Not a lot can top four-wheeling on a warm, sunny day near one of the Colorado River’s premier lakes, Lake Havasu. While our April Lake Havasu run mirrored the Sidewinder 4X4 Club’s weekend event, we just sort of did our own thing.

We ran three trails on Saturday and combined them into one 6 hour trailride. After a somewhat lengthy trip down a washboard riverbed, we hit the first trailhead. Almost immediately we came upon the first obstacle, a steep waterfall followed by a hard right turn over another rocky ledge. This was typical for the day – 100 yards of sandy wash followed by a rock obstacle, with this repeated over and over again. It was great.

The day’s obstacles ranged from steep waterfalls to tight squeezes to off-camber turns, with all of them on unforgiving, metal bending rock. A few in our group earned some new stripes from rocks that seemed to reach out and grab you. Occasionally, we would see the official Sidewinders run but they never followed us up any of the canyons we were in.

One of the larger optional waterfalls prompted us to break out the safety strap in case of a bad slip during the climb. The front ends sure feel light when they’re pointing nearly vertical.

While at The Squeeze, spotting was the key. Without a good spotter and a perfect line, it would be nearly impossible to not clip a right front fender, a left rocker, or any other vulnerable piece of unprotected sheetmetal.

We finished our run around 2 pm and headed in for Happy Hour. This is a great spot and will surely be on our list of favorite trail areas.

Attendees: Skip, John, Ed, Mike, Rocky & Patti, Glenn & Karen, and Tom & Lawana