YotaGirl
01-05-2009, 09:18 AM
Took my 83 pick up out to Hammers this weekend with my friend Joe (who has a nicely built 86 4Runner). It was quite the adventure with lots of broken parts and some good body damage. I'll start from the beginning...
We got out there around dinner time on Thursday night. I was scouting out the area,trying to find the Trail Gear guys and the Rock Brawlers, and got my self stuck in the mud. :( Had to get out of the truck and walk through the mud, barefoot ( my shoes kept getting stuck), to lock my hubs so I could get out. Once that happened I decided enough scouting, lets just pick a camp spot and call it done. We can find the rest of the group in the morning. So that's what we do. Wouldn't you know it, just as we get the burgers on the grill, here comes a group of rock buggies and a truggy. We jump in Joe's truck and follow them to their camp. Sure enough it was the Trail Gear guys. We tell them we'll move camp in the morning since we've already started dinner. The rest of the night goes off with out a hitch ( well except for the small propane leak we discovered and subsequently fixed).
The next morning we move the motorhome over to the other camp site, make breakfast and BS with the other guys. Everyone is taking their time getting ready before heading out wheeling and we don't leave until 12:40 in the afternoon. Our destination was Sunbonnet Pass. An unassuming name for a mean ass trail. I ask John from TG if my truck will make it (I still don't have a front locker) and he says, "sure you'll be fine, there are bypasses for any of the difficult stuff". Hahaha famous last words....
We head out and immediately get lost. It takes us about 45 minutes and many wash crossings before we finally find the start of the trail. The first obstacle is an off camber squeeze between two huge boulders. I easily crawl through that with minimal body damage (only a pinstripe scratch down my driverside), thanks to our trail leader Jodi, who spotted me through. Everyone else makes through and we move on. The next obstacle wasn't too bad either, just a couple of diff hangers you had manuever over. The third obstacle was a doosie. Hahha. It was a good sized waterfall with soft soil at the top. Bad combination for a dual cased truck with no front locker. While trying to climb the watrfall I broke the guts in my steering box and broke a rear axle, oh and separated my front driveshaft. We take a quick assessment and decide to just push ahead with Joe towing me out. Mind you he doesn't have a rear bumper and I don't have a front bumper. We shackle the tow strap to his rear axle and run it through the D ring that's welded on my front crossmember, under my front axle and then tie of to my frame rail.
Once I was strapped up, off we went. By this time it's starting to get dark and we're trying to make a mad dash out of the canyon. With no steering in my truck, Joe had to take some absolutely crazy lines so my truck would line up correctly for the obstacle. A couple times I thought he was going to flop it, he had crawled so high up the canyon wall. There were only maybe 3 more big obstacles to get over (which weren't nearly as bad as the waterfall) and some random big rocks in the middle of the trail.
We finally make it to the escape route for this trail, which is a very steep ascent to the top of a ridge. Up we go and when we get to the top we realize just how bad this going to be. It's an even steeper descent on the other side. We start heading down, and by this time I have absolutely no steering left. Every rock I hit would send my tires bouncing in different directions. Usually down off the trail. Joe would have make some evasive manuevers to get me back on the trail. I'm in double low and on my brakes and I'm still going to fast to keep myself on the trail. I'm starting to get kinda worried at this point.
At one point we lose sight of John and Jodi. So we wait for them to come get us. John asks us if we got to the rock garden yet. We tell him, what rock garden. He laughs and says "oh ok, there are some rocks coming up, just go really slow". When we get to the "rock garden", we stop. We have to drop down off of a couple big rocks that put you really off camber. If something goes wrong and you flop, the result will be a long roll down the canyon. I suggest that they strap my back bumper to the buggy behind me, which they do. John has another buggy park at the edge of the trail just down hill from me, so that in case I do roll, I will only go over a couple times instead of like 50. right before I drop down, John comes up to me and asks me if I'm scared yet. I tell him, "yeah, I'm a little scared." He says to me, "You should be! You're gonna die!" Then he laughs. Hahaha real funny John.
He spots me down the rocks and even though I thought I was gonna roll for sure ( I was that off camber) I made it out. For the last remaining down hill part, John drives next to me and uses his front passenger tire to bump my tires in the right direction. While doing this, John blows out a trunion bearing. We unstrap my rear bumper once we got back down on level ground. John stays behind with the other At this point we start trying to find our way out of the numerous washes and canyons and back to camp. I look at my watch, it's only after 7. It feels much later, though, given all that we've been through.
