Just got back from the Reno Pass pre-run (Day 3 of AZrun3).. and I hafta say that was one crazy ass gnarly trail. We ran the trail east to west just as the plans call for.. and got the full trail experience.

This was one CRAZY trail.. and now with some good rain, this trail lives up to its 3.5 rating 100%. The trail consists of extremely moguled dirt/rock packed areas, lots of shelf road, much of it offcamber. There were some offcamber sections in excess of 35 degrees sidehill. We found there was one point on the trail that seperated the men from the boys. There was a boulder that had to be driven around, while on a severely washed out offcamber section of shelf road. The downhill side was pretty much a sheer cliff, close to 300ft down. The "road" itself was the width of our trucks. It was offcamber, and at the same time, you had to pivot around a boulder on the inside edge of the trail. The margin of error in spotting was less than 2" here. 2" closer to the edge and the truck would be 300ft down in the ravine below.

Anything wider than a Pathfinder or Frontier track WILL NOT make it through here. Anything taller or longer than a stock regular cab truck or pathy will not make it through. This portion of the trail scared me more than anything I've ever been on. This will need to be repaired before AZRun3, otherwise it will rule out a lot of trucks from running the trail. Basically, anything lifted more than 3-4", anything with wider-than-stock track, and anything running wider (or more than 1" offset) than stock tires will not make it through.

We had to dig out part of the high side of the offcamber to form a ditch or "track" to keep the front tires from sliding sideways. We continued this ditch on the other side of the boulder for another 20 feet or so, knocking the top off the offcamber spot. We ran into a guy with a really nicely built -up Jeep Cherokee (lifted, rock sliders, etc) while excavating the nasty section of the trail. Apparently, he got scared and turned around at that point because we never saw him again.

Anyway, we made it through that.. and had fun on the rest of the trail. We'll be looking at options to do some improvements on that part of trail (building up a support structure and pouring some reinforced concrete to allow that edge of the trail to be shored up with some small boulders and dirt. That will then allow us to use the trail for AZRun3, but there still may be some limitations on how big/tall/wide the trucks can be to get through there (for your own safety).

Nissan4wheelers.com is looking into the adopt-a-trail for Reno Pass, since no other club takes care of it and it is obviously getting worse every year. This is kinda humorous, because at the peak of the Pass, there is a sign that says "JEEPS ONLY". We will be posting a sign right next to that that says "This trail adopted and maintained by Nissan4wheelers.com" Adopting the trail will also allow us to take credit for fixing that part of the trail when it comes time.

---------------------------


"I'm just a bill... on Capitol Hill.."

BTW, I will be uploading a video of this section of the trail later tonight.

---------------------------


"I'm just a bill... on Capitol Hill.."

Sweet!

I know what you mean about falling into a ravine... I was riding down a small hill into a creek on a trail last winter. The thing was, the trail has a 45 deg slope down and a very large rut on the passenger side due to some fool spinning an open differential...

So I came down this thing and just about rolled off into the creek, a 20ft drop or so. I also had an audience of AVT riders and women, fine fine women.

But since I'm sure a good driver, hehehehe, I made it with no problem. But the pucker factor was still there

Can't wait for the vid!

Mr. Will

|1992 SE-V6 4x4, 2001 LE 3.5|
http://www.netsnapshot.com/pcw/pickalbum?W92PathSE

Ok, heres the video of the trail modifications we had to do.. as well as Flip getting spotted through the nasty section. The video doesnt do this part justice.

In the video, what you cant see is that there is a washed out portion just behind the boulder, which reaches in about a foot into the trail and was about 2-3ft in length. You also cant see the 300ft deep ravine just downhill of the trail. The rear tires of the trucks came within 1" of this washed out area. Dropping a rear or front tire into this spot would put a truck over the edge due to how loose the trail surface is and how offcamber it is.

Reno Pass Pre-Run: The Most Dangerous Obstacle - (Windows media, 6meg)

---------------------------


"I'm just a bill... on Capitol Hill.."

