Hunter's Moon Trailride
November 13, 2010
by Evan Silverman
It is sad to say that the wheelin season is quickly coming to an
end but at least our last official club run (I know we have the Toys for
Tots next month but that is not officially our club's run) ended on a
high note, at least for most of us. Dimitri did a great job organizing
and running the trail ride. I definitely see leadership in his
future. This was one of the very few trail rides that none of our club
executives were able to attend, Although we missed them, the run ran
extremely smooth.
Some of our club members went up Friday night while the rest of
us drove up Sat. morning. Our leader wanted us on the trail by 9:00 am
so you do the math. 9:am-4 hour drive=5:am-45 minutes signing up and
unloading trailer=4:15am-45 minutes getting ready in the morning or should I say
night=getting up really, really early. So with direct orders from the
trail leader himself, I actually got up at 3:30 am and like a miracle
that equals that of the parting of the Red Sea, I actually got to the
pickle park, I mean the park and ride on time and not a moment too soon. I
was to meet Warren, Dave and pick up Mike Smith at the park and
ride. By time I got there Mike was being eyeballed by strange guys
driving around the parking lot in circles and Warren was about to join
the parade. At any rate I picked up Mike, still a virgin and we left
without Warren getting to experiment and without Dave. No Dave was not
circling(that is sick to think such a thing)he was just late and caught
us on the LIE. Dimitri was waiting on the side of the LIE at exit 36
on time of course. That Boy is prompt unlike me.
We made great time and even with stopping to get sangwich we
still
got to the crick at 8:15. We had a large group of prompt club members
and I think we were out of the parking lot by a few minutes after 9:00.
Good job Dimitri. You still are Wonder Boy even though you are now
just like the rest of us(double locked on 35"s) you did the near
impossible and kept LIOR on schedulee.
Our group of Flatlander except for Blaine(he may not want to admit
it, but he is a flat lander now too)consisted of our fearless leader,
Dimitri with Stephanie as shot gun, My Dad Mark, John Carter with Moose
the lab, Brian with his girl friend Mat as shot gun, Blaine with his
wife and kids and Ruby the puppy, Ted the Fed, Warren the lawyer, Jake
the landscaper
with his larger brother who was also blessed with a full head of hair,
Ed I must become one with my Jeep Macucci, Dave with his three out of
four sons and 9.5 out of 10 fingers, and me Evan, no hair with my girl
friend Mike. I did pick him up at the park and ride after all. We
were also joined by former club member Mark sailor and his son(sorry I
forgot his name) and Marks son's friend. It was great to see him and
his grown up son.
With beautiful weather, sunny and warm we headed into the
great unknown, on time and full of hope for a great trouble free day. I
don't know the names of the trails but we did all blacks with a mixture
of blues and greens thrown in as a route to get to the black trails. we
spent very little time on the roads. So the first section we did had
large high traction boulders with some trees and off camber spots
thrown in for good measure. There was a go
around and I think only John Carter took it. I am mentioning this
because John has fallen for the Jeep myth thinking his yoda can't do
certain things that a Jeep can do, but I just want to tell him that I
have seen I.F.S.
Toyota's do amazing things plus you are locked in the rear with 33 inch
mud tires. By next year you will be doing every obstacle (you can dooo
it) The rest of us made the couple hundred foot obstacle with a
slightly hairy dismount at the end withrelative ease. This was also
the obstacle that we
started Ed's lesson on Chi and Yin and Yang. This is good for every
one. You must become one with your rig and imagine the trail as a flat
road and you will make the obstacle. Once you have negative thoughts you
wreck you chi or is it you yin or yang, I don't know. All I know is
you just have to
have positive vibes. A great example of this is young Sailor(easier
than saying Mark Sailors son). He is too young and inexperienced to
know that his open XJ should have had a hard time on that first trail,
but with the help of dad as spotter(Mark you still got it after over
ten years)he made it and with less trouble then some much better set up
trucks. Wonder Boy is dead(Dimitri) long live Wonder Boy the
second(young Sailor) .
The next section was a black with red hill climbs. This was a
pretty tough section but Wonder Boy the 2nd did a great Job and really
amazed me. Wonder boy the 1st was doing a great job navigating us
through the trail. Hard luck Brian was not doing as well as Wonder Boy
the 1st or 2nd. He breaks yet another tie rod and a left front axle
all at the same time. We think the tie rod broke first, then the wheel
was turned all the way in. When Brian tried to reverse to straiten the
truck out the axle broke. Anyway while Brian and Mat fixed their
truck, the guys in the front watched an XJ and a buggy climb some
suicide
climbs(kudos' to them. I don't have the balls any more. Too old and
too
smart). about an hour later we were up and running. Sometimes a break
or a brake (do you take a break or a brake, does your truck brake or
break or both. I guess you want your truck to brake but not break, I
don't know I am getting a head ache.)is nice just so we can hang out
and
shoot the shit and have a snack. The guys up front had sandwich and
Stephanie's brownies(yum yum)
On our way to the next section I hear a noise. With some quick
diagnoses by my side kick Mike we find that I just have a loose tail
pipe which we zip tie in place. I did not have high hopes for the zip
ties but I did not want to hold everyone up and attempted a more
substantial repair.
