It didn’t really rain heavily during the day, but it did rain steadily. Most of the obstacles on Ma Bell were rendered almost impassable. At Garlan’s Hump, where I usually can just walk up the left side, all I could was spin tires on the rain-slick rocks. We all ended up taking a new line I never thought of before, to the left of the tree which is to the left of the rock face on the left . . . right? Never mind.
There were three memorable moments on Ma Bell that day: the first was right after we got to the trail head. Of course, first thing is to get out and pay respects to Monster Rock. We aired down etc, and then got ready to do our usual bypass of Monster Rock saving it for the end of the day, should anyone be so foolish. However, Two-Jeeps decided that Sarah should try the right side line, up the crack on the right of Monster Rock, first thing. I was taping, Bob spotting, and Sarah in Overkill. Boy, that woman has BIG ONES! She gave it a noble effort, almost made it up, and were the Rock a little drier, or she a little crazier, she might have made it (or rolled, but either would have been an event). After carefully backing down off the Rock, and changing into dry pants, Sarah slid over to let Two-Jeeps take the wheel to bypass Monster Rock and do the trail. She did do a fair amount of driving during the day. Two-Jeeps is really generous that way, he’ll let anyone try to wreck Overkill.
The second memorable moment was when Magic Chen came up over the shelf-obstacle just after Garlan’s Hump. See, Magic Chen earned his sobriquet because, up to very recently, he drove a TJ with a 4.5 inch lift and 35” Goodyear MTR’s and managed almost any obstacle that trucks with front and rear lockers were doing. His style was inimitable; he’d bounce up over the obstacles, rarely if ever getting stuck. However, Chen has added modifications to his TJ: he’s locked up front and rear, and re-geared to 4.10’s. I was really curious if this was going to affect his ‘wheeling. How ironic if he started getting stuck on everything now. It did affect his ‘wheeling, but it didn’t slow him down. As he applied throttle to come up over that aforementioned step, all four tires were spinning on the rain-slick rock, his rear fishtailed out from under him in a way so typical of a locked diff and he scrambled up over the obstacle, with Nick screaming like a siren, juiced with the adrenalin of the climb. I guess y’had to be there, but it was a pretty funny sight.
The third memorable moment was on the last big hill before the lunch clearing. We got to the top of the hill, I looked over the crest, and the wetness of the rock made me say, “Naaaahh . . .” as I remembered my Daddy’s famous words; “Discretion is the better part of valor.” He who looks and drives away, lives to drive another day, to coin a phrase. Chen, too, had the same reaction, though he blamed it on the fact that he had Nick with him. Two-Jeeps, of course, went for it. I spotted him down the hill, and he jumped out so Sarah could turn it around for the trip up the hill. Once again, Sarah passed the test . . . pushed Overkill up that hill and got a leetle teetery at the top, to the point where I pretty much insisted Bobby pull cable to end the climb. Sarah finished winching Overkill up over the crest and, after she changed into dry pants, we ate lunch.
The run back on down the mountain was unremarkable. We hit the trailhead at about 2:00, aired up, went back to pick up Bobby’s trailer in Northampton and were back at the Red Roof Inn by 3:30. I took a little nap. Bob stopped to replace a part in the air filter in his compressor, melted while we were airing up. Chen and Nick ended up over at the Comfort Inn; we were all staying in Northampton so we could go do the impromptu added Sunday run of HiRez, a new trail just off Rte 8 in the Tolland State Forest.
On Sunday morning, we ran on down to the meeting spot for HiRez, where I was expecting to find maybe two or three other trucks at the meeting spot for the trail ride. I was quite surprised, however to see six trucks there, giving us a total of nine trucks for the ad hoc Region D trailride. Big Bryan K in his Rubicon was there, as well as several guys from Eastern 4 Wheelers and some guys from Hudson Valley Four Wheelers; we concluded that this must actually be a Region D event. Chris S. from Eastern 4 Wheelers made a nice suggestion, something maybe we of LIOR should consider including in our regular practices. Before we left the meeting spot, Chris pulled out some large trash bags and we all spent 5 minute s policing the area. We can garner some positive PR this way: one thing is we know we will not be leaving our own trash behind, but also we will leave every place a little cleaner than when we arrived, for very little effort, too. I think it’s a good idea.
It really is great to wheel with guys from other clubs. And, I have to say at the risk of sounding goofy, just about every wheeler I’ve run with from Region D has turned out to be a lot of fun to share a trail with. This day was no exception. We allowed Paul T. from Eastern 4 Wheelers in his big Bronco to take the lead with some navigation help from Dave B. in his Toxic Turtle.
What a great day it turned out to be. The weather cleared nicely, with a fine moderate temperature. The trail offered just enough challenge to make you feel like you were wheeling, yet not requiring any sheet-metal sacrifices (though I did manage to crunch a little fiberglass . . . ahem). The exit road we took was quite a long steeeeeeep hill; to quote Dave B. on the radio, “You know the trail is steep when the rear wheels of the guy in front of you are not on the ground.” We rolled back out onto pavement, aired up and headed on down Rte 8 for home. There was little traffic for a Sunday evening, the ride home was smooth and I was in my front door by 7:00 pm. Another fine weekend out in America, off Lawn Guyland, crawling up and down the hillsides of historic New England. Nothing better. This is Poobah saying, until next time, keep it rubber down and paint up!
