Pinyon Mountain

[smslavin]

The Squeeze...



We made it through... barely. More later with a write-up.

[BorregoWrangler]

Nice! One of my favorite trails. Looking forward to your report and pics!

[smslavin]

Beep beep.

Beep beep.

Beep beep.

I open my eyes. It's still dark out. There is a small foot in my face and what feels like fingers in my ear. Piper. Wonder what time she crawled into bed? As quietly and gently as possible, I get her repositioned on my pillow and make my way out of bed. In the dark, I find my clothes, keys and grab the cooler. Everything else is in the garage waiting to be packed in the truck. Gas. No gas in the truck.

I stop for gas and start making my way east.

Coming down Banner Grade, the land begins to open up. The sky opens up. Clouds are rolling off the mountain tops down in the valley. It is going to be a beautiful blue bird day and I am looking forward to leaving pavement behind for a few hours.



We drop off the S2 at the trail head for Pinyon Mountain. Pinyon? Isn't there a section of that trail called 'The Squeeze'?

The trail is sandy and winds its way across the desert floor towards the mountain. Gradually we start climbing and the mountain closes in on us. We reach the first obstacle, The Squeeze. It is a narrow pass through two huge boulders. At first glance, it does not look like there is anyway a FJ could fit through. Carefully. Slowly. Mirrors folded. There is maybe an inch of clearance on either side.







Three things keep the trucks off the rocks. First is Wes and his beyond excellent spotting. Second is the tires, the trucks are literally riding on their sidewalls. Third is the rock rails. I'm still amazed we made it through.





From The Squeeze, the trail winds its way through the mountain. There's no one here. In the distance, the sound of motorcycles drifts up the mountain. We make our way up and down. Crawl over ledges. Then we get to it. The Drop Off. It is not like Diablo. Diablo was a cake walk compared to what I'm looking down. It's steep. It's slippery. And we have spectators. A family of hikers is standing at the top. A pair of motorcyclists are taking a break at the bottom.



One by one, we creep down. Wes again gives excellent spotting instructions. He knows these trucks and knows exactly where each wheel should be. The motorcyclists give each one of us a standing ovation for reaching the bottom.



We are now over the mountain. The landscape opens up again as we enter Fish Creek. Clouds are moving in. The wind is screaming. Weather is coming.

We are flying down the trail. Wes is on the radio giving me tips on how to keep up. He keeps telling me to flow. It becomes a mantra. Flow. It's just like the water but different. I stop fighting it, trying to control it. Something clicks and I gain some confidence. I still can't keep up with Wes but I'm pushing my envelope a bit and learning.



We turn off Fish Creek and head up to the Diablo Drop-Off. This area has changed tremendously with all the rain since I came through here a few months ago. Many sections of the canyon walls have come down. It'd be nice to take some time to explore but we're on a mission.

From the top of the Drop-Off, we make our way over to Canyon Sin Nombre which leads us back to the black ribbon of the S2.

We made our way through some very difficult sections of trail and covered close to 80 miles. It was an excellent day.

[OLLIE]

Now that I see someone with a snorkel made it, I have to do this one. Great writeup.

[Chazz Layne]

Well if an FJ can make it...



Great shots. This is the best one capturing the feel of HAH I've seen...



That's a tough spot to capture, even on video. I found an old one of my Jeep on there and you can't even tell its a hill until I'm almost down to the bottom.

[smslavin]

Now that I see someone with a snorkel made it, I have to do this one. Great writeup.

Thanks. We had to do a bit of "building" to get through. It's super tight. Maybe an inch or two on either side. The rest of it is a cake walk until you get to the drop off portion. I guess that's what Chazz is calling Heart Attack Hill.

Great shots. This is the best one capturing the feel of HAH I've seen...

Thanks Chazz.

[smslavin]

Now that I see someone with a snorkel made it, I have to do this one. Great writeup.

Here's a vid of me squeezing through.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9NtkKWFusA

[OLLIE]

The rest of it is a cake walk until you get to the drop off portion. I guess that's what Chazz is calling Heart Attack Hill.

The actual name of that drop off is "Heart Attack Hill". Heart Attack is actually the route down on the left hand side as you're approaching it from the "Squeeze" direction.

Since I was always skeptical about a rig with a snorkel making it through the "Squeeze" I always wanted to try and come in from the opposite end and attempt climbing "Heart Attack". I believe the bypass was created due to people trying to climb Heart Attack and it being too difficult. So people started going around the side of the top portion.

[Willie H]

Is your rig an automatic? If so, how was it on the crawl down? I'm having some confidence issues on descents after driving a 4:1 MT. The engine brake in the Rubicon was awesome, and now I'm dealing that torque converter thingy or whatever and higher gears...

Great pictures too by the way, but they always are!

[Willie H]

Great video, how much bumper did you leave behind pulling out lol. Your truck is looking SWEET too! Looks sick with the black roof!