DrSockMonkey
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Washington
Well most write ups contain lots of exciting information about what happened and the variety of adventure had. Sadly this story only has one theme, recovery. Lots of digging, jacking towing and most importantly, education. Ben, Joe and I met up at home depot at around 7:30. Shortly there after a late model XJ with lift, beadlocks, and LA's pulled up. We thought, "Cool someone else is actually coming!" We walked over and the guy said he was only there to shop. Bummer. We told him about naxja and all the wheeling gods that made it their Mt. Olympus. He said he would check it out. We got some gas and food and headed out. When we arrived at the trailhead there was an nice red XJ waiting. We figured this had to be some scab that was brave enough to break the picket lines to wheel with us naxja noobs. It was Cherotron in his 97 XJ.
We made some mud runs around the power transmission line tower while Cherotron(Gus) disconnected his sway bar. We then headed up the trail. Ben in front was clippin along. This being my first time out and after putting on my lift was a little nervous. Not to mention I have no additional lighting and my headlights suck!
We made it to the snow and decided to air down a bit. No standard pressure, everyone kinda played it by ear. We headed into the snow with Ben in the lead. He did a fine job of blazing a trail that I was able to passage with little difficulty.
We didn't get terribly far until Ben stopped a little ways down to say the bridge ahead had been washed out. And that he was stuck. Turned out pretty much everybody was stuck infact. Most impressively was that Joe had only become stuck in his stock XJ after stopping directly behind the person in front of him. We spent some time digging and jacking and got Joe freed up but the rest of us were proving to be more difficult.
Enter the cavalry! or at least the 2WD cavalry. Matt(IXNAYXJ, TRSCobra, Hards91?) showed up and assesed the situation and began to assist with recovery. I was impressed to see how much more you get with Finesse than you get with brute force. Each seemingly dismally stuck rig was unstuck with little more than a shovel and technique. Oh, and a little help once from a winch. I had an awesome time and learned so much good stuff. I really appreciate Matt's showing up despite ribbing and helping despite 2WD. The other lesson I learned, No reverse lights in the dark sucks! Oh, and also rear tire carriers make it hard to see behind you.
Thanks to everybody who came and made my first wheeling trip a blast. It is so great to be part of a community that despite ribbing and trash talking takes care of it's own. Thanks to Ben for setting up the trip and Joe for being the eagle scout with the compressor and valve stem tools. I think Joe will probably post up some pics.
We made some mud runs around the power transmission line tower while Cherotron(Gus) disconnected his sway bar. We then headed up the trail. Ben in front was clippin along. This being my first time out and after putting on my lift was a little nervous. Not to mention I have no additional lighting and my headlights suck!
We made it to the snow and decided to air down a bit. No standard pressure, everyone kinda played it by ear. We headed into the snow with Ben in the lead. He did a fine job of blazing a trail that I was able to passage with little difficulty.
We didn't get terribly far until Ben stopped a little ways down to say the bridge ahead had been washed out. And that he was stuck. Turned out pretty much everybody was stuck infact. Most impressively was that Joe had only become stuck in his stock XJ after stopping directly behind the person in front of him. We spent some time digging and jacking and got Joe freed up but the rest of us were proving to be more difficult.
Enter the cavalry! or at least the 2WD cavalry. Matt(IXNAYXJ, TRSCobra, Hards91?) showed up and assesed the situation and began to assist with recovery. I was impressed to see how much more you get with Finesse than you get with brute force. Each seemingly dismally stuck rig was unstuck with little more than a shovel and technique. Oh, and a little help once from a winch. I had an awesome time and learned so much good stuff. I really appreciate Matt's showing up despite ribbing and helping despite 2WD. The other lesson I learned, No reverse lights in the dark sucks! Oh, and also rear tire carriers make it hard to see behind you.
Thanks to everybody who came and made my first wheeling trip a blast. It is so great to be part of a community that despite ribbing and trash talking takes care of it's own. Thanks to Ben for setting up the trip and Joe for being the eagle scout with the compressor and valve stem tools. I think Joe will probably post up some pics.
