Nissan Trail Ride - Wheelin' With the Nissans

There were a few odd Toyotas, Jeeps, and a Blazer mixed in with the Nissan majority. Leland O'Brien joined the group for the week in his Toyota FJ62.

Flipper Geiger scoots his '95 Pathfinder over a large sand berm. Negotiating his IFS rig with open front diff was a challenge on some obstacles, but his skill at driving helped keep him moving down the trail.

Dee Schauer idles her '02 Xterra down a steep, rutted descent headed toward Bartlett Lake. 3.92:1 transfer-case gears, an ARB locker, and Goodyear Wranglers helped her get to trail's end and back.

At the close of the week, the group handed out a number of fun awards. Mark Jobin easily won the long-distance award. He put over 3,000 miles on his '86 truck making the round trip from Laurel, Mississippi. He was a long way from Gulf Coast mud but loving the rockcrawling.

The broad washes in the Sycamore Creek area offer some fun running in the sandy soil. When torrents of flash-flood waters strike these canyons, they carve deep sand pits with vertical walls in the wash bottoms.

Keith Maddox earned the "Hot Wrench" award for the week by patching rigs back together with his onboard welder. His '98 Pathfinder is loaded with owner-fabbed goodies and proved to be quite capable on the trails.

A broad wash funnels into a rocky canyon on the Log Corral Trail. Here you'll find a challenging entrance followed by a boulder-strewn path. Water often flows in this wash after recent rains.