As some of you may have seen, I'm starting an off-road build for my Blazer. Right now it's a completely stock 4 door LT.



Me and my significant other decided we wanted to have some fun since it was fairly warm for winter day in Nevada. We have 0 experience off-road driving, and heard that the road up to Peavine peak is fairly easy, and has some great views. This would also be a good benchmark to see what I should improve on first for my build.

We packed our stuff including some recovery gear that I picked up, and a set of walkie-talkies. We brought a shovel, and a recovery strap just in case. And we set off.

At first, I was quite scared that I would pop a tire because of the jagged rocks at the start of the path. We didn't deflate at all because we didn't have a pressure reader and didn't want to deflate an un-even amount. After a couple minutes the path smoothed out and we got to the first small cliff and got out to take pictures.


My Blazer on the left and my girlfriends Jeep on the right. She drives a 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee


Here she wants to pose for my photo. This was at the second checkpoint.


My turn to pose....

We continued up that path. Such amazing beautiful views. You never think that our ****ty little desert town could be so pretty, but then you get up there and it just feels so serene!

This is the only photo I took .


After we gazed at the city for a while we continued up. Passing the occasional Jeep and Toyota. Things were generally smooth. Little bit of snow here and there but not enough to slow us down.



We saw a nice little puddle of mud and decided to run our cars through it for the hell of it. I forgot my windows were down and I got mud all over the interior. LOL!
(We went to an outdoor car was afterwards and it cleaned up nicely.)

As we went on, there was a lot of snow on the ground. Pretty loosely packed. I wasn't sure if it was better to ride in the tracks made by other drivers or to ride over the fresh snow. I ended up in their tracks most of the way up until the snow got really thick.



We came across some Polaris or Razer off-road cars that were pulled over. (Not really sure which). They gave us a friendly smile and I went onward.

The picture doesn't do the amount of snow justice as it was quite difficult going up hill in it. I was sliding A LOT but my 4x4 was doing a damn good job keeping me going.

Then I hear my radio go off and my girlfriend say "Come-back... I'm stuck". I made a sketch U-turn because I didn't wanna roll down the cliff and I pulled over to make room for other vehicle to pass. Her Jeep's tires were all spinning in the snow. We tried shoveling first but still the RR tire was spinning with 0 grip. I tried turning the wheel left and right a bunch to maybe catch the front tires on something to no avail. After a while I was starting to think that I might need to pull her out. (I wanted to avoid that as she didn't have tow hooks anywhere visibly. ) I got in the drivers seat and successfully reversed out of here little pit. Then I turned her around.

That was pretty much the end of our trip and we decided to turn around as we didn't want to risk both of us getting stuck. I pretty much rode 1st gear the whole way down to save my brake pads.

Regardless, we had a bunch of fun and definitely want to do this again. We went to the carwash after to get all the mud and dirt off our cars. While we were washing we saw a bunch of smoke from that area. My guess is someone shooting (there were a lot) started a fire by accident. You could see and smell the smoke all through Golden Valley and Lemon Valley.

Now that I had my first off-road experience, I can't wait to do it again! Next time I want to bring some tire recovery tracks. Get some better tires, and definitely take more photos. I small lift would have also helped some of the snowy bits as I'm pretty sure snow was hitting my t-case on the way up.

Anyone else been up Peavine? Did you make it to the top? I was a little upset we couldn't finish, but when the snow melts, we'll give it another shot.

 

Those are some nice views! You'll have a lot more confidence when the blazer is setup a little more the way you want it. The jeep looks nice and solid as well, but those axles would work better under the blazer lol

 

Couldn't agree more. Personally not a fan of Jeeps at all due to reliability issues, but her suspension is exponentially more comfortable than mine. I can handle it for now, but I plan to get some nicer shocks soon. I just replaced them with more stock ones recently, so I might as well use them and get my money's worth.

 

Fun little trip!

Ditto on getting the recovery tracks. I have some small wimpy ones from Wally-Mart but they have definitely gotten a lot of use by me. I even had to use them to help a guy out in a 1/2 ton Dodge truck once.

I don't have much in the way of recovery gear but I do have a couple tow straps and I carry an adapter for a shackle that goes in my rear receiver. I used the later to help get a GFs 1/2 Ford pickup unstuck once. I am thinking about getting a proper recovery strap and I carry a come-along. Someday I might install a front receiver hidden behind the licence plate that I saw once so that I could carry a winch.

Something I carry during the winter and definitely during hunting season here in N. Idaho is two sets of tire chains (the link type) so I can have chains on the front and back. Either in mud or deep snow, they can really help get you unstuck, especially when you go into 4Lo.

 

Yeah I have a nice recovery strap with shackles. Recovery tracks and chains are on the list. I'm saving a lot of my cash for Dodge Challenger I've had my eyes on, so my Blazer upgrades are coming slower than I would like.

Honestly though, the walkie-talkies were the best call we made. Super helpful. 26 mile range and only about $40 for the pack of two.

This was a great first adventure however and I can't wait to do more.

 

Happy your first time was fun

 

Great write up and pics. Now that you have started off roading you are hooked! We try to go out at least once a week. You now also have an idea what mods will help. Lift, tires and self recovery gear are great but the#1 thing that will help and make it more enjoyable is experience.

 

I agree. This was a good benchmark. I know exactly would I could improve on now as well. Cant wait to do more.