Walker Valley Trail Report, 4x4wire.com

---Walker Valley ORV Area------------------------------

Trail Rating: 4WD Moderate
Experienced Driver
Various trails in the park
Good Day Trip Rock Crawling Trail
Forest Scenery, Meadows

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By: Clay Cissell (NAGCA)
Edited by: Randy L. Wheeler - 3/2001

The North American Grand Cherokee Association Does an Early Season Run

The group airing down at the trailhead.

What started out as a trail run for Eddy to test out his new 4" Teraflex lift turned into a quite an adventure. We arrived at our designated meeting location at approximately 7:30am. To our surprise, the Buzz Inn Steak House was no longer there. Instead we found ourselves in front of a pub that was closed for renovation. I had just talked to the Buzz Inn the night before so I knew they were nearby. With a quick call we found that they had moved across the freeway. With an unknown number of wheelers arriving for the trail run we had to keep someone at the designated meeting location to send them to the new restaurant location. I stayed behind as the early birds headed to the new Buzz Inn for breakfast. People in all makes and models of 4x4's trickled into the parking lot and I sent them on their way to the restaurant. A special thanks to Glenn Baker, of NAXJA, who was kind enough to take my wife, Deb, and youngest daughter to the restaurant for breakfast. At about 8:40 I left towards the main street that headed out of town and waited for the group. We topped off our tanks at various gas stations along the way out of town.

Deb Cissell finessing her way up the trail.

It wasn't until we all arrived in the Parking lot at Walker Valley ORV Park that I realized that the turn out for the trail run was much greater then expected. We had 31 rigs in the Parking lot, and when we met Stu on the way to the lower Jeep Trail, it made 32 total rigs on this trail run. To say WOW is an understatement. The original plan was to take the lower Jeep Trail and then head up to the Fin, Boulder Alley, Expressway and then the Poop Shoot. Instead we broke up into two groups. The first group headed for the Lower Jeep Trail to gain access to the Park. The second group elected to enter through the upper Jeep Trail. When we were in the parking lot we had the groups split up pretty even but when we left for the lower Jeep trail only 7 rigs rolled out of the parking lot. The rest took the upper trail. Since I was in the lower Jeep trail group I can't give much of a report on how the other group did. After Stu joined us we had grown to 8 rigs. We entered the lower Jeep trail off of Cavanaugh Road.

After passing the obstacle that our stock TJ had required winching through earlier this winter we came upon a hill that was going to take a bit of spotting to conquer. With the suggestion of Mark, I turned the controls over to the wife. She attempted a few different lines and then with a combination of good spotting and the power of the V8 she powered her way up the hill.

As we crested the top of the hill, we dropped down into a snowy valley where the trees had been logged. At the bottom of this valley was a swampy mud hole with roots, trees and stumps. On our previous trip, with the TJ, we found ourselves high centered in the middle of the mud hole. The Grand cruised right through the mud hole with no problem.

Greg making short work of the trail in his TJ

While we were still in the swamp we came upon a more challenging obstacle. You enter a mud hole and at the end of it is a 3 foot high shelf of roots and mud. Our ARB bumper hit the shelf before the tires could get a grip. This required taking on the obstacle at an angle to get our tires started over the top.

Mark "Dirtball" found out that if you stand in front of the Grand Pooh Bah when he is in a mud hole you are going to eat some wet dirt. After several different approaches we were able to power our way up and over the shelf.

Brad sustained the first battle wounds when one of his Goodyear MT/R's lost its air. When we got out on the logging road we took a break while Brad made his repairs. That is when we found that the Grand Pooh Bah's ARB Bull Bar was no longer straight. While we were backing off of the shelf to try another angle we came down on the bumper and it appears to have twisted it. After the break we continued down the logging road to the next section of trail. We were increasing in altitude and the snow got deeper. As we re-entered the trail system the Grand Pooh Bah started to maneuver through a mud hole. The transmission was starting to slip about the time Matt informed us that we were leaking a lot of fluid. We shut it down and popped the hood. After a quick investigation we found a transmission line had blown off. After reinstalling the line with an extra clamp, provided by Brad, we put the two quarts of transmission we had on board in with a make shift funnel.


Kenny trying to tip his Toy over	Brad attempting the mud ledge

The Grand Pooh Bah still didn't want to go. We winched ourselves out of the mud hole and Matt provided us with an additional 3 quarts of tranny fluid. This brought the dipstick up to where it is suppose to be and we were on the move. We continued down this trail with no further incidents. We met up with the rest of the group as they we coming off of the upper trail. As expected it was a traffic jam and to top it off there was another club coming down the trail. We visited for a while and then continued in opposite directions.


Gary trying to finesse the boulders	Mike in his CJ taking on the boulders.

The next obstacle we encounter was the entrance of expressway at boulder alley. Mike was the first to attempt the climb up the wet boulders. After numerous attempts he elected to back off before he broke anything. Next was John L. and he succumb to the same fate as Mike after several different approach angels. Stu was next in line and he found the special spot that gave his tires the grip to climb up the boulders. His long wheel base also played a part in his success. Gary was the next to challenge the boulders. After several attempts of trying to finesse his rig up the boulders he resorted to attack mode. He charged the boulders and the inevitable happened. Something had to give and it wasn't the boulders. With a snapped axle in the rear the game was over. Boulders 3 and Wheelers 1.

After leaving this obstacle we headed down the hill and back to the parking lot. Both groups reassembled at the parking lot where we swapped stories and checked out the carnage of the day. Overall it was a good trail run with no rollovers or major damage to any of the rigs. Until next time.

See ya on the trail,