Well, I was lucky enough to get out of the house and head on out to the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park with a few guys over at the SCUFF (socalultimate4x4.com) and Outdoor Adventure USA (oausa.net) forums.
You know you're having a good time when you get stuck or break something every now and then. We had a good time! With the weather the way it was around town, I wasn't sure how it would be out over the desert. However, we were greeted with blue skys and beautiful conditions. All of the washes had been, well, washed out. There was no dust as we had to cut new trails through the canyons and washes that had been smoothed out by all the water.
Most of the group met up just south of Ocotillo off Interstate 8 at a gas station that was unfortunatly, out of gas. The rest met up at the trailhead to Canyon Sin Nombre. From there we headed to Valliceto Wash and into Arroyo Seco Del Diablo Canyon towards the dropoff.
While traveling through the canyon I made the mistake of not staying on the hard-packed sand and nearly got stuck in the mud. The county had been recently hit by several big storms and all the canyons and washes throughout the desert had been smoothed out by all the water flowing through. I had been running in 2WD the whole time until I came upon a section of very soft mud/sand in Arroyo Seco Del Diablo Canyon. I had just made it out when the FJ Cruiser and one of the Wagons got stuck. A few tugs with the recovery straps had them out in no time. However, I would still not finish this run unharmed...
A lot of the rocks down past Diablo Dropoff had been filled in with sand so it was easy going through Broken Shaft Gultch, I guess is what it's called now. After coming out Split Mountain we got fuel down the highway and then headed out to Devil's Slide in Ocotillo Wells OHV Area. There was lots of water and mud that had to be dodged along the way. When we had all lined up on the dune I noticed that something wasn't quite right with my Jeep. The front right shackles holding the spring to the frame had been busted off. So with a little help from the High-Lifts I took one of the good shackles from the driver's side to support the passenger side. With the strength of the shackles now cut in half I limped on out to the 78 and made it back home without any further issues. It was another great day spent wheelin' out in the desert, in conditions we don't often see.
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