2010 Fall Color Tour

[Paul Hittie]

The fall color tour yesterday contained more adventure and less color than we planned.  The colors were a bit past their peak this weekend as we covered almost exclusively 2wd roads and trails.  Our attempt to stay legal in the National Forest result in some nice color, 1 tesspass, and no requirement for 4wd.  It appears that anything fun was excluded from the Motor Vehicle Use Map.  But we had a nice day in the woods, so not a total washout.  We ended the day at Silver Lake, where I had several reminders that a 4dr JK is significantly longer than my LJ and has a much lower breakover angle.  One stuck was a simple hill that after watching Ed snap over I thought I should get out of the gas a bit at the top.  The second one was a repeat, except failing light, park closing and nothing but ATVs around...on the last crest of Test Hill.  Beautiful view, just not normally a spot to hang out and take pictures.  When we finally found a willing helper with tow hooks (who plays in the sand without tow hooks??) we went looking for Ed and Julie at 7:29 to make sure they weren't still waiting for us, when we saw and heard somone calling for help over by the "forest".  Turned out to be Ed and Julie!  Ed was a long way down a loose hill, but he had his stick to connect our straps, and we inched him out just as darkness fell and the park closed.

[NewRide]

Sounds like fun !!! Please give more detail of said trespass ??

[Paul Hittie]

Looking for a USFS road, we found a private road about 100-150yrds away that I thought was the right one.  It cut between some camps/homesteads, but eventually a guy flagged me down to let me know the road was a dead end, and did I know this was private property?  He was nice about it, we were apologetic - no blood/no foul.  Actually the USFS road markers we saw were all in pretty good shape, I don't remember that being the case the last time I went out there.  Unfortunately all of the trails I recognized in the Crystal Valley area were bermed off.