A wide range of vehicles can...
A wide range of vehicles can be found on the typical hard trail. From fullsize Detroit iron to Samurais — we had it all on our Cayenne Crawler run. We especially welcomed the Sammy, as it was running tires smaller than ours!
The 2010 version of the Chile Challenge was only days away, and it became apparent that we needed to adjust our plans. The first big rock-fest of the year was upon us, and our trusted rock crawler was sitting high on the hoist with the rear differential nowhere in sight. What to do? In our shoes, it was time to go back to school; "Old School" to be specific.
Our venerable Scrambler, Project Too Long, is still hanging around. It faithfully carries us into the backcountry when the mileage or trail difficulty isn't a good match for the sometimes excessive capability of the purpose-built "big dog" in the fleet. Yes, the signature bright yellow Scrambler would be pressed back into service for this year's Chile Challenge. We really didn't have much choice if we wanted to attend.
The more we thought about it, the more we relished the idea of tackling the rocks of Las Cruces with a slightly less capable tool. Besides, we hadn't heard any school bus jokes about our overly-long Jeep in many years. It had been nine years since the Scrambler made the annual spring sojourn to the canyons of southern New Mexico. During that entire span of time, we had limited ourselves to the handful of "extreme" trails that bring fame and some of the southwest's best rigs to the Chile Challenge each year. Each year there are hundreds of other vehicles on the "lesser" trails in 'Cruces. And each day, most of those drivers returned to camp with big grins. The other trails must have some fun to offer outside of sheer challenge to man and machine. It was time to get re-educated and re-acquainted with some of the other routes of the Challenge.
For 2010, we signed up for four hard and moderate trails and left the extreme trails to others. Would we find the lesser trails boring? Or would we find our driving skills so atrophied by large tires and low gears that we would be helpless? We were going back to school to find out. Our first test was Off-Broadway; a trail we hadn't run in 10 years or more. Lining up for the trail that first morning, we quickly noted that we were on some of the smallest tires in the group. That hadn't happened in a while! Make no mistake, it felt really strange to be heading out to the trails on 35-inch tires and leaf springs on all four corners. We remembered Off-Broadway as rocky. We remembered it as fun. What we hadn't remembered was what it was like to drive a manual transmission in the rocks.
It was flat-out embarrassing at first. The old clutch and gas dance was clumsy and we lurched awkwardly through the rocks. We kept stalling the Scrambler with the front wheel pressed against a rock. Why did we ever think that a standard transmission was superior to the automatic? The relative lack of travel afforded by leaf springs had us seeking the easiest path we could find, definitely a departure from the lines that we had gotten used to taking over the past year. We were also sure that we had to back and fill through the corners an inordinate number of times. We were soon wondering why we chose this simpler approach to 'wheeling.
The trails we selected this...
The trails we selected this year were not rated extreme but they were still Las Cruces-style canyon routes with plenty of rocks. And believe us, the rocks look a lot bigger when the tires are smaller.
A procession of Jeeps snaking...
A procession of Jeeps snaking through a brilliantly-hued canyon under a bright blue New Mexico sky exemplified the time-honored tradition known as the Chile Challenge.
We weren't the only vehicle...
We weren't the only vehicle running leaf springs on all four corners, and stranger yet, we weren't the only long yellow Jeep on the Hopping Jalapeno trail. Steve Melloy from Farmington is still campaigning his venerable CJ-6 at the Chile Challenge. It had been a long time since we were able to share a trail with Steve and enjoyed the opportunity to renew an old friendship.
The Chile Challenge's hard...
The Chile Challenge's hard and moderate trails share the key attributes with their more extreme cousins: routes along the dry canyons, plenty of rocks, and great early spring scenery. These ingredients have created a fiercely loyal following that fills the trails for this annual spring event.
While many of the vehicles...
While many of the vehicles on the less extreme runs exhibit custom drivetrains and heavily modified suspensions, the vehicles tend to have at least most of their sheet metal intact (albeit heavily armored) and look as if they could easily pass motor vehicle department inspections. There is something to be said for a Jeep that still looks like a Jeep.
It's been a long time since...
It's been a long time since the author has been seen prowling the rocky canyons of Las Cruces in Project Too Long. Maybe even too long, but hopefully 2010 was not the last time. And yes, it was fun to hear the old cracks about the school bus once again.
Dangers lurk in the canyon...
Dangers lurk in the canyon bottoms of Las Cruces, even on the mere "hard" trails. Just ask our Sandia Gulch trail leader, Lance Harkey. He wasn't driving the vehicle at the time but we are sure he didn't expect to have to right his own flopped Jeep. He managed to pick the one spot in the canyon with no practical way to get a winch cable to his Jeep, but a little ingenuity had him upright in a relatively short time.
Many of the easier trails...
Many of the easier trails at the Chile Challenge offer optional lines that offer much stiffer challenges. This ledge at the end of Sandia Gulch was a tempting diversion that proved much more difficult than it looked, especially with open differentials. Open? Yes, remember, these are the easier trails.