Trip Report for Nightmare Gulch, 10-21-2006

For those of you that missed the trip on Sunday, you missed a great trip.

As I was getting ready to leave on Friday, I started the slideout in and it wouldn't
go. The safety pin snapped. Three hours late and a new pin I was on the road.
Saturday, a few were expected to be there but do to unforseen/celestrial events no
one arrived. so I decided to drive Nightmare and see what had changed - A lot, which
made it a fun trail. After arriving back in camp I saw Richard, the local ranger,
who has several times told me about a few unnamed trails which very few people knew
about. After getting directions I found the trail and had a great time. Several
excellent waterfalls.
On Sunday the Daytrippers arrived just at 9. The weather was in the low 80's with a
slight breeze
Scott and Sarah
Robb
Damian
Eric- with his new XJ
Rick from Aftershock 4x4
Me and Nova

My pictures will be posted in the next few nights. I will assume the other
Photographers will post soon.
The pan was to do Nightmare - Last Chance and No Clue trail. We decided to call the
last trail that, because unless you had clue as to where it is, you had no clue
where it is, except in the El Paso mtns.

So we left for Nightmare. The trail has changed and we had a great time crawling
over sandstone. I managed to high center on the first big sandstone which required
Robb to act as an anchor point. Off the rock, we were on our way making it through
several very tight turns with just a few scatches, and none on the XJs the XJs.
Through the gulch we saw a Great Horned Owl with its nest high on a sandstone ledge.
It took about 1 1/2 hours to go through the Gulch and out on to Cudahay Mesa. After
a short break we headed towards Last Chance. The trail from Nightmare to Last Chance
has a few off camber turns and two steep downhills with tricky bottoms. On the first
long off camber downhill, we talked about for a while before they convinced me I
should be the first to go. Having made it down without any problems, the rest
followed.
The trail ends coming down a steep sandstone ledge and drops you off at the old
foundations just as you enter Last Chance.
There we had lunch around 1. After some good eats and Damian having a nap we headed
down Last chance. a lot of sand has been washed down so many of the rocky places are
filled in. At the V-Notch - myself, Rick and Scott went through. Robb and the XJ's
passed.
>From there we went to No Clue canyon. There are several outstanding waterfalls in
the short one mile trip. At the end there is a water fall steeper than Pumpkin
eater. We spent some time figuring out how we could roll a few rocks down the hill
to make the fall passable. But, rather than continue through, considering the time
- 4:30, we decided to head back and try the canyon another day. We decided it would
be nice to come back another time and make the waterfall passable. We figured it
would take about 2-3 hours of moving a few rocks.
I didn't get many pictures of No Clue canyon. Hopefully, other will post theirs.
After turning around and heading back down it took a while because several of the
waterfalls were a little tricky going down. They wanted to tip the jeeps over.
We arrived back on the road around 5. I left for Ricardo, while everyone else aired up.
As I finished loading up the motorhome and started to leave I heard a loud crunching
noise. Evidently, my automatic steps decided not to be automatic and they matched
faces with an immoveable rock. The rock won. - New set of automatic steps - $458 -
OUCH

It was a great day with great weather and friends - Sorry you missed it.

Pictures were found for this event!

V-notch Last Chance December 2006 Photo by John Cary

Our Trail dog - Nova Photo by John Cary