another epic trip, and my son's first Rubicon adventure.
First: thank you...each and every one of you. Amazing family of wheelers who looked out for my son, and myself, and watching over 60 others involved in our gathering.
Second: wow...the trail was way harder than I remember it from 2 years ago.
Trail damage report:
- broken rear passenger tail light lens cover and side marker
- bent both lower control arms, driver side way worse than passenger.
- dented belly pan, no worries.
- broken knuckle studs on passenger side, trail repaired and will replace knuckle, etc.
- front brake lines on passenger side came off mounting plate, no critical, but will fix when i have it tore down. Will drill and tap control arms on front driver side to mount the lines to as well.
- license plate got mangled...whoop de doo.
So , I came home with all the charcuterie I took along...since I didn't make it back to camp until 9:30 the night I was supposed to have appetizers for us. I can't tell you how relieved I was to hear that my son was fine and all of you took over a watchful eye. We talked about it a lot on the way home. He loved meeting all the "guys" and already misses Onur and wants to re-swim the Turd Island adventure.
Water play at the Springs was a blast.
Following David up Cadillac Hill was fun. We both got hung up on the muddy spot, he damaged his rear Drive line there and I'm pretty sure that's what did in my lower control arm as well. Thanks to the HI-Lo guys for the winch off it.
My winch is going in next week. Lesson learned.
For the big trail bust I had: thanks to the whole run for rummaging thru your stuff and handing over spares, tools, backpacks, all of it. I owe Rick a huge pile of money and parts, and there are a few others that sent me things, so let me know who needs the spares replaced, I am gladly placing an order with Onur real soon and will get them to you so you have them for your next trip. Thanks for running them down the whole trail to us, and thanks Andy for coaching me thru the mechanics of disassembling a knuckle on the trail.
It was fun to meet everyone, I was stoked I got thru so many lines without a spotter, and truly appreciative of Dale and Tom walking so far in that heat and keeping us safe. Onur, I can't rally put it into words, other than; "yeah Bro!", Alvaro:"dood", David:"yep", Team Pryor: "thanks so much for everything; thanks MOM!"
I'll get to more later, but for now...just trying to relive it all again and fight off my productivity at work for another week.