Socorro

[DirtyHarry]

I went down to Socorro last weekend for a quick trip with my friend Brian. The weather was kind of bad on Friday night but we still camped and it cleared up by Saturday. We ran a couple of easy washes on Friday and then we ran Bad Hair Day on Saturday morning to get warmed up.

 

[DirtyHarry]

After that we headed to a trail called "Squeeze Canyon". Brian told me that he could do the hard part of the trail (about 300 yards) in under 10 minutes, and I took him up on the bet. I thought that it looked pretty bad, but he had done it before and I had not.

 

[DirtyHarry]

He made it through in seven minutes and won the bet. I should have known better than to take my nice shiny truck through a trail called 'Squeeze Canyon", but Brian made it look so easy (with his fullwidth axles and narrow flatfender body) that I thought it would be fine.

 

[DirtyHarry]

In the end I made it through, but it took me 45 minutes. At one point Brian said "Uh... I think that you might want to take your doors off" so I did, and it was a good thing! I ended up putting a couple of small dents in the bed, but otherwise was OK. I could not get around the big rock on the passenger side (in the first photo), so I ended up just going over it. Not sure if many of you guys have wheeled much down there but there is a little bit of everything and it is pretty close to home.

 

[OGBeno]

Bad ass Harry....that's what I am talking about.

Can you give us some more information on the trails, their locations, etc.? This looks like a nice two day run--wheel, camp, wheel.

Cheers!
-onur

 

[DirtyHarry]

Bad ass Harry....that's what I am talking about.

Can you give us some more information on the trails, their locations, etc.? This looks like a nice two day run--wheel, camp, wheel.

Cheers!
-onur

Yeah I think that you would like it down there Onur. The area is called Gordy's Hill, it is actually northeast of Socorro. Directions here:

Gordy's Hill OHV Area - US-Parks.com

There are at least 8 different trails down there varying from your standard arroyo like you would find out in the Puerco to crazy insane obstacles worthy of Las Cruces. I don't have any GPS coordinates unfortunately, but I would be happy to go back down there or at the least put you in touch with one of the local Socorro guys from New Mexico Tech.

 

[DanS HJ-45]

Man, those dents hurt to see. Maybe it's because I've spent 8 full days (sunup to sundown) in the past two weeks just repairing a spot where someone dragged Dad's 40 along a rock years and years ago (and filled it with bondo), but man....

I need to get a trail truck someday. That looks like too much fun Harry. I like the blue H-S sticker on his front bumper too.

Dan

 

[DirtyHarry]

I need to get a trail truck someday. That looks like too much fun Harry. I like the blue H-S sticker on his front bumper too.

I have a lot of stickers if anyone wants them. Burlap trash bags too. I am trying to build brand awareness.

 

[OGBeno]

I have a lot of stickers if anyone wants them. Burlap trash bags too. I am trying to build brand awareness.

I'm always into swag....



You have PM.

 

[sirenmoses]

I'm trippin on the forest service green....

'esplain about the HS sticker??

I'm into swag also -- once I get around to cleaning up my SpaceCase & purtyn up my trailer, it'll be time to place the 4wd/yota stickers I've been collecting.

 

[evanz80]

Harry - Very cool pictures and story. I'm sure you hadn't thought of this, but it sounds like a good magazine article!

That's quite a buggy that your buddy has, and good thing that you took your doors off. It's OK that you got a couple of battle scars on your bed. You wouldn't want people thinking that you drive a poser truck.

 

[Beowulf]

We've had several club events at Gordy's Hill but we selected trails that were more appropriate for wagons. We had the FJCruiser Trail Team event down there the first year, a month or two after the FJ Cruisers were on the market. That might have been the last time we were down there.

Camping at the trailhead can be miserable if the wind is blowing. We took the TT up Water Canyon and camped just below the Langmuir Lab facility on top of South Baldy. Nice camping spot and it only took about an hour to get back to the Gordy's hill area.

-Mike-

 

[OGBeno]

We've had several club events at Gordy's Hill but we selected trails that were more appropriate for my wagon.

Edited for clarity. ;p

I think now I know where this is. I'm just trying to place the trail head for Gordy's Hill.

Definitely going to be hitting this one up.

 

[marcfj60]

This is extremely close to Socorro. I'll bet if you do like Harry suggested and get in touch with one of the NM Tech Off-road club guys, they'll meet you there and show you all the worst/best runs.

 

[SteveLCetc]

Here's the staging area:

 

[DirtyHarry]

I forgot about the Trail Team going down there, that was quite a while ago. And you are right about the weather Mike, the wind can whip through there and there are not a lot of places to find cover. We camped and it was not too bad fortunately. I would love to do a story on the trails at Gordy's Hill, but I talked to Mark Werkmeister from NMORVA and he said since the Resource Management Plan is not finalized he would like to hold off on any articles and I am respecting his wishes.

 

[SteveLCetc]

Here are some pics from the Trail Team trip with staging area and view above a rocky area in the streambed -it has a name but I can't remember it.