Saturday morning came fast after such a late night on the trail. Today’s ride was up both sections of Trail 2. Lower 2 is rated most difficult and even dry this trail is tough. Large rocks covered with Tellico Slim can be tough on any drivetrain. After carefully negotiating the "Switchback" we entered the "Rock Garden". Being first can have its good points and bad. At least I didn’t have to contend with extra mud on the rocks from the other rigs, but I had to pick my own line. At the final ledge I got sucked into it’s gnarly teeth. I just couldn’t get out of its grip so out came the cable. Next to try was Chris Robbins who also got bit pretty badly. After trying a line to the left, SNAP! There went a front axle. Another cable is pulled and out Chris comes in 2 WD. There’s a lot to be said for James Heirs driving ability, he took a line to the right and clawed his way over the last ledge followed closely by Tim Justice taking the same line. Let’s just say that this very short section of trail really took it’s toll. Chris limped back to camp with a broken front axle and a smashed rear diff cover. Tim notices his transfer case has broke loose at the long side mounting bolts and he to called it a day as well. Nice thing about trail 2 is that at the top of the lower section is a 2wd section of road that will let you escape back to pavement.
After finding seats for Chris and Tim, we headed to the upper section of trail 2. This is a fun trail with only one tough section to conquer. A long chute with ledges and ruts that can really twist you up. It’s a breeze with front and rear lockers but tough to impossible if open. James and myself climbed to the top, turned around and came back down. With a couple of rigs that were not locked up, it would have taken a while to get everyone up. We headed back down to hook up with Mike Dugan and the Toyota gang who had gone back to rescue the Bronco. We met them on trail 4 around 5:30 P.M. with the Bronco running in 2 WD and in need of a drink. The coolant problem was worse than first assessed the day before. Everyone made it back to camp well before dark, what a day! After an evening of trail talk and bear talk, we all turned in for a much-needed night of sleep.
Sunday morning found everyone packing up and nursing the wounds from the previous day’s trails. It’s always sad to see such a great time come to an end. A special thanks to Mike Dugan of ZUKI South for sponsoring the ride. Mike got the "Hardcore Award" just for the fact that the day before we left he dropped a cross member on his foot which chrushed his toe! He still managed to run the trails with his bad foot. Everyone left with a brand new ZUKI South T-shirt, lots of great memories and talk of the next trail ride was the main topic of the day! So until next time........... |
08/11/10 15:28
