Calico and Doran

[aw12345]

Hi all we ran The Doran loop and Odessa today had a ball.

Part of our group during 2 days of being there went through 3 axleshafts on the Doran loop 2 last night on the dana35's and today one on a dana44 in a rubicon but it could not suppres the fun. 6 of us just came up for the day the rest, camped outr and due to the wind turned into cave dwellers. They found some cosy caves that connected near Doran was nice and warm in there and no wind, I am sure those boys will have some fun tonight.
Anyway we were going to run Odessa first but got stuck behind a training group from Tom Severin
And a FJ got pretty well stuck on the first obstacle, also there was a near stock TJ in that group. Looked like that was going to take a long time for them to get through, so we backed out of the canyon and ran Doran minus the gatekeeper first
Here are a few pics of today's adventure.

[BorregoWrangler]

Yep, another place on my list! Looks like ya'll had a blast. I think here or Death Valley would make for a great SpringFest!

[cruiserlarry]

The Odessa / Duran Loop is an awesome trail run (and also quite a challenge, especially at night !!)

I had heard that the Gatekeeper bypass had been closed after the last rains - were you able to use the bypass to avoid the Gatekeeper ?

[aw12345]

Yup the bypass is open, and the gatekeeper has gotten way more wicked than in the past we got abuilt XJ through it about a month ago was quite the chore

[cruiserlarry]

Yup the bypass is open, and the gatekeeper has gotten way more wicked than in the past we got abuilt XJ through it about a month ago was quite the chore

Can't imagine the Gatekeeper getting much worse - it seemed to eat vehicles up for lunch before.

I love watching folks attempt to make it through - I just love the sound of crunching metal...

[toms]

It was a windy day but not quite so bad once in the canyon. It was impossible to air down at the beginning of Mule Canyon just off the pavement becasuse of all the dust. We had to repair a heater hose on one of the vehicles so, did not get to the beginning of the loop until 10 am. We stacked a few rocks to get the FJ thru the first spot and then found a wide spot and let about 10 vehicles go ahead of us. We keep catching up to them at the difficult spots. In what I call the slot, that other group had a lot of damage - even breaking out a window. We had 2 soft top get a small cut when they hit the wall at the same place. We took our time. It was all about wheel placement and learning. I would rather someone took a strap or winch then damage their vehicle. Everyone had a lot of fun and all in all it was a good day.

[aw12345]

The part with the partial pavement has gotten harder in the last month or so had to struggle a bit this time, also a YJ in our group got quite tippy and he nicked the hard top a little still he did pretty good with open diffs.
Here are a bunch more pics of the trail run

http://public.fotki.com/waagnl/calico-doran-gateke/