Here are some pictures from our trip out to Mineral Wells this morning. I need to go wash my truck again, but will work later on making all of these so that you can click on them and see the full-size version. I will also be adding some captions -- I just wanted to get these up quick, before I get involved in pretending that the mess in the alley isn't from me! Hopefully some other guys will have some pics to post as well! In the meantime - it was an awesome trip, guys, thank you for organizing it/us and making it so much fun!!





A few guys joined us at the meeting point with their buggies.



I'm not sure what that building was, but we caravaned past it on the way there. You can see a few of the trucks ahead of us.



One of the hardcore trucks with a dog that loved riding along and attacking various trees.



A first gen. that joined us but wasn't from yotatech.



Chris (getitdone) and his girlfriend in their stock 1st gen.



Mike (shiftless89) and his cute little girl who kept wanting to "do it again!"



This picture doesn't really do justice to the height of the ledge he's crawling up.



I had fun too, and this time didn't almost flip!



I went up part of the steep rock wall as well - I couldn't see at all but with Jacque's (gumbo) helpful spotting, I made it up surprisingly easily. No one got any other picture of me coming up it, as they had to get out of the way.



Chris getting reading to come up the rock ledge as well. The abilities of his stock truck were impressive!

 

Chris up a bit further.



Chris coming down a little ravine.



Jacque done spotting.



Jacque in his truck heading up an intimidatingly rocky/steep hill. I think that's 3 wins now (and only one distant loss), right?



Jacque still making his way up.



Phil (strap22) popping up over a ledge.



A better picture of Phil's awesome 4Runner.



Some of our trucks.



Chris' stock 1st gen muddy.



Jacque's (gumbo) truck.

 

 

wish i coulda been there!!

 

hopefully next time!!

 

I will get mine up soon.
Man, you got a lot of good pics Tracy!

 

Sorry I missed this one- I was in Indy for a wedding. Hope y'all can make it to Papas BBQ Thursday night for our pow-wow. If you bring the pics our VP can prolly burn some CD's for everyone...

 

Have you had to clean up your truck yet, Chris? The alley behind my house looks like a beach ...

 

I made a little page ... you can click on the smaller photos to see the full-sized ones:

Mineral Wells - June 12 - Pictures

 

Yea I cleaned the body.
Tomorrow I will clean underneath as best I can.

 

I don't remember who it was ... but I know a lot of people just set a sprinkler under there and let it do the undercarriage for awhile. That'll help get most of the mud off from under there, and you can go out and move it around a bit to get different areas. I would try it if I had a yard sprinkler.

 

yes it was good times.
We met at 8:00 at a shell station


then the "beast" start to show up. The expression.. "I brought a knife to a gun fight" comes to mind

co-pilot ready to "bounce around in daddy's truck" as she put it. what a great sport for only 2.5 years old!

chris trying to hit a tree and failing! our only "stuck" or the day!

rOcky climbing the wall

one of the truggies making short work of a loose climb


the rest of the pics are here LINK

Pretty awsome trip. Gumbo and I thought we'd do a small get together and ended up with about 14 rigs from stock to monster!

Only carnage, that I know of. one of the 1st gen buggies broke his oil pan, I bent my antenna. and a box of crunch-n-munch exploded in my back seat on a hill climb! (not to mention a reformed skid plate)

Enjoy
Mike

 

If anyone from the run wants any of these. I'd be glad to email them!

 

I'd love to have copies, Mike ... !

I PM'd you my email address.

 

Everyone gathered in Ft. Worth around 8.


What a turn out! Especially for my first real time out.


Trailer Qweens.


Buggy with 49s and rear-steer!!!


Makes this 4runner looks like a go kart. I believe the runner has something like 38s!





Look at the size of that winch hook. Wow.


Beef.


Driving to the trail. All of those trucks are in the caravan.

 

Airing down.












Moving onward.


This is the first sight we came up on. While everyone went around this massive 7ft wall, a couple of the big dogs went right up it.








Got the game face on.

 

Mike has an awsome rig. He is preparing to tear up this rock face that I wouldn't even touch.


Bone stock. It got me through the day pretty well.


Here I am working that rock face that rocky was talking about earlier.


This is RJ's rig. I was inspired by his 3/4 elliptical rear suspension. This truck is a beast.





I was a little worried by all that rain in the distance seeing as how I didn't have a roof with me.


As it turned out it only sprinkled for a minute.


This thing is just scary!


When he got bored with the terrain, he just started running over trees.

 

great pictures Chris and Mike!! i guess i must have missed when he started running down trees? that's sort of funny, since the dogs that came with them liked attacking those bush trees too ... hmmmmm ...

 

On to the trails.


Gumbo spotted everybody down this steep drop. The pic doesn't show it, but it is really steep and everytime I went down it I got hung up on my crossmember and rear diff.





Tracy in her nice clean rig about to take the plung...


...into the mudbath.


Mike showing us how it's done.

 

This was my most challenging hill. The camera doesn't show anything hardly.


I need to get lockers.


As I made my way up I kept bouncing off a steep rock near the top. In my efforts to get over it I ended up turning the truck somewhat sideways on the hill. But to make sure I didn't roll down the hill. I "strategically" almost ran into this tree.


I am about one inch away from it and it pushed my mirror back. Gumbo hooked me up to a rig that already made it up to get me off the tree.


Then mike made it up no problem.


See that massive boulder behind his front tire? Well, he ended up sending that 300lb+ boulder rolling down the hill nearly slaming the rigs below.


In taking this pic my camera ran out of batteries and one of the spares was lost. So I didn't get a pic of the tree or anything else from here on.



The trip was unforgettable and I thank everybody who made it possible. Especially gumbo, for all the leadership, spotting, organizing, Rocky for being another noob out there with me, mike for helping start this trip and all the help on the trail, Cassie(my girlfriend) for taking so much interest in my hobbie and...well, everyone!
The action was great but the thing that made the trip was all the friendly people. Thanks so much everyone.


I had a blast.