This was my second trip into the Klamath River canyon. The first time was in my XJ and this time I got to take the jeep. Trip #1 began at the top of Topsy Grade at the John C Boyles Lake and trip #2 began in Dorris, CA. The picture to the right is a quick stop to air down the tires as we neared Topsy Grade from the CA side. Myself in front, Cory (cj5), and Kyle (LC). This trip was interesting. Normally I am the new guy around at work. Even though these two (and their riders) had lived here for quite some time and had always talked about making this trip into the canyon, I was the only driver that had been down there. My rider had been down quite a few times and one other rider had been down a lot, but I had the GPS and was in the front. It was a fun time and I got to be the veteran. As in trip #1 we stopped at the
top of the canyon for the beginning of the trip photo. Cory is running an early 70s cj5 with a factory 304, 3spd, and dana 20 tcase. He has dana 44 rear w/ detroit, and an open dana 30 front with 31" buckshot mudders. Kyle's landcruiser has a v8 conversion with lift springs 35" BFG all terains. He mentioned that he had an air locker, but that it wasn't working, a CB that had wiring issues, and that his brakes were kind of optional at times. I'm sure we can have this thing back in shape in no time. He mentioned that I should drive it for him for a few days as he claims he is not mechanically inclined.
This little ditch was the only real challenge we found for the day, but it was still fun. I did my best to straddle it, but kept falling into the ditch with the threat of tipping it on the driver door. I got crossed up a few times, but finally did make it only to be stopped by the thick mud a little further up the hill in the same ditch. Because this was the first trip offroad with my jeep since all the work I was very easy on the narrow pedal. The other two rigs took a slightly different line not shown to the left of the picture before I was able to get any photos of them.
Unfortunately, my camera man had already enjoyed most of his beverages for the day and didn't get any pictures of the thick mud on the downhill side. One of the other co-drivers brought a camera along and took way more pictures than my rider, so hopefully I will post up some m
ore of the other rigs soon enough. The last picture is me at the beginning of the trench with the front axle in the right spot and the rear not wanting to follow. Eventually I got the rear axle up on the top too and then it was a quick drive to the next portion of the ditch. At the end of the day, all the rigs were running and the only problem I had was a motor that ran a little hot when under heavy load for extended periods. That should be an easy fix by hooking up the high speed on my electric fan. The worst thing that happened on this trip was one of the riders twisting his ankle pretty bad near the end of the day. Lucky for him (or unlucky whichever way you look at it) he had four paramedics there plus himself. He rode out of the canyon with me because all the other sprung under rigs had pretty rough suspensions. I don't think mine was that much better, but I was more than willing to share by then.
