4/11/2017 Day 6 Strike Ravine (Sponsored Run – Northridge 4×4)

This morning we could sleep in a little extra, until the construction guys showed up, because we were meeting up like 3 blocks from camp. So after our first leisurely morning we got lined up for the trail which would take us south on Hwy 191. About 11 miles out of town we jumped off on the left on Yellow Circle Rd and gathered up for the airing down and a driver’s meeting. After a quick air down and reprogramming my Bully Dog to Off Road Mode, we had a driver’s meeting and we were rolling.

This run was sponsored by our friends at Northridge 4×4, and we got a chance to get some 1 on 1 time chatting with our buddy Eric Johnson throughout the trip, not easy with some 40 rigs total in the group.

The beginning of this trail was fairly mundane, then we swept around a left turn and found our first real obstacle after crossing a creek bed and climbing a hill, thinking the rest of the trail might be lack luster, I was unseated by my lovely wife, who then got to the next obstacle, another challenging axle cross-up and she asked “if I wanted it back?” I said nope you’re driving so she tore it up and we’ll hopefully have the photo to prove it when Northridge gets their pics up and available.

Somewhere along the line we ran into a couple of very large groups that we couldn’t pass so the leaders chose an extra fun side route that led back to the ending point in AREA BFE’s Parking area. Our group decided to hang out at Area BFE for awhile as it was only 1:30ish pm local. Then it was time to play a little. Knowing how things can twist, and already having locker issues I only played lightly, as it was the only way I would see pictures of Julia.

Mike and Steve were tearing it up, and even Carl, Brandon, and Andy were playing and trying on some obstacles. So I climbed up a rock face and found a cool parking spot right out on a ledge over a 20 plus foot deep crack. After getting me off crack… We crawled back out to the Parking area and Andy got his drone out, it was kind of windy with 25 mph gusts but he didn’t think that would be a problem and let that baby fly.

And fly it did, moments after take off we could see he was a couple of canyons over watching another crawling event, then a bit later everyone was ready to go home and we told Andy, and all of a sudden we can’t see his drone. After trying the controls and what not, he decided to hit the home button. Low and behold we see a drone headed our way, as it got closer, it seemed to veer off path. So Andy switched over to manual control, but the drone is still heading towards some vehicles to our right and lands perfectly on a car trailer… Then we see a guy with a controller…

Wait if that’s his drone… OMG, where’s Andy’s? It says it’s still flying, so we try to use the camera to get an idea of where it’s at, but of course that spun our internal compasses multiple directions, then he hits home again and after a few minutes we see it way out in the distance heading back. Thank God, wait Andy shouts the wind has it, I’m saying watch the power lines and Mikes laughing and saying you better just land it, so he did behind a truck off in the distance so I jumped in the Jeep and blazed a trail to it before it got ran over. Once I got it in the Jeep and returned it to Andy we all headed back to camp for dinner and stories of the day. During the back and forth we decided to rearrange the schedule, and skip the sponsored group run on Thursday to Kane Creek, and instead do it with just our group tomorrow, and then if time was available run out to Dead Horse Point…