We all go four wheel'n for one reason or another.  I mean, besides the fact that we enjoy it, what actually begins a trip?  In many cases there are the events that have been set in stone and have occurred since many of us were born (excluding the ol'farts of course).  They send out the pamphlets and the date and place is decided.  I think most trips start out where one fellow decides, "Hey, I'm go'n there, wanna come?"  And voila, you have a trip.  Then there's the case (like the one I'm about to tell you about) where you have a "reason" to go wheeling.  Now, you wouldn't necessarily be going, but you have to go because somebody just did a major mod or got a new rig and there ain't
no way you're gonna miss out on the debut.  Now unless you're limited to only one place to go, deciding where can be tougher than you think.  Ok, we just did a new SOA job on Mark.  That's gonna need a decent trail to do any kind of test at all.  But, we're not going just for Mark.  Jorge (those that know him, love him) just got himself a Sammy.  A stock Sammy with street tires.  Jorge has wheeled with us a lot.  He's ridden shotgun with me, MsVicky, Bud, Mark, Bill, hell just about
everyone.  But never in the pilot's seat to my knowledge.  Wouldn't want to pick a place too tough for a newbie in a stock Sammy.  What a tither.  Well, there was another reason for this trip.  Brian, our token Marine/Jarhead/Grunt/whatever was coming home from Yuma for the weekend and was hoping for a trip.

Ok.  Now where do we go?  Table Mountain?  Fairly decent wheeling.  We like to take newbies here.  Just a little exposure to rocks and steep hills but nothing too difficult.  Naw, we just camped there about a month ago.  Pinion Mountain?  Not too bad.  Two really really cool spots but kinda dull otherwise.  Naw, I embarrassed myself writing about how scary the drop off was then one of the darn 4x4 rags does a write-up about a mom and her daughter doing the same trail in a Geo
Metro or whatever.  Ocotillo?  Mike was camping there.  Naw, done it too many times recently.  Truck Haven?  Way bitch'n wheel'n!  Naw, too far for a day trip.  Four Corners?  No way!  Even if the rain made things worse, we've done it way too many frig'n times.  Eck!  Los Coyotes (often referred to as LCIR)?  Hmmmm...kind of expensive says the grunt.  Might be really hard for the Sammy.  Perfect, it's decided then, LCIR it is!

This is Thursday we're trying to decide and the trip is planned for Sunday.  Can't leave out MsVicky and she's gotta work on Saturday.  Between Thursday and Saturday night we finish up Mark's SOA, attempt to finish up Donald's onboard air and spruce up Brian's storage box.  No chance on Donald's air.  Beats me, but onboard air is about the most time consuming job of all.  But, Bill has absolutely perfected the air-tight weld and not a leak on Donald's nerfs.  It's a shame.  We really could spin Bill up with the bubble test before.  He don't even wince anymore.

All right on to Sunday morning.  Jorge's late.  Hardly a surprise.  Bill's holler'n, "we're burn'n daylight!"  Not a surprise either.  Up 67 we head in a line of 3 Jeeps a Sammy and Bill's extra extra long Ford.  We contemplate strap'n the Sammy up a few of the grades but he gets unstuck on the four lane and we meet up with Donald in Ramona.  Patiently we wait while Donald stands in line at JackDonalds and off we go again.  We arrive at Los Coyotes at about morning:30 or so and
pay the 10 buck entrance fee.

Air down and disconnect sway bars.  The Sammy's sway bar has to be totally removed due to the stock configuration.  It'll be easy to strap it up once we do an SOA on it.  By the way, what do we air down to on a Sammy with street tires?  We go till we get a decent bulge.  10psi is the magic number.  Donald takes the lead (he knows this place really well) and off we go.  Cut through the campground onto "Danger Road".  Hardly dangerous and barely challenging.  Although one of the bypassable obstacles turns back the Sammy, the Ford and the only open Jeep.  Donald, Mark and myself all locked front and rear do the loose steep climb and watch the entertainment.  On to "Creek Road" (I think?) and down we go basically following a running stream.  Plenty of rocks and back and forth across the creek.  The Sammy does amazingly well.  That short wheelbase and narrow width allow it to skirt many of the obstacles and Jorge is looking like a veteran.  We come to a fairly large bunch of rocks in the middle of the stream we must cross.  And who bangs metal?  Not me in my "not quite 4' lift", not the stock Sammy, not the neverendingrearend Ford.  Yup, you guessed it, the Dehesa SOA equipped YJ driven by the veteran wheeler Mark (you knew I'd rat ya out Mark).  We continue on this trail but it is eventually totally blocked by a fell tree.  About the size of a small redwood and Donald suggests I winch it out of the way. "Yeah right!"

We turn around and take another route of unknown name and Donald starts yapping over the radio to someone I've obviously squelched out.  Hey, it's none other than Matt Brookins!  Imagine that, Matt Brookins at LCIR.  Anyway, we agree to meet up at "Hot Dog Hill." Man that hill is steep.  Lot's of angles and dangles on the way up.  But really it's just one big rock.  There's three routes to choose from and they all look pretty gnarly.  Matt points out the details of each route to me and I observe as he does the far left route, then Donald and Mark do the middle route.  Matt says the far right route is the toughest.  Normally, I'm the most conservative in the group.  But hey, once in awhile you gotta surprise people or you get predictable.  So I head up the far right lane and really have no problem.  Simply crawl up the rock.  What gives?  I thought that was the hard route.  So did Donald and Matt.  So Matt B. gives it a shot.  Oh how I wish I had film to share with you of Matt B's face when things got kind of squirrely, the carb said "huh uh" and Matt rocked on two tires as the Jeep got slung sideways on a nasty step.  Anyway, Matt B. does make the climb the rest of the way (assisted by Warn Enterprises).  Donald runs around the hill and makes an attempt in his SOA YJ. Nope.  Looks like the "non-Red, non-SOA, non-Detroit Jeep" is King of the Hill today.

So anyway (gloat gloat), we move on to some more of the LCIR experience.  We took a trail that's only challenge was keeping from getting whipped in the face by brush as it poked it's way into every
crevice of the Jeep.  Real nice swept effect on the paint now.  Really blends with the last good brush whip'n I gave it.  We came to a sharp downhill right then left Z-turn, with a decent sized rock on the
inside of the right turn followed by a direct downhill banked left.  Somehow, the Sammy didn't quite make the left soon enough and was literally teetering on two wheels.  Jorge said later he contemplated jumping out the rear window.  The nice thing about them Sammys is, they're light.  We just pushed it onto its wheels and he drove it out.  We pushed it up a hill once or twice too.

That was about all the worthwhile events I can remember.  We did the usual "Race for the gate before 5pm and get charged double" that everyone does there at the end of the day.  We then aired up, took some pics and smoked a cigar.

God I love this shit!