Heres another video, but this time its really funny:

http://www.nissan4wheelers.com/video/Flips_mudflap.wmv

This one occured a little later in the trail run.

---------------------------


"I'm just a bill... on Capitol Hill.."

maybe it was a good thing i did not take that frontier thru there....




GOT ANY BALLS??????????

You would have certainly torn up your front bumper on that rock, Marshall. Plus your long wheelbase wouldn't have made it easy either. You gotta lose them tires you have and get some meats on there.

John, bummer how the vid didn't really capture that notch missing from the road surface right next to that rock. Believe us when we say it was a LOT worse than the vid would lead you to believe.


1998 Frontier 4x4 seriously built
2002 Xterra 4x4 still stock
"Conjunction Junction, what's your Dysfunction?"

ehhh, we're all still alive, so it wasn't that bad. But I do agree with John, if you don't have a reg cab frontier/pathfinder wheelbase with stock tracking, don't go. I don't think I'd like to do that trail by myself, definately need a partner for that trail.


"I'm just a Bill, going up and down Capitol Hill...."

Do you guys have any pictures of it? How big was the boulder? Is it something climbable? It takes alot to detere a Mikey... Is it something climbable with dual lockers and big tires? I have trouble visualizing the stuff you guys are talking about... It just doesn't sound that hard. A big boulder, and a narrow path. Just crawl over the offending rock.

_____________________________

I'm a Funky Chinaman from Funky Chinatown. LET'S GET IT AWN!

Offending rock is about 10 feet high and sticks out of the side of the mountain. You won't be crawling over it - you crawl around it. The shelf is about 2-3" wider than our trucks and leans to the down hill side.


1998 Frontier 4x4 seriously built
2002 Xterra 4x4 still stock
"Conjunction Junction, what's your Dysfunction?"

I don't think it would be wise trying to climb anything on that narrow of a road, especially with a dual locked rig. Crab-walk right off the edge.

Matt

I want to see this but until my phone service fixes my line, radio interferance, i cant go look at vid....SNIFFF. Only connects me at 31k tops.

Hey datz is there any way to get a zipped copy sent to me? via email maybe?

That is if you are not to busy with this site and the AZIII run stuff.

Thanks

Frankie Seifert
MANC
www.geocities.com/midwestallnissan
Frontier_Cowboy@yahoo.com

Holy Sh!t

If Flip had to turn that far into religious rock to avoid the washout and then inch around religious rock while still worrying about his rear tire placement, then that has pucker factor similar to J's landing (if not more).

Mikey, if you looked at the vid, you'll see there is no way you are going to crawl over that rock - not unless you can sidehill at about a 60 degree angle. Remember how steep the ravine was down to where the Beast landed? It's like that there too. Just watching that sends shivers down my spine. That decomposing granite is like marbles.

"Good idea, O Lord! Of course it's a good idea!!" - Monty Python

Yeah, me and John were both shaking a bit after driving through there. We all put our bumpers into the rock and just rubbed our way around it. We also rubbed front and rear sidewalls on it real good.


1998 Frontier 4x4 seriously built
2002 Xterra 4x4 still stock
"Conjunction Junction, what's your Dysfunction?"

yeah, that rock was a religious experience. The SCARIEST part of the whole thing was when I got my bumper against the rock, my LSD kicked in and started to crabwalk the backend sideways down the incline. I had to back up 3 times to get the bumper around that rock. Imagine a 3 point turn where you are only backing up 1-2" every time. And every time you tap the rock, the backend slides out some more.

I showed the vid to some of the guys here at work.. they couldnt believe it. I really wish the washed out spot showed up better on the video.. it would give one a better idea of what we were dealing with.

I can do some image captures tonight from the video to show the sequence of getting around the rock.

The next time I run that trail will be to fix that spot. I wont go run through it again until we get it fixed.

---------------------------


"I'm just a bill... on Capitol Hill.."