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On October 14-16 2005 we did the second Toyota120.com trip. This time we headed down South to Anza Borrego State Park. Due to Mark’s efforts on advertising the trip we had quite a large group this time with 11 trucks in total. 8 4^th Gen 4Runner, 2 3^rd Gen 4Runner and a 89 Toyota pickup.

Most of us got to the campsite around 6:30PM on Friday, which limited our time to look for the most ideal spot. We found a pretty nice spot next to some hills and close to the toilets. The ground was pretty good (hard but good) being flat and with plenty of space. We set up camp for the weekend and started cooking in various sessions. It was beautiful with clear skies and an almost full moon out. The temperature was great at night, no wind to speak off and everybody enjoyed themselves. After a lot of campfire chat we headed off to bed. I found out halfway through the night than I had a hole in my mattress, but decided to just not worry about.

Saturday morning Loi and Darin joined us. We split into two groups for the morning as group 1 was going to tackle some tougher trails at Truckhaven, while group2 would cut through the park via Arroyo Salado trail. Group1 consisted of Mark, Henry, Joel, John and myself (as trailboss). Group 2 consisted of Joyce, Denise, Loi, Erik, Scott and Darin (as trailboss). After Mark hooked up Joyce’s CB, and Darin and I sorted out the GPS both groups headed out.

We decided to run Truckhaven backwards as we were planning on doing Calcite mine if time allowed. After some initial trouble finding the trailhead for Truckhaven we aired down and hit the trail. This should have served as a warning sign on how tricky it is to find the right trail at Truckhaven, as the washes are not marked nor are they very clearly indicated on the GPS Topo map. The trail was not used for a while and we could hardly see any tracks from previous vehicles. The scenery at spots were pretty good. Initially the trail is pretty tame. After missing the correct turnoff and losing at least ½ hour going down the wrong wash, we finally got to a spot where the trail was showing some real promise. At that point I realized my rear swaybar quick disconnects experiment was biting my backside. We had to stop quickly so I could remove the one link as my swaybar was bend on the driver side, after being trapped by the disconnect pin, the link and the lower control arm. This still needs to be fixed and some further work will be required to make it work. To add insult to injury at that point I couldn’t find my 19mm wrench in the drawer, John was kind enough to dig one up for me. (As expected this wrench was the first one to be unpacked from the drawer when I got home).

At this point Truckhaven gets pretty challenging, as the first obstacle is a relatively steep climb with a lot of frame twister parts as it switches back and forth in a very narrow wash. And to top it off the surface was covered with loose gravel. None of the 4^Th Gens had a problem after tucking in the mirrors and ATRAC kicking in. John did really well at this point given the fact that he had only a rear limited slip diff and longer wheelbase. After this climb a lot of smaller climbs with loose surface out of washes followed. Some had pretty nasty holes in them. At one point we had to fill a hole to assist John to get up the climb. Midway during the trail there is a very steep climb on a loose surface to get to a small plato where one of the wheeling clubs mounted a fire hydrant. Attached to the hydrant is a visitors book, where people can leave their mark. We took a small break there as it has a really good view over the whole Truckhaven area. While we took some pictures a group of quads and modified “golf carts” (can’t think of a better description) worked their way towards the same plato. They were coming from the opposite direction. Our trail headed down a very steep descend on very loose surface. They were trying to come up the trail. The quads starting flipping backwards halfway up the trail and the golf carts couldn’t even make it that far. The obstacle was clearly beyond their capability. After about 15 minutes we started getting tired of waiting for them to dig up the trail. Eventually Mark got them to realize that we were on our way down. As I went down I realized just how loose the surface was, sliding my way down and only making the second pathway out of the descend. That was followed by a couple of very tight and tricky spots to get to a level surface again. At that point we cut across a couple of washes to save some time, this involved a number of interesting climbs.

Once back on the main trail the scenery improved and we were making good time again. The 1-2 PM meeting back at campsite still in the back of my mind. The wash got more challenging and also the scenery improved quite a bit. After about another 2 miles we got to a point where we realized we will not be able to continue with the wash and meet up with Calcite mine road. Fortunately we were reworded with some great scenery and a good hike up a narrow wash. The frustrating part was that Calcite mine road was less than a ½ mile from where we were. At this point we realized we will not be able to do it, but the trail driving was very rewarding irrespective. After backtracking for a while we found the proper wash to go down to meet up with Calcite mine road, at least next time we should find it (if we load the GPS track). At the entrance of Calcite mine we met a group of Jeepers who just did it and they were very happy with the challenge of the trail. So it is definitely on the list for next time.

