Los Coyotes: I had heard the name, seen the magazine coverage, heard the rumors, but now I was actually going. Redman and I loaded up his CJ (my Cherokee is still not fully repaired from Calico, darn it) and met a few of the Dirt Devils for a Saturday morning caravan to Warner Springs. After waiting on Larry to grocery shop, (J/K Larry!) we were on the road. Our caravan leader was Walt Lesher (the throttle must be stuck wide open on that Amigo). The rest of the caravan was made up by Redman and myself in Redman's CJ, Larry in his shiny new Cherokee, Jules and Nicole in Jules' ZJ, and Jeff in his Amigo. We made record time to Los Coyotes and joined the rest of the group. Waiting for us at the campsite were Dean & Beth, John, Robert, Bill (I gotta be back by five) & Joyce, and David.

Dean, who warned us that Los Coyotes was a place that must be taken very seriously and carefully, briefed us on the trail. Dean also warned us that the "roll over potential was high." Sounded great to me! We lined up, aired down, and hit the trail.

Our run started with a drive over to Four Corners. From there we hit our first trail, Ladybug. This trail was an easy run for most of the vehicles. The only difficult obstacles on Ladybug were a few tight squeezes, and a small rock garden that everyone made look simple.

After the squeezes on Ladybug, the next major obstacle was Bronco Hill. Bronco Hill is a steep climb approximately 30 yards long. There are three lines on Bronco Hill. The far-left line is a loose, steep climb that ends with a tight turn around a tree. The line around the tree has been "dug out" by open diff vehicles and made for some good "wheels up" driving. Dean was the first one up, and he made short order of the left line. The far right line is an easy climb that turns ugly, as it ends with two BIG rock steps. The steps are loose sandstone and are spaced far enough to catch the front and rear tires of a Wrangler at the same time. This is no simple maneuver. You must be able to have enough momentum over the walls to carry your vehicle to the top without bouncing yourself sideways and tumbling back to the bottom. The only person that attempted the far right line of Bronco Hill was David. He made good progress until he cleared the first wall with his front tires. He didn't have enough traction or momentum to pull his Jeep up onto the ledge, and was stuck in a very tipsy vertical position. I was spotting David on the climb, so I walked down to see if he wanted to try a "back-down" but the wide eyes and white knuckles told me to reach for his winch cable. As I was disengaging his winch cable I noticed that I was able to lift his front tires off of the ground by lifting under the bumper with one finger!! (Our safetyman, Brain Pawlak, will be happy to hear that no one stood on David's Wrangler for this climb.) Needless to say, I began to expedite the recovery at that point! Dean pulled around to a safe flat spot on top of the hill and I attached David's winch cable to Dean's front tow hook. After hanging a towel over the winch cable and clearing everyone from the area, David pulled himself up the obstacle. Good job David! While David was climbing the right line, John headed up the middle line. This line was loose at the bottom with two rock ledges at the top. These ledges were not square with the trail and could only be climbed with one tire at a time. Unfortunately, I didn't see John's attempt because I was helping David with his. The next vehicles to attempt the hill were Walt and Larry. Both of them attempted to climb the left line, but were unable to get traction in the loose soil. Bill then climbed up the left line followed by Redman and Robert. The last one up was Jules. He went for the middle line and manhandled it with lots of Grand Cherokee V8 power! The drivers then made their way back down and joined the rest of the group.

We continued on and covered lots of tight, twisty trail. The trails were a combination of Deep Creek terrain, and Truckhaven flex. They required a good sense of vehicle placement and a little momentum for those with open diffs.

The next major obstacle was Hot Dog Hill. I knew the climb would be rough based upon the rear bumper that was laying at the bottom of the hill! The top of the hill consisted of a climb up a tight trail that had two large ruts that were the width of a CJ. Between the ruts was a large mound of packed soil. This climb required good ground clearance or an original line to straddle the ruts. The vehicles that made this climb were Dean's, John's, David's, Bill's, Robert's, Redman's, and Jules'. The trail wound back down the mountain and joined a bypass at the bottom of El Hill. However, Hot Dog Hill had one more surprise for those that had climbed it. Right before joining the bypass the vehicles had to drop down a three-foot vertical drop. This made for some tense moments, as the rear wheels would almost come off of the ground! Everyone walked down this obstacle and I believe the only one that would not want to do it again would have to be Robert's dog Eddie. He lost traction on the front seat and landed between Robert's shifters. He was a trooper, though, and walked away unharmed.

We stopped for lunch at El Hill and had a good show from Dean and John. For those of you who have not seen El Hill, it can only be described as long and very steep! Dean was the first to attempt the climb. He chose a great line, but was not able to fight the "stall bug" and had to back down. Next up was John. John took Dean's line and after finally engaging his ARB walked right to the top. Good job John!

After lunch, we were back on the trail. We wound our way through more beautiful landscape until we encountered our next obstacle. This climb was a tight climb up a rocky hill. The climb turned hard left about 20 feet up and was made by everyone except Larry and Jeff. Both Larry and Jeff made excellent attempts at the climb, but simply couldn't make it with open diffs. We parked Larry's Cherokee and Jeff's Amigo off of the trail and they rode with Walt for the rest of the day.

After this climb, we continued past No-Way Way and on toward Bagby's Rock. The terrain had changed to a Moab-type landscape with climbs up large sandstone structures. It was beautiful. While climbing the last hill of the day, Redman and I had just made the climb up a tight trail and negotiated a blind left turn. The left turn was slightly off-camber and provided a great "wheels-up" climb. I turned to watch Robert make the turn, and watched as he steered a little far to the right. His right front tire dropped down an adjoining trail and left him high-centered. Luckily he was stuck, if he had continued a few more feet he would have chanced rolling down the other trail! Redman and I were able to turn around on the hill and hook our winch cable to the front of Robert's CJ. We were then able to pull the front of his Jeep sideways up the hill and allow him to back out from his position. The recovery went well aided by some good driving techniques by Robert.

At this point Dean turned the group around and we headed back to pick up Larry's and Jeff's trucks. We then drove back to camp to exchange the war stories of the day. Unfortunately, Redman and I were not able to stay for Sunday's adventure.

We had a great time, thank you to all in attendance and especially to Dean for a great run.

Michael "Redman Jr." Yarbrough.