We're following a trail for awhile before we all realize that we've just made a giant circle. We're back to where we started. So we head out again on a different trail and.... come back to where we started...again. Damn, it's looking like we're never going to get out of here. We start searching around for another way out and sometime during this search, my tcase siezes up. I can't shift it at all. Luckily it seemed to sieze up in neutral. Also about this time, I find out that I can somewhat use my steering again. So even though I'm dead power wise, at least I can steer a little.
John finally catches up to us and tells us of his adventure...axles catching fire...you know the usual. Hahaha He leads us out of the canyon and back to camp. I look at my watch as we're pulling in, it's 11:36. 11 hours out on the trail. I was glad to be back. Hahaha
I'll tell you all about Saturday's adventure in my next post....
OK now for some pictures!
Joe took these of me on Sunbonnet
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z288/jnjhargrove/New%20Years%20at%20the%20Hammers%202009/DSC06876.jpg
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z288/jnjhargrove/New%20Years%20at%20the%20Hammers%202009/DSC06879.jpg
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z288/jnjhargrove/New%20Years%20at%20the%20Hammers%202009/DSC06880.jpg
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z288/jnjhargrove/New%20Years%20at%20the%20Hammers%202009/DSC06951.jpg
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z288/jnjhargrove/New%20Years%20at%20the%20Hammers%202009/DSC06954.jpg
Right before I broke my steering box and rear axle...
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z288/jnjhargrove/New%20Years%20at%20the%20Hammers%202009/DSC06956.jpg
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z288/jnjhargrove/New%20Years%20at%20the%20Hammers%202009/DSC06957.jpg
Oh and seperated my front drive shaft...
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z288/jnjhargrove/New%20Years%20at%20the%20Hammers%202009/DSC06971.jpg
Some pictures that I got...
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z288/jnjhargrove/New%20Years%20at%20the%20Hammers%202009/DSC06905.jpg
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z288/jnjhargrove/New%20Years%20at%20the%20Hammers%202009/DSC06906.jpg
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z288/jnjhargrove/New%20Years%20at%20the%20Hammers%202009/DSC06927.jpg
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z288/jnjhargrove/New%20Years%20at%20the%20Hammers%202009/DSC06945.jpg
We got out there around dinner time on Thursday night. I was scouting out the area,trying to find the Trail Gear guys and the Rock Brawlers, and got my self stuck in the mud. :( Had to get out of the truck and walk through the mud, barefoot ( my shoes kept getting stuck), to lock my hubs so I could get out. Once that happened I decided enough scouting, lets just pick a camp spot and call it done. We can find the rest of the group in the morning. So that's what we do. Wouldn't you know it, just as we get the burgers on the grill, here comes a group of rock buggies and a truggy. We jump in Joe's truck and follow them to their camp. Sure enough it was the Trail Gear guys. We tell them we'll move camp in the morning since we've already started dinner. The rest of the night goes off with out a hitch ( well except for the small propane leak we discovered and subsequently fixed).
The next morning we move the motorhome over to the other camp site, make breakfast and BS with the other guys. Everyone is taking their time getting ready before heading out wheeling and we don't leave until 12:40 in the afternoon. Our destination was Sunbonnet Pass. An unassuming name for a mean ass trail. I ask John from TG if my truck will make it (I still don't have a front locker) and he says, "sure you'll be fine, there are bypasses for any of the difficult stuff". Hahaha famous last words....
We head out and immediately get lost. It takes us about 45 minutes and many wash crossings before we finally find the start of the trail. The first obstacle is an off camber squeeze between two huge boulders. I easily crawl through that with minimal body damage (only a pinstripe scratch down my driverside), thanks to our trail leader Jodi, who spotted me through. Everyone else makes through and we move on. The next obstacle wasn't too bad either, just a couple of diff hangers you had manuever over. The third obstacle was a doosie. Hahha. It was a good sized waterfall with soft soil at the top. Bad combination for a dual cased truck with no front locker. While trying to climb the watrfall I broke the guts in my steering box and broke a rear axle, oh and separated my front driveshaft. We take a quick assessment and decide to just push ahead with Joe towing me out. Mind you he doesn't have a rear bumper and I don't have a front bumper. We shackle the tow strap to his rear axle and run it through the D ring that's welded on my front crossmember, under my front axle and then tie of to my frame rail.
