Calico Carnage, Gilligan's Doran tour, or whatever you wanna call this run was a great time...
It started off like a normal trail run, similar to a 3hour tour....
Everyone was ready and making new aquaintances on sat morning, once prepped we went to Doran.
4 brave/bold decided to start the day on gatekeeper while the rest of us went around the bypass and looked on.
Infectious was 1/4 on Gatekeeper, Brad showed the line and made it look simple. Zach found the week spot in his steering linkage /\, Alex found a new way to break a lockout hub, and JcHoward broke a lockout traditionally.
Trail repairs ensued for those that had enough parts or ingenuity to get something going.
As the repairs were completed Aarron found a new spot to roll a jeep in Calico, on flat ground.....
Believing the longest part of day was over everyone loaded up to go up Doran. All was well through 20 minutes of trail then Goatman's Cut decided it wanted to keep a Toyota. After much begging and pleading Alex got his toyota out of the Cut.
The group then rounded the corner to its next bit of excitement. The vertical climb/wall, which didnt look so bad that day, Everyone was going well until after I was up and getting moved out of the way I heard a loud "pop", and GJ called forward to me to back up.
JeepDeere was broken on the wall. We hooked up a single winchline to the back of my rig and tried to winch/tow Justing up, more parts broke.
So now we hook up a snatch block and pull some more, the jeep came up enough just to get its front tires over the ledge only to see the driver's tire with serious camber issue.... \
Carnage on JeepDeere, Driver side axle joint, Passenger side axle joint, rear driveline yoke adapter, and the most special failure, upper ball joint pulled out of socket and lower ball joint pulled out of inner c...
Trail repair impossible you say? cant fix a balljoint on trail without spares? ICE Recovery quickly came up with temporary fixes and tools started flying, a couple worked on the front end while others worked on getting the rear shaft out.
We were able to the knuckle back on the axle housing enough to safely hold the tire straight under the Jeep. Unfortunately we were unable to restore any drive power to the Jeep.
The recently built whitesnake rig took on towing duty, with GJ quickstrap in front when needed. We decided we wanted to try to get to blacktop instead of towing out on a trail. quickly we got lost(well not lost but without a true direction) gps/maps/google earth all showed some routes to get to blacktop, we were just unable to find or determine which of the maze of roads they were.
As it got closer to dark, we called the scouts back and decided to go a way we knew. We headed for East Phillips loop rd to tow JeepDeere out on the easiest trail that also led back to camp. The only worry I had was the Nasty hill climb to get up to it, as I always went towards Odessa then up the hill out of Odessa to get to Phillips.
Luckily I wasnt in front, Mikey was in front and led us to West Phillips Loop which I had no clue existed. This led us out on a much easier route than East Phillips.
Back at camp finally, after 10hrs on one trail..... Grills, Drinks, and Fires began... It was a Great Saturday Night and you really need to go on an overnight run to understand, but Dayum Infectious knows how to have a good time.
Sunday morning came with groggy heads and questions of what did or did not really happen the night before.... Chris had showed up in the evening on Saturday and wanted to run trails for sunday and he didnt have to beg for company.
As people were packing up, Desert Dog, Whitesnake, and SasYoda. Headed for Gatekeeper, revenge was the name of the game.
Chris walked it so fast there is no video maybe two camera shots, just a damn good job.....
I attempted it next, I made it up most of the way, but found the next part of jeep to fix/upgrade. Tried several times, different lines, but couldnt make it up with the cutting brakes not working. After struggling for so long in the hole and remembering our luck from the day before I backed out with some assistance and we headed for camp.
Got loaded up and headed home....
Whew... that was a lot to type....
Thanks all for a good time, Matt...aka Whitesnake