South Dakota - Hal Johns April 1999

Once back on the road after some quality eats we were soon tailed by a white Toyota. I recognized Jerry and Amy from last years challenge when I had gotten a chance to run their then new trail called Twisted. Jerry runs an early Toyota pick up with a flat bed, 34 x 9.5 Super Swampers, and a Marlin T-case in his rough but capable rig. Jerry was with out doors that day and from the looks of it I am not sure they would even fit anymore. Once we got to the scheduled meeting place we hung out for awhile to see if anyone else would show up. But no else did so it was just the small group of three rigs. It had been raining hard all week so we decided that our first choice of trails, Upper and Lower Buzzworm, were probable under to much water. So we decided we head out and check out Hal Johns and if it was do able we would run it. If not there were several good trails nearby that we could play on instead.

Well after about an hour of driving we finally found ourselves at the trailhead for the first section of Hal Johns. We were all really excited to see that Sky Scraper was open and the water in the creek bed had finally disappiated from the massive snows they had gotten in that Black Hills three winters ago. This would be the first time in three years anyone had been on these sections of Hal Johns. Scott was leading the group since he had the largest vehicle. If he had trouble getting through a section with his 38's me and Jerry would have to look for another line. Scott was the first one to take a crack at Sky Scraper. Everything I remembered about this obstacle came back in a flash. It is a series of rocks in a large pile around one very large rock. The way the rocks are stacked makes it almost impossible to get up and over. Scott had a good shot of making it but the line that looked the best put his front diff cover right into a jagged outcropping.Scott wisely decided after four or fives attempts to call it a loss before he broke something and ended the day early.

Scott Wrigglesworth takes a stab at Sky Scraper.

Next up I jump in my Jeep with a line in my mind. After watching Scott on his attempts I think The line that almost worked for him will work for me. Not that I am special or something but my front diff is on the passenger side Scotts is on the drivers side. From what I watched that was the only thing that kept him from climbing the obsticle. In my defense I would like to say the plan would have worked if I had Scott's 38's. With my 35's I just hit the axle tube instead of the diff. Oh well I slide over to the right and tried another line that Scott suggested. This one put my drivers side tire in the air when my passenger rear dropped beneath a rock that was to large for it to climb. Once again I posed for pictures on Sky Scraper but the obsticle was not to be mine. So I thought I would try a line off to the side by the crevice that is created between the large rock and the cliff face. I had heard that this line had been done a few years ago by Josh Lowenstein but not with out some sheetmetal sacrifice. I pulled up and tried to get a good line. But every line I tried had the rocks wanting to take some metal before I even got started. So after bending up my flares a little, I too backed away defeated.

Hummm looks tall

Next up is Jerry in his Toyota. Jerry was disadvantaged on tire size and quickly realized he wasn't going over Sky Scraper the traditional way. Jerry's truck is preatty narrow so after some incourgment we convince him that he can fit on the line I tried. I would like to say that after watching the video of the day he would have made it if he had only kept his tire turned into the cliff face harder. But at one point he turned to stay on top of the rock and he lost his contact pressure on the cliff side. The pictures tell the story of what happened real well.

I think I will try over here.

Jerry you got it. Keep going....

Oh yeah almost there. Soon as this back tire starts to climb you are there....

Well I never said were there was!

After the slight problem with cotact pressure on the cliff side Jerry slid into the crevice and couldn't keep his truck running. So I pulled my truck up and winched his rear bumper up on the passenger to help even up the truck. Jerry was then able to get it running and the with a little help from the winch we were able to get him back on terra firma. Jerry decided that the obstacle had beat him as well and we all took the bypass around Sky Scraper. Jerry did suffer some body damage here but it was hard to tell with all the existing ripples what was new and what was old.

Look out for falling timber

After bypassing around Sky Scraper we dropped back into the creek bed and proceeded to pick a line up the first section. The rocks were strewn everywhere and nature had left us a challenging course to navigate. We came to a bend in the creek which usually means a large rock pile. This one didn't dissapoint as by the time I got there Scott has truck high centered in about three different places all at once. After checking over the terrain we thought there might be a line of to the right of the large boulder and I would try that and get in front of him so he would have a winch point. So off to the right I go. It really looked fairly easy the key was to stay off the rocks to the left. But just as I was about to climb the small ledge my front diff would hit another rock and stop me dead. I was able to manauver around this rock but then ended up sitting squarily on my front driveshaft. This lead to the problem of everytime I would try to climb it would try to climb the driveshaft would roll me off the rock to the left. Finally after getting jammed up against the rocks to the left so hard I couldn't open my door I decided we needed to do some highlift work. We used my jack to lift the Jeep up off the offending rock and Scott's big 60" highlift to push it way from the large rock on the left. I managed to leave a little paint off the top of my drivers fender before this obstacle would release its grip on me. After all my putzing around Scott just hooked a cable to a natural anchor point and pulled himself out of his prediciment and we all followed through on the left side of the large boulder.

