Well at trail sign up on Saturday morning it was determined that one of the newest trails would be run. It had not been run the previous day due to the rain. Talking to Jerry Blanks the trail leader he was not sure whether we would be able to run the whole trail or not. He said it depended on whether the rain held off if we would be able to run the first part of the trail. It was also decided we would run what is normally the second section of the trail first with hopes of the trail drying out enough to run Mt. Charmin that afternoon. Jerry had assured us this trail was a good one and would challenge driver and vehicle alike. Jerry was one of the Black Hills Four Wheelers who had opened Twisted the year before so we knew it had to be good.
When we got to the trail head Jerry explained the trail was somewhat of a loop with the exit being the same as the entrance. He then proceeded to walk us down and show us Mt. Charmin. I took one look at it and realized were it had gotten its name. This trail was steep and right on a cliff face. If you weren’t able to make it you immediately went on the cable. But as Jerry explained earlier we would only get to run this if the weather held and the trail dried out. After seeing this section of the loop I can see why they were leery to run this trail in the rain.
So we headed up to the second section of the trail to try our hand at the first obstacle. It is a large rock out cropping with about a three to four foot ledge you need to climb. There appeared to be three different lines up the outcropping with the one to the far right being the easiest, the middle being challenging, and the left impossible with the moist conditions. Several of the big dogs had tried the left with no success, some had then made the middle, but most ended up on the far right myself included. The middle seemed to only be favorable to vehicles in the CJ5 length category with longer vehicles taking the right line.
After this ledge you continued up the outcropping and over several stair steps and then made a U-turn on top and headed back down a series of stair steps to the left of the rock out cropping you had just climbed. This lead you to The Edge, a narrow shelf with a slight off camber tilt that took you back down. Here a Wrangler from Illinois snapped a axle shaft and made some strange choices on being lowered down the hill. But he made it lower ground and became an observer for the rest of the trail. Jerry walked this section easily with his narrow Toyota mini truck and marlin crawler. Some of the wider rigs were a little tight on The Edge but all made it down with out incident.
Next came a series of nasty rock ledges that had to be climbed while slowly weaving your self back up hill. In the wet conditions the right foot was put to use much more than would have been needed if it had been dry. Ledges you could climb easily suddenly took a heavy bounce to clear and get over. All morning motors talked as go pedals answered the call for more power. Soon we were backed up at a particularly nasty ledge. The ledge was about a four foot climb but looked like it could be done. The problem was no one had done it yet. A black CJ was giving it a try when I first pulled up but he had soon hopped left far enough that I had to winch a tree off his door so he could back up unscathed. At this point he threw in the towel and Trevor McPherson gave it a go in his well set up CJ5.
Trevor had made four or so attempts with the second to last one almost working when he really got into the throttle. But the last attempt bounced him sideways far enough that he rolled off the ledge. His Jeep went over on the roof and then landed on the passenger side. Amazingly Trevor got lucky when a huge rock rolled through the cage but never touched him. After the Jeep was righted a damage assessment followed and it appeared the worst damage was to his nerves. Being the moron I am I thought I would try it as well because Trevor almost had it and I felt if I could get over to the right just a hair more than him I would make it up. So after a couple tries and nearly a repeat of the rollover I to took the bypass. Amazingly no one else wanted to try it.
About this time it started to rain again for the third day in a row. We knew this dashed our hopes of getting a shot at Mt. Charmin and at first the group was disappointed. But we continued on with the upper section and it continued to be a series of challenging climbs up the cliff face and then steep descents back down. The wetter it got the more challenging many of the lines became.
Finally in a drenching down pour we reached the last climb of the upper section. This rock out cropping had a nasty little bump you had to get up and over just to try your hand at the rock slab. Several people had attempted the bump but must just couldn’t claw their way up it. Rod Pepper was right in front of me and after a couple of Broncos had made the bump he put on a good show getting up it in his CJ5. I was up next and it appeared the only way over the bump was lots of right foot so I let her hammer and on my third attempt up she went. After this the rest of the rock face was pretty tame. By now we were all completely soaked to the bone and elected to head back to camp.
Well how would I rate Bikini? This trail is unlike allot of the other trails at DTC as it involved ledges and climbs as opposed to nasty rocks piled everywhere. I think if we would have gotten to run the whole trail it would have rated higher. It is a refreshing change to the other trails at DTC and if you get to run Mt. Charmin it might be a good test of your winch. Well worth your time to run.