Rockcrawling the Isham Canyon Trail - Part 1 of Ultimate Adventure 2016 - video Dailymotion

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00:00 (dramatic music)

00:02 - Welcome to day one of Ultimate Adventure.

00:11 (cheering)

00:13 Fred scouted where we're going today,

00:15 so I'm gonna hand it over to Fred.

00:16 He's our trail boss for the day.

00:18 - Hey guys.

00:19 (cheering)

00:21 All right, so we are gonna drive about an hour this morning

00:24 to the trailhead.

00:25 We're gonna go to a town called Trona.

00:27 The trail is tight, rocky, hot.

00:31 Watch out for snakes, watch out for scorpions, bears.

00:36 It's gonna be really hot out there.

00:39 Ready to roll out at 7.30.

00:40 Everybody fueled up, have food, have waters.

00:43 - It's the 2016 Peterson's Four Wheel

00:46 and Off-Road Ultimate Adventure.

00:48 I'm editor-in-chief Christian Hazel,

00:50 and this year we're taking you away

00:52 on some of the most legendary bucket list trails in the USA.

00:56 As usual, participants have no idea where they're heading.

01:00 For day one, we're hitting Isham Canyon Trail.

01:04 It's a hardcore rock crawl trail

01:05 about an hour north of Ridgecrest, California.

01:08 (dramatic music)

01:12 This year, there are 18 rigs on the Ultimate Adventure.

01:26 Of course, we have our sponsors,

01:28 without whom the Ultimate Adventure wouldn't be possible,

01:31 and a motley cast of characters,

01:32 including the Four Wheel and Off-Road staff,

01:35 your favorite cronies, and new and returning readers.

01:38 - Ben Mann from Delano, Minnesota.

01:41 First time reader selected for the 2016 Ultimate Adventure.

01:45 I'm the small tire guy of the group here

01:47 with a 2003 Grand Cherokee on 35,

01:49 so I'm sure the day will be plenty interesting.

01:52 - Hey everybody, I'm Wayne Lambert from Hermosa Beach.

01:54 I'm one of the voted in readers

01:56 for Ultimate Adventure 2016,

01:58 and I'm driving this Chevy K30 you see in the background.

02:01 - I'm Robert Keller, I'm from Delan, Florida,

02:04 and I'm this year's returning reader

02:05 on Ultimate Adventure, and I can't wait.

02:07 - With the tire pressure dropped

02:10 and the thermometer climbing, we make for the trailhead.

02:13 Four Wheel and Off-Road editor at large, Fred Williams,

02:21 led the group up Isham Canyon

02:22 in last year's official UA vehicle,

02:24 the Ultimate Summer Camp Jeep.

02:27 It's a '46 CJ2A with a supercharged 6.2 liter LSA engine

02:31 and 38 inch Falcon Wildpeak MT.

02:34 I'm driving the 2013 UA Super Dirty.

02:39 It's a full-size F250 that's a lot of truck

02:42 for this type trail, but the 38 inch Falcons

02:45 and off-road design Magnum box

02:47 add a major amount of capability and control.

02:49 - Chris Durham and Fred Perry coming up

02:53 on one of the first obstacles on Isham Canyon.

02:56 These guys drove this Jeep out here from South Carolina.

02:58 We're out here in the deserts of California.

03:00 We're gonna work our way up through here

03:01 and keep on trucking, trying to keep cool today.

03:04 - This 2005 TJ Unlimited was piloted

03:07 by father and son team Andrew and Drew Hoyt.

03:10 They're representing Falcon Tires,

03:12 the official tire sponsor of Ultimate Adventure.

03:15 Bubber Rope is the official recovery rope

03:17 of Ultimate Adventure.

03:19 Rich Conlin and Jim Grass made the trip

03:21 on Rich's '08 Wrangler Unlimited.

03:24 We had another father and son team

03:25 for the official transfer case of UA

03:27 with off-road design Stephen and James Watson

03:30 and Stephen's super capable '81 Chevy K30.

03:33 After a few years away, Skyjacker is back in its role

03:39 as official suspension of the Ultimate Adventure.

03:42 Lonnie McCurry Jr. and Diller De La Salle

03:44 took the patriotic '11 Wrangler Unlimited

03:47 through all the hard lines.

03:49 This year, Rugged Radios came aboard

03:50 with the official communications of Ultimate Adventure

03:53 and ended the garbled CB experience once and for all.

03:56 Mike Rizica and Steve Bichard made everything look easy

03:59 in Mike's '97 TJ.

04:01 Longtime sponsor Power Products Unlimited was back

04:07 as the official retailer of the Ultimate Adventure

04:09 and so was Cooper Rasmussen

04:11 and his '75 Cherokee affectionately known as Grandma.

04:15 It just wouldn't be Ultimate Adventure

04:18 without Warren on board as the official winch.

