Frostbite Run
February 20, 2010
by Evan Silverman
The Frostbite Run for the 2010 season was not a frostbite run, but is sure was a snow run. Five rigs from our club attended and a total of ten people. We all eventually met at Rausch Saturday morning at 8:30. All of us except for Ted stayed at the Comfort Inn the night before so meeting at Rausch at 8:30 seemed to go off well. Since Mike Smith was our leader for the day he set the meeting time. He is smarter then he looks because he knew that if we were going to be on the trail by 9:30, then he would have to tell us to be there an hour early. This is at least true for me.
For this run I brought my well patina-ed CJ (E REX) and my son Wes as my copilot. Since I was not sure of the conditions and the fact that E Rex is topless, I brought a lot of s--t and it took me forever to load the jeep. A small second delay was caused by the fact that E Rex does not like to start in the cold (she is from the Jurassic period) and required a little richening by adding some 2 cycle fuel down the throttle body.
Needless
to say we did get on to the trail on schedule which is unusual for
LIOR. So the line up was Mike Smith and his dad Ron in his OD green
YJ on 33's, Ted in his pretty bad ass looking TJ now on bead-locked
36 TSL's, Wes and I in E Rex on Q's, Dad in Snow White with new 35
inch MTR's with Kevlar followed lastly but not least by the Acconi
clan in their battle hardened XJ (John, Angie, Allisa, nephew Ryan
and of course Kaiser) on 33 inch Pro Comps. This run was a real
family affair. The only one without any family member was poor Ted,
but if he wanted I was going to lend him my dad.
We
started by trying to follow trails that were already traveled. The
fist obstacle was a hill climb that the tire marks only went up half
way. I took that as a bad sign but Mike said that there is a first
time for everything. Well Mike bonzied it and made it over the peak.
A feat that Ted and I could not repeat, but not without the old
college try. Now this is Wes's first time wheeling in the old beast
and he was very excited by the sound of E Rex trying to climb the
hill but told me that we were not doing too well today because we did
not make it.
Everyone is a critic. Dad and John did not try it
although I think they could have both made it.
We
then decided to break new ground and since Ted was now the big boy he
took the lead. Well he definitely had the hardest job breaking
through the snow for the rest of us, but he developed and interesting
technique. He would spin the tires slowly, they would find some rocks
on bottom and then the truck would move an inch, then repeat the
process. Every once in a while a reverse and full throttle forward
was required.
We came to a section that Mike said was very gnarly but all we could see was little bumps in the snow. Mike powered through the bypass but Ted decided to rock climb blind. Needless to say we needed to pull cable. It was very interesting and dangerous walking down the trail. One minute you might be on a rock in 14 inch deep snow and then one step later you are into a hole up to your crotch well at least for most of us. We had to hook a tether to John because he almost drowned in the snow.
Ted had to winch twice to get out of this section. I had to get winched back by Dad and then winch myself forward at one section but powered through the rest. Dad made this section without any assistance. Those new MTR's worked great in the snow. They were much better than my TSL's. John took the same route as Mike.
The
rest of the day was more off the same with a lot of throttle and some
help with our winches. One climb that took some wheel spin ate a
chunk out of the Acconi rig's R/R tire requiring a change. Like a pit
stop we had the tire changed in a jiff using Teds on-board air.
Prior to this mishap John had slammed the XJ on the right side
bending his slider and bending his rocker which now interfered with
the door, not allowing it to close well. Those sliders have been on
that truck since the late 90's without a hitch so John must have
really rocked his truck and family to bend that slider.
We
took a nice relaxing lunch break (no barbeque) letting the kids
stretch their legs and enjoying the nice warm sunny day. The nice
thing about a small group is that we can all interact with each
other. Sometimes we have so many people on a trail you don't get to
see or speak to some of them. I did learn that I need to teach Wes
the proper way to do #1 on the trail. He said he had to go pp, so me
being the great dad that I am said go to a tree an do your business.
Well Wes chose a tree about 1 inch in diameter, faced every one and
did his
business. It was very funny.
The
last trail of the day was also fresh with a sign that said yes it is
deep, referring to a mud hole. Well Ted powered his way through but
Mike was not so lucky. As he is hammering down I noticed his left
front tire was not spinning. Well he knocked the tire off the bead so
the rim was turning put not the tire. Out came the cable and Mike
winched himself out of the hole and to some flat dry yet snow filled
section. Wes and I powered through the hole to help Mike. I used my
on-board air to seat his bead. Ten minutes latter we were running
again. Dad made it through with ease. As a matter of fact Snow White
made everything look easy all day and only needed his winch to pull
me.
John
and family tried the mud hole but his XJ just seemed to have enough
for the day and just stalled inexplicably in the mud hole. With Ted
in lead we all drove around off the trail back to the beginning to
winch the Acconis back out of the hole. We pulled the cool hood clips
off and popped the bonnet to see what happened. It was dry under
the hood but we pulled the dist. cap any way. There was some oil in
the cap so John wiped it out and bolted the cap back on and she fired
up. Personally I don't think the oil had anything to do with it.
On the
last trail ride I saw the Acconi's XJ talking to the Howler. The XJ
asked the wise Howler how she keeps on wheeling after forty something
years and the Howler said that you need to take a nap every once in a
while. The Howler said that your owner will show you some love and
then you can start again. Well, I spoke nicely to the XJ and petted
her
fender and sure enough she started right up. Since it was
getting late and the XJ was obviously tired we decided to head out.
We actually pulled out of the lot at 4:20.
Having
a small group of well equipped trucks with experienced drivers, we
were able to cover a lot of ground even with delays and we still got
off the trail early. So now this brings up the subject of experienced
4 wheelers and winches. We had 5 vehicles and 4 Warn winches. That
seems to prove Mike Barbara correct that most experience wheels
choose Warn. We also used all five winches. Mike Smith has a T Max.
So we learned that all five winches worked and that they were all
well used. So the moral of the story is that Warn is definitely a
good winch but that is not to say that there are not others that
can't do a great job also. I just think that the name brands are less
of a risk of having problems. The Acconi's get the hard luck award
with the most damage but thankfully nothing too major.
We had a great day out and got a lot of exercise. Walking in that snow was hard. We had a nice dinner at the pub in town where Ted found out that we had enough and were not going to wheel on Sunday. I felt bad because I have a feeling that Ted would have gone home if he knew we were not wheeling instead of staying at the hotel. Since the Silvermans and Acconi's went to the pool with the kids after dinner the was not much nightlife so I think Mike, his Dad and Ted had an early night. Sorry guys.
We had a
great time out and the Comfort Inn loves us wheelers. They even have
a box on the counter with rags if we need them and on the box are
different pictures of clubs including ours. It is nice to spend money
where you are appreciated. So if you go to Rausch Creek
stay at
the Comfort Inn. It is a nice motel with a good little breakfast,
nice pool and accommodations.
Until
next month, see you on the trail. Evan