So here is the rundown.
Rolled into Mesquite at about 7:30pm Thursday. Followed the directions and signs up the dirt road to the campground. Right before ran into a guy in a blue FJC. Turned out to be Robbie heading into town. So I thought cool at least there is one person I know down here. Set up camp and hung out by the community bonfire for a while, drank a much needed beer or two.
Up friday morning. A few more people had trickled in during the night. Some of the LA guys at about 3:00. Had the drivers meeting and determined that they were going to add a run. So now we had a Scenic, Moderate, and Hardcore. Left camp at about 11:00. Sun had only been on camp for maybe an hour at that point. Very steep and cold most of the time because of the lack of sun. I chose to join the moderate run (Mostly because the hard core consisted of buggies) We made our way back towards Mesquite and then headed south on the pavement to enter another canyon. After airing down and rolling throught the desert for a little bit. BTW I now know where all the old appliances end up when you are through with them, in the Nevada desert full of bullet holes. I think one comment was that it looked like a best buy had burned down.
Anyway we entered a very steep V canyon and then right as we came out was the first "optional" obstacle. We spent a while there. Robbie and Chris were able to wrestle the fj through it. I tried and then slid down into complete stuckness. Had to winch out. We continued on to a pretty uneventful day. Reached the top and could look down over Mesquite and the rest of the desert. Came down a canyon with fairly thick brush and quite rocky in places. The canyon popped us out right into camp.
The FJ team threw us one of their Famous BBQ evenings. As always nice to get around and talk to the other Cruiser people. The evening was finished by everyone around the bonfire and Mark (Mark's off road) playing the guitar and singing. Pretty mellow.
Next morning we had grown by a few more and had a similar morning with the meeting. 3 more runs for Saturday. Again I chose the Moderate run. We headed up the same canyon we had come down the previous afternoon. Much different going up. Everyone made it through fairly easy. One truck rubbed both tire valve stems on the right side and had them leaking. And poor Mark mashed the bed of his FJ45 right behind the cab on the drivers side. We had lunch at the top at roughly 12:30. Continued on down and the through a fairly decent sand wash. Back through a cutoff canyon. Which the scenery went from desert to heavy brush to desert to Beer Can fence. Rolled back into camp around 5:30 and everyone was getting ready for the dinner and raffle. Well unfortunately I had to be in San Diego the next afternoon and still had to pick up the family in St. George so I was unable to stay for the raffle or dinner. After saying good bye and swapping pics with a few of the people I had met I was off.
Great event and group of people. Would recommend this to anyone. I think SNLC said they had almost 50 vehicles which makes this the largest Glitter Gulch Gambol yet. Neat area and they are doing a good job of keeping it up.
I would include the names of the trails but no one knew them. When asked what is this run called, response was "Friday intermediate run"
