Pup’s
Take on H3
Well another year has come and gone, and once again our annual Halloween run was a success. I would like to thank everyone for the effort that they put forward to make this event happen. It just keeps getting better every year, and I for one am very proud to be a part of it.
Friday was a beautiful day, but very cold. Some of the Tri-State Jeepers were there earlier in the day, but some of us could not get out of work. Trust me I tried!! When I got there it looked like an Afghanistan refugee camp, Tents and popup campers everywhere!! Hahahaha Just kidding guys. It got colder than I had ever imagined Friday night and I was sure glad that I had heat (thanks Dad). A few of us retired to the camper to play cards at around 10:00 P.M. Several refreshments and a few hours later we were ready for bed and called it a night.
Saturday morning we all got up fairly early. I for one was very exited that this weekend was finally here. We each had breakfast and soon were lining up for the trail run. Tim was the trail leader of one group and Scott M. was the leader of the other group. Chicken man and myself were tail gunners. Everyone else just fell into line were the wanted.
Finally were off! Our group heads straight to the rock section. It didn’t look good, as our “trail leader” needs a winch cable in the very beginning. Hehehe Eric was next, he had a little trouble but that could be expected with just one locker. Ed was next and made it with relative ease with the exception of one big rock. After Ed was Jeff and the 38’s made the rock section look easy. Brian was next and he showed us a little throttle, but was just toying with us. Then we had Larry, Dave G. and myself. No real trouble with anyone other than our “trail leader”. 1 winch cable = $5 The rest of the gate trail was pretty uneventfull. We then played around at Niagara and all had fun. So far, so good, no carnage.
We then moved on to the main trail. All was good until we reached S.O.B. Tim got all the slime off of it for us. I sat at the top of hill behind it and vidio (hahaha sorry Jody) taped various strategies as everyone tried their luck at it. I thought that I would try to crawl it, all was going well until I heard SNAP. I had broken an axle joint. I couldn’t believe it no one had a u-joint that would fit my Jeep. I had to remove the inner shaft and stuff a rag in the end of the axle tube. I limped the rest of the day. A few people went up automatic hill and down the backside. The look in Ed’s face when he had trouble climbing the hill that lead back to the trail was priceless. It took everyone a lot of throttle to get up that hill. As Eric would say “It’s the long skinny pedal on the right”. After we came out of the main trail, Jeff decided to put on a show in the mud. I’m sure he could tell you that it has gotten a little deeper in the last year. After a few attempts he did get thru it. No one else wanted to try their luck at it so we moved on. From there we ran the power line trail and decided to head back to camp.
When we got back I “borrowed” an axle joint from a fellow TSJ member and proceeded to fix my unit. Meanwhile back at the RTI ramp there was a competition going on and here are the official results. (Scores based on a 30-degree ramp)
Brian Martin 1105.55 Jeff Martin 909.09
Eric Enk 836.36 Brian Rickard 782.60
Scott McKannan 776.59 Larry Logestan 763.15
Tim Fleming 654.25
Hey did ya hear? Tim is sick!!! Brian W. had ask to stay in the warmth of the camper Saturday night, but when he heard that Tim wasn’t feeling well he traded Wilson for his tent. Wilson gladly traded. It got very cold that night and the frost was thick the next morning. Everyone cuddled around the fire until it was time for the raffle. I think that pretty much everyone won something. We had some great prizes. Thank you to all of our sponsors and to those whom ask for all the great donations.
At 10:00 a.m. we headed out for our final day of wheeling. We went directly to Twister. This is a great trail, a lot of fun but not to awfully hard. When we came out of Twister we went straight across the power line to the “New Trail”. Where do I start? I think we had a rollover competition in one of the valleys as we ended up with 3 Jeeps on their side. And the winner is Jeff. He rolled his backwards and sideways at the same time. Now that takes talent. Brian and Larry also laid their rigs over but Brian is the only one to sustain any damage from all of this. His Jeep pulled a body mount out of the tub and that severely tweaked everything. A ratchet strap was used to secure his hood and we were back on the trail. Our group finished about 75% of the new trail and decided it was time to call it a weekend.
I had a great weekend and can’t wait until next year. Hope to see you there!