Gorman Run
Well there were 5 vehicles in attendance, Me - XJ, Brain T. - XJ, Doug - XJ, Gilbert - EB, and Russ - CJ. We arrived up there approx. 9:00 am and went to play around at the obstacle course for a while. There was a little rain but justenought to keep the duct down. We disconnected swaybars but left tire pressure alone as we were not getting into anyhting too difficult. We all played around on the little pyramid and I made it to the top only to have a tire rub the flair and pop it out of the bracket holder. My wife took her first run in the XJ while I spotted her up the concrete staircase, next to the big boys rocks. She was nervous at first being she never drove offroad but was smiling ear to ear half way up.
After playing around a while we went down into the river bottom so I could let my girls drive for the first time. Whew was that fun!!
They were smiling ear to ear and did not want to give the wheel back to dad.
We found a little ledge in the river bottom that none of us were able to conquer on our last trip there, at which time I was stock, and Gilbert had a bone to pick with it since it would not let his Dodge up it on the last trip.
Well a little trying here and tryin there and the ledge once again one by taking out the u-joint on his front D44. I then took a shot at it in the XJ and hit it at an angle then turned into it and gunned it, Woo Hoo, we were on top in no time. Then MT's were throwing some serious sand though. A couple more attempts by Brian and it was determined a locker was needed as well as momentum.
We continued on to a little rut we found up there on a previous run and it REALLY pitches you sideways. We were just going to see if it was still there, but I had to try it since I did it in my '90. I crawled into it and the front drivers tire shot for the sky while the rear was sinking to China. Tried a little more but did not make it, just got rewarded with a pressure dent on the rear 1/4 panel, a popped flair, and some new scratches. Next time!! I am told the tire was a good 2-3 feet off the ground.
We left HV and went to run the Salt Creek trial in Fraizer. Nothing more than a forest road with 1 good rutted, muddy slide and a few rock steps. We made it up the slide alot easier than we thought we would but I somehow got careless and hit the Tomken rail pretty damn hard on a rock ledge. Knocked some powder coating off but they held up well enough to split a chunk of rock.
We left there and on our way out went through HV again to see what was happening at the water hole. On our way there we saw a Jeep on a wrecker gettin ready to be hauled out. This was on the large wall like hill that is fenced off with 2 routes up/down it. Mostly motorcycles us it. From what we gathered at the water hole, the people were going up it and almost to the top when the front of the Jeep started coming around, Jeep rolled to the bottom, the two did NOT have seat belts on and were ejected. Neither was crushed but both were airlifted out. Mind you this is second hand info and I hope they are OK.
All in all a great day and look forward to another run in a few weeks, hopefully with snow!!