Had a great day at Gordy's. The morning started out overcast, breezy, and cool. Later in the day the clouds broke and it warmed up. By the time we got back to the Quebradas Kiosk/staging area, the wind became gusty.
Members/guests included Jack Dickey - white TJ crawler, Adain Caskey - orange YJ buggy, Doug Elkins - white JKR, and Andrew Schwebke - white YJ buggy.
We started out on Hidden Valley with Andrew in the lead. Andrew and Aiden attempted the optional waterfall, but were denied. The traction god was not present today. We continued on Hidden Valley and went up Bad Hair Day. Doug was a little intimidated by the larger boulders, but he and his rig did fine!. Next up, we can down Upper Amado with Jack in the lead. Jack, Andrew, and Aiden all dropped down the two larger waterfalls. Having not done much down crawling, Andrew whined a little, but he and his rig made very easy drops down the waterfalls. Doug bypassed the larger of the two as his rig probably would have nose-planted in the hole at the bottom. We stopped and had lunch at the entrance to Granite Canyon. We then climbed up Granite Canyon with Andrew back in the lead. Jack's rig did a tall wheel stand at the right turn notch. He repositioned the rig a couple of times and with some spotting/encouragement from Andrew overcame the wheel stand and easily cleared the notch. Reaching the top, we stopped and talked about/flirted with each other's rigs and then headed back down Granite Canyon.
With Jack up front we then headed back up Upper Amado. Jack easily climbed the large waterfall despite the bottom being dug out. Doug needed some spotting, but the right line for his rig was found and it climbed up with out much effort. It took Jack four tries to get up the second waterfall. Both the bottom and top were loose sand/gravel. On his fourth try, he found the right line and his rig effortlessly climbed up. Doug made several attempts, but kept bellying out. He ended up taking the side bypass. Andrew and Aiden, with their large tire rigs, made quick work of both.
We finished Upper Amado and headed back to Quebradas Backcounty Byway via the mine road. We stopped for a short time at the main mining area and admired the blue (azurite) and green (malachite) minerals in the rock. Back at the kiosk/staging area we loaded/aired up all having smiles and feeling satisfied and mellow having enjoyed each others company and a great day of rock crawling.
