2021 Rally report….sort of.

We arrived en caravan with my brother John and his lovely wife Krys in their ’99 Ford 7.3L diesel 6 speed manual/’03 9.5 OUTFITTER; my son Matt and his fetching bride, Summer in their like new ’01 Lance 845 on my ’01 Cummins H.O. 6 speed manual; and Jeanie and I in our ’20 Ford F-350 7.3L Godzilla/ ’20 Northstar Laredo on Friday afternoon. With almost everyone in our party still gainfully employed, the timing of the rally was a cluster. Our party arrived just in time for me to deliver my spiel: GAS or DIESEL: CONSIDERATIONS to about 60 listeners. Matt won the grand prize at the raffle: $2K worth of Lithium Ion batteries. We were having a great time until Mello Mike, the entrepreneur of TCA, announced to our party that the Feds would not allow a permit for the trail run for 20 truck campers. Because of Covid, six at at time they could countenance. That would mean they stalled long enough to tell him the day before the Rally was to commence. That would mean 6 starting Monday; 6 starting Tuesday; 6 or so starting Wednesday.

With that knowledge, we pow-wowed and decided to find another venue instead of waiting until Wednesday to start on El Camino del Diablo. No way we would take someone else’s spot for the trail. I don’t know what happened after we left except that only Montepower went on El Diablo.

We decided to do the Bradshaw trail as only Jeanie and I had done it before. All of us aired down. We explored several hard core side trails and sandy arroyos and next day exited via the gas line road before the real ugly part at the end with endless rocks and anchor pulling, Rockin’ and Rollin axle twisting Woops. We finally wound up overnight in a remote, sandy section of Box Canyon with the best, most secluded and windless part of the entire trip. We had incessant winds for most of the week. They get old after a few days even in a hardside.
jefe