(epic music)
- What are we up to, day six
of the Ultimate Adventure.
(cheering)
Our boys from Minnesota, where are they,
Ben and Chad.
- The repair we did on the rear drive shaft
left it not balanced for sure.
We'll have to see how the rest of the trip goes,
we got to evaluate the damage
from the Rubicon the last two days
and decide whether or not it's something
that we can get fixed tonight and press on.
- They fought a very valiant fight.
(applause)
Let's give 'em a big hand.
(applause)
Loaded with supplies and our camping gear,
the rest of the group pulled out of Truckee
for the entrance to Fordyce Creek trail,
highways be damned.
We took the most scenic route,
passing Donner Lake and going over Donner Summit bridge
on our way through 7,000 feet in elevation.
With lower temperatures through the pass,
the vehicles didn't mind the climb
and the drivers could kick back and enjoy the views.
- [Radio] There's not a lot of mining history.
- Just came up old historic route 40
from Truckee, we're here at the trail head
for Fordyce Creek.
(hissing)
- So we just pulled into the Fordyce,
start of the trail head here
and we go to air down
and if this isn't a sign of things to come,
oh boy, I'm a little concerned having by Dana 44 up front
but it'll be a long hard day
of trying to keep things alive.
Should be fun though, booyah.
- [Radio] Copy that right, after the fork.
Ten four.
- This is one of my favorite trails.
It's definitely a jewel of the Sierra Nevadas
and a lot of mining history.
It's a tough trail and beautiful.
It's got every element to just make
the Ultimate Adventure.
(engine revving)
- [Radio] We're at the first obstacle on Fordyce trail.
This is called Driveline Hill.
Eventually want to be in low range for this one.
Double down if you got a ORT doubler
or magnum in your rig.
- [Christian] Fordyce Creek trail is as long
as it is beautiful and the farther in the trail you go,
the better the scenery
and the more challenging the obstacles.
The Rubicon may be the world's most famous trail,
but Fordyce Creek trail has got
to be one of the most visually spectacular.
- So coming down the trail I'm running
some cheapy white shocks in the front
and I was able to put the Skyjackers on the rear.
It's definitely smoother in the rear
especially with all this weight,
it's controlling it really well
and then getting to that ledge back there,
I was able to climb it.
No wheel hub, no spin really nothing,
it was working good,
the Skyjackers are hooking up for sure this weekend.
(engine revving)
It's pretty impressive how the guys
from Florida are rock crawling.
Those guys don't have a rock in the whole state
and they come out here to the west coast
and they're dominating.
The Chevy truck is where it's at.
(engine revving)
- Cooper's hung up on a little rock
up here on this hill so we're just going to throw
the Bubba Rope on and give 'em a little tug back
and get him pulled off
and then we'll give him a hard time
for two or three days about this.
- Hold it.
- Hey we just come into Fordyce,
hit the first obstacle, it's called Driveline Hill.
It's a little switch back type trail
here at the bottom.
Some very porous rocks,
the Falken tires are hooking up great.
Didn't hardly spin a tire coming up the,
it's pretty steep obstacle so looking forward
to the rest of the day, see what it brings.
- [Christian] So the front of the Jeep
is getting to Sunrise Hill.
Traditionally during Sierra Trek
the group starts really early in the morning
so they can run the whole trail in one day
and they're getting to this point
right as the sun is coming up
and shining directly into their eyes.
(engines idling)
As you crest the peak here,
if you look off to your left
about 10 o'clock, you'll see a mountain
they call Old Man Mountain.
You can make out, he's lying on his back
and kind of has a big chief Pontiac nose.
Let me know if you see him.
(engines rumbling)
- Ready.
There's a rock that'll stop you.
Keep it coming.
(clang)
(ratcheting)
- I have a fuel pressure, high pressure pump
under the hood and some kind
of fitting popped out of it
and we're going to have to take it apart
and see if it'll go back in there.
It doesn't look like it's broken or anything.
