Niagra Creek And Hannan Loop

[flynhigh]

Here are the shots from my baby's virgin off-road adventure. Both locations were in the Stanislaus Forest in CA, about 3.0 hours from San Francisco.

Our First stop was Niagra Creek, nice off-raod area although some of the trails were kind of narrow which is not a good thing for us AV owners

So here we are just outside the beginning and my AV is nice and Clean
Begining

This next shot shows us at the campground where we had lunch just before hitting the trails. Kind of gives you a comparison of my AV against my buddies Durango. I might point out as well this Durango has a 2-3" shackle lift and the front torsion bar cranked.
Compare

After 30 minutes on the trail you can see what happened to my nice clean AV. You can also see my mirrors were folded in as there were some points that were very narrow between the trees.
DirtyAV
It is very dry here a in CA and all the trails are incredibly dusty.

We found this nice big rock to drive on and over, the only problem is that these pictures do not do justice to how big the rock was or how deep some of the cracks/grooves were in the rock. My buddies durango didn't even attempt this one.
Big Rock 1
Big Rock 2 Sorry to you modem users, I had shrunk all my images but this one escaped, it is a nice shot but 800k.
Big Rock 3
Big Rock 4
This was the only place were I actually was aware of any damage to my AV. Coming off this big rock I dragged the passenger side exhaust for about 6" on the rock. Only did very minor damage to the tip, nothing really noticeable.

Having new found confidence in my AV I found a Bigger rock to go over
Bigger Rock 1]
Bigger Rock 2
BiggerRock 3 How's that for a Under carriage shot?

At this point we headed over to Hannan Loop for some light off-roading. Or so we thought

SO after some light off-roading we made it to the the top of the mountain and this is the view from there.
View


HOwever I found this sign the the left that said "4x4 with high clearance only allowed. NO 2wd vehicles allowed on this trail" Well you know I had to see what was there
This first shot is with the AV already half way up a nasty hill. Had to keep it in 4lo and 1st gear the whole way. There was about 3" of dust and dirt on the road. I got out at one point and proceeded to fall on my butt into the dirt powder It is amazing that my AV could go up this hill and I couldn't make it walking without falling. This is a great sequence with some nice rock hopping and tree smashing pics.
Trees-1
Trees-2
Trees-3
Trees-4
Trees-5
Trees-6

This next shot is us at a nice quiet place winding down from the last hill. It again shows a nice comparison between my AV and my buddies Durango.
Nearing The End

and finally a shot of the back at the Pizza place we stopped at on the way home.
The End

Hope you enjoyed my little slide show,
cuz I sure had fun making it



edit: Corrected Last two links

 

[steelheadchaser]

Thanks for posting the great photos and story Flyn! Will you be going to WWW? I would sure like to get a close look at that lift!

 

[jstrickl]

Excellent pics! Glad to see you were capable of tackling all that was thrown at you!

Jamie

 

[flynhigh]

Steel,

Unfortunately we will be unable to go to WWW

We want to but vacation time and money are just not in the stars for us this August.

 

[Dvoted]

Great pics! It was a lot of fun helping you get your Av dirty

However, I think your account of the days events left out a very significant "race".

 

[flynhigh]

There goes the neighborhood!

Dvoted = SF Bay area coordinator for the "Durango Owners Club"

Yes he did beat me off the line at the Stop Light, but as you can see from the pictures he is significantly smaller than me and thus power/weight comes into affect. Maybe we can get him to race Gandolphxx's rig

In fact I have nicknamed his Durango "Mini-Me"


All in all He is a good guy and a fellow employee.

 

[jackalanche]

well, those shots of your very sweet Av and the Durango look just like my driveway (cept for the Av lift!), since I have a Durango also. And while I love my Av and know that it is strong off the line, I also know that the D (my wife's daily driver) with the little 4.7 V8 would win the stoplight war every time - the gearing, the weight, hell the D is a little screamer! Rear shock mounts get banged worse than our trailer plug when four wheeling in deep ruts though (shh don't tell my wife, I was conducting "research"). And I ain't sliding 5 sheets of ply in the D either, like I did the other night in the Av, locked up tight

 

[Chief]

Those are some incredible off-roading pictures! Thank you for sharing. My hat is off to you and I salute you for keeping your trailer hitch plug intact on that route.

Looks like you had an amazing time.

 

[flynhigh]

On a sad note

I went home from work last night to wash the AV and noticed a couple scratches running the whole length of the AV

I will have to see if I can buff them out with a good wax. Anyone have any suggestions for scratches. Luckily the scratches are not down to the metal.

So much for getting out of the adventure unscathed.

 

[Blueruck]

FlynHigh

That was a great post and looks like you had a BLAST. Tree Pic # 3 was my Favorite.

I like the truck - it looks good with a lift.