Indy run, July 29th

[87xjco]

(7/29/06)Rockfrogs trip
I had a great time on Indy! Big thanks to all the spectators/spotters, fellow Rockfrogs, , Greg and Phoebe and their unstopable rig, and everyone for the help and patience.

And just cause my knees were wobbling, doesn't mean I was scared. Must have been the heat!

I had my normal kind of breakdown, right at the entrance I broke a heim joint when I came down hard on my right LCA. Eric saved my butt with a spare. Pretty quick fix this time.

Here's a few photo's that Jim sent me
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/indy%2007-29-06/IMG_0424.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/indy%2007-29-06/Xentrance-1.jpg
I think the picture above is right where the heim broke
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/indy%2007-29-06/IMG_0430.jpg
I keep having photo's of broken parts setting on the bed of my truck, not a good trend.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/indy%2007-29-06/heim.jpg

[87xjco]

So I get thru the entrance thinking, wow! that's got to be the worst of it. It will be alot easier from here on out. Then I see the waterfall.
We've all seen pictures of this trail, but they don't look anything like it does, when you're standing at the top of this sucker. I think my exact quote was "Holy crap!"
I don't have any pictures of the Xota on the waterfall, i'm sure everyone will add alot of pic's to the linked thread in the next post.

Greg's rig crawled right down with no trouble.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/indy%2007-29-06/gregwfall1.jpg
Erics rig crawled down this first ledge easy.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/indy%2007-29-06/Ericwfall1-1.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/indy%2007-29-06/Ericwfall2.jpg
On the next drop he had some Lt. quater damage, but I don't have a photo.





O/k, so I got thru that alive no more damage. (no photos) I figured, now it'll get easier.




So then Greg and Eric start up the Patriot exit (crazy)
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/indy%2007-29-06/rigspatr.jpg
Greg gets thru the first major obstical and made it look easy.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/indy%2007-29-06/gregpatr21.jpg
Then he gets thru a-hole. He had to work at it a little, but not much problem for him.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/indy%2007-29-06/gegahole.jpg

[87xjco]

But Eric wasn't so lucky, On the first obstical (is that the "V" notch), he had a front spring shackle bracket break off from the frame. A little bit of trail rigging in our finest tradition, and it was chained up, we hoped it would hold together.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/indy%2007-29-06/springchain-1.jpg

But that made his rig not climb near as well now. So the delema was whether to back out and have to go out the liberty exit (long ways of pretty difficult trail) , or to fight and winch his way out thru Patriot.
It took some work and patience to get his rig thru a-hole. Alot of rock stacking, winching, spectators pulling, and great driving by Eric and Greg with his strap and winch, to get him out of this hole. (we un-stacked the rocks when we were thru)
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/indy%2007-29-06/group.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/indy%2007-29-06/Ericahole2.jpg

So you can guess how bad I wanted to attempt the Patriot exit, but once Eric got thru a-hole, I knew he had alot of help and he'd probably be out in 30 minutes or less, so me and Jim headed off for the 1 hour trip thru the Liberty exit (which was no picnic) damm you Eric, for keeping me from trying the Patriot exit.
(thanks for the excellent spotting Jim!)
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/indy%2007-29-06/xliberty1.jpg

Eric got out alright and walked down from the other end of Liberty to make sure I was o/k (Iwas just going slow). His dad and (?buddie) also walked down and hitched a ride out.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/indy%2007-29-06/dadsonback.jpg



Once again, I had a great day and thanks to everyone!!! and let's not do that trail again for awhile.


Here's a limk to the thread that should be getting alot more photo's uploaded
http://www.rockfrogs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=338

and here's some more photo's
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/indy%2007-29-06/more%20pics/

[fatwreck]

haha....great trip report. That trail is pretty intimidating the first couple of times you see it. It gets better though. :laugh3:

[87xjco]

Here's some shots of my junk coming down

At the first ledge
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/indy%2007-29-06/Xledge1.jpg

At the next ledge
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/indy%2007-29-06/xdropa.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/indy%2007-29-06/xdrop2.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/indy%2007-29-06/xdrop6.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/indy%2007-29-06/xdropback2.jpg

[fatwreck]

You're lucky....getting a passenger tire up on that rock is how my friend dumped his the last time I was there:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/indy%2007-29-06/xdrop2.jpg

http://www.projectxj.com/images/trail.runs/06.03.06-indy/images/IMG_7812.jpg

[87xjco]

You're lucky....getting a passenger tire up on that rock is how my friend dumped his the last time I was there:
[/IMG]
Yeah, we thought about how being up there gave me a hole to fall into. The rig before me stayed left and got alot of body damage though.

So we had 4 guys hanging on a strap on the back, and there was a time where the rear end slipped over and I wonder what would have happened if there was no strap.

It was intense!

[fatwreck]

I've done it a couple of times without a strap and the rear sliding over makes me nervous EVERY time. I've seen it happen to a lot of people.....but I've only seen one go over....and that was my friend with his tire up on that rock.

IMO, the far left line is only good for people with exos, short wheelbases, or buggies. Hitting the wall or the rock right in front of you is almost guaranteed.