John did a great job. He led about 90% of the run! including all the night driving.

We only had to get out in one spot for the night driving, which was the granite drop off for those of you who’ve been on the trail before.

John picked up some minor damage. I really only incurred brush scratches.

The trail was very poorly maintained. Tons of overgrowth which tested my clear coat. It looks like the 4 wheeler club only worked on log bridges and whoever was running the trail with a saw cleared it. Nearly every fallen tree was cleared just wide enough for the trail. Never wide enough for a safe pass through them. And there were more than 100 downed trees we saw. Any rig 2″ wider than mine will not make this trail unless you bring a big saw to cut some trees down. The only really challenging section was Thompson hill. The last section of the trail was a little challenging, and night made it more fun. Maybe running the trail backwards might liven things up since there was lots of stuff we did in the down hill direction.

The trail is 33 miles long. And it is 100 miles between gas. John and i both used the 20 l of gas we brought and were able to drive all the way to Madeira and up 99 before refueling. On the freeway john was getting 17 mpg, while i was almost 15. Pretty good mileage considering…

The trail starts at 8,200 ft elevation but runs between 9,000 and 9,500 for most of the trail. It maxes out just over 10,000 ft and ends at 9,600. We saw about 25-30 rigs but none were on the trail holding us up. One rig passed us during the night wheeling. He stopped to ask me how far it was to buck island… Is said 2 hrs at your pace, which he laughed at. He was running a 36″ LED light bar. It was putting out some light!