About halfway into the exciting stuff we ran across a pair of guys using a come-along to pull a Jeep Cherokee back onto the road. Apparently one of the guys had been driving out at night and decided to turn around in the *narrowest* section of the trail I could find; he would have had to back up 50-100 feet to get to a nice wide part. His rear wheels went over the edge and he slid down into a tree hard enough to crack the whole tailgate (but oddly enough, not the glass). Then while trying to drive back up, he slid down and fell off a 4-5 foot cliff, planting the rear of the vehicle solidly in the creek.
When the poor abused vehicle finally was pulled back onto the road, the exhaust pipe was broken off at the manifold and the transmission had decided that all gears were going to be neutral.
My companion vehicle was a nice shiny new Land Rover Discovery (well, shiny except for all the desert pinstriping :-). Reasonably capable vehicle, but the traction control was pretty worthless. When it got crossed up, it seemed to provide no assistance whatsoever. I must admit I enjoyed watching another vehicle full of modern electrical gizmos stumble over obstacles that my (primitive but flexible) Land Cruiser merrily crawled over. Unfortunately, I also learned the advantages of some of those modern gizmos, including the Land Rover distributorless ignition system. My poor soggy wet cap and rotor didn't handle one of the stream crossings very well. No more splashing through the puddles for me!
An excellent day wheeling. I'm curious about one or two things, though. What was the original purpose of that road? Where did it go? Did it always end at those waterfalls? Anyone know?
Later!
Jeff
-- Fear and Loathing in Washington D.C. -- Hunter S. Thompson for president
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