February 2, 2009
Calico, CA – The 22nd Expeditionary Group headed out to Calico this past weekend to welcome Oz and Jesse into the club. As usual, the event was organized through Rugged Rocks Off Road & Communications and advertised through several forums. We also welcomed John from North Carolina for his first outing with us and who had no reserve tackling the trails with his stock ’95 Pathfinder on muds.
Friday afternoon Steven, John, and I set up camp and hit the trail to explore what would be in store for the group on Saturday. We headed down to Doran Loop to check out the first waterfall obstacle known as the Gate Keeper and assess if it is really as challenging as previously reported. Yes, it is. With most vehicles in our group geared more toward expedition trails and less toward rock crawling there was no second guessing the impassibility of this obstacle for our trucks. We headed back down toward the trail and found the bypass for the next day stopping to explore the tunnels along the way.
Saturday the rest of the group joined us and we headed out to Phillips Loop for the only moderately rated trail in the area. We encountered one short moderate section on which John received a little damage from his lack of clearance, but overall the trail is relatively easy. After finishing the short loop we headed out to the Doran Loop bypass. The bypass starts off easy on a graded trail that winds its way up to views overlooking Calico Ghost Town. The trail meets back up with Doran past the Gate Keeper and into the wash. While the rest of the rigs waited Steven and I jumped in his truck to explore the trail a little further. We discovered three to four smaller waterfall obstacles and determined that for some trucks damage was a possibility. This will be saved for another day.
We cruised down to the ghost town for lunch before deciding to finish the day with an easy run through Tin Can Alley and a little mine exploration. We had a great time and it was hammered home how important the Calico Cleanup is every year. The graffiti, shell casings, broken glass, abandoned camping gear, and old tires detract from what should be a pristine country and give anti-wheeling groups more fodder to continually close down trails throughout the country.
Calico Cleanup is tentatively scheduled for March 28 this year. Keep checking the forum at Ruggedrocksoffroad.com for updated information.
For more photos of this trail run, Visit: http://ruggedrocksoffroad.com/gallery/v/calico-22ndeg-1-31-09/
Nice right up Jeff.