Photo Album link made public - apologies for early viewers.

Picasa Web Albums - Karl - Borrego 2008

Here is a sample.
Phots by Arkarch, VegasMatt, MattM

Picasa Web Albums - Karl - Borrego 2008

 

Quickie Report...

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is located an hour and half east of Escondido CA, northeast of San Diego CA. This is primarily desert environment, though the drive in on 78 is rural coastal California traveling through the communities of Romana and Julian. Great Apple Pie seems to be the popular food item in the area and thats where we met our trail guides for the day - at Dudley's Bakery in San Ysabel.

Touareg participants included Arkarch (myself) and VegasMatt. Another of our radio group MattM came out with his Jeep Rubicon 2003. I followed up on an offer with FJ'er Ollie from OutdoorAdventureUSA who led the group. His tailgunner was FJ'er Frogeye. Both are veterans of the Ouray FJ Summit and Moab events, and run the San Diego trail network most every weekend.

Once in the park area, we took Oriflame Canyon to get on the dirt fast and bypass a section of Highway 78. This trail is mostly hilly dirt road on the front end, winding into a shelf road with a couple switchbacks and rock holes to navigate through. Its a good trail, kinda like Colorado's Corkscrew through a rural Southern California setting.

We then traveled past a few other communities to make our way to Arroyo Seco Del Diablo, a canyon gated by a very sandy Diablo Drop-off.

The approach was mostly driving through wide (100') canyons, breaking into a wide bowl. Then dropped into Vallecito Canyon before heading into Arroyo Seca Del Diablo proper.

We made a pass through a slightly challenging notch, then back into the flat before reaching the vista of Diablo Drop-off. The drop-off is pretty much one way - its a very sandy stepped descent down a steep slope. Once down, it is unlikely without a very custom rig to climb up out of this sand trap; our Rubicon friend was barely able to make progress on the way back up and eventually needed to be winched out by our FJ lead. Most of us waited until VegasMatt and Ollie confirmed their was a viable way out with the Touaregs.

With the green flag, we took the Diablo Drop-off, which includes several tiers down into a lower canyon. Then we reached a 200' section of rock garden to bring the Touaregs through. With the steel and 32" tires, we still could have used a bit more clearance - our break-overs required rock stacking in places. An Air Suspension'd Touareg with 32" tires should be able to work this with reasonable spotting. We made it too!

The major obastacle in Diablo was as intense as one can get running a Tourareg over a boulder trail. Yes we were bumping out bottom, draggin over the rockers and pivoting on mounts. In short, we exercised every spec on the vehicle - approach, departure, breakover - dealing with both rock gardens and fine sand throughout. While we dont have Jeeps, Touaregs can make these big trails - so long as you are patient and have fine spotters and guides to keep you out of trouble.

Right behind us, a driver of a stock 4Runner pretty much destroyed is running rails working through the rock garden, then fully high centered on the final boulder. The sound of rock and metal by this guy... ouch!

Once out of Diablo, we travelled through flat Fish Creek Canyon, then to Split Mountain for the group shot, and then emptied out back to the highway for a bit of air-up.

We'll be out there again.... Fonts Point awaits, as well as Sandstone and Coyote Creek.

 

Really cool, Karl.

Do I see an air suspended Treg in your future?

While obviously different, it reminded me of passages on Hell's Revenge in Moab.

Rick

 

Well, I'm RJ's list with Air and Rear Diff being two critical options.

I did see the US-edition Touareg V6 TDI first hand today, roaming the LA Auto Show with VegasMatt. He'll post a report soon; I left the battery for my cam in the car so he took all the pix.

The pix here flatten out some of those obstacles. In particular, Diablo Drop-off is very far down. I got to construct a pan to capture it. On the boulder crawl - we were pivoting on the rear bolts and having otherwise too much fun with breakover angle... 3 inches would help immensely!

We just got back to Vegas. Both Touareg's made it well.

 

And how did i miss this

On the third picture from the top, i see dangerous cornering. Did it damage your vehicle?

 

On the third picture from the top, i see dangerous cornering. Did it damage your vehicle?

Nope, didn't touch at all. It was very close though from my understanding. From the drivers' seat it looked close, in the pics it looks really close! But no, it didn't touch.

Matt

 

...and a good time was had by all!

Yeah, the rock garden was, ahem, a wee bit more than I had thought it might be when I road down there in Ollie's seriously modified FJ. But, in the end, the Touaregs made it through without much damage, if any at all. Had I still been running the street tires, there's no way that I could have made it thru there though. As Arkarch pointed out, an air-suspended Touareg would be better, with air and oversize tires being the absolute best Touareg for this run. It was definitely not a low-riders kind of road, that's for sure!