Once I was strapped up, off we went. By this time it's starting to get dark and we're trying to make a mad dash out of the canyon. With no steering in my truck, Joe had to take some absolutely crazy lines so my truck would line up correctly for the obstacle. A couple times I thought he was going to flop it, he had crawled so high up the canyon wall. There were only maybe 3 more big obstacles to get over (which weren't nearly as bad as the waterfall) and some random big rocks in the middle of the trail.
We finally make it to the escape route for this trail, which is a very steep ascent to the top of a ridge. Up we go and when we get to the top we realize just how bad this going to be. It's an even steeper descent on the other side. We start heading down, and by this time I have absolutely no steering left. Every rock I hit would send my tires bouncing in different directions. Usually down off the trail. Joe would have make some evasive manuevers to get me back on the trail. I'm in double low and on my brakes and I'm still going to fast to keep myself on the trail. I'm starting to get kinda worried at this point.
At one point we lose sight of John and Jodi. So we wait for them to come get us. John asks us if we got to the rock garden yet. We tell him, what rock garden. He laughs and says "oh ok, there are some rocks coming up, just go really slow". When we get to the "rock garden", we stop. We have to drop down off of a couple big rocks that put you really off camber. If something goes wrong and you flop, the result will be a long roll down the canyon. I suggest that they strap my back bumper to the buggy behind me, which they do. John has another buggy park at the edge of the trail just down hill from me, so that in case I do roll, I will only go over a couple times instead of like 50. right before I drop down, John comes up to me and asks me if I'm scared yet. I tell him, "yeah, I'm a little scared." He says to me, "You should be! You're gonna die!" Then he laughs. Hahaha real funny John.
He spots me down the rocks and even though I thought I was gonna roll for sure ( I was that off camber) I made it out. For the last remaining down hill part, John drives next to me and uses his front passenger tire to bump my tires in the right direction. While doing this, John blows out a trunion bearing. We unstrap my rear bumper once we got back down on level ground. John stays behind with the other At this point we start trying to find our way out of the numerous washes and canyons and back to camp. I look at my watch, it's only after 7. It feels much later, though, given all that we've been through.
We're following a trail for awhile before we all realize that we've just made a giant circle. We're back to where we started. So we head out again on a different trail and.... come back to where we started...again. Damn, it's looking like we're never going to get out of here. We start searching around for another way out and sometime during this search, my tcase siezes up. I can't shift it at all. Luckily it seemed to sieze up in neutral. Also about this time, I find out that I can somewhat use my steering again. So even though I'm dead power wise, at least I can steer a little.
John finally catches up to us and tells us of his adventure...axles catching fire...you know the usual. Hahaha He leads us out of the canyon and back to camp. I look at my watch as we're pulling in, it's 11:36. 11 hours out on the trail. I was glad to be back. Hahaha
I'll tell you all about Saturday's adventure in my next post....
OK now for some pictures!
Joe took these of me on Sunbonnet
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z288/jnjhargrove/New%20Years%20at%20the%20Hammers%202009/DSC06876.jpg
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z288/jnjhargrove/New%20Years%20at%20the%20Hammers%202009/DSC06879.jpg
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z288/jnjhargrove/New%20Years%20at%20the%20Hammers%202009/DSC06880.jpg
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z288/jnjhargrove/New%20Years%20at%20the%20Hammers%202009/DSC06951.jpg
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z288/jnjhargrove/New%20Years%20at%20the%20Hammers%202009/DSC06954.jpg
Right before I broke my steering box and rear axle...
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z288/jnjhargrove/New%20Years%20at%20the%20Hammers%202009/DSC06956.jpg
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z288/jnjhargrove/New%20Years%20at%20the%20Hammers%202009/DSC06957.jpg
Oh and seperated my front drive shaft...
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z288/jnjhargrove/New%20Years%20at%20the%20Hammers%202009/DSC06971.jpg
Some pictures that I got...
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z288/jnjhargrove/New%20Years%20at%20the%20Hammers%202009/DSC06905.jpg
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z288/jnjhargrove/New%20Years%20at%20the%20Hammers%202009/DSC06906.jpg
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z288/jnjhargrove/New%20Years%20at%20the%20Hammers%202009/DSC06927.jpg
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z288/jnjhargrove/New%20Years%20at%20the%20Hammers%202009/DSC06945.jpg