The Raffle Run

So Sunday's fun was, well, fun. Carol, John, somebody else (sorry man, I can't for the life of me remember your name!), and I bought the magical golden tickets and played on Jackhammer North (I think, or was it South?) and Sledge.

I had fun in this:


Richard and his winner had fun in this:


Carol had fun like this:


Even if she needed this:


I think John is still grinning:



All told we all had a blast!


More photos can be found here: Clicky, clicky!

Looks like it was fun. Did Carol flop it to get over her fear of off camber?

I think I can speak for Richard, Paul, & Dave. We had a great time riding with you guys. We did Jack Hammer north (Jack Back) than slid over to the mailbox on sledge & went all the way to the top through the third canyon. We than wrapped back around to the start of Sledge Hammer & did the lower canyon & than took the out up the sand hill. It was a fairly short days as week got back to camp at about 1:00 pm, but I think you guys got a bunch of wheeling in, in that time. Thanks for all the support for team !!!

I (Jeremy) was the one that won the chance to drive Richard's buggy. It was an AWESOME time. It would have been tough for me to hand over the keys to my rig had I had that much time and money wrapped up in it. But you guys were great, and treated us to a great time. It was fun to drive the buggy and see just how different (easier) it takes the obstacles. Richard pretty much turned it over to me and said "pick the line you want and go for it" That was great. (although, I'm not sure why he wore a helmet?) I think I only got him a little nervous once.

This was the only thing I was hoping to win in the raffle, and I got it. I was so excited! The best $20 I EVER spent! I hope I'm able to get the DVD from that fellow (Norm I think) that was recording the trip, as I forgot to give Dave my address.

Thanks again for offering up your rigs as a prize. It was an awesome adventure for those of us that have never done anything that extreme before. I got to drive trails I would never take my rig on. I look forward to the ride up Backdoor and Resolution you offered me Richard, I think that will be a blast

I will see you all next year,

Jeremy

Definitely a good time. Pretty neat that Sequoia, John, Carol & Jeremy were all new to the Hammers.
I had a blast watching Sequoia's driving style do a 180 over the course of 3 hours.

Paul

It was a good time. Any of the winners that would like a DVD PM
your adddy.

Carol did a great job. Hope she had fun.

I am so stoked for John from the South East chapter. He came all that way and won the big prize. Very cool. :thumbup:

David Taylor said:

Carol did a great job. Hope she had fun.

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I'd say she's having plenty of fun!!

That smile says a thousand words.

jrowell said:

I (Jeremy) was the one that won the chance to drive Richard's buggy. This was the only thing I was hoping to win in the raffle, and I got it. I was so excited! The best $20 I EVER spent!

Jeremy

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$20??? I was robbed!! (NOT!!) I spent $40 for raffle tix!! Of course, I got Matt's nuts, too :lickout:. And chose to spend the $40 I scraped together on raffle tix rather than a t-shirt not because I thought I'd win anything, but because more of the proceeds would go to the KOH fund if they didn't kick in the shirt. Richard'll even vouch for that!

Mark, no, I didn't manage to flop it. Dave rubbed shoulders with a few rocks, though!:laugh3: And I don't know if I'm over my off camber fear; Dave was kind enough not to laugh at me on the one sudden drop that made me squeak.

Geoff, you got some great shots... couldja email 'em to me? I'll pm you my email address. I'll get Dave's great shots from him via DVD, I presume.

All I have to say is--it was amazing. Dave's rig is awesome, and when that's matched with a great guy who's a wonderful spotter & coach (and didn't whimper out loud about my driving even one time!), it just made it phenomenal. And yes, Matty, I'm still smiling!

Carol

Oh, and here are my pix from this weekend...
http://s283.photobucket.com/albums/kk283/CarolHorsley/ GoatFest 2008/

or, shorter version...

http://tinyurl.com/6ml325

Getting to drive Matts rig on Sunday was the capstone of a perfect two weeks back in SoCal. As mentioned in another post I saved my perdium (ate worms etc) so i could buy $100 in raffle tickets. I won the fourth drawing and am surprised I didnt fall to my knees and let out a full on rebel yell or something similar I was so excited.

Driving Matts rig was simply effortless. Its a very well designed rig. The stability is incrediable and rightfully inspires confidence. Its also very precise in the rocks. You can easily position it within an inch of where you want it to go. The rig is signifiantly more capable than I am and is far more capable than the terrain we ran on. Matt gave me great advice on picking lines and setting up for the bigger obstacles. I definately would not have gotten through as easily as I did without his sage advice.
Depsite all this I still made mistakes. Each time we went through third canyon I hooked the front diff in exactly the same spot, I have know idea what it was, I looked even harder the second time and still did the same think. Coming down the steep twisty sand track from the top of the hill I overcorrected both times on the hydro steer and pushed us close to the edge. Both times he warned me about this, and both times I made the exact same mistake. This was the only time I think that Matt get tense.

I cant thank Matt and everyone involved in setting up the raffle enough. What a great experience, even more special since there is a very real chance that these trails might be lost.

Now for my pics:












I cant wait to get the DVD/CD.

Thanks to everyone for one of the greatest off road experiences I have ever had and a great weekend. From Tackhammer to Sledgehammer it was fantastic.

BTW: We did a taste test tonight. Emma, Jo & I all agree that Matts almonds are more much much better than the peanut guys.

John

Oh, here's the link to all my (and some others' that I pilfered) various pix from the weekend. PM me if you want "real size" copies, tho my camera was in MQ mode, so files are only 700-900kb:

http://s283.photobucket.com/albums/kk283/CarolHorsley/NAXJA GoatFest 2008/
or
http://tinyurl.com/6ml325 which is a shorter easier version of the first link.

David Taylor said:

Carol did a great job. Hope she had fun.

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Ooooh. Perm pucker,,,



... and Perma grin.




Gee Dave, I remember when your rig was red. And had four doors. And glass.

Andy Steiner said:

Ooooh. Perm pucker,,,

and had glass...

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Hey Andy,
That's not PermaPucker... I was just trying to see over the damn hood! Even with Dave's Smokey the Bear pillow behind my back, and 2 sweatshirts under my arse... I needed a booster seat!
--Carol