Well, all in all it was a great day... shorter than I would have liked, but any day wheelin' is a good day.


I learned or had reiterated for me 7 things on Sunday:

1. I have great friends.

2. From here on out, Annihilator will be known as "Upper Predator" to trick my jeep.

3. Death Wobble still sucks.

4. Black TJ's from this club have bad karma on Die Hard (see Bob for reference)

5. Mike will take his shirt off with little or no prompting.

6. Despite popular belief, show tunes do NOT make any situation an "instant party".

7. ARB air lockers work better when actually turned on.



There were multiple cameras out for this trip, so I have limited pics, but I'm sure there will be more photos added to this thread, as well as my video.

The day did start out ominous. After Mike (Skatchkins) arrived at my house, we piled in the TJ and headed over to my other friend Mike's house (I have a "2 Mike Friend" limit, so I decided to take them both with me at the same time to make things confusing on the trail). The TJ (which has yet to earn a true name) was running rough, but we made it to Mike #2's house. After picking up Mike #2, the TJ died. Mike #2 said it was out of gas. I argued this as I had just filled it up earlier in the week and the only place I had driven was down to AO. Mike #2 walked back to his house, got some gas, put a couple gallons in my TJ, and it fired right up. We proceeded to the QT to meet up with Geoff and Shanda, where Mike #2 proceeded to fill up my TJ the rest of the way, giving me "I told you so" looks and attitude. Someone siphoned off my gas. Only explanation.

After connecting with Geoff and Shanda, we all headed up to Table Mesa to meet up with Mark (Mark-Buggy), BellyDoc, and Pyro4X4. The plan was to run Die Hard, Predator, Annihilator, then maybe loop back through 'Conda depending upon time. The drive up was great, kept it around 55 - 60, no Death Wobble, life is good. Of course, with no windshield, it was really cold on the face, but we're big tough men and I had not one, but TWO Mikes with me, so everything worked out just fine.

Here is a shot of Pyro4X4's rig at airdown. There were a lot of great rigs on this run. It was strange to see Geoff's rig as the "little one". All things are relative, I guess.



Getting on to Die Hard, I had freak breakage wtih the ram from my hydro assist snapping right at the threads to the heim. We took a couple minutes, pulled it loose and secured it, decided the years of driving the XJ with no hydro assist had prepared me for this moment in life, and carried on.

Early in the trail was a fun little notch. I was only able to get a couple of pics, but Mark did a GREAT job climbing right up and through it!

We tooled on a little further, a couple of waterfalls and rock gardens. On one of the waterfalls, bad Black TJ karma struck again... this time snapping the flange off my inner shaft up front. It wasn't bound up, there wasn't any significant stress on it, just backing up to take another line and BAM!

After a quick PowWow, we pulled the shaft and decided I was going to turn around and limp back out in 3WD. Geoff, BellyDoc, and Pyro4X4 are awesome friends and took that sucker apart like they had done that before... LOL




While all the adventure was going on, we noticed Mike#1 had wondered off (as he's prone to do). After a while we received a CB call to try and find him. Can you spot the Skatchkins in this photo?




How about now?




Anyway, Mike #1 was having a good time, Mike #2 was too, but we had to head home. Here is where my good friend Geoff fell on his sword and offered to follow me back out and make sure I got home. It was a good thing, too. In 3Wd, I couldn't make it up the hill out of the canyon. I kept spinning and digging in. Geoff went up first, then came back and strapped me out. About half way up the hill, Mike #2 pointed out the lockers weren't on and my 1 front tire with an axle shaft wasn't actually pulling. After a pretty good laugh, I turned on the lockers and it's AMAZING how much better a job it does when there are at least 3 wheels pulling up the hill. I know Geoff apreciated it.

Now, while all this good natured breakage was going on, I was also working on a school project for my niece. Many of you know about Flat Stanley, but for those of you who do not, it's a little paper dude you cut out, send to relatives and friends, and they take pictures of Flat Stanley doing things where you live. You send it back and the kids write a report on where all Flat Stanley visited. It's a 2nd or 3rd grade geography project.

Well, Flat Stanley had a great time this weekend and got to go wheelin' with us too. Flat Stanley is a smart ladies man and immediately hit it off with Barbie who lives on Pyro4x4's Barbie Jeep:




Stanley was also pretty good at fixing things that I broke:




Flat Stanley took the opportunity of being in the desert to do some mountain climbing, as well as finding his butt stuck in some cactus.







