Tierra Del Sol Desert Safari
March 2011
Well, another TDS Desert Safari has come and gone. While we haven’t always gone on the official run, the Social Climbers 4X4 Group has been at Truckhaven for this event since the 70’s. That’s a lot of Desert Safaris.
While a large Social Climber contingent was present, only Jason in Party Barge, Bob & Kathi in The Purple Jeep, and I in SuperCJ participated in the official Saturday run. Jason & I hit tech inspection @7 am and we got a good spot in line (maybe 30 back). The run started promptly at 8 am and quickly split into two trails. At the split, we found ourselves behind the Trail Boss. Nice. We stuck to the red and blue trails at every opportunity and were surprised that there weren’t spotters at the blue obstacles. There were a lot of horns and cheers as Jason’s 4-door JK made easy work of the blue trails.
After completing Chuck Norris’ Playground, we all found ourselves making 3 point turns in Obama’s
Notch. This is a tight, twisty canyon that tested our suspension and turning radius. Tired of backing up,
I finally put the rear output in neutral and went through in front drive only & turned by doing front digs.
We hit the halfway point across from the microwave tower and could see some of the Social Climber
motorhomes on Millionaire Mesa. The remainder of the run was moderate red trails and we completed
the trail @1 pm.
Heading back to headquarters, we found the vendor area busy with activity, as was the 4X4 Training
Area. We walked the Training Area for a while and were impressed with some of the obstacles. Looks
like we’ll have to plan a trip here to play.
The rest of our group spent Saturday playing in the hills north of S-22. I know Andy broke an axle and
Mike put his TJ on its side in a canyon. Someone from that group file a Trip Report…
We had huge pot luck on Saturday night and spent Sunday wheeling near the old TDS area. Starting at
The Oasis, we wheeled our way southwest, carved a few new canyons, and wrapped up the weekend
@3 pm. This was another great weekend with great weather. See you next year at TDS!
Tom
