By Brian Pawlak

The first time I heard about Santiago Canyon was in a magazine article titled: "Santiago’s Revenge". The article said that there is only one obstacle without a bypass and that it’s negotiable with proper spotting. So I set up a run with two friends from work and we all went through with me only needing the strap once, and I dented both rocker panels only because I was sightseeing on easy parts of the trail. This all happened in late in 1996, -- back before El Nino passed through.

The next time I went to Santiago Canyon was on the club run lead by John Strege on sat Oct. 17. We got a late start on the trail since we couldn’t find the rangers who had the combination for the locked gate at the end of the trail. With this minor detail out of the way we started up the canyon. Travis (Me Tarzan) and Lisa (Me Jane) came along in their Grand Cherokee (Me JEEP). They had planned to ride with someone but all seats were occupied and besides, there are bypasses on all but the one V-notch obstacle.

There were a lot of vehicles on the trail between the Dirt Devils and Fun in the Sun who were coming along on the run. Progress went well until the infamous V-notch obstacle. With Quinn doing most of the spotting, all made it through without incident. Travis was skeptical about going through in their Grand but Lisa drove it through without incident. Will had similar skepticism about going through with his "clearance challenged" Explorer (WOAD KILL). Myself and others told him to drive up and try it. If he didn’t like the looks of it when he got there, we would turn him around and go back out with them. Will drove up to the V-notch and through it with white knuckles, a smile on his face, and no problems.

Robert had his share of trouble from the 4X gremlins on this trip. His Renegade’s lower shock mount decided to let go of the spring plate it usually hangs onto. Then down the trail, a rock succeeded in kissing the ring gear in his rear axle. Of course this must be done at the expense of the differential cover, you know, that pumpkin looking thing that holds in all the gear oil. While fixing the diff cover one torx bolt wouldn’t come out. David (Tin Man), solved that by suggesting that the cover be bent out and spin the cover. It worked and we were soon back on the trail. During the wait our kids and others had fun finding frogs in the creek.

At this point we "knew" that the trail only got easier and decided to make our way out before it got dark. The trail had been redesigned somewhat by El Nino. The bypasses in many places had been transformed into rock gardens which were a bit of a challenge for the Grand Cherokee and Explorer. Don’t forget that the drivers of these vehicles are new to four-wheeling. This trip through Santiago Canyon gave them more experience than they had counted on.

The weather was nice all day long. Not too much wind, temperatures were moderate - even when the stars came out! There was no moon and the stars were fabulous. And yes, we were still on the trail! Spotting by flashlight with headlights in your eyes is interesting but workable. The Grand Cherokee was strapped only once up a loose hill that took me three tries. One time I helped lift the Explorer’s axle about half an inch to clear shocks over rocks using a six foot log as a lever. At one point the overgrown trees and bushes left minor "pin-stripping" near the center of the hood on our Cherokee.

At about 12:00 AM we got to the gate and aired up the tires. Those who were camping went back to camp, and others, like myself and Corey got to see how light traffic is on Hwy. 138 on the way home. I had planned to be at Santiago Canyon only on Saturday, but it was fun taking a night run into Sunday morning too.

See you on the next run. Brian, Beth, Jeremy & Alexis Pawlak