A quick climb and we were back on blacktop. At this point it was almost 2PM and we were worried about the second group waiting and worrying about us. So I pushed for a bit of time and drove faster on still aired down tires. As we turned into the campsite area the second group was just coming from the front. Amazing timing!! It turned out they had their own challenges finding the right trail at times. Also the route I planned included an old portion of the original Truckhaven trail, Darin was not comfortable taking stock vehicles through it and wisely turned the group around to start at the proper Arroyo Salado trail. The risk factor was higher than anticipated and described in the trail guides, maybe next time.

When we got back to camp we were greeted by a very unfriendly gushing wind. It basically bend the frames of both Mark and my shades, and everybody was hiding in their trucks for lunch. High winds and desert is not fun as sand ends up in everything, even your lunch if you are not careful. We all hoped the wind would die down for the evening.

After lunch we headed up to Font’s Point and then to Pumpkin Patch. The scenery from Font’s point was great with a color scheme of different geological formations of the desert area. We then headed to Pumpkin Patch with Darin leading. Mark, Joel and I broke off from the main group for a while to go see the old Truckhaven trail. As usual we missed a wash at one point and decided to just catch up with the group at Pumpkin Patch. Some guys played around on the hills by the patch, and hopefully we will see some interesting pictures. The rest of the afternoon was incident free.

When we got back to camp the evening the wind was still going strongly. We were contemplating going to a pub for dinner at Pumpkin Patch, but eventually decided to tough it out and cook dinner. Some guys set up a nice wind block between trucks and we moved my tables behind it. As it turned out both Joyce and I brought enough Korean short rib to feed an army. We also had some good Korean side dishes. I started up the little Weber gas grill and cooked away, grabbing a rib from time to time. Seems like our planning turned out well as everybody got enough ribs. After a while anybody caught looking in my direction got handed a rib. We somehow finished the ribs with Bliksem helping out as needed. After dinner we moved the campfire a bit and had a lot of good banter around the fire till well into the morning. The “beer ghosts” seemed to have sucked up all the beer and some of the liquor as well. The wind seemed to have died down a bit as well, or maybe we were just tougher at that time .

Sunday morning we broke up camp and gassed up at the 76. A smaller group then headed South to do the last 3 trails of the trip. The group consisted of Mark, Joel, John, Joyce, Henry and myself. It is recommended to do Diablo Drop-off from South to North, so we had to go way down South to start the 3 trails. The planned trails were to do the Valleco Wash to the Arroyo Seco del Diablo to the Fish Creek trail. We should have aired up at the 76 before leaving, thus leaving us traveling at 50-55 MPH. Also the planned route to the trailhead was not to be, leaving us to drive an additional loop around the southern end of the Anza state park. All in all it turned a planned 45 min drive to something closer to 1.5 hours.

We finally got to the Valleco Wash trailhead at 11AM. Valleco Wash is a fairly uninteresting trail with no obstacles and few scenic points, but you have to do it to get to the start of Arroyo Seco del Diablo trail. It took us about 30 minutes to get to the Arroyo Seco del Diablo trail. This trail starts of fairly easy, but quickly becomes more challenging when we entered the washes itself as at places the walls collapsed and we had to drive over or around a couple of collapsed walls. It is also pretty scenic at places. The trail ends with the famous Diablo Drop-off, which was a long drop-off on loose sandy trail. Shortly after that we actually encounter 2 consecutive drop-offs which were far more challenging.

Everybody did this with relative ease and a bit of spotting. At this point I thought it will be smooth sailing from now on. This is where the very last leg of the Diablo trails can catch you, as it goes through a narrow wash with a lot of boulders in it requiring very careful driving. It is also very scenic. Unfortunately our photo and video opportunities were somewhat limited due to an inconsistent drizzle and rain. We finally reached Fish Creek around 1:20 PM. Arroyo Seco Del Diablo is definitely a trail worth doing as it has challenging sections and also some good scenery. Fish Creek was a scenic and uneventful trail and as it was raining we didn’t stop to hike up to the wind caves. We took Split Mountain Rd back to the 78 and got back to the 78 at about 2 PM. Form there we split up to go back home. Joel and I headed back up to the 76 again, while the rest went a more western route back to LA. After a long drive I got back home at about 12:00 AM on Monday.

All in all it was a great weekend with excellent wheeling, good camping and good food. Definitely a worthwhile trip even if the elements were against us at times.

Here is the Video!!