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He was rewarded with beautiful weather and a good turn out. We split into two groups and headed out, together, to the competition area. The hardcore group wanted to play on the 'Gauntlet', a tough piece of man-made rockcrawling.
500-600' from the top the Howler stopped dead. I waved everyone around and said we'd meet at the top. It was close enough to walk if I couldn't get 'r done. Here's where it's good to be in a club with members that will help you out. While I chased what turned out to be a broken ground wire, James & Rob drove back down to help out.
'Is this supposed to be connected?' OK, it was an easy fix. Thanks guys!
When we got to the top I asked where my moderate group was. No one was sure, they couldn't bother to wait and had left without word. I guess we need to do a better job of getting the word out; WE STICK TOGETHER. No big loss, as James, Rob & Dan put on a great show on the Gauntlet.
Inexplicably, Dan thought it would be fun to run the Gauntlet uphill. Fifteen feet in, another breakdown. When you are lucky, giant rocks can make an excellent repair pit. Seatud upright under his Cherokee, Dan quickly found that a missing brake caliper bolt caused the newly rotating caliper to snap his brake line. Mark offered his spare, I contributed some tools and Rob remembered a caliper bolt bouncing around in his tow vehicle. This is the way a club is supposed to run!
Dan finished the Gauntlet and we moved uphill. Mark L., on his first run with LIOR, and I got to join in as we played in the rest of the comp area before heading out for the trails. Rausch uses a Green (easy), Blue, Black, Red (hardest) progression to rate the trails. Rob lead us through Blacks and Reds using mostly Blue trails as connectors. Nice job!
At the bottom of a hill climb we came across a reminder of how dangerous this sport can be. A way modified XJ lay at the bottom of steep rutted hill. The windshield was out, roof crushed in, not one straight panel left. Burritos still on the manifold, the driver was gone. The hill is one that gets you bouncing sideways; too sideways and it's the fast way down. We had lunch, Dan checked his brake lines and we all did an easier line up the climb.
One Green trail we ran was paralleled by an unmarked rock river similar to Rock Creek. Of course we took the Green down and the Red uphill. This was tough stuff. The Howler's power steering system overheated & bubbled over and even melted a piece of convoluted plastic tubing laying across the steering box. A short cool-off and some replacement ATF and we kept on.
Mark's YJ is locked up front, but open in the rear. Without a winch, the LIOR system calls it 'moderate'. Mark did a great job driving through really hardcore trails with only an occasional light tug.
Sunday, the same group, minus Dan, ran together again. Rob lead us up hill climb near the campground that I'd never seen before. Rausch Creek grows new trails constantly. We headed over to the west property and ran Stout. We ran the beginning of the trail, then jumped around a large stalled group and ran the end section. We came back later and ran the middle last. Sunday was our easy day, no reds, and the only problem was Marks' fan relay needed some duct tape & wire bypass.
We ended the weekend with some fun in one of the deeper coal holes. Even the Howler's roof is way underground in this one. The steep entrance and exit looks more difficult than they are. That makes for a fun obsticle and a great way to finish.
