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CLUB TRIPS
ODD & ENDS
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Trip Pictures
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Bald Mountain, Colorado
February 21, 2009
Trip leader was Marlon Seals
These photos contributed by Dewey Williams
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| Steve Wykoff |
Eric, BJ and Abby Brown |
Steve Wykoff |
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| Howard Segal |
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Mike and Christy Jacob |
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| Paul Bickerton |
Mike and Christy Jacob |
Marlon and Christini Seals |
These photos contributed by Chris Ladd
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| Article from March newsletter |
Saturday morning came
and I rolled lazily out
of bed, nobody was in a
big hurry to get up to
the trail because all
the reports from
people said there
wasn’t and snow on the
ground in Redfeather
Lakes. We figured it
would be a quick day up
the trail where we would find a bit of snow at the top and we be
back early in the afternoon……. Boy were we wrong.
A friend of mine, Andy
Heyd, met me at my
house and we rode in
his Samurai to Steve’s
shop. There I hopped
in with Steve, since it
had a better heater,
and we continued to
McDonalds to meet
the rest of the
Colorado crew in Loveland. After some grub we
headed out for the hills. Marlon/Christina Seals
towing their white monster CJ, Paul Bickerton towing his white TJ, John Stone towing the
infamous red Bronco, Andy Heyd driving his 1.6L fuel injection powered Samurai, and Steve
Wykoff towing his yellow 73 CJ made up our motley little caravan.
We met the Wyoming crew at the church in Redfeather Lakes, they consisted of Dewey
Williams and his blue/red CJuggy, Howard Segal and The Watchman, Eric/BJ/Abbey Brown in
their white CJ, and Mike/Krissy Jacob driving their gray JK. After unloading trailers and airing
down tires we headed up the road to the trailhead. It had snowed a few inches the night before
so there was a thin layer of new snow but not enough to make us too excited about having to
work at getting up the trail.
We reached the trailhead, locked in the hubs and
headed out into some small 1-2 ft drifts. This
seemed like fun so we all blasted down the trail
having a good time. About a mile in all that came to
an end, but in a good way. We started getting into
3ft deep sugar snow and some big drifts. The big
rigs were up front but since nothing would pack
they weren’t helping out the smaller rigs much.
Everyone was working hard to make progress today.
Steve’s poor 35 year old AMC 304 was working for
all it was worth as the tach showed 7000+ rpm; it
never missed a beat and never got hot though.
Dang those old Jeeps were fun. Andy pulled up to
show us what the Mighty Mouse Samurai was made
of and it was impressive. That little Sidekick
motor sounded like a streetbike as Andy held it at
about 6000rpm and blasted his way through the
drifts. It took everyone at least a couple tries and
more than a couple straps but after an hour or so
everyone got through the first drift.
At the next drift Mike and Krissy got the JK
buried despite a valiant high speed attempt at the
ruts, so we hooked up a strap to Howard’s
Watchman. Howard hit the end of the strap with a
reasonable amount of momentum and his YJ came
to a dead stop. We didn’t even see the JK move!
After some progressively more aggressive tugs on
the strap Howard freed the JK but it truly
surprised us how heavy the newer Jeeps are.
We continued up the trail and the snow continued
to get deeper. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day so nobody was complaining about
the slow progress. The sun was helping too as it was making the snow a bit more packable and we
were able to get a few more feet per gallon. Our next obstacle lie ahead in the form of a 5ft drift that would take us hours to get everyone winched through. As the back of the group caught up to the front we realized that Marlin had
broken a hub in the monster and was ready to call it
a day. Marlon told John to give it a try and John
said something to the tune of “I’m not beating my
head against that wall!”. At this point we hadn’t
even gone halfway through the trail, the tough
parts of Bald still lie far beyond our reach. So we
turned around at about 3pm, beaten by Bald
Mountain but oh so ready to go back and try our
luck again.
On the drive home the Brown’s had a flat on their
trailer. We tried to match one up with the other
trailers in the group but had no luck. BJ drove the
truck in to get a new tire, we hope all ended well
for you guys.
Till next time; and make sure you don’t believe
everything you hear………..
4-wheel 4-life
Chris
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