everyone who has access can upload their photos to the photo gallery...i had some troubles reading some of the folders from the cd as well.

I had a great time too, despite being ill most of the weekend. Felt even worse last night, tried to go see the doctor, but they don't consider me a patient anymore since I haven't seen them in over two years Oh well, feeling better now, I think.

I ever-so-slightly tweaked the rear tire carrier, negligible though. Sunday morning I noticed that my windshield had a very nice crack in it too.

It was great seeing everyone again and meeting a whole lot more people! Looking forward to the next one

So does mine

great picture taken by Dana

As I said in the video thread, Thursday ?intermediate? run at Paragon only 7 out of the12 trucks assigned showed. It would have been great to wheel again with Jeff (cornick), Jeff (akordboy) and Michael (mikkaa) and I?m sure it would have been nice to meet Katie (microdot) and Jason (savage Henry). But I must admit I was kind of glad I didn?t have to lead 12 trucks through the trails. Everyone who has wheeled with me in the past knows how much I love to lead (joke). This run was more like a great group of friends running trails and I just happened to be in front. It was me and my son Matt, Keith (kokopop), Micah (mpm), Dan (spalind), Jeff (rockahlic), Michael (svendog) and Eugene (RI Xterra) with Stephanie who swept. We did mostly ?Greens? and a couple of low ?Blues?. Every time someone needed to be spotted Jeff (rockahlic) jumped out of his truck and did the job or I?d call back ?you need help back there? and Eugene or Stephanie would come back with ?we got it?. It was great, thanks Jeff, Eugene and Stephanie! If leading a group was like that every time I?d love to do it!

Friday at Paragon only 4 trucks, including myself, out of 6 showed. I led Dave (Alliedacid), Andrew (Andrew), and Mitsu (Mitsu) with his son. Mike (steinism) didn?t show because he got in to late so ran at Rausch and I was told that Jonathan (whom I never met and don?t know his name on the boards) blew a locker and didn?t want to run his truck like that so he left. I was very intimidated because some of these guys I did not know and those I did know are all much more experienced wheelers than I am.

We went part way down Turtle and then played around on the Blues that weave they?re way around the left side of that trail. Some of that sh*t was pretty hairy. There was one up hill spot that there where 2 different lines to get through. I, of course, took the easiest one; I know just call me Mary. I still needed Dave to spot me through it and had to ?K-turn? at the top of the obstacle. Mitsu took the harder line, hay give me a break he has lockers front and back. He still slid around a giant boulder and nearly took out his driver side door above his sliders, if he didn?t stay on the gas it would have ripped through that door like butter. The boulder missed the door by a hair, no sh*t. Andrew tried to take the same line as I did but slid out of it and almost hit a tree. We decided that it would be best if he both winched and drove over the obstacle, well Dave, Mitsu and Andrew decided. I kind of stood there and said something like ?gee, that sounds like a good idea?. Dave spotted him over in his expert manner. Andrew did a great job. Dave took the hard line, of course, but I think he tried to make the turn at the top of the obstacle to soon, dropped his rear tire off one of the rocks he was using to straddle his truck on and almost flipped. It was the scariest wheeling incident I?ve been a witness to. Mitsu ran to try to help and I thought Dave was going to roll over him on his way down the mountain. Dave stopped it from moving looked at me and says in his most serious voice ?Tom, I think I?m going to roll?. With that Mitsu runs to the opposite side of the truck and jumps on Dave?s slider. Andrew jumps on his bumper and I, being on the wrong side of the truck to do anything but try and calm the situation, looked at Dave and said in the voice I use to tell my children that I love them ?no Dave I don?t think so?. I then run to the other side and jump on next to Mitsu at which point Andrew looks my way and says ?oh yeah that made a difference?. We somehow figured out a way to get Dave and his truck out of there without any damage but I can?t remember the details, it?s a blur, I guess I was too upset about the comment concerning my weight.

A lot of the trails I wanted to run where closed so I had a hard time tiring to keep these guys entertained. I did manage to smack the truck against a tree on ?Muddy Pipeline Bypass?. I was going through some mud and the back wheel must have caught a tree stump and slid the back upper corner of the truck into a tree, nice dent. Mitsu must have followed my line because he got the same dent, that?ll teach him. I asked the guys if they where ?bored to tears?, and they gave me the blank stair and said ?no?. Bullshit, I?ll forever be known as ?the boring leader at ECXC ?06?. It?s not my fault, the trails where closed, the map was miss labeled, there was a flood, wind storms, locusts, it?s not my fault! I wanted to do 35 ?Cherokee Ridge?. But it was getting late and that would have left us on the wrong side of the park. In a last ditch effort to save my already crappy reputation we decide to do 15, ?Chicken Run?, one of the less difficult but fun Blue 2s. We where flying through and by the time we had to cross ?Valley Road? to get to the other side of 15 I was thinking we?d have time to do something else. On the far side of 15 there is a hill that then drops off, I couldn?t remembered how it went so I got out to see. Meanwhile Dave got in some trouble and I didn?t hear him call so I then went over the hill with Mitsu and Andrew. When we realized that Dave was in trouble I tried to turn around and got hung up really bad on a rock and ripped some nasty gouges into my driveshaft. I told Mitsu to forget about me and to please go see if he could help Dave. After Andrew tried to yank me off the rock we (with the help of some H1 guys) built up some rocks and I drove off. Meanwhile Dave had decided to take another imposable line and slid into a tree ripping off his driver?s side mirror and crushing the door. An H1 went up the hill behind him and helped him down. After that we called it a day.

Saturday I was at Rausch, scheduled to run with an ?Advanced Group? and not lead (hopefully a day of rest). But most of the people in that group weren?t there. A few of them had gone home and the rest went to Paragon. Out of the 10 trucks only 4 went out. Dave (Alliedacid) led the group with, Lance (TJ), Dave (sanmiam) with Kyle (rockrawlr007 ) riding shotgun and me sweeping. I was kind of worried about my drive shaft so I asked them to take it easy for my sake. We did some ?Blues? and I think a ?Black? or two (Pizza Rock?) I?m not sure; Rausch is where I always get lost. While those guys flew through the rocks I mostly took the bypasses and then punked out of doing 20 much to TJs chagrin. The guys where all disappointed but f*#k ?em, we can do 20 next time.
I had a great time, maybe even the best ECXC for me to date. I hope it is still around next year!

Some pics from our group of three on Saturday. The rest of my pics are in the ECXC gallary.

A few more:

...and, still, a few more:

Awesome. Not a big fan of the rain.

Okay, I can see a mistake. But I can't imagine all of them being blank, that's just messed up.

I'll burn them and bring them to the Winery Run for those who were there. And in the mean time I'll test the burner in my laptop.

Sorry guys.

Jeff I can setup a spot on my FTP site for those that want the pictures faster. I have more then enough bandwidth.

Cool Scott, what trails did you run on Saturday? Any carnage?

We started off on the black trail that goes up behind the office, went over to 6b. All the wet rocks made blacks even harder as we were sliding sideways. We headed over to Crawler Ridge, then did 2, over to 4 and did the black run off of 4. Did the CV trail and that's about all I remember.

I broke my rear tail light and put a small dent in the rear pillar. Mitchu put some dents in his door panel and Will dented his roof pretty well and tore off his gas cap and bent the filler neck.

All in all, it was a great day.

roof? interesting.

Sounds like all the trucks got some damage.