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Ok , captain send it.I am still in for this weekend with hopefully @jamarquardt22 as my copilot aka Admiral Hard Line
My Buddy in his 4th Gen 4Runner @Rmtofast1 (don't know why it isn't showing up) will be joining us.
Excited for the trip, lots of faces I haven't seen in a while.
This.For those wondering what the heck we are talking about. After last trip, @Cass007 gave Andy and I the nick names of Captain Send it and his sidekick Admiral Hard Line. There was a meme to go with it but I can't find it at the moment
It was a challenging day of wheeling to say the least but I still think a decent day, Blue sky, cold but comfortable weather (only a breeze in the staging area), and a fairly quiet day at the park.
We had a good group and a great mix of 9 total trucks! Please forgive me I am horrible with names and will use our Mud handles
Myself @YotaFun with @jamarquardt22 in my 3rd Gen 4Runner
@Rmtofast1 in a 4th gen 4Runner
@Rics4rnr in his 3rd gen
@GX DAVE in his GX470
@Ecliff5 in his 80
@PFRELENG in his 80
@Cass007 in his 80
@Pacer and @Catskills in their stockish 80
@caz and @VBRoamer in his Tacoma
I am not good at giving the short version so I do apologies again.
We all got signed in, aired down, radioed up and after a quick drivers meeting @jamarquardt22 and I lead the way in my 4Runner with the group following and @caz and @VBRoamer bringing up the rear in the Tacoma. We headed towards the south property since the northeast property is still closed for hunting season. Figuring we would get right into it, @jamarquardt22 and I lead the group to Hills and Bowls which I believe is 1C. I have not done this trail in a few years, and every year it either gets harder or easier I feel, this year, for the most part I felt was easier. After getting myself through, @jamarquardt22 began to spot the rest of the group through a tough section of a bowl with two decent size boulders that required a little 3 point turn and skinny pedal. During this trail we had the beginning of our trail day breakdowns. As we were he was getting to the tough spot @PFRELENG noticed his power steering was not working and found a puddle of red fluid underneath the truck. after some diagnosis, found that a power steering cooler line had blown off the power steering cooler. Jumping to Action @Rmtofast1 and myself jumped into action, and after some hose clamps and fluid we got him through an proceeded to get the rest of the group, I believe also on this trail @GX DAVE tore the corner of his left rear bumper cover. It was here or later on at the next trail. Continuing on after getting @Pacer through with the 80 with a new rear sway bar ( say this because I feel this was a park of some of the difficulty they had during the day). We regrouped back on Trail B where @PFRELENG found breakdown #2, another power steering leak, this one we couldn't fix as the leak was coming out of the top of the steering box slack adjustment bolt. Since we weren't too far into the park, Andy and I lead the group back to the staging area to drop off @PFRELENG 80 and have him and his passenger into other vehicles in the group to head out and continue to enjoy the day.
From here we mad a B line down B to HRR a.k.a Hot Rod Ridge, a new favorite of Andy's and myself. HRR is a fairly new black trail but pretty decent to navigate if the right line is picked, which I thought I had until we started to get the rest of the group through. I guess Captain Send It here doesn't know his own throttle pedal and got through the trail fairly quickly with not much difficulty. However, getting the rest of the group through a rough section toward the end proved the line I had chosen was more difficult, I believe @Cass007 and @caz found a much better line when they got to the same spot. We had to stack a lot of rocks to get the group through but eventually we did. However, we had breakdown #3 of the day in the form of a destroyed right front CV axle. after getting the rest of the group off HRR we pulled off the side of trail B and began our trail repair, jumping to action again I along with Rich got the CV swapped out while the group had lunch since the timing seemed right.
After lunch and the trail repair, we loaded up and rolled out with @Pacer taking the lead. We ventured further down into the south property and traversed down Krawlin for Cops. Usually a nice comfortable blue trail until we reached the end and the steep down hill, @Pacer got into a tight spot trying a different line that proved challenging. After many failed attempts at stacking rocks, we strapped him to my front tow hook and pulled him back enough to reset and try a different line which was successful! the rest of the group made it through with relative ease and we continued on down Trail 21. Trail 21 was uneventful for the most part, we did loose three trucks, I had forgotten to turn my radio back on and didn't hear @Cass007 call for assistance. He was able to get himself through and the group was back together again.
At this point we were starting to reach the end of the day. @Pacer, @jamarquardt22 and myself discussed doing Camelback and playing down in Lake Christy. After looking at the time, I thought it might be best if we just head around to Lake Christy and scope it out. Once we arrived we all assessed the hill climbs and I decided to head down to the beach. There are two hill climbs that are not as horrendous as I remember which made for an easy time for most, @Rmtofast1 got wedged in a good size rock that the group assisted him with by using a hi-lift to get him over. Following him then was @GX DAVE, @Ecliff5 and @Cass007. We parked and did a little photo op and @Pacer went walked around exploring the other hill climbs out of Christy. @caz, @VBRoamer and @Rics4rnr headed out for the day. While chatting and watchin a jeep of some sort almost sink himself on the other side of the lake, @Rmtofast1 found breakdown #4 of the day. @Cass007 had some missing and back out bolts on the bottom of his right front steering knuckle. I dragged out my tools again and got the two bolts that remained tightened back up, as well as adding at least one more bolt (there is a total of 4) to get him in a position to get out and get home. From there the sun was setting and we decided to start heading out.
From here our 5th and finally breakdown of the day happen. As we all exited Lake Christy, @GX DAVE had a horrible noise coming from his truck. After some Diagnosis we determined that it was either a rear diff or axle shaft had left the park. Thankfully it was drivable to at least get him to the staging area.
In conclusion, we did some great trails, had some break down, but made some great memories. I had a blast and it was great to see some old faces, meet some new faces and enjoy the hobby we all love. Thank you all for the new memories and the pictures you were able to get and share. hope everyone gets sorted out soon so we can all go out again!
Oh, apparently I did loose a right rear fender flare as some point during the day
@GX DAVE I do
. Otherwise was a great day and great to meet new faces
, it looked like a good line and I think if the rear sway bar wasn't on it would have helped a little. What lift is under that truck?
