This report to Fargo Canyon may be short and full of errors since it comes from the memory of a poor old man who wasn't assigned to do it in the first place. In fact you can see that it is #2 because Montego did remember that he was assigned to do it, but when I asked, Fearless couldn't remember if he told him to or not. Since I'd already done it, it's #2.

It all starts in the normal manner on Friday at 8PM at Winchell's. The showups are: The Fearless Leader and Rhonda, me (Rooster), Russ and Terry, Montego, Pappy and Nancy, and Lauren----- 6 vehicles.

We leave on time just as Montego shows up and catches us as we get on the freeway. We work our way through traffic and at Coal Canyon road, pick up Scarecrow and Casper, Knucklehead and friend, and new guy Steve--- now up to 9 vehicles.

We have a smooth trip down to Dillon Road in Indio where we gas up and hit the dirt. After only one wrong turn, the Leader gets us up the canyon to a pretty good campsite and after setting up and winding down from the drive, we hit the sack.

Saturday morning is looking nice; perfect weather. On the CB, we hear Iceman and eventually he shows up with the Chickenhawk and friend--- now 11 vehicles.

We head up the inaccessible Rockhouse Canyon and find out it is quite accessible due to some freeway rock stacking by previous hardcore wheelers. There are still some good spots though and as usual, Montego gets stuck from time to time. Different vehicle (new TJ), different time, same place, same driver, same results, but he gets through. Although we run into nothing tremendously difficult, some good driving is turned in by Lauren, Nancy, and new Steve with his Toyota truck. Pappy also gets stuck, but I don't see it, and the next time I see his vehicle, Nancy is driving. Near the top of Rockhouse Canyon, we turn down a side canyon we know is blocked further down by a drop off, but we want to see how close we can get. The first obstacle is a very tight spot between a high rock on one side and a pointy rock on the other side. The high rock has a tendency to push your vehicle into the pointy one right below the driver's side door. The Leader gets stuck there big time and has to resort to a highlift jack for the first time in my memory, and I've been in the club for 16 years. After he gets through, we knock about 3 inches off the point with a hammer. I put my right wheels on the high side, and go right through. Next comes the Iceman and it is not pretty. We stack rocks and Chickenhawk highlifts and Iceman cries until we get him back off the thing with little or no damage. Pappy goes through, but the trail ends around the corner so we turn around and just go back through and continue back up the canyon. We come up out of Rockhouse and follow a trail across the ridges and small valleys to a steep, loose, downhill. After we are all down, Pappy decides he is going back up. After he makes it and blows everybody's mind, Knucklehead has to try. That is when disaster begins. Knucklehead makes it up to within 20-30 feet, but can't get over the ridge, so Pappy decides to winch him the rest of the way. After hooking up, he decides to try to back up to dig in a little to get stable. Something breaks, and although he gets Knucklehead up the rest of the way, he has nothing happening in the front end and the rear end swings around and starts down hill off the side of the road. Although he removes the front drive shaft, he is still stuck with the rear end off the road and moving downhill when he tries to go in 2 wheel drive. So I take the Roostermobile back up using a bypass that is even looser than the steep side but not as steep. After winching Pappy back on the road, we are able to get down with the rest of the group. We manage to get to our new camp with no further major problems, and settle down to fix our dinner over the fire. After dinner, it's old stale jokes, Pepermint Schnapps and hot chocolate (thank you Terry), and a taste or two of Tequila. Most of us go to bed early with perfect sleeping weather, about 65 deg. During the night, a coyote comes almost into camp and starts howling. Although we have three dogs with us, I don't hear any of them answer.

The next morning, Pappy, Nancy, and Lauren leave early with his broken vehicle. We go out the mouth of Fargo Canyon and turn on the graded road we had turned around on Friday night. After mile upon mile of a pretty well graded but dusty road, the Leader wants to find an interesting trail shown on his map. Russ and Terry decide to go home and the rest of us follow the Leader out into a wash through brush, choya cactus and ten million boulders. The Leader gets stuck a couple of times and Montego too, but we eventually find the road and follow it down to the main road and mark it for next time. Now it is time for hamburgers, so we drive back to Indo to 'In and Out'. The drive home is uneventful except that I am 'tail end' and when the club goes south on the 215 from the 10, a truck cuts me off and I end up driving home alone by way of the 10 to the 15 to the 60 to the 57 to the 91 north to the 110 to home. All in all, perfect weather, good friends, and good 4 wheeling.

Rooster