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| Hardcore Rocks in the Midwest! | Short Cuts | ||||
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By: John Nutter, Photos by: Brian Simon - 10/2001
Punish Your Truck in the Black Hills!
The Dakota Territory Challenge has a reputation for hardcore trails, and with good reason. The best trails are offered only to those with big tires, lockers at both ends and a winch.
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| One of the 'Illinois Boys' tries High Side on Twisted |
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| Dave Jacobs on High Side |  |
| Dave takes the first off camber drop onto Bikini |
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| One of many opportunities to test your suspension on Bikini |
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| Dave Stauffer on one of the many climbs on Bikin |
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| The Drake's awesome Commando om Mt Charmin |
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| The slot on Mt Charmin |
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| Nutter in the slot on Mt Charmin |
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| Negotiating the 90 degree turn after the slot |
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| Brian Simon and Dave Stauffer on Jake |
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| Andy Hoffman guides Dave Stauffer through the upper part of Jake |
If you think the vehicle requirments sound harsh, you're wrong. The Black Hills 4Wheeler's requirement for vehicle equipment to use their higher rated trails is a true reflection of the difficulty of the trails they offer at their event. Body damage is all but ineveitble on the trails rated a 5 or 5+ and broken hard parts are comon even on vehicles that have had their complete drivetrain swapped out for heavier parts. The crowd that gravitates towards this event craves all the brutality that the trails can dish out and they seemed pleased becuase the BH4wheeler offered many trails that were designed to challenge everyone, including drivers from the various rock crawling competitions.
DTC Director Scott Wrigglesworth tells me that the BH4Wheelers also offer milder trails for smaller trucks, but the sign up sheets were biased towards the hardcore becuase that's what most of the participants were looking for this year. Scott says there will be more mild trails offered if more small trucks go to the event. Scott also reminded me that this would really be a great event for the whole family. I have agree with this and next year I intened to bring my whole family.
Although I had been in South Dakota just six weeks earlier, I had to come back for more. The boulder strewn ravines and slippery rock crawling challenges were too much to resist. Dave Jacobs was on the first trip as well, and he was also anxious to get back. Brian Simon and Dave Stauffer from our club also came out for the rocks. Andy Hoffman from Rapid City rode along with us for the weekend and we made use of his super spotting abilities often. Dave, Dave, Brian and I had a great time together at the Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, where we ran all the hard trails we could find. We soon discovered that only Upper Helldorado in Moab held the challenge of the better trails in South Dakota.
On the first day of the challenge we signed up for Twisted. Dave Jacobs and I had run this trail on our previous trip out, and Brian and Dave Stauffer had seen the video and were anxious to try it as well. Twisted is supposedly a very old and washed out road, but it looked more like a tight creek bed to me. The trail is narrow with only one route possible over many obstacles and it is wet and slippery as well. Wet and slippery combined with boulders and steep climbs pretty much means that you can leave your 200 to 1 crawl ratio at home and shift up a couple of gears, becuase wheel speed and momentum are the only things that will make up for the lack of traction. If your axles aren't up for that kind of abuse, you should probably look at one of the drier trails that are offered during the challenge.
Breakage was minimal on Twisted that day, due mainly to the fact that all who went on this trail with us were well prepared. There was a group ahead of us was from Southern Illinois and they had several very impressive Jeeps and only had a couple of minor problems and the guys behind us did great as well. One particulary impressive vehicle was a Suzuki Samuri with a rotary engine from a Mazda RX7 swapped in. This was a great swap and I'm surprised more Samuri owners don't do it. The worst break of the day was probably my bent tie rod. Even this was no big deal. My winch pulled the tie rod straight and I used my Century model 131 portable welder to attach a piece of angle iron to the tie rod.
Saturday was the second day of the challenge and we decided to try Bikini. Bikini is pretty much the opposite of Twisted. It's hot and dry on the exposed side of a mountain. Off-camber and steep climbs are comon and the last hill on the trail, Mt Charmin, is very well named. The Drake family in their impressive Commando and Brad Riggen were the leaders for this trail and we really go to know them during the course of the day. Brad began the day by advising us to not air down as far as usual. He suggested 15lbs. His reasoning was that there are several places on the trail where you have to slide the front end of your vehicle down an off-camber hillside to get in it in the proper line to drive the obstacle, and becuase there were several extremley off-camber areas where blowing a bead would lead to a long roll down a mountainside. Brad was right, we did his sliding turn several times during the day, including the 90 degree turn above the slot on Mt Charmin and there were few areas on the trail where losing a bead wouldn't have been very bad.
