WEEEEEEEELIN!!
Right then, this is what we all want to hear about right!!
We set off to the trail head on Saturday morning all pumped and ready to go. Quite an impressive line up of trucks – with a 70 leading the way for 5 60’s and a sweet BJ80.. (Yes, you read that right) First hole on the trail is still beside the highway, so we all do a good job of messing it right up and getting stuck. Well, maybe not all of us, but most of us!)
At this point I have more pictures than words – so I’ll let them speak for a while…
And then we saw something I have never witnessed before. A Wayne hole so big, that even Mike would not attempt to Moose it though… (though he did dip in up to his knee himself!) After an unfortunate decision that we had no way over, around or through it, we decided to turn back and run the trail back out. – Again, I’ll let the pictures speak – they are much better than I am…
Back at the cabin, we sat and relaxed for a while, cooked up a few burgers, dogs, sausages, and some steaks. Plenty of stories, and wisdom shared. With the Moose in a deep sleep – we headed out in a reduced capacity of only 4 trucks, the 70 and three 60’s. Off to a different trail this time. We figured we had a few hours of light – so we would see how far we could get… I dub this – the MOSQUITO TRAIL – HO-LEE-CRAP!!
I was the second truck in line this time, following the tractor, with the idea in my mind that the more trucks went through, the deeper the holes would get. Being that I had the least prepared of any of them (lifted with 33’s but not locked, or tractor tired, or SOA with 37’s!) I figured it would give me the best chance. The first hole we came to got Wayne stuck – yes – WAYNE STUCK –
This should have been an indication that this was going to be a tough trail. When the tractor gets stuck, it’s not a good sign. Though quickly he self recovered and it was my turn. Very Carefully I chose the wussie line and got all the way through… Phew! Nicholas didn’t find enough challenge in the hole the first time, so backed up and got completely smothered in muck, and also stuck. Here a tug, there a tug.
Next big hole, and it was a looong one. Wayne goes through, calls me on the radio and says – “you’ll need to give it on this one – it gets deep at the end – put your tow strap on now so you don’t have to get wet putting it on down here” Word from the wise…. On goes my tuggum, over the hood, up on the roof. My brilliant brain says “open the door, hang the strap in so it doesn’t fall in the water” Brilliant brain realized a few minutes later, that this then requires opening of said door, while it is under water, in order to remove tug strap…. (lesson learned)
Tugged up out of the hole we prep for the Rig of Mortis to pass through – however, there is not much room for him to pull up. Says Wayne to Jeremy… “Just drive it through the next hole”….
“Why did you stop?” “Well – Drive it out!” - so he did! THAT was a DEEP hole with something very hard in the bottom!
I tried to sneak around the side and soon found what a steep side angle is!! (Wayne did his best to scare me by wiggling my truck by grabbing the roof and saying “does it feel like you’re gonna go over???”)
Next up were a few puddles, then we got into the "challenging" section
Trying to take videos and pictures on this trail was hellish on the hands – at one point I counted 7 mosquitos on my right hand while I was trying to video Wayne crawling over a massive rock….
I decided to abandon my truck for fear of it not making the drive home – the terrain got a little beyond my comfort level. After watching Wayne weave the 70 though what I thought was impossible, Nicholas did the same in the Rig of Mortis
– followed shortly thereafter by Matt in his JDM locked beast.
I still decided that I was better off with my truck on the easy side of the rocks, as we still had to come back out this way later on. Luckily for me, later was quite a bit sooner, as we rounded the next corner and came uppon a rock & tree field that the 70 could barely navigate, let alone a 60. Abort, abort, back the other way. At this point we started loosing light anyway so It was a good time to start heading back. (though Wayne had hoped for a 2 AM return to camp!).
Turning around of course meant one thing… going through all the MASSIVE holes, that we had made even bigger on the way in.
As I watch the hole ahead of me, I see nothing but mud flying and the sound of a 3B sounding much like it must as it screams it’s last breaths of air, I mean RUGGED. Matt going through the “just drive through that hole” hole. Out the other side and in goes Nicholas.. Good god – where did the Rig of Mortise go? DAMN that thing is deep now!!! Some good trail carnage as the drivers side shock did a 90° bend and gave up it’s previous life as a pogo stick emulator. (but didn’t break!)
Here I got to witness my first combination, Waynehole / Moosing it / triple sow cow. HOLY CRAPPERS – that’s a Youtube keeper… (this was the hole that he told Jeromy to “just drive through that next hole” on the way in
Right, Now we are back to the hole where I learned about water levels and doors. Matt drops the JDM cruiser in and “Mooses it” Rarely does one see Matt “Moose it” but he does seem to be picking up on it’s use… Only making it about 15 feet, he starts to back up when his swing out with the tire on it does a 180 off to the side… WHOA WOAH WOAH!!! He stops at the perfect spot, where I just stand at the start of the hole and latch it back up again… A couple more back and fourths and the locked RHD JDM is out of the hole. Right then, time for me to get stuck. “Matt, you want to just hold my tug strap, cuz I’m only going to get about 10’ in I think” “Sure no problem” I drop in the hole in 4Lo 2n’d MOOSING it through the floor, get about 10’ and it starts to bog. Matt is doing his damndest running along ahead of me with the strap, but before I lost all momentum I whipped out of 2nd and back down to 1st… up at about 3800 RPM that lil old 3B was just SCREAMING and I WAS STILL MOVING!!! Running along Tugging me BY HAND Matt somehow managed to get me through the WHOLE THING!! THAT for me was the most amazing part of the whole day/weekend/career/cruiser ownership. I still don’t know how it happened – Matt must have eaten his wheaties good that morning!!!
