At the playground area we headed for the rock garden. As we tinkered around and over the rocks we noticed smoke and fluid leaking from Tim’s zook. It was anti-freeze! Oh no, how did that happen? We popped the hood and found that the radiator cap was MIA. Bob being the generous soul, offered Tim his radiator cap as long as someone would let him ride along. After a long argument we decided to let Bob ride along! (Ha, ha, ha!) We parked Bob’s zook and the five of us continued onward.
Crossing back over the playground area we followed the trail over some big rocks and into the wooded section. This area was filled with tight turns and lots of “wooptie dos”. We progressed for some time until we came across the other Pink Trail group, who had bypassed us when we were involved with Tim’s zook, where they were having trouble getting through a rocky rutted section. Deciding to avoid a trail jam we threw our zooks in reverse and went off to tackle the creek bed area of the pink trail. We meandered in and out of and through the creek bed until we came to the deep rut with some tree roots thrown in to the right of the rut, which, despite the lack of rain, was gooey. Surprisingly, it was conquered quickly. After that obstacle the trail consists of more tight turns, steep hills and then it leads to the rough off-camber rock slab. On one of these steep hills I had some motor troubles and when I hit the brakes, the zook slid uncontrollably backwards until a gracious tree stopped me by snagging my right rear tire. What a jolt! After inspecting the damage, a bent right rear spring we proceeded onward. Once again this trail has damaged one of my leaf springs. Enough of this, let’s get to the rock slab. The rock slab obstacle was nasty cause you had to go across the slab at an angle to your left and then cut back right up the hill and with gooey tires it gets exciting. With the bent spring I took the bypass so I could get a good view of the challenge to come. Mark was the first to attempt the slab. At first he had some trouble getting onto the slab but after a few attempts he was there and then quickly walked up it. Next was Jayson who walked it with relative ease. Micah then proceeded to tackle this obstacle. He was moving along quite well until the last part of the climb when his zook kicked back to the left and dumped his rig over. Luckily he was not injured! It was only some sheet metal damage, or, as we prefer to call it, a trail trophy! After Jayson winched Micah’s zook upright and over the last part of the obstacle it was Tim’s turn. Tim gracefully eased over the obstacle and we were ready to continue. We followed the trail back to the playground area and I headed back to the staging to make repairs so I could lead another group. Thanks to my tail gunner and the rest of the group and I hope that all had a great time and that we will see them again next year!