At the risk of getting flamed, I do have to admit it was pretty cool seeing the modded FJs and our buddies' Rubicon going through the obstacles with relative ease. An air-suspended Touareg would be much more at home in the tough rock garden sections than the steelies were, as breakover angle became the foe of the day for us. Air on 32's would have made line choices much simpler. But for 99% of what we did, Ol' Blue did just fine, without any bumping around underneath except in the aforementioned rock garden area.

Overall, though, it was truly a fun outing. Fantastic scenery, some fun obstacles and great new friends really made for a great time!

Matt

 

...and a good time was had by all!

Yeah, the rock garden was, ahem, a wee bit more than I had thought it might be when I road down there in Ollie's seriously modified FJ. But, in the end, the Touaregs made it through without much damage, if any at all. Had I still been running the street tires, there's no way that I could have made it thru there though. As Arkarch pointed out, an air-suspended Touareg would be better, with air and oversize tires being the absolute best Touareg for this run. It was definitely not a low-riders kind of road, that's for sure!

A good note in all this was that we wheeled the area with experienced offroad guides who knew the area. The particular obstacle in question had been bantered by email all week so when we got to the no-return drop-off, VegasMatt travelled ahead with Ollie to personally scout the location in his very-modified FJ before we took our Touaregs into a potential trap.

As it turned out, we got the go-ahead after the scouting trip to plunge down the no-return Diablo drop-off and were able to get through the rock garden fairly cleanly.

I can tell you a 29" stock steel Touareg without a trail buddy and straps/winch would have been in a bad situation in that garden. We have 32" tires on steel susp and that was close enough. Even with an air-suspended with 32", I would highly recommend finding someone who had done Arroyo Seca Del Diablo or any difficult trail before setting out on an expedition.

 

For commentary from Ollie, Frogeye, and the rest from OutdoorAdventureUSA, here is the link to the thread....

http://www.oausa.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=896

Lots more pix there.

 

well gentlemen, now that you are comfortable with the trail, i definitely hope that next trip will be announced, so that few more of us could join.
VegasMatt, if I'm not mistaken, yours Touareg is black. Do you use any protection against scratches?

 

I think i'm color blind, your Treg is blue

 

Actually, depending on where you look, you might be seeing black and blue. There are some bruised places underneath

I have a bunch of pinstriping that I need to buff out. I'm pretty sure 90-95% will buff out, but the others I'm not sure of. The only really bad pinstripe situation I ran into was Big Bear this past spring, where we ended up on a not-so-maintained trail that was extremely narrow.

Basically, I wanted to get at least this years' wheeling done (which seems to be over, sadly enough) before I buffed it, so I can do as few buffing sessions as possible.

Protection-wise, I really have done nothing, but it is definite need of a good detail now.

Matt

 

In regard to protection, there are a few film-based applications that would be useful paint-protection. I might do it on my next vehicle.

A good detail job can really work or hide any scratches. Running through brush is not the best thing and we did take a beating in Big Bear on an unmaintained trail.

As to color - well, in the heat of battle our cameras are not always set up correctly - everything from exposure settings to white balance.

The gatherings to watch for - Colorado Rally in Ouray usually in mid to late July and is where most of us met and learned to offroad the Touareg - and yes its more than pushing pedals and turning wheels - lots of settings and situations to learn - and its better to learn with fellow Touareg offroaders. Some of us also gather for Moab in mid-May, usually those who have done the Colorado Rally.

Since we now know a number of trails in AB and Big Bear, someone could put together a Winter Rally for SoCal. For more SoCal meets, I recommend checking out OutdoorAdventureUSA (Welcome to Outdoor Adventure USA, LLC - Everyone deserves to be outdoors.). There is usually a trip or two every weekend; and they put on a BorregoFest every year - but they wont teach you how to offroad the beast.

I'll be swapping tires today - from the BFG AT KO's to the GY Triple-Treds. Its winter now - the rains are coming, and my next likely offroading opportunity may be Mojave Road in February, more likely something in April in SoCal or Moab in May.

But then, I may be swapping vehicles, so this may have been the last hard offroading for my V6 Colorado Red. Now if I can only convince VWOA to sell me the next in Colorado Red (or better, the new Corvette Red I saw at the LA Auto Show).

 

Now if I can only convince VWOA to sell me the next in Colorado Red (or better, the new Corvette Red I saw at the LA Auto Show).

I believe that 'Vette red was Crystal Red Tintcoat, and damn was it a pretty color! Now, how to get a bucket of that over to Slovakia for your next T...

Matt

 

Great report. Great pics. Sorry I couldn't make it.

I've done that exact sequence in my Touarerg... Only in reverse and had no problem making it up Diablo Dropoff.

 

Are guys running the stock skid 'plates'?

 

Yes they are.

 

Yep, we are.

We place our tires on the high spots, so if there is any scrape or bump, the rocker panels take the brunt. And they have over time.

We have been looking at some ideas to strengthen that, including the rocker panels found on the Cayenne Transsyberian.