on to the rear bumper )Andy put the strap on him and tugged him out the way. Steve showed some excellent driving ability as he threaded the course like a champ. Kudos as well to Mattman for handling not only this but the whole trail surprisingly well in a fairly stock mid 90's pathy. Ahh, then it was my turn. I made the first squeeze up and came to rest my tires against some rocks. I took my spot, gave it some gas, began to crawl over and in fear of advancing too fast/ far, I clutched and rolled back. No prob, just keep it rolling over and it'll be fine. Vroom, truck rolls up, bounces, comes down and the front right stops instantly. With a loud CRACK! It was my CV. It had not only blown off the end at the hub, but the cage which surrounds the halfshaft as it enters the diff had also grenaded, ripping the metal shroud and leaving the whole assembly lying across the LCA. Boots, shaft, and joints, it was all there lying in a grease coverd mess. I put it away and made my way to the bypass for the next boulder field the guys'd already reached 200 yds ahead. It wasn't getting any easier and the real nasty stuff was still ahead. I parked off the trail and continued on in Steve's truck, did I mention this is one well put together Yota yet. The first thing I noticed was the THIRD transfer case shifter. Then, I began to notice how smooth and fluid the power was transferred to the wheels as this thing crawled along like nothing else. 5.7:1 I think he said was the final, lowest gearing option. There's great video of this Toy walking, no, crawling up an, mmmm, 45-50* waterfall about 7-9 ft high called Yellow Belly Ledge. So smooth it's obscene. At this point we also stopped and watched one of the guys from Built to Grind in his super flexy, tube buggy. (Ian, he was one of the guys in Moab at the condos w/ DHB, says Hi) Well, anyways, after the boulder fields the trail begins its rapid ascent of the mountainside. Twisting & turning it's way up, halfway the trail comes to the Martinez Mine overlooking the canyon and surrounding mountainsides. Another check to inspect no further damage has been done and we continue to climb. Making our way past and around some nasty switch backs reminiscent of Black Bears,(maybe better) we arrived at the top and were taken aback by the incredible scenery. This is rugged country and it can swallow you whole and no one'd ever know. The mine ran in the early/mid 40's and ceased operations not much later. It's still a very primitive area and you have to be very respectfull of the land, or else. We descended the other side arriving 1/4 way down at The Luge . It's actually the bypass for the luge, as the original trail, which was particularily nasty looking, had since been washed out and eroded away. What was left was a 200 yd downhill rockslide. Think Red Cone meets, well, it was kind of like Red Cone really. Just straight downhill, trying to keep the nose pointed down and not have the ass come around. It was at this point I ralized how much I wished I hadn't F*%ked up my truck :rolleyes: , so as to have been able to make it this far and drive down this part of the mountainside. Well, it wasn't much further along and we'd arrived back at the cabins. We said adios to Matt and peeled left, back up the trail to retrieve DBAX. I took two straps on the way out as I was now only pushing from the rear axle and had difficulty in surmounting some outbound waterfalls. We drove out (the long way?) and eventually arrived back at the side of the freeway. We thanked Steve for his help in guiding us along the trail and for his help in stacking, tugging, and towing... Travis, Marshall, Gabe, Andy, and I cut back up the freeway 1/2 mile to the next entrance and came to rest at Marshalls friend Barkley's memorial. As we sat admiring the metal placard, remembering Barkley, re-attaching sway bars and such, an incredible rainbow appeared. Perhaps the biggest, brightest, most colorful rainbow, I'd ever seen. That was chased away by the waning sunlight only to be replaced by a burning desert sunset as an appropriate homage to our days adventure. Martinez Canyon and the mine trail are two incredibly beautiful, rugged places. I was happy to discover and share it with such good people

Yeah, there's a lot of pics and almost 1 hour of some kick-ass video. If you were there, and have pics, please post them here. I'll be working on getting the video up/out somehow..

Holy Crap , I had no idea I'd been typing that long

I only took a few pics, but I think this is a cool one. Nissans in the backgound, that's not usually the norm for me.

I had a great time. Looking forward to doing it again.



Previous trips.......



The green 4Runner drove down from Denver.



The red 4Runner drove down from Wisconsin.

Hey thanks for the story Dan I bet your fingers are tired but after you put some lotion on them you are going to put some Pics and Video up right. Gabe try to give Dan a hand with this one. There is some great video on this.

Add to last post:

Big thank you to Marshall for the ride. To everyone else I had a great time and thank you for pre-running this with us. It was nice having the experinced ones. I think Dan can agree.

Yeah, you two are just a riot. :rolleyes:

Get it?

great writeup, Dan.

Lesson learned: Carry SPARES! Tierods, halfshafts, hubs, and Ujoints

I had a good time and the weather couldn't have been better. Got to drag Flip's Pathy and Marshall's X up the waterfall, and Dan down the waterfall.

kudos to dbax for taking his damage with a positive attitude and still enjoying the rest of the day.

My pics are still on the camera...will get those up someplace sometime this week hopefully.