CRUISIN' LOS COYOTES

Photos taken from the "Cruisin' Los Coyotes" Video

Sitting in bumper to bumper traffic on Thanksgiving Day 1997 , I couldn't help but wonder about the challenging obstacles awaiting us at the Los Coyotes Indian Reservation. El Hill, Root Hill, Ball Bearing Hill.......notice a pattern here? Fellow 4wheelers had told me tall-tails of numerous roll-overs and really steep, decomposing granite climbs. Now, I'm not one to turn down a challenge, but my Cruiser is set up for rockcrawlin', usually at a snails pace. I began to worry just a bit! With the tainted information I had, I envisioned pedal-to-the-metal hillclimbs in another overcrowded Southern California OHV area. Boy was I in for a pleasant surprise!!
 
 

The first thing we noticed upon our arrival at the campground was the obvious lack of a holiday crowd. In fact, we were alone. During the entire four day weekend we saw only four other vehicles, and they were in camp!

After setting up camp and enjoying Turkey Day dinner with our closest friends (with more talk about gnarly obstacles with the word "hill " in them), we aired down for a nite-run. Less than a mile from camp we discovered fresh, trackless snow! The snow made for a fun trek up Rough Road to the Hot Springs Lookout, elevation 6533'. The view from the top overlooking the Anza Borrego area was absolutely incredible. On the return trip we played on the snow covered Hidden Loop Trail and Left Turn Hill. Talk around the campfire was brief as the temperature dipped into the twenties (not quite a "three dog nite", but my girls were glad we brought two!)

Friday dawned crisp and clear as we played "follow the leader" to Four Corners via Dangerous Road (really, I wouldn't kid ya.) Ken informed us over the CB that this would be a fun day, with just a bit of the slippery stuff thrown in flavor. We traveled the Appian Way Trail to an old mine site where we ate lunch, then traveled on to the Bridge Loop where a little three foot ledge gave Phil a wake up call. His '78 LandCruiser (affectionately named Colonel Mustard) equipped with lockers fore and aft, Marlin Crawler gears and Australian four-speed offers a crawl-ratio of 73 to 1 (precisely what this particular ledge did not require.) Phil wisely chose to take the bypass after two valiant wheels-up attempts.

After enjoying a full day offroad, we headed back to camp. Nothing tops off a great day wheelin' better than a meal prepared by the Rockaholetts (that one should garner me a few much needed points) and this one was exceptional. After dinner the talk quickly deteriorated into the typical spring-over vs. under, mechanical locker vs. air and V8 vs. 6cylinder banter that accompanies most gear-head occupied campsites and drives the female of the species into hiding for more intelligent conversation. Please note that we never mention the word "birfield" in these conversations as it tends to make Phil shake and my blood pressure soars! It was decided that Ken would ride shotgun with me the following day as his '66 FJ40 had broken a locker on the previous trip. Though set up nicely with 33" BFG's and powered by a new Chevy V8, his Cruiser was now open-diffed and would not be up to the challenges awaiting us.

We left camp early Saturday morning, heading straight for the top of El Hill for a gander. It didn't look all that bad. Of course you couldn't get enough traction to walk up or down it, and for sure you weren't going to make a run at it, but it did seem make-a-ble. I was also relieved to see that these were crawlin' hills. This was gonna be easy! On the way around to the bottom of the hill my Cruiser ran out of fuel. It could have been an omen. After a refueling from Phil and repacking all the stuff in the "hell box", we proceeded to the base of El Hill, where Ken and Tommy were preparing to videotape. Ken, after successfully completing the climb on his first attempt years ago, commented that he did not feel any need to ride along and test fate again! Now that's a confidence builder!

My '71 Cruiser, the Rockn'FJ, locked at both ends, powered by a Chevy V8 / SM420 combo and sportin' 35" BFG Mud-Terrains was more than equipped for this hill, but the driver?......well....lets just say that a couple of hops....followed by a missed reverse shift....along with out of adjustment brakes, led to a thirty yard....both feet flat on the floor....backwards....airborne....rollercoaster ride that I will NEVER forget!!!! Pucker factor 10 baby! My kids, of course, thought it was hilarious!

After my so-called friends got done laughing (I was busy trying to dislodge some upholstery from my backside), Phil, not to be outdone but also not willing to follow my lead, proceeded to attempt an ascent on El Hills' next door neighbor, "El Hill-ett", with Kevin and his broken leg sittin' co-pilot. They almost made it. Crawling above a ledge near the top of this 80' climb, Colonel Mustard suddenly turned side-hill, sliding off of the ledge! I believe this is a direct quote from Phil, " I ain't going nowhere 'till somebody gets up here!" With a bit of verbal spotting, Phil slid down the first 30 feet, finally regaining traction, and backed cautiously to the bottom of the hill. Score-Los Coyotes 2, Rockaholics 0. Both of these climbs can turn an "offroad hero" into a quivering zero in the blink of an eye. We all agreed to leave the conquest of these formidable foes for another day.

After we got it back together, Ken led us around the Manzanita Loop toWhich-Way Hill and Rock Canyon, all great sections of trail, but the real fun begins after driving under BagBy's Rock. The canyon, appropriately named the Bobsled Run, gets real narrow and wet, with sections of quicksand fed by an underground spring surfacing at random between granite frame-twisters. Soon we reached a narrow chute known as Root Hill. Now, this hill looks like a cake-walk. Not so boys and girls. The spring I mentioned is located under a deep layer of quicksand-slash-mud, smack-dab at the base of Root Hill. The hill itself, although short, is composed of deep, decomposing granite ruts. With every attempt at the hill (and there were perhaps too many), my FJ's tires spread increasing amounts of this slippery goo up the chute. Finally the reality of the situation kicked in, 38"Boggers and nitrous were the ticket, but my particular combo wasn't going to cut it on this hill. I humbled myself to break out the winch cable. Even with the added control of my Warn XD9000, the roots on Root Hill claimed a small piece of my soft top. Phil opted for the cable also, and although he slid into the wall as I did, the Colonel suffered no damage. We were ready for the next challenge, and it was lurking just around the corner.

Ball-Bearing Hill is appropriately named. The amount of traction available to man, woman, kid and machine is extremely low, in fact its' almost non-existent. Now unfortunately I didn't witness the next episode, but I certainly heard it! Seems that Phil and Colonel Mustard had taken a 15 foot slide into some sizable rocks on the 35 degree sidehill ahead, resulting in a bit of new bodywork. Now my buddy Phil (always looking out for me) thought that it would be in my best interest to avoid the sidehill slide altogether and just drive right over the rocks that had provided his custom pinstripping and ventilated soft door. The hill it seems, had a different idea. Although I won't go into the details, in the end, it took a couple of long seconds for the winch to reel in enough cable to pull the ball off of the 45 degree mark on my Lev-O-Gage and I now have no upholstery whatsoever on my drivers' seat. Thanks a lot Phil, but I 'll take that slide anytime! The remainder of the trail was relatively uneventful (unless you count the sound of Colonel Mustard snappin' birfields......ouch!)

Pound for pound, the trails at Los Coyotes provided some of the finest wheelin' we had experienced in a long time. In a world of rocks, rocks and more rocks, the terrain and challenges were a breath of fresh air. We look forward to returning to this 4wheelers paradise, and next time....El Hill is mine!!