Monday, January 24, 2011

Take Two on the "Rhymes with Duct" trail

Ok, so Chris and I really wanted an opportunity to run the entire length of this trail without rigs that would slow us down with breakage and hours of winching, so this time we were very selective in who we invited.  KC is a guy I used to work with that has this awesome Toyota pickup.  Its locked up, dual T-cases, dual winches, 38" swampers, beadlocks, onboard air, blah blah blah the list goes on.  The coolest thing about this truck, I think, is that it looks like its been around the block and it dares you to find something it can't do.  Its got everything you need, and nothing you don't (as long as you don't need more than 110 hp)




 Here is Chris, gettin a little sideways...
 
Here's me, also getting a little sideways... sensing a theme in the photography here....Just wanted to show off those skidplates....umm yeah.
Chris, taking some unusual lines sometimes, I think I tried that one too, it didn't work well for either of us, as I recall, but hey, you gotta try, right?  It was interesting to see how much this trail can change, in subtle ways, because of the creek that runs down it.  Last time we ran this with snow on the ground, and had an easier time of it than we did this time.  Gravel was washed out, trees were knocked down, stumps were laying about in the middle of the trail, there was a strand of Christmas lights in the creek.....


Speaking of unusual lines.... I swear, he wasn't even moving, I turned my back on him for a second, and the next thing you know, he's flopped over against a rock, a tree, I don't even know what.  I hear the sound of glass breaking and KC saying "thats getting a little tippy!!" Then, madman that he his, Chris just put it in reverse and backed up until he was back on his wheels again!  
KC was examining how the window broke, and I think he hit the nail on the head with his observation: "its like that rock just gave it a little smash!"  Yes, a little smash, sometimes thats all it takes.... that and a truck falling on it....Chris did say something about "thanks for the warning, guys"  brought me back to a little incident on the Ultimate Adventure, except that Chris didn't cry about his window like someone else I know...

Luckily, the glass and his CB antenna were the only real casualties, and I hear that he already found a window at the local Pick a Part, so he'll be back together in no time.  He did manage to make quite a few new dents, enough that maybe, just maybe, he'll admit that its a wheeler and he won't try to fix them anymore!! We'll see.

So, KC was kinda stuck on this rock, same one that tipped Chris over, and I had thrown in a log to try and help things out. Well, wouldn't ya know it, moments later that log was firmly wedged in between the leaf spring and the driveshaft, and no matter what we did it wouldn't come out!  So, out came the trusty Stihl once more!  
 
Here's a nice "artsy" shot that Jennifer took, she's good at that, finding cool angles on stuff, and perspectives, and stuff... I don't know much about that, but she comes up with some cool pictures.
 
 Chris tried moving this rock with his tailgate, despite KC's cringing, and my encouraging, but couldn't make it go away, so KC and Matt teamed up to move it out of the way.  What would have been more helpful is if they had moved the log that was next to the rock, since it had a profound "impact" on all of our truck's rear quarter panels!
 KC says "Yo, Dawg, thats how we run trails in B-town, fo' shizzle!"
More rocks, water, trucks going up rocks... yada yada yada.  Some of this stuff was pretty gnarly,  but of course its hard to capture with the camera...needs some sort of perspective and stuff...
 
This is my quarter panel after the aforementioned log, I know, its hard to tell where the new dents are, but the tail lights don't fit so well anymore, so I'm probably going to have to do something custom there.  At least I didn't break any glass!  Oh, and don't ask about "poopoo tribe", its a long story,  and it doesn't even make any sense to those of us who were in the "poopoo tribe"!!
Ok, so to cap it off, a carnage report: I had some dented dents, and a flattened out RF spring.  Chris had the busted window, some fresh dents (what a beater) and a broken CB antenna.  KC had a broken taillight...I think thats it.  A lot better than last time!
This trip was a lot of fun and the guys did awesome!  It was really nice to have some serious rigs and make progress at a steady rate.  KC's little truck was pretty scrappy and he like to get on it a bit which is always fun to watch, and much more do-able in his truck than the top heavy 4Runners.  Chris breaking a window was cool just because I have a fascination with things breaking and windows always make a big mess!  When Paul and I were first dating, I'd gone wheelin' with him a couple times and we were in this really tight gulley with a ton of tree's and I said, "that'd be cool if you broke a window."  Bad idea, not 5 minutes  later, glass was everywhere.  For some reason, I think we even broke another window that day.  Anyway, I don't say anything to him about windows anymore, just in case.  So far, so good, it's been a while since he lost any glass.  Probably shouldn't have said that.....  
There was one point just before the end of the trail that was pretty straight up with a BIG fall on my side of course, and I was wondering how my children were going to get along without their mother, (Paul tried to reassure me that we'd probably only do a slow pirouette down and to the right while we flipped over backwards.  Yay.)  .  KC even said at one point, "That's getting a little tippy..."  And I thought, oh great, I heard that once already today. "Dear God, please take care of my girls...."  BUT- we lived!
My favorite part of the day was when Chris reported his friend who had ridden along with him said about halfway up the trail, "Dude, I thought when you said we were going 4x4ing, that we were going to drive in mud and puddles and stuff, this is NUTS!!"
~Jennifer