Badlands Corridor #109

by John Buell
Photos by The Rockahol-etts

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The US Forest Service describes Badlands Corridor #109 as "a designated route of varying width, often following a dry creek bed." Four-wheelers could add to this description with, "a great place to bend sheetmetal as your buddy watches from relative safety in 2-wheel-drive pick-up truck only yards away."

Dave West's '71 Cruiser sports a 350 Chevy and auto trans. Power reaches the 35" BFG's through stock axles and Lock-Rights. Rancho Springs, prototype fixed-end lift plates and Con-Ferr shackles provide the lift.

My Rockn FJ is powered by a 350 Chevy and SM-420 trans. Detroit EZ lockers turn Marlin's Marfields and 35" BFG's in perfect harmony. You will note that in some of the pictures that the fenders have been trimmed and stock springs now reside above the axles.

BC #109 is located less than two hours North of Los Angeles in the Los Padres National Forest. Yes kids, even though you have probably never heard of it, #109 is real, it's surrounded by designated wilderness, it's as tough as you make it and best of all, it's perfectly legal!

Mike Ismail from International Harvester Only, brought his '800 out for a test-run in Oil Pan Alley.	Tom Hasting's (a second generation 4wheel-fanatic)checking out one of the many "optional lines." His Toy crawls nicely with the aid of a Marlin Crawler dual transfer case, 4.88 gears and Detroit lockers.
Ken Hasting's V-8 powered '66 is a labor of love. Even without the aid of lockers or low-gears (call him stubborn), Ken consistently proves that experience and tenacity can overcome almost any obstacle.	Fellow Rockaholic Phil Aaland creeps with Marlin's gears, an Aussie 4 spd. and 4.88's with Detroits. Phils been wheelin' since I was a just a skinny kid and his experience shows.

The Rockaholics have been visiting BC #109 and it's tributaries, Stinky Springs and Oil Pan Alley, for about three years now. The canyon is normally dry, but El Nino really moved things around last year, making for some very interesting "optional lines." We even discovered mud last year in September! (OK, maybe it doesn't qualify as mud where you come from, but hey, this is Southern Calif.!!!)

Mike's '69 Scout runs the original 304, a T-98 and Dana 20 case. The custom Dana 60's with a Lock-Right in front and an Auburn spool in back turning Mosier 35 spline axles are stuffed with 5.88!! gears.

And thus the name,"Oil Pan Alley."

Opportunities to bend or break stuff abound on #109. Every obstacle in the main wash has a by-pass, making this a wonderful place to bring four-wheelin' friends of all abilities.

The Scout now runs 36" Military issue Hummer tires to keep the axles from dragin'. Mike wishes he had 'em right here!	From the injected V-8 to the NV-4500, Chuck Jenkins' rig oozes so many owner-built custom mods that it would take an entire article just to list them all. We'll just call it locked n' loaded.
Evan Jenkins (yup, Chuck's son) checkin' the flex in his '71 Cruiser which cradles a 350 Chevy and Turbo 350 trans. between the frame rails. Evan gave Dad a Warn 8274-50th Anniversary Issue winch for his birthday. Nice kid eh?	Happy Trails!

I would love to give you directions, but that would remove all of the adventure from the hunt, now wouldn't it? Break out your maps (perhaps a Thesaurus would help?), put on your thinking caps and meet us at Badlands Corridor #109 for a rock'n good time!

John Buell of the Rockaholics

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