FAWKING MIND BOGGLING - HitR 2016

[OGBeno]

In the morning I get a good start and start traversing the 2 ranges to come out on the other side towards Ticaboo.

Beautiful scenery everywhere. Just absolutely overwhelming and full on awesomeocity:

In this last picture I have crossed the crest of ranges and am on the east side of the Henrys. The area behind and beyond is where we were for HITR... Deep in the canyon and plateau country.

You can see how elusive the terrain is... So much hiding in that distance:

 

[rc51kid]

What a great thread! I just spent the last several days waisting productivity at work reading it.

I hate to ruin it with such a tech question. But were any of the 80s running anything smaller that 35s? Do you guys think it made any of this trial any harder for them or do you think the low CG might actually have helped some?

 

[jfz80]

1 80 had 6" coils and 315s
3 80s had 4" lift and 315s
1 80 had 2.5" and 285s
The 60/80 had ~4"/315s as well

@JohnnyOshow22 did some great driving on the 2.5/33" combo. I don't think he struggled anywhere due to the lower lift and I'm sure he was a bit more comfortable in other spots because of it. Everywhere he drug (mainly rear bumper) all the others were doing the same as well.

 

[wngrog]

That part of Moab is not a good place to judge if you need 35's or not.
We went 5 years ago and ran some hairy trails. I had 37s in my 80 and Pablo had 32s and he went everywhere I did.

 

[OGBeno]

The downgrade trail towards Ticaboo is long and steep. Not technically challenging by any means but concentrating on the epic beauty in front while also downshifting and braking takes patience.... You drop down from about 9800ft down to about 3500 ft at Ticaboo over many many miles.

So as I near the bottom and comes to the junction of 276 and 95, I see an 80 series with an off color door! Bang:. Ole @Cruiserdrew .... Im about a thousand feet above and about a 1/4 mile away, but it's definitely Andy.

The serendipity was just absolute along with the terrain.

The desert really tweaks with things. It presents options that might in normal circumstances seem odd or ill advised and has a way, a method, a manner of rationalizing them;. Wholly.

So I hop on the 2M and radio with Andy.

"dude!!!!!!! I see you from up here!"

"Awesome man..... Lets meet at Blondie's in Hanksville"

"Done."

 

[Cruiserdrew]

So this was an amazing coincidence. I had parted with Cam, and said goodbye to the Super Model/Mossad agent, and decided to take the scenic route through Fry Canyon, Hite, Hanksville, and maybe grab lunch at Blondies.

On the radio--it's like "whoa dude.." I'm like WTF that's Onur's voice and was I in such a trance I passed him and didn't notice? I mean I was craning my neck all over looking for the white 70 series but nothing. I wasn't sure he could hear, but I said: "let's meet at Blondies, I'll buy lunch" or something to that effect. 30 minutes later we were both at Blondies, looking forward to a hot meal. Awesome. One of the highlights of this already out of control trip.


Edit: For all you guys on the fence about Ham radios, this demonstrated the power of a good Ham set up. Get one.

 

[MountNGoat]

So this was an amazing coincidence. I had parted with Cam...

That's crazy cool. Almost like it couldn't haven't happened given the nature of our trip!

 

[Cruiserdrew]

The desert really tweaks with things. It presents options that might in normal circumstances seem odd or ill advised and has a way, a method, a manner of rationalizing them.

This so true. It really gets under your skin. Death Valley, with it's immense possibilities is the same way. Things happen, time goes by, it's the place you need to be.

@desertdude has it right. It's Desert Healing. It's a real thing.

Edit: Look what I found:

Tunes

Scroll and find "Desert Healing"

 

[OGBeno]

This so true. It really gets under your skin. Death Valley, with it's immense possibilities is the same way. Things happen, time goes by, it's the place you need to be.

@desertdude has it right. It's Desert Healing. It's a real thing.

Edit: Look what I found:

Tunes

Scroll and find "Desert Healing"

It's just mindbogglingly epic that I just happened to look down and see Andy turning. Desert serendipity.

 

[PabloVTA]

look, meat!

 

[OGBeno]

So Andy and I have an agreeable meal at Blondie's and then we part ways:. Andy towards a most righteous road: Rt. 50 and Great Basin National Pqrk for the night.

