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Archived Newsletter |
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September 2004
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BIG BEAR THE HARD WAY It's Friday at 4:30pm. I'm in Phoenix at a customer's office. Mid Thompson RV calls to tell me my RV is ready for pickup. (That's a story for another time!) At 5:30, I'm in the Sky Harbor airport and my wife calls to tell me there is a message for the Kelly's: they are staying at Heartbar. I told Michelle, "Sounds great, go pickup the RV!" I land at John Wayne at 7:10;m and I;m home by 8:00. Let the packing begin! Oh yah, we need to go to the store. Oh yah, the fridge isn’t cold. Oh yah, the tow bar is in the back of the shed. Bla, blah, blah. I found the Kelly’s and Shaffers around 1:30am. I got up at 7:00am to get the Jeep ready to go. You know, check the oil and radiator, pack in the toolbox, chairs and ice chest. Ever try to get a car seat in the back seat of a Jeep? Jim came into camp around 8:30 and we all left for the Discovery Center at around 8:45. We rolled up on the DC at 9:15. Of course, I was the butt of all the jokes for being late. That’s OK though! We signed in Jim’s guest, (fill in name here!), had a 15 second drivers meeting, and rolled out. We headed out with 8 Jeeps; Jay and Ellen, Jay and Laurie with Kevin, Rick and Susie, Dave Trice, Jim Bays and guest, Paul and Debbie, Mike and Carol, and me and Michelle with little Steven. We blazed up Van Dusen to the end and made a right. A tight left onto 3N02 and over the John Bull. I think we all walked over the first section without incident. After a quick re-group we started up the 2nd section. It seemed a little rougher than I remember. I warned Michelle that there was a tough uphill right turn around a bush. I hugged the right side; the left front tire came up and right back down. I felt the whole Jeep slide back a few inches and I lost traction. The left tire wasn’t up so I gave it a little throttle. With a little tire spin the Jeep climbed out of the corner. I drove up to the top and walked back down to watch the fun. I think I heard Jay Jimenez might have had a little trouble. (I’m sorry if I got that wrong!) When Jim Bays came around with his smaller wheel base things went south (or at least his front left went north) real quick. With lightening fast reflexes he managed to stop the left front rocket launch. I think he would have been OK if the engine would have re-started, but every inch he rolled back, the more sideways he got on the hill. We made a decision to run his winch cable up to the back of Dave’s Rubicon just as a safety precaution. We couldn’t get it to start, so Dave game him a tug, but that just pulled him strait into the bush. We needed to get his front end more to the left. Mike Kelly was behind him, so he heroically maneuvered his Toyota Land Cruiser up and around his left side. After a quick 12 point turn we were able to position him in a good spot to run his winch cable over to a snatch block and back to the side of Jim’s Jeep. We pulled the front sideways just enough to allow Dave to pull him forward a few feet. That’s all it took for Jim to get the engine going again. We started down the hill. It wasn’t long before I heard that Paul and Debbie were hung up on something. As I understand it he demonstrated excellent driving skill by demonstrating just how to high center while moving downhill. I’ve been Jeeping for 8 years, but I have not had the chance to see this technical maneuver. I wish I could have witnessed it. I may never get another chance! We stopped for lunch at the mud pit. A Toyota club came through and put on an impromptu mud wrestling demonstration. It was fun to watch, but the late summer mud had had smell we could have done without. We blazed a trail over to the Beaver Ponds at the start of 3N93. After passing a silver mining convention, we started up the climb out of the water. It seemed like the holes weren’t as deep as before??? The first big hill climb had much deeper holes than I remember though. I don’t think anyone had any trouble. We had some oncoming traffic at the top. We thought the trail was closed at the rock garden for fire damage and we would have to take the cutoff, but they told me they had come all the way through both rock gardens! Whooohooo! Michelle hates the off camber stuff. As we were crossing one of the off camber spots and Michelle was starting to panic, I confidently told her to just look out the side window and get used to it. Well, it happens that there was a very old rusted out pickup laying on it top down in the bottom. I guess I picked a bad time to have her look down the hill!!! I told her there was only one more bad spot that I didn’t like very much. As we came to the first rock garden I decided to pick the hardest line I could find. Near the end, the right side had a 3 foot rock to go over, so I decided to try it. I couldn’t get enough traction though. I asked for a little help. They were telling me to backup, but I thought they wanted me to go around it. I didn’t realize the just wanted me to go way back to try another line. I guess I blew it because after 3 tries I decided it was time to just go around and not hold up the group. Well as it turns out, I got to watch everyone else conquer the 3 foot rock! Man I wanted to try it again. Even a full size Ford on 37’s made it over the dang rock!
