Who: Just Me
When: December 16th - 17th
Why: Lets get the hell out of here!!!
The fog ruled everything down in the Lyle creek Valley. I almost got
lost at a few places even though I am pretty familiar with the network
of trails in the area.
First thing I did was check out the road that leads to the Mount Baldy
Ski resort. It has always been closed since we found this area. That
was until a couple of months ago when Lance and I found it open by
chance. Unfortunately that road was closed again so I headed for
another trail that I have always passed by but never checked out. The
trail was named Cold Water Canyon.  The road was very drivable. It
would have been not really worth driving except for some great
scenery.
After about 30 minutes of slow crawling over rocky
terrain I broke through the fog. I was in a high valley
south east of Mount Baldy.
Near the end of this road, yes, it comes to an abrupt end, I got out
and enjoyed the view back down the canyon.
By mid afternoon I was out of Cold Water Canyon and back in the small town
that sits near the entrance to the Lyle Creek valley. I took a chance and checked
out a service road that Malcolm had shown me several months ago. It used to
be locked but this time it was open. The road was graded and really didn't look
worth driving at first, but I didn't know where it went so I pressed on.
Over the next30 minute I cam across a few forks in the road. I randomly picked
my way through them until I came across a small road that was completely
over grown with shrubs and weeds. I had to go down the road less traveled.
1/2 mile down the road I found out why the road was never driven. A large
section of the road was carved out by water and the little road that remained
was covered by a loose rock land slide. One of the worst things to happen
while driving these roads is to have to backtrack. So I had no choice. I unbolted
my trail shovel from my roof rack and started working. The rocks on the hill
were extremely fragile. Most of the large boulders would crumble with a few
good whacks. 2 hours of shoveling and rock rolling got the pit in the road about
3/4 of the way filled and level. Just enough to manuever my truck through it. See
pics below for before and after.










I spent another hour working on some more erosion damage past the large
boulder most noticeable in the picture. Sometime during this part of my
"project" a Forrest Ranger came rolling up the side of the road I was trying to
get to. He asked if I was stuck. I quickly replied, "No, just seeing if I can make it
through." We talked briefly about the area and about this section of the road.
According to him the road had been impassable for about 4 years. With that he
looked at my truck and doubtfully said good luck, turned his truck around
headed back up the road.
Once I was satisfied with my make shift shoring and bolder positions I dusted
my self off, made one last survey of the route I wanted to take through it and
went for it. Aside from some difficulty in getting traction on the loose earth and
soft rocks I made it through the hard part pretty easily. The one down side
came with some driving error on my part. I took a bad line next to a shelf  that
was carved out by water erosion. I ended up sliding into the 5 foot high wall
and scuffed up my drivers side rocker panel pretty bad. The last "Can I do it"
part of this obstacle was a 3.5ft high shelf that cut perpendicular across where
the road was washed out and where original road level was.  I took about 1/2 a
foot off the top corner of this shelf with the shovel. That was all it took, my blazer
creaked and groaned but pulled its self up and I was on my way. From there I
used what I leaned from the Ranger and drove out back down to interstate 15.
It was a good day.
Trail Damage List....

ZR2:
Rocker panel dents and  scrapes (driver side)
Lower front skid plate torn off
Broken auxiliary motor tie down mount
Lyle Creek Over Night Camping 12-16-05
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