We arrived Friday afternoon, parked next to Joey, checked in to the event, ate dinner, and proceeded to drink around the campfire with the group. In all, 5 rigs attended the IOR camp. It was a nice calm night.
Roger and the two jeeps in the group decided to do a night run. I went to bed at 2am and they still were not back in camp. When I woke up, all 3 rigs were smashed to hell; The nice Scrambler rolled 3 times down the hill above Chocolate Thunder. Every piece of sheetmetal on that Scrambler was destroyed, the cage was bent, the window busted, and the hood folded up like a sail - BIT IT STILL RAN FINE!!!!! Roger and the YJ decided it would be a good idea to run Jackhammer at night. They both destroyed the passenger sides of their rigs on the optional squeeze at the top of Jackhammer. They had to pry their passenger doors open with a pry-bar. The YJ Juggy had massive body damage; even the armor was destroyed, but it also RAN FINE!!!!
The next day, we were up early and in line for our event runs, many of us still fighting hangovers. Everyone pitched in to bend and pound the sheetmetal on the Scramber back into shape so he can run.
Our group ended up splitting up and going on separate runs. I went on the Jackhammer run with Eric Anderson "Mustard Dog", Tony from Genright, Hendrix motorsports, marlin crawler, and Gerald Lee of Savy Offroad. Even though they told us to keep off the bonus obstacles in the pre-run meeting - we hit almost every one along the way! The Marlin Crawler rig broke a ring gear in his rear Toyota axle, and the Savy rig struggled due to tire issues (mainly, his Falkens wouldn't hook up on anything). Still, the run went smoothly and we were back in camp at lunch time. Tony from Genright pointed out a waterfall near the sand hill on the sledge exit that nobody wanted to try, so Becka got in the buggy, and to everyone's amazement, walked right up that thing on the first try! It was a fun run with some great people.
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Once everyone got back to camp, we decided to do a group run up Turkey Claw and mess around on some side obstacles in the area. The YJ Juggy decided to play on a side obstacle and ended up on his lid.
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We ended up needing to pull his plugs and get oil out of the cylinders. A LOT OF OIL came out of the #6.
That night, the Tinbenders put on a dinner and an AWESOME raffle which included items like powertanks, bumpers, marlin crawlers, skid plates, and an AR15!!!! There was literally hundreds of prizes from dozens of supporting venders. Then the Desert decided to ruin the party with a windstorm of epic proportions. Tents were blown flat, RVs were rocking, visibility went to zero during the big gusts, and anything not tied down blew off into the night and became property of the desert. It blew so hard, that even the porta-potties didn't stand a chance.
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As usual, Johnson valley makes tent-campers regret their decision. When its not too hot or too cold, it WILL BE too windy, lol.
The next morning, a few of us decided to go try backdoor. I personally needed to get revenge for my embarrassing denial on this obstacle the month prior. The off-road gods smiled upon me and I crawled right up the damn thing like it was just a speedbump
. The YJ Juggy broke his rear 14-bolt ring gear while attempting it after me.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcjT0PA95oA
Nobody was hurt and everyone got to camp under their own power. It was a great trip for a great cause. The Tinbenders put on an awesome event and are always great trail leaders.
not far from the end of outer limits.