I head south on 276 towards the old Mormon outpost of Ticaboo. There I diesel up and check to make sure the ferry from Bullfrog to Halls Croasing was still on for the afternoon. It was. Perfect.

Another 25 miles south and I get to the ferry crossing. No one there. Weird.

Ferry arrives and the bro trucks with their massive boats come off the boat.

Then I pull on.

Perfect!

I ended up not being the only vehicle on the ferry. A father and daughter from NV were taking a road trip from Reno to DFW and the daughter had graduated and had never seen other parts of the country.

I assume it was also a father-daughter bonding trip before she heads out to the wilds of the "real" world.

The father had a beer. He was a fan.

 

[jfz80]

HAHA small world!

Lemme guess. Daughter was off to life in the world of dentistry? or that was the story.
You get the uncofortable vibe she didnt want to be there? ... might not have been under free will? or even his daughter after all?


We ran into them at CrazyJug on the north rim 2 days before we met up with you guys to start HITR. Kinda odd energy between them but dad was definitely a talker.

 

[OGBeno]

HAHA holy sh!t.

Lemme guess. Daughter was off to life in the world of dentistry? or that was the story.
You get the uncofortable vibe she didnt want to be there? ... might not have been under free will? or even his daughter after all?


We ran into them at CrazyJug on the north rim 2 days before we met up with you guys to start HITR. Kinda odd energy between them but dad was definitely a talker.

Are you serious? Holy s***. Definitely weird energy. She was NOT into the trip.

She was cute though....

 

[jfz80]

That's them

 

[Cruiserdrew]

So Andy and I have an agreeable meal at Blondie's and then we part ways:. Andy towards a most righteous road: Rt. 50 and Great Basin National Pqrk for the night.

So I should mention I was headed to Great Basin NP. But when I got there the wind was blowing 40 mph and it was snowing. And I was tired. Ely wasn't that far away and I needed gas anyway, so Ely it was. It was snowing there too. I still had 10 hours or so back to Sacramento and so I caved. I don't like to pay to camp or sleep, but the La Quinta had a non-smoking room for $100 with my AAA discount and so I spent the night there. Drank my last beer in the hotel room and slept like a rock until 0530.

I was back on Hwy 50 by 0630 and didn't see a soul on the entire highway until about 0830. The first pass was cold, windy and some ice. There was a dead Elk that had been hit overnight. That was cool. But it wasn't snowing so that was good. After that it was a breeze.

 

[JohnnyOshow22]

1 80 had 6" coils and 315s
3 80s had 4" lift and 315s
1 80 had 2.5" and 285s
The 60/80 had ~4"/315s as well

@JohnnyOshow22 did some great driving on the 2.5/33" combo. I don't think he struggled anywhere due to the lower lift and I'm sure he was a bit more comfortable in other spots because of it. Everywhere he drug (mainly rear bumper) all the others were doing the same as well.
View attachment 1272054 View attachment 1272057

There was only one spot I got hung up and if I had backed up and given it another go I could've gotten over it. I was definitely glad I was not as tall and tippy as some of the others on this trip... cough cough @PabloVTA

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

What a great thread! I just spent the last several days waisting productivity at work reading it.

I hate to ruin it with such a tech question. But were any of the 80s running anything smaller that 35s? Do you guys think it made any of this trial any harder for them or do you think the low CG might actually have helped some?

No problem with this 100 series 33's with ATrac only

 

[rc51kid]

There was only one spot I got hung up and if I had backed up and given it another go I could've gotten over it. I was definitely glad I was not as tall and tippy as some of the others on this trip... cough cough @PabloVTA

.

Good to hear. I keep looking at 35" but I think I am going to stick With good aggressive 33" and a little lift. Its been working so far.

 

[PabloVTA]

There was only one spot I got hung up and if I had backed up and given it another go I could've gotten over it. I was definitely glad I was not as tall and tippy as some of the others on this trip... cough cough @PabloVTA

you'll change your tune in a week or so...

 

[Cruiserdrew]

you'll change your tune in a week or so...

LOL. As I recall, Johnny did a pretty credible job last year, and this year the pressure is all on @justintpryor. But I agree, the Rubicon rewards more lift. @PabloVTA needs the extra lift to hold up the charcuterie, the california king, the 16 cases of microbrew, and the commercial kitchen.