differential as you pass. A few hundred yards from the top, there is an old shack on a wide shelf in a small-forested area that signals the last level spot you will see for some time. Below the shack, the road and the mountain gets even steeper… steep enough that several switchbacks in rapid succession keep your steering wheel going from lock to lock as fast as you can turn it. Some are tight enough that you WILL be required to back up to make the turn. Below these first switchbacks, the shelf road runs along the base of a sheer cliff, rising above the road for hundreds of feet. Nearly every spring, there are large rockfalls blocking the road in varying degrees. These large rocks come from the cliff above and make one wonder if this is a place you want to spend much time. This year, there are two sizeable rocks. One is on the outside edge and the other is mostly right in the middle of the road with almost the width of a Jeep between the rock and the cliff. “Almost” being the word you may want to remember. As you try to sneak past the rock in the middle, you are tipped into the side of the cliff and your rocker guard (you DO have rocker guards) scrapes along the rock on the driver side. The right fender flare begins to fold under and the decision to back off is too late. By the way, we found that Dan (the driver of the stuck JK) had done this same damage trying this… but he doesn’t have the rocker guards --oooops! Happy Trails (my ’06 TJ Rubicon) and Tom’s Rubicon LJ were fully capable of going over the middle rock, but Paul’s YJ on the smaller tires and no lockers was out matched, so we stacked some rocks. Not long after, we rounded the corner of a ridge and there in front of us was Dan’s JK. Beached on the belly pan and straining to keep a foothold on the outer bank of what used to be the road. The day before at about 3 PM, he admitted that he had been “sight seeing” and had slipped over the side. Before getting stopped, the JK was precarious in the extreme. Sitting at nearly the tipping point on an estimated 60+ degree mountainside slope with a chute of mega rocks lining the v-notch of the bottom of the usually dry wash was a scary sight.
Dan had run his winch line to some long straps circling a huge roadside boulder to secure the JK from any further slipping and set up camp for the night after making a call for help. We don’t know the source of the information relating the “impassability” of the trail, but even the Search and Rescue apparently discounted the trip as not doable. That alone would be reason enough for guys like me to WANT to go. We love a good challenge, don’t you?? After some serious assessment of the situation, it was decided that two winches would be required to haul the wayward JK back onto the road. One winch pulling the front at the same time another one pulling the rear up. The greatest problem was that by pulling the Jeep directly sideways, we would also be pulling the lower side of the road, literally trying to move the mountainside. We needed to be pulling up and over as much as possible.