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GPNF Snow Run 1/1/11

TORX

NAXJA Forum User
NAXJA Member
Location
NWC
There's no better way to bring in a new year than a good day of wheeling. I had been getting the urge to get back up into the snow bad, so I extended the invite to a few local guys on here.

Unfortunately, most already had plans, or were nursing a hangover. So it was just my newly elected treasurer Darren, and myself. Darren brought the wife with him, and I had Joey (FiveNDime) riding passenger with me.

I had a tentative route planned, but of course once we got up there the conditions weren't anything like what I was expecting. Since it has been in the low 20's here for the past few days the snow has become extremely dried out. It was like trying to wheel in sugar. Icy crust on top, with bottomless powder underneath. It definitely took some patience, technique, and luck.

Losing a few PSI.
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Heading up the road. Weather was crisp, but decent.
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Darren found himself in a hole so I turned around to have Warn give him a quick pull.
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After that we made decent progress for awhile until we realized we still had almost another thousand feet to climb until we reached the top. So the debate was to try and push over to the top, or head back down to the main road and head up a different way.

We opted to head back down, and try coming up from a different way. That's where we ran into Ryan (icemans) and his family out for a play day in the snow.
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Group shot.
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We continued up the road and figured we'd see how far we could get. It took a bit to get into the groove and find the sweet spot, but eventually I found the successful combo to braking trail was 4psi and 800rpm in 1rst gear. We made it a fair distance just crawling along. I was really surprised I was able to make any progress considering what the other half of the morning consisted of.
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Eventually we got to a point where we needed to make up our mind of heading back, and getting turned around, or press on and try to make it over the ridge. We decided to play it safe and get turned around. Thanks to Darren and Joey for some shovel work we both were able to get turned around relatively easy.
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On the way back Darren led the way up a quick side road. He asked what to do from there, and I said "have fun go bury it." To which he did..
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Should have left it till spring.
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On the way back down much to Joey and my surprise we heard, "stop, I broke a u-joint" come over the radio. I was thinking maybe drive line, but I was wrong. Somehow Darren and his pirate tires managed to fubar his drivers side 297x.
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I didn't look at the joint, but after some thought I think he may have lost a cap which then took out the joint.
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We got the inner shaft pulled, and bolted the stub back in place to get it home. Neither of us had spare shafts since "most" people don't break stuff in the snow. Lesson learned. :D

All in all it was a great way to kick off the new year. The snow quality was a bit of a disappointment, but I was pleased by the progress we did make. Now I can't wait for some good quality fresh snow to fall.

Fun day!
 
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Awesome pictures, It's really nice having a small 2-4 rig group to cover alot of ground in short time.

I suck at taking photo's and dont have anything to report on the TSF trip, but it looks like Darren got "That guy" status for the day to give me a break:rof:
 
Awesome pictures, It's really nice having a small 2-4 rig group to cover alot of ground in short time.

I suck at taking photo's and dont have anything to report on the TSF trip, but it looks like Darren got "That guy" status for the day to give me a break:rof:
He's got nothing on you. :D

Aside from the quick pull needed in the morning we had a pretty uneventful day. I'm pretty sure someone else we ran into takes the "that guy" award.
 
Great report as always!!
 
The wife and I had a great time out there today.

I'm way too lazy to do a trip report like Dustin, so I'll just caption my photos.

The go-blazers-underscore-6-mobile:
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Dustin trying to figure out what is down road A:
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Road B:
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Following Torx:
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More following Torx:
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Thank god for my Pirate tires:
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(You can actually see the Jolly Roger Sidewall in that Pic)

As far as we got:
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Cool shot of Dustin's Jeep:
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Continued........

A couple of familiar XJs out for a day of sledding we ran into:
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I finally got to see a bumper yanked from an XJ in real life:
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It was only held on by 4 bolts, so the damage wasn't all that bad:
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President Torx:
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I buried my Jeep, wasn't all that hard. As soon as my tires broke through the top, they fell through but my Jeep stayed on the surface:
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Luckily I brought along someone to pull me out:
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Back on "top":
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If you were worried my wife was bored the whole time, don't worry, she found ways to entertain herself:
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Just so we're clear on everything, I did not break a u-joint. Brenda did:
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Literally 200 yards later:
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Again, I had a great time even though I had to drive home with a rag in place of a front axle-shaft. So I have that to fix, as well as paint over my stupid campaign sign, or maybe I'm already campaigning for this November. :D
 
Great write-up and some good pictures!
I had a great time with you guys yesterday. It was fun riding along for a change. I have no pictures to add because for some reason my phone will not upload them, so oh well. As soon as it snows again I will be back out in the woods with my rig. That snow was horrible yesterday, but it was still a good time.
 
Continued........

I finally got to see a bumper yanked from an XJ in real life:
DSC_4621.jpg


It was only held on by 4 bolts, so the damage wasn't all that bad:
DSC_4625.jpg

I can't believe I pulled his bumper off. Who would of thought that his bumper was only held on by count them 4 bolts. Considering who owned this Cherokee before I would have thought that it would of at least been put together well. The guy builds bumpers for a living. Oh well it was a blast. I had so much fun that day just playing in the snow and crappy snow it was. Thanks for all the help Torx pulling him back words for me that was a big help. I’m glad you guy’s had fun and I can’t wait for the next epic snow run.
 
man i really need to bring someone along with me when i go.. i almost never take pictures. i bring the camera with every intention of taking them but some how i never do.. looked like a blast i cant wiat to go up in the snow this year again torx it was fun last time.
 
man i really need to bring someone along with me when i go.. i almost never take pictures. i bring the camera with every intention of taking them but some how i never do..
x2.. I've been to TSF twice since the 1st.. i got 3 pictures in..:doh:
 
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