A weekend in Grand Junction, 21RD and Billings, Sept 23-25

[Brucker]

I have been wanting to head over to the western slope to play since the last trip I made a few years ago. So I got the little blue shop truck put back together, this time with some new accessories, and invited Alex (rollingblubber) to join me. And he invited a father and son he knew through Facebook, that lived over there to show us around. S we drove out late Friday and settled into a hotel for the night. Going over the passes that night, snow was actually starting to stick on the road.
But the weekend weather was supposed to be dry, so we didn't think anything of it.

Saturday we made our way over to 21 Road while it rained on and off. The weather forecast called for the sun to be out by 10am, so even though it was wetter than any of us were expecting, we decided to keep moving as planned.

We parked and unloaded and got to meet everyone. The ground was really soupy even in the parking area.

The four rigs of our group for the day:

We started making our way up the canyon as it continued to rain off and on. We know the dangers water can cause in this area, so we kept an eye on the water flow coming down. There was a steady small stream but nothing major. If anything it just made everything sloppy and a bit more challenging as even the stickies didn't hold every line.

 

[Brucker]

Then while we were all standing out of the vehicles, we heard a loud, low rumbling, and suddenly, our dry feet became wet. The water in the canyon floor quickly rose. We all jumped into our rigs and started for the nearest exit onto the main road. The water quickly swallowed all of our tires (37"+) before we could drive even 100 yards. But we all made it up to higher ground safely. Here are a couple photos of the river the small stream became. The photos really don't do it much justice, but the lowest areas were all deeper than 40" or so. And the swift moving water carried a lot of debris with it.

The small stream:

During the flash flooding:

So we waited for about an hour and a half for the water levels to start receding

 

[Brucker]

With the waters stating to recede, we continued up the canyon.

My tire slipped off it's line on a small squeeze section and I scraped up the drivers door a little. Must have been trying to cover up my wife's folly with denting the door during the cage process

Right before it happened:

And the aftermath:

It sure is pretty out here:

Everything went fairly smooth for the next few obstacles:

 

[Brucker]

 

[Brucker]

My uncle who joined me and took most of these photos, started ragging on me that I would have to match "his" side of the vehicle now... So I tired a stupid line... Everything was going great... Then I slipped off the line...

Same door and window as last trip out here, in almost the same spot too. Guess I never learn... Though if my tires would have held the original line, it would have been sick...

Made sure to pick up my mess

 

[Brucker]

Will post up more later. I need to get some sleep.

 

[nakman]

Wow. Holy cow that is real deal stuff there, awesome pictures! sad to see the window pop out..


adding 21 road to the list of trails to not take my 40 on

 

[AxleIke]

Nice!! Bummer about the window and doors. Looks like a fun time though.

 

[collk22]

Wow - great pictures. Those are pretty serious machines!!

Looks like a fun time - glad everyone made it out of the flood zone safely.

 

[Uncle Ben]

21 Road was pretty easy when it was dry. Wet would be a great challenge!

 

[Brucker]

21 Road was pretty easy when it was dry. Wet would be a great challenge!

Must be wheeling with a bunch of wusses then...

21 RD is as challenging as you make it. That is the beauty of the trail. Sounds like you either got stuck playing follow the leader with a boring leader, or you just didn't get creative enough. If you get bored, just take a line that doesn't suck. Between that and how much it changes from week to week, makes it my favorite trail in Juction.

 

[Hulk]

Man, that looks like tons of fun, but I'm not taking my 80 on that trail.

 

[Uncle Ben]

Must be wheeling with a bunch of wusses then...

21 RD is as challenging as you make it. That is the beauty of the trail. Sounds like you either got stuck playing follow the leader with a boring leader, or you just didn't get creative enough. If you get bored, just take a line that doesn't suck. Between that and how much it changes from week to week, makes it my favorite trail in Juction.

