CLC Volunteer work day with the Forest Service

[PPFJ60]

Well we, with the help of Rick Elsworth from the Forest service, found the remains of the 91 Toyota. It took us about 4 1/2 hours to get the 91 Toyota 200 yards up the trail. By that time we were wondering if we were going to get it out to the road. Andy was winching with combinations of direct lines and snatch blocks to get the 91 Toyota up the first steep slope. After the first 200 yards the trail began to mellow out a bit and Luke hooked onto the front of my FJ60 which was strapped to the 91 Toyota and we were off to the races. It took us less than 30 minutes to get up to 357 which was about half a mile. Towards the end of the trail my strap broke and Luke pulled the 91 Toyota the rest of the way to the road.

 

[black95]

Thanks for writing a trail report Chuck.

This was a pretty wild day. Things started to look bad for me early on because of some "phantom" brake problems, I thought I was going to have to turn around early, but the brakes kept coming back to work, so I stayed in the game.

I'm speaking for myself, but when they asked us to remove an abandoned vehicle, I never thought it was going to be in a place this difficult. We could have taught a 4 hour winching 101 class. There were winch cables everywhere, I know I learned a thing or two. At one point, it literally looked like we were building a spider web in front of andy's rig, there were three snatch blocks, two chains and about five shackles involved. crazy!!! plus chuck was hooked up at the same time to boot. We tried to leave the winches out of things for a while, but the ground was just too soft and the trail just too off camber. There were surely some places where you could have taken a flop if you were not careful.

I think that's why that toyota was in this location, it looked to me like it rolled, but even if he didn't, there was no way you were getting a stock toyota out of that valley. especially when it had 1,000 bullet holes in it. by the way, bullet holes seem to be really handy for providing places to hook your ratchet straps too, lol.

I am glad I was there and was proud to give back to the forest service, I sometimes feel like I don't do enough to enjoy all the public land we have rights too.

Watching scott from the forest service steer that toyota with not rear end, no door, a cigar hanging out of his mouth, and a huge grin on his face was not to be missed, I laughed about that the whole way home. I also got a free hub dial out of the deal if anyone needs one, let me know later.

 

[PPFJ60]

On this run we had Rick and Scott from the FS, David H. and Conner, Andy, Luke and Claire and Chuck.

David and Rick were running winch lines in many different configurations. Sometimes our volunteer work for the FS doesn't take much physical effort but this job had us burning lots of calories. I could feel it in my shoulders this morning.

I thought everyone did a great job working together to get the job done and no one was hurt!

We sure got some strange looks when we had David's FJ80, Luke's 4Runner, the 91 Toyota, Andy's mini-truck and my FJ60 lined up. Luke started telling a story to some passing ATV's that we have had a bad day 4 wheeling with one of the trucks in the group!

After we dragged the 91 Toyota up to FR 357 and the FS had a tractor there to take the truck to the trailer, David, Andy and I took a little run down 357B loop. We talked about how that area would be a good place for a club run with a picnic day. The trails are fun and passable with a stock 4x4's. Maybe a club run with a picnic lunch and a winching class all thrown together would be fun.

 

[LCPilot]

It sounds Like a intersting learning experience. I was tied up with youth baseball and couldn't get there in time. Thanks for all of your time and effort.