Once we got home, Stanley kicked it by the pool with a cold one. Lucky dude...




ANYWAY...

Once we got off the trail and headed home, guess what? DEATH WOBBLE from hell. Instead of 55 - 60 MPH, we had about 25 MPH as top speed. It's amazing what not having the hydro assist ram and only having one (althrough disengaed) front axle connected will do to the drivability of a rig on 40's with bead locks. LOL We limped down the freeway with Geoff and Shanda riding tail gunner to keep the big rigs from squashing me.

In honor of T.C. and Jellybeans, I wore my helmet to be safe.




Mike #1 also did a great job of keeping a lookout for cops and not drawing attention to us in any way what-so-ever. Going 25 MPH with no windshield, mirrors or doors was flying too under the radar. I'm pretty sure Shanda has some better pics, but this will give you an idea of how under the radar the drive home was:



For the record, that shot was on a service road, behind the big wall, doing 5 miles an hour to "get the shot". We did not cruise down the freeway in such a manner... it makes for a good story and great pictures, but no one wants to risk Mike or anyone else's life.

Finally, this shot is just for the ladies and for Avis and his Brokeback Mtn t-shirt self:




I have some good video, so I'll try to cut it up and paste it here. We only ran the part of Die Hard, so it's limited. Shanda, Mike #1, and Mike #2 had cameras for sure, so check back for more pics in the future. Mike #2 isn't on the board, so I'll get them from him and post for him.


Again, great day, even better friends, and even a rough day wheelin' is 1000x's better than a great day at work!

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/AcU-KLRCfSA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Nice writeup and pics,flat Stanley's a pretty cool dude,you should get a couple horns for that helmet

Great pics and vids Alan. Looks like you are working the kinks on the new ride. Looking good!

Good stuff Alan..... That trail is a good one too..... non-stop.

you should get a couple horns for that helmet

Thom, you do know with my luck I would be the guy who puts horns on his helmet, flops his rig over, hits the horns on a rock, drives the horns through the helmet and into his skull, and then is the only guy who ever died specifically from wearing a helmet, right? You do know I'm "that guy", right? LOL

Thanks for the ride Alan. I'll try to work on some pics tonight.
Was still a nice day out 8)

Awesome write up and pics Alan. Flat Stanley is the man! Got a good laugh from the write up! Can't wait to get my rig back!

Welcome to my world... That trail has owned me every time I try and some times just talking about it. Did you make it to the Fat Bob loop? That hill going back out I had 1 wheel drive and 3 jeeps pulling me...

fatbob309 wrote:Did you make it to the Fat Bob loop? That hill going back out I had 1 wheel drive and 3 jeeps pulling me...

I did the dyslexic beginner version... 3 wheel drive and only 1 Jeep pulling me out. LOL

How far in were you when you had to turn around Alan?

Symon623 wrote:How far in were you when you had to turn around Alan?

Want me to draw you map? :p

Only if you use coords and airial photography to really give him a GREAT idea of EXACTLY where it's at... somewhere near the corner of...

Let' see, rock gardens, a couple little dips, a really nice notch (with bypass as needed), 2 smaller little dippy/do type waterfalls, then a good size 8 foot waterfall climb just prior to the big boulder and set of 3 good obstacles. That 8 footer is where I gave up the ghost and turned back.

if Mike's detailed map of the area doesn't work for you, I'll post pics of the obstacle right after I died so you have a reference point.

Should just reference the shot you took of me above the breakdown.
And to think some people passionately hate my orange hat :)

Here is BellyDoc's vid of the gatekeeper. I love his video set up...

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If you watch carefully, you can spot the Moab Ninja towards the end... ever elusive, always on the prowl...

I know where you were...... right before the corner of "Get and map and....... " wheel you know. :p

I was just wonderin how much fun you MISSED...... I've only done the trail twice.... Once right after it opened in my Juggy and last summer.

LOL I missed a lot of fun, but what I got was good. 8)

hmm




red clothes

red lipstick

bright green shoes

ambiguous hair cut

Flat Stanley is often left wondering why he finds so much in common with barbie and has these strange feelings towards ken