My that rock is close

After finishing up the first section of the trail we did the second section of the trail. On this section of the trail the are not any major obstacles just a lot of technical rock crawling. Many of the rocks in the creek bed are large and seem to be scattered a perfect distances to reach up and grab your underside when you least expect it. Both me and Scott had to do some rock stacking to get off of large rocks that had grabbed us.

Those are 38's he riding on. Those are big rocks. Right now Scott is thinking did that hit the rocker panel?

Ooooh flex. Can't you just tell how impressed Scott is.

Were did that rock come from?

Gee nice picture to bad the tree is in the way

The third section of the trail starts off fairly easy but then gets real hard fast. You come to an obstacle called bathtub. Bath tub is a waterfall when the water is running would be my guess. It is a large rock outcropping with a shallow pool below it. Usually the pool has water in it but that day it was mostly dry. The tough part here is to climb the rocks next to the outcropping and then just as you get towards the top you have to turn into the outcropping putting sheetmetal in serious danger. Scott had made it up but by the time I had caught up he was in the next section of trail with a broken front axle shaft. Not having any spares this was a problem. As I was going up Bathtub I managed to hook a tire on the outcropping while backing up and managed to bend my tie rod nicely. So here we were with the two trucks with winches down and Jerry not even to the first obstacle of the third section. We decided to concentrate on mine first and proceeded to pull the tie rod after trying to winch it straight didn't work. We ended up beating the tie rod against a rock to straigthen it. Amazingly accept for the nasty vibration this set up in your hands it worked well. We then winched my truck forward enough that I could start to turn up hill. But this was still putting my sheetmetal in serious danger so we rehooked the winch cable and I winched myself sideways while slowly driving forward. Finally I was off the bathtub.

I hear they make orthopedic braces for this condition

Next problem was getting Scott out of where he was at. He was only three wheel drive and 38" Swampers don't turn well when they don't have power going to them. Scott managed to get halfway back, but then got himself extremely tippy with his passenger rear suddenly getting four or five feet of air when he dropped off a rock. Kevin was standing there and quickly pulled Scott back down to a more reasonable level. I then hopped on and got the ride of my life as Scott winched himself forward out of the situation with me on the rear bumper for ballast. Rock surfing at its finest, or is that Bronco Surfing? Scott then proceeded to get into another precarious position in about five yards. This time we had to run my winch to a tree behind him and then snatch block it back to his truck to pull the rear of his truck down. All this while he winched himself forward. Finally we had Scott clear and back to a more level attitude. It was probable the wildest 15 minutes of winching I have ever seen. Of course everyone was to busy to get pictures but we did get some nice video.

Now both me and Scott were on the wrong side of the Bathtub and we needed to get back down to the main trail. I had recalled a bypass around bathtub but in three years it was almost impossible to see. We walked and found a line that would get us back. I went first and just as I rounded the last tree I looked back to see large branch trying to remove my soft top. I through it in reverse in just the knick of time and Jerry runs over and holds it out of the way. Scott is next through and has a rough time in three wheel drive. He keeps hitting this one large rock with his dead wheel so it is decided to move it out of the way. This rock is huge but Jerry and Kevin roll it out of the way. Kevin keeps it going down the hill and lets it lay right at the buttom. Scott then is able to make the corner and drop down to the creek bed. But that same branch that almost got me took a bite out of Scott's new box. Still unfinished with the bodywork he put a massive dent in the boxside. From where I was sitting watching it looked like a small scratch but then later after closer examination it looked bad. But Scott wasn'y down just yet it seems that large rock had been rolled right into Scott's way again. Kevin had to again roll the rock out of the way. Providing some nice comic releif to the end of the day. After this we had a small rest and everyone headed out to the main road and into Sturgis for some gas and some food.

Scott, Kevin, and myself went to McDee's for some burgers but Jerry and Amy had to get going. I later heard that no sooner had everyone split up then Jerry broke a centering pin on a rear leaf. He crab walked all the way from Sturgis to Rapid City. I am surprised we didn't pass him on the highway. But it was a great day wheeling and after a couple of hours more driving to get back to Kevin's house in Custer we were dead tired. We stayed up long enough to have a couple brews and watched the video from the day. It was a great day and I want to thank the Black Hills Four Wheelers for having me and Kevin out for the day.

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