"Trail maintenance" on Old Flowers Road

SARCruiser · 08-26-09, 12:18 AM

I thought I'd share this with some local folks who'd appreciate it.

Took a trip up to Old Flowers this last weekend with my 18-year-old brother in law and his 88 Runner, nice easy trail for him to learn to 4-wheel on. On the way up, once we were on the dirt road coming up from Rist Canyon, we met a TON of people going the other way (mostly Jeeps). Way more than normal, even for a busy trail. The third or fourth person flagged us down and told us that there was a car blocking the road about a mile up the trail. We decided to press on and see what all the fuss was about. Sure enough, about a mile up the road we found this:

Ya, that's a Buick Skylark. Got himself solidly wedged with a bumper on either side of the road, popped a tire and put a small hole in his oil pan...then again, that could have been from the clip of .45 and .22 ammo that someone put into the side of the car before we got there... Doors were unlocked and there were a couple cans of O'Douls in the passenger seat. Wish I could say that may have been a contributing factor but that would just be sad.

Tow strap and a little right foot later...

As we were almost off the trail up by Pingree we came across a very pissed off looking later middle-aged guy going the other way with a very clueless looking younger fellow in the passenger seat. Mr. Clueless was apparently the driver of the Buick. They were very grateful that we moved it out of the middle of the road as that was what they had come to attempt. We tried to explain to Mr. Clueless that someone had shot his car... took about three tries before it really sank in. Oh, did I mention dad drove his son up there to pull out his son's Buick in a CR-V?

Buick (and operator) FAIL!

FJ40zen · 08-26-09, 07:09 AM

Good job picking up trash, er GM's on the trail!! Seems like the parent was very embarrassed to bring his son back to clean up the mess huh, especially in a "Trail Ready" CR-V.

On another note, I also heard that the upper end of the trail is looking very rocky, but I have not been up there for about 5 years. I am curious though...

SARCruiser · 08-27-09, 11:55 AM

The western end of the trail is strewn with lots of loose rocks from golf ball to basket ball sized and a couple good wash-outs from all the rain we've gotten lately. The one steep hill about 2/3 of the way to the west has gotten a little interesting with all the loose rocks, but nothing too crazy. Trail was mostly dry this day, couple small mud puddles but nothing a stock 1st gen runner couldn't handle with ease.