By Chuck SeegerFor my Birthday I enjoy going wheeling in the desert, this year was no exception. My brother Johnny & his family and Linda and I camped out at Fish Creek campground at the end of Split Mountain Rd. We had never seen this campground as full as this - maybe it was the full moon or the great weather. But I had always enjoyed the fact that no one else seemed to know about this campground... oh well!
On Saturday we headed up Fish Creek and through Split Mountain then up del Diablo and back down through Arroyo del Diablo to the Old Butterfield Stage Coach Route that goes through the area.
From there we headed East through a marshy area to an old Stage stop in a cool box canyon.
After taking some pictures and enjoying the view we headed North East along a well marked trail
that took us up into the hills. The trail got very narrow and occasionally faint. I thought for a minute it might have turned into a quad trail as it got more difficult.
Finally we crested a point that my belly pan leveled off! I knew my brother Johnny running 33's and with a lower belly pan would likely have a problem on this spot but as it was getting late Linda didn't want to to turn around. She started
walking the trail ahead to see if there was a way out while I went back to spot Johnny over the rise.
On the 3rd try he got over with a little momentum and since it was just dried mud no damage from the high-center. From there we proceeded down hill now until we hit a wash - from there I knew we would be home free - as all arroyo's lead out of the mountains "Gravity Works" .
Driving through the wash I glanced at my GPS to see where we were and if we we heading in the right direction and "BAM" I hit something. I still
don't know what but it tore off my Lower Control Arm mount on the drivers side - sheered the mount clean off!
We must have drove 20 miles of washes when we came across a row of signs across the wash that were all pointing for folks coming in the other direction. We stopped for a second to read the signs - "DO NOT ENTER - UNEXPLODED ORDINANCE" Oops! well at least we were out of that section now!!!
A short ways down the was we came to a trestle under the train tracks that lead from the gypsum mine at Split Mountain around to Plaster City - from there we followed the trail along the train tracks back to camp, by now it was dark.
And I had to drive slow avoiding getting up enough speed that I would have to use my brakes which pulled my axle back and made an awful sound. Johnny suggested I use my winch cable to pull my axle forward which was a great idea.
On Saturday we headed up Fish Creek and through Split Mountain then up del Diablo and back down through Arroyo del Diablo to the Old Butterfield Stage Coach Route that goes through the area.
After taking some pictures and enjoying the view we headed North East along a well marked trail
that took us up into the hills. The trail got very narrow and occasionally faint. I thought for a minute it might have turned into a quad trail as it got more difficult.
walking the trail ahead to see if there was a way out while I went back to spot Johnny over the rise.
don't know what but it tore off my Lower Control Arm mount on the drivers side - sheered the mount clean off!
