Re: Official September 2011 ROTM submission thread
This is such a great idea...
My rig:
1999 Cherokee Sport 5-speed.
Warrior Products 3"+ front coils, 3.5" RE leafs w/HD Engineering shackle relocations brackets in the rear, gives me about 3.5" all around.
WP Trackbar relocation bracket and WP swaybar disconnects up front,
WP LCA's.
31x9.5 Wild Country Radial XTX Sport on 16" Limited 5-spokes (including the spare)
Rough Country T-case drop (NP-231)
Warrior Products Winch Bumper with brush guard,
-Two 4" HIDx driving lights & two 7" HIDx floods
-Smittybilt XRC10 winch that I haven't used on myself.
-Forget the brand, fancy flip-up license plate holder on the roller fairlead, huge waste of money
Durango 4x4 rear bumper with swing away tire carrier and built-in hitch. Bought used from Ba-reido and repainted with bed-liner. Usually carrying a black Trasharoo
Custom built rock sliders, I believe the original design was by WheelinJR.
Used to have the 76" WP Safari basket rack but I busted off my rain gutters so I'm working on something else now.
ARB compressor under the hood,
COBRA 75-wx cb radio
Yaesu FT7900-R Ham radio.
Galls 5-function switch box for lights.
Rear cargo box with:
-Canned food good for 5 days stranded alone
-Minimum 5-gallons water
-140 feet of 30,000lb rated yank strap
-3 snatch blocks & D-rings
-10-foot chain (great for dragging logs off the road)
-Chainsaw mount on top of cargo box
-Axe, hatchet, 2 machetes & more pocket knifes than I can count.
-Nine flashlights and a 12-volt spotlight.
-60" Hi-Lift Jack, barely used.
Since we can only do six photos, I'll just post a link to my gallery of small details which I opptimisticaly called Start to Finish, thinking I'd be done some day. HAH:
http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/pelewanabesega/Start To Finish/
My biggest interest has always been exploration. I just got the Jeep by chance. My Mom bought the Jeep more for my sister, who loved Cherokees. Things didn't work out there and my sister didn't want to drive a stick and I needed a car so I bought the Jeep from my Mom with 57,xxx miles on it for $1500.
The 4x4 didn't even engage at the time and I ended up getting into trouble because of that. Hood River SAR had to come pull me out of some snow a few months after I'd gotten. While researching how to fix the problem, I came upon
. After fixing the missing bushing on the xfer case linkage, I started exploring more, and finding my limitations.
By the time I'd saved money to work on my Jeep, I had I good idea of what wanted to do to it and got to work. Most of last spring I was without my Jeep as I got it done but finally, just days before NWFest I had it at a point where I could consider it "done." At least done enough to wheel it.
I had an awesome time but my heart was still leading me toward exploration/expedition travel.
Sept '10 I spent 4 days exploring central and southeast Oregon with another Jeep guy, culminating in the best campsite I've ever had, a soundless, windless night in the middle of the Alvord Desert. Simple spectacular.
Though I am still cleaning dust off my camping gear, no joke...
I once read about a doing a trip to Hat Point and how it is the most famous view point of Hells Canyon that nobody has ever heard of. In the same area, there is also Dug Bar, one of only 2-3 places you can drive into Hells Canyon in Oregon. One well-traveled author refers to it as the most spectacular drive in Oregon.
After missing out on several opportunities to visit this area, I decided to create my own and planned a trip. I posted an invitation on PNWAdventures.com and on July 15th, we had seven rigs at the meeting point in Joseph, Oregon. After picking a CB channel and 2m channel for the hams, we headed for Imnaha (pronounce im-NAAH-hah, with a long NAAH) After a quick stop at the store there for ice and to fix various CB issues and let the old guys check into their hotel rooms, we headed downstream.
The road to Dug Bar follows the Imnaha River Wild and Scenic River down stream from Imnaha for 16 miles, crossing the river a few times as it follows the west edge of the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area. At the last crossing, the road immediately begins a 6 mile, 1000 foot climb up to the top of a ridgeline, before dropping 2400 feet over the next 6 miles to the Snake River at Dug Bar. After lunch there, we turned around and headed back, almost all the way to Imnaha before setting up camp in a wide spot along the river.
The next morning, cooler, cloudier weather had moved in as we started the 5,000 foot, 24 mile climb up to Hat Point, the highest spot on the Oregon side of Hells Canyon and home to a staffed fire lookout tower. After lunch up there, my brother and Mom in her truck and myself and my GF in my XJ split off from the group, drove back down to Imnaha then turned upstream.
Our goal was to camp between the upper Imnaha and Joseph, since the gf and I had a 350 mile drive home the next day. We first went up to the Hells Canyon overlook, easily accessed in a Honda Civic for what was honestly one of the best views I'd ever seen. We then started on a small back road toward Joesph and found a campsite.
As we set up camp, the thunder in the distance started. Then it got closer. And closer. And it started to rain as the lightning was striking all around us. In half an hour we got nearly three inches of rain and completely soaked. I made the executive decision and we threw all our wet gear in the rigs and headed for a hotel room in Wallowa.
It wasn't the way we had planned the trip to end but we had an amazing time and I don't regret a single thing. (Well, I wish I'd set up the GoPro during the storm but beyond that)
Me leading the way with our friend Rich right behind me.
(photo by my brother, used with permission)
Going through a cut while looking for a campsite.
(photo by my brother, used with permission)
Stopped just outside Joseph to watch the lightning for a few minutes before continuing to our motel.
Driving up out of Hole-in-the-Ground, in the Christmas Valley area of Central Oregon in September of 2010.
(Photo by my ex-gf, used with permission)
I've also got a blog, which I've neglected greatly lately but I still post pics there from my travels, which are mostly of the scenery, not my Jeep...
Check it out,
www.RMRX.Blogspot.com
