This 4th of July, we went to Slick Rock. Some of the Lazy Buggers have been to the place. It's up by Utica Reservoir off hwy 4. This was the first time I had the XCLs off-road. I must say that I was muchly impressed. I never aired down but that was never once an issue! The only time I needed help was whe I got cross-axled. I was amazed. One down side I found out when I put the tires on the car: I didn't check the work of the tire store sufficiently, and I had a 4-2 ratio of tire mounting instead of 3-3 (Michelin XCLs are directional, so you mount three each way and carry two spares). Hence, I only took one of the two spares.
We went up with the group of FJ40 owners I've mentioned on the list before (and some of you have met at St. Johns). They have very nice rigs. This spot is special to this group, as it's where we changed from a group of people who worked together into a group who were really friends (this was as our then employer was going under). I'll describe the trail for people who have never been there.
The spot marked as Slick Rock can be found in the Delome atlas and Delorme
marks the trail as
From the campsite, the trail goes north over some rocks, then down a fairly steep starcase to the ford of the afforementioned creek. I needed a spot every time I went over this in the 110. It got through, but did cross-axle both times I went up it. Just after the staircase is the ford. As I said before, after 3:00 it wasn't worth bothering (the gang pulled at least one vehicle out of it after 3:00). We got across rather early, and I made a bit of a 'splash' by going across with a bow wave.
On the first turn after the ford, I ran over a branch and heard the tell-tale 'hissssssssssssss'---a huge gash in the sidewall of the left-front tyre. Guess what? It was not on the side where I had the proper spare. So, I have a smiley mounted XCL in front and a frowny-mounted XCL in rear. We got the tire changed and went on. It's not too far from there that you get to the spot the Delorme atlas calls 'slick rock' From looking at it on the map, I think we may have driven by the end of it, but I'm not sure. Anyway, after anther creek fording, there's a very steep section with a bypass. My trailmates advised against the steep section because of the low departure angle of the 110, and I obliged. Theres a pretty straight shot from there to a chute that has some other interesting rock crawling in it. It was there that I bend up the side steps. In fact, one of them went up high enough to leave a character mark on the sill panel. Needless to say, I'm about to get some rock sliders.
From that point, it was pretty easy stuff until we hit snow that was too deep. There was a CJ-8 (LWB CJ-7) that tried to get through but gave up. Our final turning point was at N38° 27.946' W120° 00.565' for those of you with a map program that will show you lat-longs. We reversed the whole route and got back across the creek before 3:00.
For some reason, my buddies always seem suprised at the performance
of whatever Rover we have long (Disco, IIA, 110), and are further amazed
at our willingness to wheel the 110 at all. That's not to say that
the 110 outdid their FJ40s, but that they seemed impressed that the stock
Rovers do so well. They also were amazed at the amount of crap we
loaded on the roof rack, but that's another thing entirely.
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