Quote:
StHarris previously said:
Great write up and pictures Larry. I had a little bit of a pucker factor there reading and seeing the pics of you and Scorpion going down the chute  |
While I didn't need an adult diaper at the end, I will tell you that it was as close as I ever want to get to seriously damaging the Scorpion. Essentially, I went down the chute with my foot on the brake at something like a 50+ degree down-angle (the photographer is not standing on level ground so it doesn't look nearly as steep in the picture as it was) taking it (literally) an inch at at time. And when the ground rolled under me and I went three or four inches instead of the one inch I'd planned on, I broke a sweat.
Again, pictures don't do it justice.
But neither do pictures do the area justice. It's really magnificent desert scenery - postcard shots in all directions. There wasn't time to sight see as much as I'd have liked to because the road was so challenging.
The 2" of rain washed out the road in places and because of the damage to the roadway it was unclear whether what bit of road remaining would hold the weight of the rigs. We crossed one at-a-time, carefully, but it was steep enough that if the road had given way, you were going to ride it several hundred meters down to the bottom. Maybe only the front half would be gone and we could get a line to the rig but if it gave-way when you're on it...
And even if we could have maneuvered to go back, the road behind us was rough enough that we were hoping that the road ahead was better. Unfortunately that wasn't the case, but hope springs eternal, and in the end, Scorpion survived with exceptionally minor damage given the nature of the trail.