I just wonder if it got a little bit over pressured
and popped out.
- Yeah looks like all it did was wrap.
Thanks.
- So the mechanical engine driven fuel pump
feeds this and in there is a high pressure fuel pump
which bumps the fuel pressure up
for the fuel injection system.
You know all this stuff is factory for 1949 Willys.
The Dodge 500 and five cubic inch Dodge 440,
that's factory.
- We're building it back together.
- Get that little electric
sensor back into the unit
and we had to take it all apart
just to see how everything went back together
but it's back together now
and we're just bolting it in
and getting the lines back in place.
In a bit here we'll let the engine push
some gas up to the sump
and hopefully she'll start.
(engine starting)
- One of the things about Fordyce
that's really famous is the river crossings
and they're traditionally very deep
and sometimes impassable
so looks like we're doing okay.
I got some water coming in.
But looks like we're doing all right.
- Well we just made it past our first water crossing.
It was deep but not too deep.
Think it just went above the Falken 37 inch tires.
Was not too bad.
There's no rocks in the way
so we didn't get hung up or anything
and everyone went made it by with no issues.
So now it's lunch time.
Enjoying our string cheese.
- Absolutely.
I believe Coop had a soggy sandwich now
because the sandwich was on his floor board
but other than that I think it's good.
- Good stuff.
- First water crossing was pretty good.
It was, I don't know,
I think it was probably up to the door handles
but barely got my feet wet in here
and I disconnected the electric fan
before going through so that that wasn't spinning
and shorting out, but all good,
can't wait for the next one.
(intense music)
(engine rumbling)
- [Christian] This is the first real obstacle
you come to on Fordyce Creek trail.
'Fore our guide Harry Wagner pulled up
from the rear of the group to set us straight.
We were calling it Winch Hill One.
In reality, this is commonly known
as Winch Hill One Half
and it proved tougher than it looks.
- That granite got slippery on that climb.
Somebody else is going to have to show me
how to get up that one.
(engine revving)
- Hey just come up the first,
Winch Hill One, they say only had
two tries and there was a little bit easier side
and a little bit harder side,
so as you can see I went ahead
and hit both sides in one attempt,
so think I done good.
- [Spotter] There you go.
- Durham will be the guy that'll kill this.
(engine rumbling)
(engine revving)
- Little bit too far to the right first time,
tried a extreme line.
Thought the front end was going to fall off in the hole.
(engine revving)
Oh just had to find the right line.
(engine revving)
(cheering)
Went back to my original plan
and hit it dead on the next time.
So, made it look easy the last time.
(engine revving)
(cheering)
- That was awesome.
That was,
I was kind of worried with the extra weight,
it's so high, but it felt good.
The warming the tires up,
Falken tires heat up real quick.
They're great.
You see right there, I mean they do the job.
(engine revving)
(cheering)
- Had a great time.
You know I had to get my line.
I was trying to crawl the peaks
the first few times
and I had to get that left side in the rut.
Durham showed me the line,
so just stick on the skinny pedal
and ride it out, it was a good time.
(engine revving)
- [Spotter] Keep going, keep going.
Driver, driver.
There you go, you got it.
(cheering)
- The line everybody told me would work
was the one that worked.
And the line I thought would work did not work.
So sometimes you have to listen to your friends.
(engine revving)
- Yep I'm stuck.
Oh no, winches.
Get a Bubba Rope.
- We're on Winch Line Hill on the Fordyce.
Old Cooper down there's stuck on a rock
and we're going to use this Bubba Rope winch line
to get him out.
(hydraulics)
- [Christian] Since most of its obstacles
are named after Winch Hills,
Fordyce Creek promised to give the Warn winch
and Bubba Rope sponsored products a good workout.
And so far the trail's delivering on that promise.
(engine revving)
- The way it's going on Winch Line Hill here,
I think we're going to hang out,
see if any of the other guys
need a Bubba Rope winch line.
They're having a little trouble
getting over that last rock at the top
so we'll be here to help 'em out.