The next section was another boulder field except a little bigger
especially if you took the harder lines. This time we made John Carter
do the obstacle and with the help of Mike Smith as spotter he made it
through relatively unscathed. He needs a real rear bumper and then his
truck will be well armored. Wonder Boy the second was doing well
with Mark his dad as his spotter. It is very hard spotting your loved
ones, ask Joe or should I say anyone who has watched Joe spot Andrew
or has seen me yelling at my Dad but Mark did a great job. As young
Sailor was traversing the lower section, I decided to go to the high,
really rough section. E Rex was kicking but, with tons of traction. I
passed young Sailor and that is when karma set in. My zip tie repair
did not take and my tail pipe wrapped completely around my axle and
expensive shockes. Out came the air cutter and off came my tail pipe.
That's what I get for being a wise guy and passing the guy in front of
me.
On our way to the next section hard luck Brian blows a tire. I
believe everyone ate lunch at this time. If memory serves me well we
headed to our last section of trail. On our way to this trail we run
into some young
guys with a Chevy Colorado stuck on the access road in a mud hole. We
help him use his new high lift giving some lessons on its safe
operation, and using his new Warn winch. His winch did stop working,
but don't get too happy Superwinch guys, He had loose connections at
the
battery. So we got him unstuck and told him how to fix his winch
Doing our good deed for the day we headed to our last trail of
the
day.
There was a steep hill climb with
a stump in the middle then a hard right turn and then quick left around
some trees with boulders the whole way. Dimitri gets up the first
climb, but then gets a log jammed under the Red Wonder Wagon. Everyone
knows how I love to use my chain saw so when the call went out I was
ecstatic. My Stihl made quick work of the log. Then Dimitri got stuck
on the hard left requiring the use of his Superwinch. Ted the fed was
next in his TJ on 36's. He made the hill climb with a little trouble
from the stump, but then had to winch where Dimitri did. Next was my
father Mark and it was a repeat of the two before him. Hit the stump
on the way up, got past it and then had to winch on the turn. Blaine
in his Ruby on the biggest tires of our group, 37's repeats the hill
climb scenario. Now this is where things change. Between Blaine's
taller tires, exceptional driving skills and Jake learning the terrain
and giving some good spotting Blaine makes it, no winch. Now its me
and E rex. I did not want to get hung up on the stump, so I gave er a
little extra throttle. Well the tires spun and made things a little
more slippery. after 3 tries and all four wheels in the air at the
same time I made the hill but at least that dam stump did not jam me
up. Now I was determined to not let Blaine show me up. I don't want
him calling his friends in CO and telling them that we can't wheel here
in
the Northeast. (special note: Blaine has yet to winch himself) Well
I start to make the turn when Jake yells stop, stop. He thinks trees
bother me. Well I had momentum and did not want to stop. winching
was not an option!!! So I wack the tree and make it in one shot, not
pretty but done, besides my fenders fold like mirrors and they just
pull back into place. Next up was hard luck. He did a repeat of the
first 3 attempts and out comes the winch. Well Brian must have paid off
his drivers ed teacher. He did not learn that R means backwards and D
means forward. Well he was winching forward and driving backwards.
That new left front axle did not like that and went the way of the fist
one from earlier in the day. Ka pow!!! Now out of spares he just
pulled the inner shaft and drove out in three wheel drive. So is it
hard luck or bone head? I think his boneheadedness brings him hard
luck. So I think he deserves the first LIOR Hard Luck Bonehead award.
At least he is smart enough to have tools and spares and is very self
sufficient.
We head to the parking lot just at dusk, right on time. We loaded
up our trailes, our drivers aired up their rigs, Brian did a quick
wheel alignment
and Dimitri taped his broken right rear tail light back on and made
sure his door closed with his new dent in his quarter right in the door
jam. Good thing we did not need the hammer, the door closed.
On schedule we head to my favorite eating establishment, Cracker
Barrel. It is good, cheap and you can buy candy on the way out. Our
drive home was great. No traffic. I was home before midnight.
What a productive day. Drove almost 4 hours had a great day of
wheeling, eat a nice dinner and drove home 4 hours. life's short,
sometimes you need to cram your fun into one day. It is not easy but
well worth it, having fun with your friends priceless.