Solo as I got stood up. Skipped a few of the first obstacles but went full tilt on everything after Carnage Corner. Did blow a lower link bushing which made beautiful music the rest of the day. It was very dry that day. Billings is a lot tougher options.

 

[Brucker]

Solo as I got stood up. Skipped a few of the first obstacles but went full tilt on everything after Carnage Corner. Did blow a lower link bushing which made beautiful music the rest of the day. It was very dry that day. Billings is a lot tougher options.

Billings may be a tougher trail overall but you are limited on what lines are taken. 21 RD offers a little freedom from the norm. Multiple lines on everything. Your only limitation is your imagination. Billings is more of a trail with certain separate obstacles, whereas 21 RD is more of a playground within the trail with fluid, ever changing obstacles.

But each has their own favorites, so I will stop forcing mine on you. Wheeling either trail is a good time.

I will try to post more of the trip later tonight.

 

[Brucker]

Wet continued to be the theme as Saturday wore on:

 

[Brucker]

We played for quite a while...

Until Alex got high centered and while trying to drive off, the tires caught and we heard a loud snap. The front would turn for about 3 revolutions and then would lock up. We figured it to be a chromo birf and decided to turn around and fix off of the trail. Here is the spot that did the damage:

Toby graciously offered up their shop (their family owns a towing company in Grand Junction) for us to do the repairs in. Alex quickly tore apart the front and swapped the birf out. We didn't see any real damage to it, but figured it to be the problem based on the metal shavings found in the knuckle. He drove it out of the shop and onto the trailer. We figured all was good and headed back to the hotel to get some much needed sleep.

 

[Brucker]

Sunday morning we all made our way out to Billings. They are making a new parking lot for us at the "main" entrance, so we parked a little farther down to take the longer way into the trail. Thanks Val (YJgirl) for the heads up! Sorry we missed you out there! While unloading the trailers, Alex had his front end lock up on him again. Same thing every couple of revolutions and the front would lock up. At this point we all figured that he actually had broken some teeth of the front ring gear. We didn't have a spare 3rd with us (I left them behind in my haste) and no one felt like starting the day wrenching, so he made the call to bail, and head home at a reasonable hour. He did manage to snap some pretty shots on his way back over the passes:

Now that it was just Toby's rig and mine, we figured we could run the trail quickly. Boy were we wrong. About halfway to the trailhead, my steering locked up while turning left. I had just recently installed hydro assist and feared the worst. It looked as I must have bent my tie rod the day before just enough, and now the ram mount on the tir rod was making contact with my spring perch. We took the time to realign the mount and decided to push onward. I ended up stopping a few times again for the same issue before we even reached the trailhead. At this point, I should have called it quits and turned home or taken off the ram. But we decided to soldier on. We entered and went through the guardian rocks:

Toby ended up getting himself stuck just after the guardian rock and while maneuvering to turn around in order to winch him out, my tie rod bent even more, locked up against the spring plate and sheared to steering arm studs off. It was all we could do to get him out and me off the trail. I babied it out until we came to the only ditch on the trail out. I went through as gingerly as I could but as I did it snapped the remaining steering studs, broke the trunion off the steering arm and manged both top and bottom trunion bearings, and trashed a RCV birf. We robbed what we could from the other side and from my spares collection, but we still were missing vital parts for the rig to be driven out. So I asked Toby if they had a 4x4 wrecker, and if they would be willing to just tow it out for me to save us the hassle of trying to keep the wheel on it. He did and called for the truck to come out and fetch us. We got it onto the truck and we began our slow crawl out.

And Toby had to get a poser shot before they unhooked me.

I dragged it onto the trailer and strapped the wheel to the truck and the truck to the trailer

All in all a good weekend was had. I have some fixing to do, and I believe Alex does still too. But hope to have it together soon for an Indy run as Alex hasn't been there yet and I have had the itch to wheel there all summer.

 

[Notyourmomslx450]

Nice! I've been wanting to hit these trails.....