(intense music)
- [Radio] We caught up to the group
with the exception of Trent.
I'm not sure we'll be catching up with him.
- [Christian] Late in the afternoon,
we approached the real Winch Hill One.
It's an imposing granite sluice
with a tight, off camber squeeze at the top
that's just itching to toss a 4x4 on its side.
- [Radio] Work out of UA2.
Going to call to Joe and stay out of y'alls (crunch)
(engine revving)
- Well it's very rocky and loose.
I managed to get by the last obstacle
but this entire time revving RPM to three to 4,000,
I forgot to turn my fan on.
So it's a little hot,
going to let it cool down
and then I'll continue on.
- [Spotter] Not really relevant did you go right over it.
- [Fred] Hey Andrew is that savvy Jeep
an aluminum tub or is it a steel tub that's a stretch?
- [Andrew] Steel.
Aluminum armor.
(somber music)
I'm getting up the hill
but I'm grabbing the shit out of this thing.
(engine revving)
I was getting good grip from my Falken mud tires,
the rocks are really big and the water's a little higher.
- You could come this way just a little.
(suspenseful music)
- [Radio] Thanks for taking us through there Christian.
- How you doing boss man?
We done tore up all kinds of (beep) down there.
You missed it. - Some fun huh.
I was tearing (beep) up up here.
- How's your rental truck?
How's your company car?
- I think I lost my deposit.
The sun was setting and with the whole group
past Winch Hill One, we pushed forward
in search of a camp site large enough
to hold the whole group.
(adventurous music)
With the raging river for background music,
we lit up the campfires
and got dinner cooking over open flames.
(suspenseful music)
(engine revving)
- We got us a little slab right here we got to get up.
Looks like everybody's falling off to the right
so I'm going to try to keep it up on the left right there
and climb through it.
(engine revving)
- [Spotter] More cowbell.
(engine revving)
(cracking)
- I think it broke an axle shaft.
(engine revving)
- Well, I think it's just just too wide for that.
(engine revving)
That was all of the woo pows
and about the best place I could put it.
(engine revving)
And we'll just use the winch to get out of here now.
I got in a place where I don't even think
I can back up without rolling it over,
so use the winch to hold me up
and I'll go on through forward that way.
(engine revving)
- I was told I only had one chance.
- So this is the last obstacle
of Ultimate Adventure 2016
and by tradition I normally break my vehicle here.
(engine revving)
Gave it a good shot but I'm opting for the winch
which is a better alternative
to keeping up my tradition and blowing up my rig
on the last day.
So Fred's going to get it hooked up,
we're going to pull it up and head for Reno for the party.
- As you're coming through the V notch there,
that pinched the front axle
and the steering ram itself actually bent
the center link out.
Luckily it went forward
so what we did is we pulled against the rock
to push it back in, so now we've got enough clearance
to clear the ram and the steering and everything
so I think he's good to go to drive back to town.
- [Christian] So that's a wrap on Ultimate Adventure 2016.
We began day one with some good old fashioned rock crawling
on Isham Canyon trail just outside of Ridgecrest, CA.
On day two the group sizzled
across Death Valley on one of the hottest days
of the year before arriving at our cold campground
at June Lake.
For day three, we had an epic drive
through the picturesque June Lake loop
and then high tailed it through Yosemite National Park
on highway 120.
We were up way before the sun
on day four so we could make it roughly halfway
through the Rubicon trail to our campsite
at Buck Island Lake.
We packed day five with the rest of the Rubicon trail.
On day six, we rolled out past Donner Lake,
climbing through Donner Pass
and hit the entrance to Fordyce Creek trail.
After spending the night on Fordyce,
we made our last obstacle attempts
before high tailing it to Reno on day seven's wrap up.
(cheering)
Be sure to keep your eyes
on 4 Wheel and Offroad Magazine
and check our super site at 4Wheeler.com/ultimate-adventure
for info on how you can submit your entry
to be selected to join us
on next year's Ultimate Adventure.