Day 2, Sunday: Rattlesnake Alley, outside Boise
Our first day of trails took us to a hidden rock canyon not far from Boise that our local trail leaders, Howard Shields and Bill Taylor, refer to as Rattlesnake Alley. The Idaho Off-Road 4x4 Club hosted our team of 20 vehicles and took us to one of the toughest trails in their neck of the woods. Now there weren't a lot of woods where we went but rather a deep canyon surrounded by acres and acres of prairie grass. It was pretty wild because had you been on one of the local two-lane roads you would never guess that there was a world-class rockcrawling trail just behind that pasture full of cows. If you want to try this trail for yourself, you'll need to contact the locals at www.idaho4x4.com, because it's not the easiest place to find.
Once you find the trail it is anything but easy. As with any trail, this canyon shouldn't be attempted alone, or in an unqualified vehicle. One reason for this is that the name Rattlesnake Alley refers to the many reptilian residents amongst the lava rock. Though we were lucky to only encounter one such rattler, he was as big around as a grown man's arm, and was armed with eight rows of rattles telling us to bug off. However, even if your personal body comes out unscathed from any slithering snakebites, it doesn't mean your 4x4 is going to be free of bites from vicious rocks. The volcanic boulders reside in a bed of loose sandy gravel, and though some seem attached to the center of the earth, many are as loose as marbles and move continuously about under tire treads.
The trail consists of boulders ranging from basketball to hay-bale size that continuously shift under the weight of vehicles, with even larger ones hiding in their midst ready to claw at clean paint jobs and virgin rock sliders. Then just to make sure that Warn, our Official Winch sponsor, didn't think we had ignored them, the trail concludes with not one but two extremely steep and extremely tight rocky wedge climbs that had most attendees pulling and double-pulling cable. Of course it only got more exciting when the scorching hot day was relieved in a chilly thunderstorm to make the remaining obstacles just that much more difficult. It was a trail worth the long trip there, and the perfect way to break in any Ultimate Adventure newbies.
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Thinking of Boise may not bring extreme rockcrawling to mind, but the Idaho Off-Road 4x4 c
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This first trail of Ultimate Adventure 2006 wasn't a warm-up trail, but rather a snake pit
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UA alumnus and TV show host Trent McGee brought back trail jester and breakfast cook Sam G
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What would a trail day be without some burning metal repairs? Pint-sized blacksmith Tim Ha
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Clifton Slay, proprietor of Poison Spyder Customs, went beyond the call of duty this year.
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The Rattlesnake Alley trail ends with a serious winching climb taller than the wheelbase o
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The guys from Fab Fours, Greg Higgs and R.J. Lynn, had a rough first day on the trail. Aft
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As stubborn as UA alumnus Tim Hardy is, even he opted for the eight-man winch system to he
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Before the end of the day a ferocious thunderstorm rolled in over our canyon of lava rocks