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ODD & ENDS
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Trip Pictures
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Arlington, Wyoming
December 20, 2008
Trip leader was John Stone
These photos contributed by Chris Ladd
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These photos contributed by Aaron Lenz
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These photos contributed by Brian Kubal
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Every once in a while a trail run comes along that reminds you who
is hardcore about wheeling and this months run to Arlington was
one of those trips. With I-80 being closed on Friday and icy roads
for both the Wyoming and Colorado crews, it took some serious
dedication to get out and make this run. Five rigs showed up on this
cold and windy day: John/Stephanie Stone and family, Steve/Tyler
Wykoff, Dewey Williams, Paul Bickerton, and Marlon/Cristina
Seals. I rode in Steve’s FJ (aka The Toboggan) and Tim Magee
from Crawl magazine
hitched a ride with Dewey.
The snow was just as
amazing as the wind chill
was cold, as we were
cutting through drifts
right from the parking
area. The first spur we
followed got deep pretty
quick and since Tim was
along to get some good pics for the mag we decided to head down a
lower spur so we could get more action going on. This route turned
out to be a lot of fun and the smile on Marlin’s face
was testament to that. He led for a bit here and had
an absolute ball flying through several feet of snow
with rooster tails flying everywhere. This area made
for some great pictures for Tim as everyone got a
chance to show off for the camera. There was no lack
of loud pedal on this trip!! Once again John proved
why his Bronco is one of the best snow rigs ever built
as he ate up the trails, going through the deepest
snow with hardly any effort and doing it at insane
speeds. Unfortunately Marlin’s 630hp and 46” tires could not make up for a broken windshield
wiper linkage and Marlin was forced to put the monster Jeep on the trailer. We continued on
the trail as Marlon and Cristina got an early start on their trip back home.
The next spur found Steve breaking trail. With 33” tires and a fully skid-plated underbelly
Steve skidded and whipped the FJ down the trail narrowly missing trees and barely making the corners as he left the others in his proverbial dust. It
was full on rally car mode in the FJ and it was quite a
ride. Paul offered a lot of entertainment as well; he
couldn’t keep his Jeep out of the ditches on the sides
of the road. Laughter roared over the CB as Paul
fought his way out of one ditch only to shoot across to
the other side, only to have it repeat. If you wanted to
know where Paul was, you just had to look towards the
ditches. On the way back down that spur, Dewey
wanted to give Tim a true feeling of the snowbashing
experience… His Jeep caught a rut on a corner causing
him to shoot off the trail down a 15-foot embankment!
Luckily and amazingly, Dewey aimed the Jeep into an
opening in the trees just wide enough for the Jeep,
blipped the throttle, and safely brought the rig to a
stop with no damage. Six feet to either side and the
story would have had a completely different ending.
Dewey winched back onto the trail and we headed back
down to the fork.
We decided to go back to the trailers to get more fuel and arrived around 4:30 pm. We were
going to refuel and head back out but a voice of reason convinced us to load up before it got
much darker and colder since the skies were not looking pretty. It was a wise decision as the
highways were really icy but we made it to Wingers for some dinner and conversation. After
dinner we all parted ways for home, everyone thinking what a great day we had and looking
forward to the next one.
4-wheel 4-life,
Chris ‘Griz’
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