You could acknowledged this image from my Upper Woodpecker path write-up. The Highway to Hell (H2H) path begins on the finish of Upper Woodpecker. It is rated by the Arizona Virtual Jeep Club as a 4.5+ path (on a scale of 1 to 5). A bunch of us met on Saturday morning to do some path upkeep. No, I didn’t drive it. Instead, I walked it with a plastic bucket in hand and a few rubbish baggage in my again pocket. Some beneath outfitted wanna-be off-roader had minimize a bypass round one of many obstacles. DougB wished to put a few fence posts at the beginning of the wildcat bypass in hopes of discouraging others from utilizing it. (Time will inform if this was profitable or not). There wasn’t a lot new trash since DougB had picked up trash a few weeks earlier than. We had been going to get any that was nonetheless laying round and examine the general situation of the path.
Most of the blokes opted to drive their rigs on the path. I had walked the primary quarter mile after I ran Upper Woodpecker and until issues had modified, I used to be not in a rush to drive this path. Body injury is just about assured. I wasn’t too frightened about suspension, tires, winching, and so on., however I simply didn’t really feel like having my fenders, doorways, or quarter panels altered. As it was, nobody made it by way of and not using a minimal of flare injury (painted ones don’t look that nice after you run them alongside the rocks). An XJ took out a window and did some pretty good sheet metallic injury. He was working 35″ tires and managed to do some self-clearancing to his personal sheet metallic whereas the rocks did some extra. A TJ fender or two took a reasonably good hit too.
Here is Doug getting lined up on one of many first obstacles on the path. Things are a bit tight in right here and the flares took some injury on nearly everybody’s rig. Some had been worse than others.
Here you may see Tim getting a while on the rocks along with his flares. As I mentioned, there have been a variety of alternatives to take a look at simply how shut you would get to the rocks with out touching the fenders, flares, or your sheet metallic.
Doug is nearly up on prime of the primary impediment. That rock that’s driver’s entrance tire goes over is true in the way in which, as you may see. About the time you might be getting your again tires up on the highest, your entrance is having to cope with that rock. The line to the left of this one is way worse.
He made it. I’m nonetheless not fairly certain how, however he did. Actually it was a mix of one of the best line (undecided you would even name it a line), some correctly utilized throttle (not an excessive amount of, simply sufficient) and a few good quaint Jeepin’ understand how! Way to go Doug!
Highway to Hell
Larry tried a barely completely different line on the primary impediment and bought himself cross methods within the chute. He was attempting out a model new pair of PJs and I believe they had been throwing him off only a bit. We tried adjusting the air stress a bit and it helped considerably, however he lastly winched over the rock earlier than it triggered a path facet restore.
Here is Fred getting arrange for a line to the left (which didn’t work). He bought up and over as soon as he bought within the groove that Doug used. We spent a good period of time at this little impediment….I suppose I shouldn’t say little. It was fairly beefy!
Fred proceed to give it a strive utilizing the road to the left. He is about so far as one might get. By the time the entrance wheels had been up on the rock, the burden shift to the rear axle was greater than sufficient to take away many of the traction from the entrance finish.
Doug begins one other water fall that’s additional down the path. I’d rank it comparable to the primary one, besides much less probability of getting your sheet metallic into the rock. This was had a pleasant notch working down the center which meant you want to hold your wheels nicely positioned.
Doug is an excellent driver and he made all of those look too simple. His TJ sports activities a Tera elevate, 35″ tires, ARBs entrance and rear, and an Atlas II if I keep in mind accurately.
This a part of the rationale that this path was ran. Some minimize a wildcat bypass up the facet of the financial institution. This is simply earlier than the impediment that Doug simply bought over (see earlier 3 pics above). A few fence posts had been put in place in hopes of “educating” the oldsters that you simply don’t make bypasses simply because your rig is just not up to the path. That is why you stroll it first after which resolve if try to be on it. Of course, having somebody alongside that has ran the path can present a lot better perception as to your possibilities of making it.
We wrapped up the work and referred to as it a day. There was just about no trash (simply a few hand fulls on the max), in order that was very good to see. Joey, a great pal who walked the path with me, hopped in to my Jeep and we headed again to the west facet of Phoenix and residential. I believe it’s secure to say {that a} enjoyable time was had by all.
