March/April 2008

Kokopelli's Trail: An FJ Cruiser Trail Team Expedition—In A Land Rover

by Nate Kennedy

The following feature is an excerpt from Toyota Trails, the official publication of TLCA.
To read the entire article, join TLCA now!

The plan was for the two of us to get to Dewey Bridge and follow the directions the Trail Team would leave on a note behind the parking lot bathroom. If there was no note, we were to assume they hadn't passed through yet and were to stay put. No note but the waiting was beautiful. There were picnic tables, a tree with golden yellow leaves hanging over the river, and our truck with our cigar smoke rising from its shade. A couple in a Ford Mustang parked and spent a decent first date amount of time courting at the bridge. When they had gone, the silence they left was a reminder that we had no idea how far away we were from the group.

But soon an 80 series Cruiser covered in a cloud of rolling dust smashed its way off the trail into the parking lot like a rock band busting out of a dry ice veil as the lights blaze and the music crashes to start a show. “I can't tell you how happy I am that you guys are here,” Gustaf said, as he and Robbie Antonson pulled up next to us.

Ha. He was happy. We were ecstatic! Two river crossings and a few hairpin, high speed turns later, our trucks and that same rolling, rock band dust cloud came roaring into the Cowskin campsite. Overlooking a setting sun on Cowskin Canyon and Big Pinto Mesa, everyone had claimed their mostly level sites, pitched tents and were either scouting the area for great views of the upcoming sunset or artfully wrestling with the final touches on their Iron Chef trail cooking competition entries.

The Iron Chef proved to be far more challenging than any of the entrants had thought. People had come to win and the Engel off road refrigerator grand prize was worthy of everyone's best effort. There were homemade sausages, aromatic Thai basil beef, lasagna with homemade noodles, a pork steak with zesty adobo seasoning, Tandoori chicken—and another warm campfire surrounded by stories from the day's adventures. Crossing rivers, traversing cliff edges and sharing the efforts of getting everyone through when it seemed the trail was impassable had made respected confidants of each of us. The thought of having been strangers just three days before had faded, and everyone congratulated Thong Cao on his Iron Chef win.

My LED headlamp and the inverted bowl of a million stars marching alongside Orion lit the way as Adam and I climbed a five hundred yard path to set up tents and fade into what would be a much warmer night of sleep. Our simple plan hit a glitch, however, when Adam's untested tent turned out to be nothing like the packaging depicted. The poles were wrong, it was the wrong shape, the color was like a mid-seventies bell-bottom denim pant, and everything was the wrong size. Even the logo on the tent itself didn't match the logo on the bag or instructions. Adam engineered a workable frame from the poles and begrudgingly climbed inside his also newly-purchased, untested mummy-style sleeping bag. As his feet stuck out the end of the tent and the wind blew through the webbed openings on either side at the top, I couldn't help but laugh as he pointed out that the only way for him to fit inside the bag was with his right arm outside the zipper. After his mostly sleepless first night, he blamed his discomfort as much on my snoring as on his gear.

The next morning, the group set out for the Top of the World trail while a few of us stayed behind to finish cleaning up camp. The Top of the World trail is about nine miles of bumpy terrain. Not terribly difficult off-roading, but certainly enough rough dirt riding, rock climbing and slickrock traversing to keep most drivers on their toes. When we hit the trail, the first Toyota we came across was Bob Devereux's 60 series Cruiser on the side of the first fairly difficult part of the trail. He had picked a line to hit the obstacle head on and sheered six studs off of his hub. Ouch. He and Gary Coberly-Waggoner were hard at work getting the truck back on the road.

One of the more experienced off-roaders in the group finessed his FJ Cruiser through some tricky situations without a spotter. He then picked a line on the last major push that several of the other FJs had bypassed and hammered the gas a little harder than his insticts told him to do. When those rear wheels dropped, the ring and pinion snapped, shattering six gear teeth. The Trail Team had anticipated a situation like this and inside of two hours, the FJ Cruiser had an upgraded 2008 differential installed and was back with the group. The rest of us used the time to get photographs of trucks proudly standing in front of the amazing canyon at the Top of the World. Adam and I took a few bites from a pastrami sandwich we had in the cooler and Woody used the small window of cellphone coverage to post an update, with photos, on the IH8MUD.com website. Soon enough, we headed out through Onion Creek and on to the famous Rose Garden Hill.

Some of the drivers had never felt the eerie sensation of a front wheel slowly free-falling, teeter-totter style, a few... more... feet... finally touching down and waiting for the opposite rear to rise up to compensate. I stood beside the one monster drop on Rose Garden Hill taking photographs as Gustaf and Woody spotted trucks down and the drivers' expressions exposed which ones were new to the experience. Most of the trucks were outfitted with rock sliders, at the minimum, and all of the trucks got through without incident, save a few turned stomachs.

Back in line, we made our way to Hideaway Canyon and the Hideaway campsite....