Lots of fun, lots of carnage... Details to follow...
Okay, this may be more detail than anyone really wants, but if you don't care, don't read it! :moon:
After lunch, we started out down the Backbone, but it was so muddy that none of us could climb back up it, so we headed up the creekbed.
Jerry needed a tug to get up the first stairstep, but there wasn't a lot of drama til we got to Nick's "Rock that bites back." We all fought pretty hard to climb it, and I took a good solid shot to the bottom of the driver's door in the process. I didn't think much of it, til I opened the door and it fell right off the hinges and flopped into the creek. Would have made great video, but who the hell records somebody getting out of their jeep?
Used a bfh and prybar to get the pins lined up enough to get the door back on, but it didn't latch right the rest of the day.
We found a half-dozen mudholes to stomp in, and I was amazed how well Jerry's ZJ did, with open diffs and 32s. He did gather enough crud in one bead to flatten a tire, but we got him changed out lickety-split.
The guys let me lead for a while (and by lead, I mean "Go first, with absolutely no sense of purpose or direction") and before long I had us pretty well lost. We ended up in a ravine, in a 3' trench. My 35s made it out pretty easily, but Jerry and Jenn needed a little more trying and a lot more skill to make it.
While they were playing the the trench, and to try and get my rig out of their way, I started up the hillclimb just past it. That hill started nasty, and got worse: All mud and wet leaves, no rocks for any traction at all. The farther you went, the steeper, narrower, and slicker it got. Right at the top, there were two trees, just enough space to get an XJ between em.
I had to use some momentum to get to the top, so when the rig slid to the right, it clipped that tree pretty hard. Hard enough to rip off my pass side mirror, and bounce me directly into the other tree, removing the other one. I lost both mirrors in a second and a half, but I made the hill, by god.
Ignoring my friendly advise, Tom and Jenn had to try it, too. They ended up stuck against the tree on the left, caving in the corner of the MJ's cab. I pulled em off the tree, and over the crest of the hill.
We found Jerry a bypass, but he got crossed up in a good sized rut. When we pulled him out, the ZJ's nose went down, and the tail went up, and there was probably four feet of air under his right rear tire. Tom got some great pics.
Eventually, I "led" us to a low clearing, ringed with ugly little mudholes. I was trying to avoid one on the far side (honestly, I was!) but dropped two tires into it. Deep. I very nearly worked my way out, then dropped the other two, and I was done.
Jerry pulled hard enough to break Tom's snatch strap (I'd never seen that!) and then proceeded to run over the strap, wrapping it around his axle and ripping off his brake line. Again, sorry Jer!
We hooked the 'manche to the front of my rig, instead, and it pulled right out.
Tom and Jerry (ha!) flattened and crimped the brake line, then pinched it off with a pair of vise grips. Apparently, he drove it all the way home to Verona KY like that. (I tried to get him to put it on my trailer, but he wouldn't.)
By this time, the light was fading, so we called it a day. They aired up, I trailered it. Strapped it down, and went to throw my muddy sweatshirt in the front seat.
And the door wouldn't shut. Had to strap it closed to get it home.
So the final tally: One severed door, one flat tire, two lost mirrors, one crushed cab corner, one nearly rolled ZJ, one mud-swamped XJ, one busted snatch strap, and a broken brake line.
Oh yeah, and I actually broke my junk after it was already on the trailer...
And yes, this is considered fun!
Robert
tears