Bikini starts off with a steep off-camber descent where watching your spotter is the key to not rolling. After that there is a series of steep climbs with lots of slippery dust on the rock surface. Eventually you head down the mountain a little and take your righ right to "The Edge". "The Egde" is a spot where you get to head down a steep and slighlty off camber descent over a rock ledge while your passenger side tire is inches from the edge of a very tall cliff. Concentrating on your spotter and watching your tire placement on the driver's side will take your mind off the cliff and make things much easier. After the edge you climb back up and into a rock crawling play ground with many climbs and articulation tests. After playing on the rocks for a while it's time to head to Mt Charmin to finsh out the day.
Mt Charmin is named because "you might need a few rolls as you make your way to the top." Charmin is on a steep mountian side and for the most part you are driving directly up the side of the mountain. Charmin doesn't need a gate keeper. Just walking the trail will discourage anyone who is not fully prepared. Any wrong move would send you tumbling all the way to the bottom. At the bottom of charmin there is a small ledge with a tree on the driver's side. It's deceiving becuase it looks relativley flat compared to the steepness of the slot which looms ahead. Most people took a couple of tries at this little bump, and it even uncovered a broken locker on a CJ5 that had gone un-noticed up until that point.
After the bump it's just a steep climb to the slot. The slot is a steep V-wedge where nearly everyone lifts a tire. Brad had the Jeeps running up one side of the slot, then the other and finally back to the drive'r side in an effort to keep the vehicles stable. A few of us had to string out the winch cable to keep the front end from getting too light, while others got through with the help of a few friends pulling down on a strap that was attached to their front bumper. After the slot there's a steep climb that suddenly seems easy compared to what you just drove and then a 90 degree turn that wants to roll you onto the driver's side and then down the hill. This is the main spot where brad's sliding technique really came into play. The technique was to pull the front tires up on the ledge and then give it a moderate amount of throttle so the front end would slide down hill and get the vehicle lined up with the ledge. This a very off-camber spot, so much so that attempting to drive the ledge would probably cause the passenger side tire to lift and then roll the vehicle. Because of this everyone hooked up their winch and pulled as they drove. Some pulled more than others, and Dave Stauffer nearly drove it without winch assistance. After the ledge is more rock crawling, mostly lose and steep and leaning towards the mountain side, but driveable by just about anyone who was able to get over the first half of Mt Charmin.
On Sunday we decided to take things a little easier. Brian had some vapor lock problems the previous day, so a trail in the woods where it would be cooler was in order. We decided on a trail called "Jake". Jake was the first 4 1/2 rated trail we had tried. Jake was in a creek bed like Twisted but Jake was drier and the rocks were much smaller. Overall the trail probably rates similarly to Lower helldorado, but is nowhere as near as tough as the trails we had done on the previous two days. Towards the end of the trail there is a small waterfall to climb and an optional section with some bigger boulders.
Jake is a very short trail, and becuase of the easier rating we had some smaller trucks and inexperienced drivers with us. Some even had spring under lifts and only one locker, which was unheard of on the prior two days trails. The trail took longer than it needed too becuase of this, but we were still done early in the afternoon and we decided to go watch the action on Hangman. We didn't get any pictures of Hangman, but suffice it to say that Hangman is easily the most hardcore trail offered by the BH4Wheelers. After watching Hangman for a while we headed back to camp for the awards ceremony and the drawing.
I really have to compliment the BH4Wheelers on this event. It was head an shoulders above any other event I've attended in every way. The trails were the toughest I've seen. The trail guides were the friendliest of any event I've been to. The logistics of the trail rides worked well and prevented the waits seen at most large events. The camping situation was excellent. The steak dinner was great. The event was small enough that I walked away feeling that I knew at least half the people there and had made many new friends. I plan to attend again next year. Thanks BH4Wheelers!
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