We saw 3 other rigs on the trail system... all were trailered in and they were real rock crawlers.

Went with a Cherokee... 6 in lift, 33" locked ft and rear. Me in a d1 2 in" lift, 265/75 locked ft and rear.

The trail destroyed us. It was just over 1 mile long and we started at 11:30 thinking that we would have plenty of time. The first mile was very fast... we hit the bottom by 4;30 and I was thinking that I would be home by 6:00 with 1/2hr drive time.

That's when things went bad. There was a large obstacle that I wedged my tries between and turned my panhard rod into a nice v. No problem... I had a spare and 10 min later I pulled up behind the jeep. Time to move on and finish the ride. As we started the jeep's track rod broke. It didn't bend, it snapped at the link. He didn't bring a spare so we had to do a bit of trail side repair and got it rigged up enough to work.

Onward we go. We had about 300 ft of up hill treacherous obstacles but I was feeling good about things. We got the jeep up about 20 feet and strung the cable and began winching up the first vertical. The problem was the rock face was higher than his hood... real tough to get a tire on that so we had to get him off camber. Meanwhile, his track rod broke again and severed his front left brake line. Fifteen min. to fix that and move on. Got 6 feet forward and the off camber put him into the side of the rocks. I had to come from behind and with a snatch block pull his ass end out and he started moving again, then he started rolling the other direction and almost went over but I was able to real in the winch and keep him from rolling completely on his side.

After we got him up to a flat spot it was my turn. Snapped my winch cable and lost every thing but 1 1/2 wrap. We clamped the hook to the remaining cable and tried it again and broke it again.

Fast forward... got up to the wall and while attempting to clime it I broke the winch motor off... winch out of commission, but finally made it to the flat spot in total darkness. It was about 8:30 by this point. The rest of the trail should be easy.

And it was for about 25 feet and then we were back in the crap again. Jeep lost his ft locker and broke the track rod 3 more times but we eventually got him out of the trail. I was a different story. I got hung up on a rock and broke my track rod. I have 3 sitting at home and not one of them managed to come with me on this trip. I had forgot to put them back in the truck the night before.. Rigged the rod and tried to power over the obstacle... I was really wishing I had the winch. Pop... front right axle. Jeep comes back and tries to pull me... finally got me dislodged but the the track rod broke again and I had no steering, I smashed the front right fender into a rock. Can't open the pass door and mushed my hood up, but I was over. Had to stop and pull my bumper away from my tire...it was making a horrible noise as I moved forward. With the bumper safely out of the way I started again. Uh, oh....same noise, it wasn't my bumper making noise it was my left front axle. Now I am rear wheel drive, no winch and my buddies winch is 8k, and was not very happy at this point, and we sill have 50' to go and it is 11:00pm and starting to get cold. High lift time. Lift the rear, rocks under the tires and drive off the lift. It worked, I am now 3 more feet closer. Had to use the lift 4 more times. Being scared to death of the high lift I am very careful and always position myself as far out of the way as possible. Well, the lift slipped and whacked my hand, I thought it broke my hand, but it just hurt like hell.

Now I am starting to worry that I may not be able to get the truck out. We were so tired and frustrated that I thought about leaving it an coming back today but we forged on.

There was a big rock that I had to go around and required me to go off camber again. So off camber I go....and fell into the rock, which was a good thing because I was not completely on my side. I had to look out the sunroof to see to my right side. This was a rather frustrating situation, I could see the trail head but I couldn't get to it. 12:00 am now. I'm thinking, "my wife is gonna be pissed."

The jeep is at the trail head at a 90 degree angle from me but there were good trees. I radio him that I am in a rather precarious position so we ran a snatch and hooked to the roof rack to pull my driver's side back down while I finish the turn. It worked and I got around the rock. 20' feet to go up a section that would have been extremely difficult with a functional rig but with lots of rock stacking and winching we finally made it to the top. VICTORIOUS!

I beat Independence.

Of course my rig is not drivable or trail ready right now and probably won't be for a little while to come."