Back in January I was able to do the shake down run of my rig as part of the 101 classes Lance and everyone with the VJC put on each year in January.
The morning started off GREAT! Mike shows up, we hop in the jeep, and whammo! Vicious Death Wobble at 30 MPH. (for those of you following my other update/build thread, the DW issue has been solved, but this is the trip we discovered it for real!).
Well, I wasn't going to miss wheelin' my new rig, so we went back to the house and Mike hopped in the X and followed me up to Table Mesa... at 30 MPH on the side of the freeway with his flashers going to warm folks that an idiot in a jeep hell bent on wheelin' was in front of them. 8)
The "class" part itself was great with Lance, and Joe, and other pointing out the do's and don't and being generally helpful. It really is a great class for beginners... I saw Bob and Kristie out there too, so ya'll post up your photos that I know existin on Facebook into this thread...
In the new rig, I got to bumpup to the 303 class and run big boy trails. I was originally assigned to the Annihilator group, but since there were so few, we decided to blow through Anaconda on the way to Annihilator as a "warm up". hehehe God has funny sense of humor.
At the beginning of LT on the way to 'Conda, three more buggies joined up... legends! Al and Happy Dan and a few other in addition to BellyDoc, Andrew from Letzroll offroad, Howyadoin', themud, and others. Great group of guys and great group of rigs!
Once on 'conda, everyone was clipping along until the main chute. due to the rains, there was a HUGE new boulder right in the middle of the chute. typically the line is to ride the left sideof the wall and walk up the waterfall, hoping you don't drag on the right wall. Well, the new HUGE boulder (when you look at the pics below, realize my tires are 40's now in relation to the scale of the boulder...) was blocking that line. After watching 2 rigs winch out and the third in front of me tear itself to pieces, I opted for riding the RIGHT wall, then turning down into it. WAY DIFFERENT in the TJ than the XJ. As I told Mike afterwards... I felt like Bob! It was a rush and way too cool.
Coming up to the big obstacle blocking the entrance, there was a buggy not with our group broken down. After farting aroudn with that for an hour, we finally drug him out. By this time, my day was over and I needed to head back to the valley to make a football game I promised Ivan I would make, so I bailed and didn't get to run Annihilator. :mad:
On the way home (still driving 30 MPH limping along the freeway with Mike tailing me in the X), I was running out of time, so I ditched the TJ at the first opportunity with a dramatic, slow motion "Damn it Mike! I have GOT to make that game! now goooooooooooooooooo" and Mike drove me to the game (which the boys won, Ivan saw I was there, and I earned HUGE husband/father brownie points with the fam). Jen took me back to my rig and followed me home the rest of the way.
Overall, great time, fun to wheel my new rig for the first time, and great to meet new friends.
We are still waiting on OUR pictures of this run ***cough cough*** but below are cross posted pics from the VJC site, courtesy of Baron VonRoot and others from the run. Hope to add ours soon, as well as Bob and Kristie's from the run, as well as their experiences.
Thanks all!
Daniel "themud"
