We went to FR402 Sugarloaf Mountain Road; it goes into the bottom of the Sycamore Creek Wash, crosses the wash and then more or less deadends in a camping area. Instead, we continued on FR1453 with a right turn into Sycamore Creek (was dry this time). The trail goes in and out of the creek bed, alternating bolders and sandy creek bottom. It is basically impossible to continue past the intersection/turnoff of FR1855 (getting very narrow with increasing size of bolders in the creek). So, we took FR1855 which runs in a wash, from which there are numerous exits, all look like ATV trails. We hung to the right, gets narrower and climbs out of the wash to the west on what are still pretty much ATV trails, but not too narrow. Beautiful desert, some off-camber spots that got me puckered. The trail becomes less traveled with time, and although it presumably at some point hooks up to FR1096, it was getting pretty rough, and we couldn't make out how much longer it would take. So, we decided to turn around, and then we both heard this knock-knock sound, 2 or 3 times. Michael gets out of his truck and discovers that the left front axle U-joint cap had popped. Since the same had happened in Moab last month on the other side, he knew what was involved. We decided to return the exact same way we came, and then, he started a wrneching session at home. Took just under two hours to replace the entire axle shaft with a spare. Good wheeling day.
Needless to say, cruiser nothing. It was fun. Claudia
Needless to say, cruiser nothing. It was fun. Claudia
