Back to my story… Beyond the first mile, the trail improves and I'm progressing towards the river when I hit my first stretch of sand. Feeling my 10,000-pound truck slide around in the sand is an eerie feeling, but if I know one thing about sand it is that I have to keep moving. If I lose forward momentum, my skinny tires will most certainly sink in the soft sand and I will be stuck. With their narrow aggressive tread pattern, my XZL tires aren't designed for sand, but I learned on the beaches of Baja that if I air down to about 25 psi, they will perform acceptably well in loose sand. Relieved, I finally make it to the bottom and walk back to the worst part of the sandy stretch to evaluate my options.

Just as I thought, the sand is loose and deep, the climb to get back out of the arroyo crossing is steep. There's absolutely nothing to hook a winch too if I get stuck, so I need to get this right the first time. I collect a few cantaloupe-sized rocks and bury them just below the surface of the sand through the deepest section. Back at the truck I begin airing down the tires. It takes almost an hour to air the fronts down to about 25 psi and the rears down to about 35 psi. I fire up the air compressor so I'm ready to use the front ARB air locker (I hadn't fixed the leaking seal in the rear ARB locker, so all I have is the front locker).

Four low range engaged - check.

Air tank pressure at 100 psi - check.

Front ARB locker engaged - check.

Here's goes nothing. With both my heart and my Cummins engine racing, I plow my way through the sand. Less than two minutes later I'm past the sandy sections and back on rock - nothing to it! I probably didn't even need the locker. It's time for lunch so I stop in the shade of a cliff and enjoy a sandwich and a bottle of ice water, followed by an ice cream bar from the freezer. Back on the trail with the aired down tires, the EarthRoamer is like a tank on rubber tracks and I easily climb back up the steep, tight switchbacks out of Lathrop Canyon. These tires are horrible for high speed highway driving but they are absolutely amazing in rough off road conditions.