By Mike "Redman Jr." Yarbrough

Our trip began with a meeting at McDonalds. After gathering our trail leader and all who were going, we hit the highway. Being visitors to the Club, my dad and I decided to bring up the back of the pack. As we waited for all the members to pull out I noticed that a Grand Cherokee pulling a CJ7 had pulled over. We pulled in behind him, introduced ourselves, and asked him what was wrong. He said that something just felt "funny". We said we would follow him and see if we noticed anything.

    As we pulled onto the freeway, we watched in amazement as the driver of the Grand Cherokee (Lance) merged through the first four lanes of traffic non-stop! Lance then swerved all the way back across the freeway and pulled onto the shoulder. We pulled in behind Lance and hopped out to see what was wrong. Lance said as he pulled onto the freeway the Cherokee couldn’t be controlled and swerved all the way to the fast lane by itself. Luckily, for everyone on the freeway, Lance was able to avoid hitting any other vehicles. Now we had a slight dilemma, the club was on the way to Calico, and no one was answering on the CB. Lance and I decided to disconnect the CJ7 and have my dad drive it to Lance's cousin’s house nearby. Lance said he would drop off his Grand Cherokee there and we would continue on to Calico. After about a 30-minute delay and sidetrack, we were back on the road.

I spoke to the Club’s president, Quinn, earlier that week. Luckily, Quinn had given me directions "just in case." I gave the directions to Lance and followed him and his cousin to Calico. As we exited the freeway we found the Dirt Devils pulled onto the shoulder waiting for us. After telling the club about our adventure on the way, we regrouped and finished the drive to the Calico Mountains. We pulled into our designated camp/staging area and met those that came out the night before. Our trail leader, Kory, gathered everyone together and gave us a briefing on the trail: what to expect, and how to handle the obstacles that we would encounter. We lined everyone up, aired down, and hit the trail.


    This was my first trip to Calico and I didn’t quite know what to expect. As we entered the canyon, I was amazed at how beautiful it was. The trail ride consists of a drive through a canyon that was used many years ago to hall borax out of the local mines. The trail is packed sand with occasional rocks. The major trail obstacles are drops in the canyon floor where water has washed away the sand and left rocky climbs. It really is like nothing else you will ever see. If you’ve never been to Calico, you need to plan a trip soon.

    We wound our way through the canyon taking in the beautiful scenery until we hit our first trail obstacle. Word on the CB was some of the rigs with open diffs were having trouble traversing some rocks. My dad and I decided to walk up and watch as the other drivers negotiated the obstacle. When we got to the obstacle, we found it to be a small group of large boulders. All of the dirt had been washed away from the boulders by water traveling down the canyon. Travis in his white Grand Cherokee was stuck in the boulders with a flat right rear tire. I jumped in and helped Travis High-lift Jack his Grand Cherokee. We removed the tire and found the problem was only that it had come off the bead. Travis "He-Manned" the tire all the way back to my Jeep. We then were able to re-seat the tire using my on board air compressor system. Travis, still refusing any help, "He-Manned" the tire all the way back to his truck. After installing the tire back on the vehicle, Travis made short order of the small waterfall and the group was back under way. The group continued up the canyon until the next obstacle, a larger waterfall. This waterfall was approximately 20 yards long, off camber (high on the right, low on the left) with large loose boulders on the left, and was still paved with a small strip of asphalt on the right. The challenge was getting your rig up onto the asphalt ledge on the right without slipping down the off-camber to the left and into an unforgiving rock wall (see Jules’ left front fender). It was very entertaining to watch the different vehicles and driving styles attack this obstacle. Some made it without much difficulty, and some had to be winched up. My favorite was watching the white Grand Cherokee of Traivs'. Travis let his wife Lisa drive and he coached and spotted her using a two-way radio. The two of them made the obstacle look easy! Great job guys! Finally it was our turn. My dad and I buckled up and approached the line that we had picked out. Kory and Quinn were on the obstacle to offer very professional spotting. We hit our line, watched our spotters, and walked right up the waterfall without a problem.

    After the waterfall, it was a short drive up the canyon to a large cropping of abandoned mines. The club parked and spent some time exchanging war stories and exploring the mines. We then regrouped and headed back to camp. That night at the campfire, Quinn told me about some "rocks" farther up the canyon. He said that if I were up to it he would shoot some pictures of my Jeep in the rocks the next morning. Being one to never refuse a good photo opportunity, I gladly took him up on the offer.

    The next morning my dad and I were up early and decided to inspect the "rocks" that Quinn had told us about. We found instead a large treacherous grouping of boulders that were approximately 50 yards long. Quinn met us there and asked if we were still up for the challenge. I said "No problem"; those would later turn out to be my famous last words....  

I hopped in my trusty full size Cherokee and entered the rock garden. Watching Quinn for assistance, I flexed my way through without a problem. On the last section, I had to place my right front tire and my left rear tire against large boulders at the same time. While applying a liberal amount of throttle to the rocks, I heard a loud BANG! I stopped and told Quinn that it sounded expensive. We took a quick survey of the Jeep and didn’t find any obvious problems, so I tried the obstacle again. BANG! This time forward progress was completely halted. Quinn had to strap me out and get me back to camp. Luckily I am not yet a member of the Dirt Devils, or I would definitely be wearing the "Cow Bell."

    At camp we assessed the Jeep and concluded that the LockRight locker in the rear had broken. Everyone loaded up and we hit the freeway for the drive home. Travis followed me as I drove in front wheel drive, until his turn-off. Then Bill pulled in behind me and followed me the rest of the way home. Thanks guys! Once home I pulled my rear diff cover and found the problem was not the locker, but was two broken rear axles! Good thing the rear bearings were in good shape. Next stop: Warn full-floaters!

Thank you to our trail leader, Kory Merrill, and all the Dirt Devils in attendance.

We had a great time, and we look forward to joining your Club!
Mike Yarbrough

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