We decided to just leave it there and move on. At the end of the trail, we ran into the owner. He had some blood on his shirt, but in general he looked OK. He was with two other Pinzgauers. (www.socalpinzgauers.com). They were very happy to know that it was back on it’s wheels. Paul later talked to the owner. He was driving it when it slipped off the road, but it didn’t roll over. Two of his buddies were winching it back on the road when one of the winch cables broke and it ended up with the shiny side down. He was not in it at the time. From where we left it, he was able to drive it out of the creek and back onto the road. All in all, we had a great run with perfect weather. Thanks to everyone who joined in.
CLUB PICNIC We are once again going to have the club picnic and run at the Slash-x near Barstow. We will also have a white elephant raffle, so bring something to raffle off.
MOAB 4 It’s now Friday and Poison Spider Mesa awaits us. One last trail and the fun’s over. I’m starting to wish we had signed up to do a run on "Big Saturday". Trail leaders Joe and Nancy Stanley welcomed over fifty rigs to the days run. With clear skies another day of fun in the sun awaited us. We drove several miles west along the Colorado River to the trailhead. The first mile or so consisted of a step climb with sharp switchbacks. A squeeze with a drop off was a bit of a challenge. Several scenic miles passed before the next major obstacle. A good line at the start keeps you to the right side as you make a left off camber turn up the waterfall. A ledge at the top lets you decide the degree of difficulty you would like to try. A place called the Wedgy offers a good photo op. Good enough the professionals from town are there in hopes of selling you a picture later in town. As you come up the Wedgy you get a little air with the left tire. Some got a lot of air with both tires. Jay went up ahead of me. It looked like a good picture. Ok my turn. Camera ready? Too much articulation, ho hum. If I’d known we would have hooked up the torsion bar. Looks like I’ll have to go back some day. Story has it, many years ago a little girl was bitten by a poison spider and died here on the mesa. A grave marker can be found next to the trail. Poison Spider Mesa trail was named for her. As you continue across the mesa a mountain looms out in the distance. This is Pig Rock. When you see it there is no doubt. Now - down a steep drop off and around an off camber ledge to another beautiful spot for lunch. The 45-minute lunch break allowed enough time to walk to an overlook. From here you see the Colorado River and one of the many sandstone arches in the area. We met two men from Liechtenstein. They have been doing the Safari for ten years. We also chatted with four men here from Switzerland. Back in our rigs we were off to enjoy many additional vistas and a few more challenges as well. The upper mesa offers a view of Arches National Park to the north, Moab to the south and the snow capped La Sal Mountains beyond. We spent a few minutes here just enjoying God’s Country. It was time to move on. We completed the loop back going down the sand hill to the main trail. Back across high speed mesa, past the grave marker, over the rock (you decide the speed you want to go) whoop-ti-dos, down the water fall where Jon helped spot many of us down and on out. As customary with the Red Rock 4 Wheeler trail leaders Joe and Nancy were there to say goodbye and thank us for coming. It is we who were thankful. Tonight the big raffle and BBQ dinner held at Spanish Trails Arena. The Andersons headed back to the motel for a quick dip in the pool, Kevin’s well-deserved treat for being such a good trooper every day. We met at the arena to enjoy the boy scouts BBQ. The raffle followed with thousands of dollars worth of merchandise to be given away. When you sign up for the Safari each paid participant receives a raffle ticket. The raffle goes on for hours with most receiving something, if only a hat or t-shirt thrown into the crowd. Tomorrow - Big Saturday! We’ll meet the Anderson’s on Main Street about 8:30am. To be continued…….next month.
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As we came around the corner to the big off camber spot, Michelle asked me,
"Is that the spot?" I knew it was, but I said, "I’m not sure" because I didn’t
want to freak her out. (When she’s freaked out, it makes it harder for me to
drive.) Anyway, she was leaning way over toward me when I noticed the upside
down rig at the bottom. I drove on through and found a good place to stop. No
one was around. Michelle still hadn’t seen it until I got on the CB to tell
everyone I was going to see if anyone will still in it. Much to my delight,
there was not anyone in it. It was leaking a lot of gas still, so it must have
just happened. We figured maybe the guy got hurt and his friends just took off
with him. As a group we decided we shouldn’t let the gas run out all over the
forest, so Paul and I placed our Jeeps in a safe place to pull it nose over back
on it’s wheels. Paul and I were winching at different speeds so it stood up on
it’s nose, and pulled onto it’s side toward Paul. We kept winching until it
pulled onto it’s wheels. We all checked it out for a while. We thought it was a Unimog.