Sunday was FUN! By the end of the day I got home, about 5:30, feeling like we bit off a bit more than this old guy was ready for.The first half ran like clockwork. Everyone was at the house on time, the rigs looked good and capable of the day ahead. Our 15 minutes of bonding went well and we were off. At the trail head me met up with the last (7th) rig, Jeff from work in his
Grand Cherokee.
After pulling in far enough to not advertise the location, we aired down and of course BS'd a bit more.
At the head, JAC04's Rubi followed by Jackson & his parents Keith & Kristin in his Green Monster: Note, Keith is talking to Michelle's Co-Pilot Matt.
They are followed by Michelle and Rusty. After owning a Pathfinder for 9 years it was great seeing Rusty's out there with us.
Next up Murphy's Fronty, where JAC04 is getting Murphy's views on the best donuts in E.Longmeadow, or something equally important.
Sixth vehicle is Benjamin & Jeff P's stock Grand Cherokee. Of course not wanting to be stuck in the back of the Pack, Benjamin sent much of his time in JAC04's Rubi.
And then, not shown since I already know what it looks like, is my X.
And then we we off! Just after 10 AM
The trouble with being last in a large group was that there was almost no easy opportunity to take photos. So after taking a few of the GC I pretty much put the camera down for the count.
We started on what's probably the easiest trail with it only having one real obstacle which we needed to stack a few rocks to get the GC over. It held a number of other challenges but they were easily avoidable. While driving down to the big water crossing (yes we wussed out) we passed a neat military vehicle who'd just made the crossing. We continued down to the crossing when we were joined by said neat vehicle. It was a Pinzgauer 710 troop carrier.
He ended up joining us for the rest of the first leg. The rest of the first leg was uneventful, and we finished up about 12:30. We aired up the rigs who were calling it a day and broke up.
4 (5 w/ Ben) of us remained for the second tougher leg. Murphy, the 2 Jeffs, and me. The Fronty, X, Rubi & G Cherokee. Murphy of course didn't know what he was getting into or we probably would have been down to 3. So off we went hitting the second leg before 1pm, it was going to be fairly easy straight shot thru. Then it got interesting. We came up on a dirt biker who had busted his chain and was walking his bike up hill, with a ways to go to get anywhere. Well, we volunteered Murphy's Fronty to transport the bike (damn he's a good sport!) We got to the intersection of the way the biker came in and he was all for coasting out to his truck. Murphy being the great guy he is said no way, he'll give him the lift back to his truck. I jumped in to help and we took a slight detour, got the biker loaded up and we returned to our buddies.
Well, we had left JAC04 too much time. Instead of simply heading on our initial route, Jeff convinced us to take an even more challenging, wetter route. Sure we can get the GC through. And we did, but it took work, time and getting a bit muddy to do so. Shovels and bow saw were used, as well as a winch and a snatch strap, but hey that's why we have them along right?
We emerged around 4:30 to air up. Based on the phone calls home, a wife or two was not pleased with the unexpected long day. Murphy had bribe plans worked out. JAC04 was incentivized to get home quickly as the homemade pizza was already in the oven and we were close to an hour out. Me, I was begging that they save me my share of the homemade mango salsa. Salsa that the family was going to chow down on, waiting for me to get home.
I hope Jeff P. figures out how that plastic trim goes back on. And yeah my butt was whupped! It was a long day.
Scott
PS: It was really great getting to meet Murphy, Rusty and Matt and I certainly look forward to seeing you guys on future adventures and club activities.
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Awesome pics Rusty!!
I'll get what I have uploaded & posted in the next few days.