04:21 This year, off-road legends Chris Durham and Fred Perry

04:24 represented Warren in Durham's awesome two-door 2010 JK.

04:29 - Everything's going really good up there

04:37 and everything's really good back there.

04:39 It's right here that we have a couple of problems.

04:41 There's some rocks, but we're getting it figured out.

04:44 A lot of times people get into a place

04:46 where they need to back up a long ways

04:48 and they back up a little ways.

04:50 See, he backed way up and now he's got his tires

04:52 out where he needs to be.

04:54 - Our very own tech editor Vern Simons

04:58 finished his '49 Willys pickup

05:00 literally hours before the start of UA.

05:02 Apparently, this is how Vern breaks in a new trail rig.

05:11 (engine rumbling)

05:14 - Sometimes Jeeps fall down, usually when I'm driving them.

05:22 - Honestly, he turned over, but we were pulling

05:26 the rear plugs to check if there was oil in the cylinder

05:31 and there was, so it was a good thing we checked.

05:33 We lost the motor if we wouldn't have.

05:36 - I'm just happy like none of the glass is broken.

05:39 (engine rumbling)

05:41 - I'm in the 2013 Ultimate Adventure Super Dirty.

05:53 It's a 2013 6.7 liter power stroke

05:57 super duty that we built.

06:00 Took a standard cab, long bed, made it into a short bed.

06:04 It's got a portal axles, the axle detect portals under it,

06:07 off-road design, Magnum box T case,

06:10 which I've got both units in low right now.

06:13 And I'm using the hell out of the lockers.

06:17 This is a pretty good climb we're staring down right now.

06:21 This thing doesn't like to turn so sharply.

06:24 Trent McGee is one of the few people

06:28 who has been on every Ultimate Adventure

06:30 since the first one in 1999.

06:33 He's back in his '97 Wrangler base buggy.

06:36 (engine rumbling)

06:38 - We had a meeting trying to figure out

06:40 how we could put the smoke back in the little motor.

06:43 We finally gave up on that.

06:45 So now we're gonna try and mount fan

06:49 from like three different things with some bailing wire.

06:52 Might even throw a little duct tape into the mix

06:54 'cause America.

06:55 We're gonna make a fan out of duct tape in America.

06:58 - Long time UA crony support staffer,

07:04 Keith Bailey is a wealth of off-road know-how

07:06 and when called upon can help fix any mechanical problem

07:10 or just show you a better line through the trail.

07:12 - So we've got a truck hung up on the rocks.

07:20 We're gonna use this Ultimate Adventure bubble rope

07:23 and a synthetic shackle to go around this rock

07:26 and slide him over and get him out.

07:28 (indistinct chatter)

07:31 Had a lot of help from the off-road design,

07:36 Doubler, the Warren winch, the bubble rope.

07:39 - Just did a pretty gnarly rock trail.

07:45 It was several times harder than anything

07:48 I'd ever done in this truck, that's for sure.

07:50 - Doing pretty good today.

07:51 It's a good obstacle.

07:52 Little tight on the big rigs.

07:56 Fun little obstacle, you get a little off camber,

07:58 it's a little tight there.

08:00 - A lot of big loose rock.

08:03 Makes some good crawling for the day like today.

08:07 - The cronies ensure Ultimate Adventure

08:12 keeps moving no matter what.

08:13 Sam Gillis has been an important member

08:15 of the Ultimate Adventure for years

08:17 and together with his '09 Liberty-based Alabama tube buggy

08:21 has helped countless UA participants

08:23 make it to the end of the trail in one piece.

08:26 This was Dave Chappelle's first year

08:48 as an official UA crony.

08:49 His super cool '73 Hilux is definitely capable,

08:53 but his power steering system

08:54 didn't like the 120 degree temps we encountered.

08:57 (engine revving)

09:00 (engine revving)

09:03 (engine revving)

09:05 (engine revving)

09:11 (engine revving)

09:17 (engine revving)

09:22 (engine revving)

09:29 (engine revving)

09:32 (engine revving)

09:47 - No, turn passenger Lonnie.

09:54 (engine revving)

10:00 - Here's where I'm at.

10:01 Trying to fix the U-joint on the front.

10:07 (metal clanking)

10:10 - It's been a pretty hot, long, hard, tight trail,

10:17 but it's also been a lot of fun.

10:19 It's been challenging.

10:20 Got a few scratches, broke a reverse light.

10:23 But those are all just character marks for the Jeep.

10:27 It just shows you actually get out here and use it,

10:29 and it's not just to look pretty.

10:31 So it's been a great first day.

10:32 - Today was our first off-road day of the 2016 UA,

10:38 and it was awesome.

10:39 We hit a wash, and as we went further,

10:42 it got harder, more difficult.

Rockcrawling the Isham Canyon Trail - Part 1 of Ultimate Adventure 2016

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