Excellent weather today, and fun on the trail. Great to meet all of you, and i hope you all had as good a time as i did. Everyone was a lot of fun to wheel with, and all excellent drivers. I was extremely impressed.

Unfortunetly, we had some "jeep expereinces" today, that were none too pleasant.

The first one was kind of funny, but took a bit of time out of the day. We were climbing the first obstacle, and a nice enough fellow came up and watched with us. As Nate (pest) was climbing, the fellow commented, word for word, "Wow, i could never bounce around like that, i'd snap and axle for sure". Nate made a valient effort, and worked over his nerf bar pretty good, but took a strap and was up.

The fellow came up in his jeep, and started up. He was open front and rear, but we offered to give him a tug if he needed some. We tried to spot him a bit, but he wasn't listening. Then, you guessed it, he hammered the gas to the floor. The jeep started hopping for about 5 seconds, and then we heard the distinctive POP of an axle shaft snapping.

What made us scratch our head was just 15 minutes earlier, he had said to us that hopping around would have snapped a shaft, then he goes ahead and does it anyway.

Well, he insisted on being pulled up the slab rather than backing down, and we did. It was fine, but a little wierd, since he started working on the jeep while it was still on a hill, whereas if he had backed down, he would have had a perfectly flat place to change out his axle.

The moral of this story is that if you buy a jeep, put a lift and 35 inch tires on it, do not stomp the gas pedal while still running the stock dana 35 axle.

He said that he had everything under control, and we continued on.

We bounced around until we got to the second switch back, and everyone climbed it with ease.

We kept climbing switch backs until we got to a nice turn around, where we encountered our next "jeep expereince". We pulled off, and asked them how much more of the trail was open. They informed us that the third obstacle was open, but the rock garden was still snowed in. In turning around, one of the jeeps ran into my truck!!

It was in the front, on my bumper, but the guy was like "oh crap, my bumper, and then when he found out it was his highlift, that hit, he was like "oh thank goodness...uhhh, sorry.".

Plus, right before that, the other jeep in the party nearly ran over cory, myself, my friend joel, and said nothing, just kept driving at us until we moved.

Anyway, I was less than impressed with the attitudes we got. The first guy was nice, but a little "superior". The other group were just a bunch of jerks.

We decided to head back down, as my party was getting a little tired of bouncing (the ladies), and cory needed to be back to denver by 5.

All in all, a great day of wheeling.

Now on to the pics. I want to apologize for not getting as many of you other guys. I took a bunch, but these were the only ones that came out. Nate, i thought i took a great one of you driving up the first slab, but it was so blurry, i couldn't even tell it was your truck. Sorry fellas. Anyway, here is what i got!

The First obstacle.

Approach:



IFS FLEX: All 4 inches of it!!



Initial Climb complete



Exit



Corey Approach and Climb:





Initial jeep recovery. He winched himself to here, then we straped him the rest of the way.



Second Obstacle going Up:

Corey finished



Jacket Approach



Nate climbing, and finished nerf bar/body damage from the first obstacle



Views



Jacket



2nd Obstacle Coming Down

Me





Jacket



Nate



Cory

 

You still managed to get some good shots. It was awsome wheeling with you guys, we'll have to do it again. Hopefully Corey or (I think his name was Matt, in the Tacoma) got some shots of me on the first obstacle...I'm currious how bad I was beating on my truck, and bouncing. The only pictures that are much different from yours are of the actual first obstacle and of the damage to my tie rod and steering dampener.

Edit: Are there any other good pictures you got? If you guys wouldn't mind, I'd love to have them all if you could put them on an FTP server or something. I could do the same if needed, but I only have 13 pictures.





It's hard to see, but it's bent in pretty badly...it still drove straight going home though.



And somehow there's an attached image that I can't delete, oh well.

 

Yeah, that was your first two wheel experience, as i recall...Almost made it a buggy on that trip.

 

Yes it was quite a day. Issac pretty much summed it up. I got to push my truck pretty hard and Issac did an awesome job spotting me up. I fully trust his skills. Jacket/Matt (I hope, sorry) that Taco did a great job walking up that wall. Nate it was fun wheeling with you and that flexy 85 again. I can't wait to do that trail again after it fully melts in a few more weeks. That's all I have so on with the pics:








Here's my favorite. Towing out the Jeep, classic.



Some scenery.



Thanks to everyone and nice meeting all of you.

 

great pics
it's also known as a jeep thing
looked like a wonderful day most of all

 

Indeed - a great day. Love that trail, and especially that 1st obstacle.

You guys were great to wheel with - thanks for a great day. And possibly more importantly, thanks for the pic of me pulling that Jeep up the hill. That one may get blown up poster size!

- Matt

Ike leading the way and easing up the slab.






Safe, and stuffed


Cory next






Safe...


My turn



Fortunately Cory's winch wasn't needed


And Nate





Some second obstacle fun for nate:



Resting on his diff


I didn't see any rock stacking



Misc extras:







sadly, no one got a picture of Nate teetering on a boulder that he thought he could run over. I think that was the only (major) damage from the day.

Lookin forward to doing it again!

 

Can we have that idiot manouver stricken from the record? Haha.

 

THis is a great pic Nate. The fluid spill should serve as a good warning to others

 

Yeah, i was looking at that, someone blew a diff there. As we were walking up, i was thinking, "I hope that doesn't happen to any of us, or this will be a long day.

 

Thankfully nothing serious did happen, dispite me using the diffs as a 3rd wheel

 

Here's my favorite. Towing out the Jeep, classic.


What was up with the Heep? It looks pretty capable.

 

It might look capable, but looks were all it had.

It is a classic case of "spent all my money on a big lift and big tires, and nothing else". The same thing happens here in toyota land, its nothing new.

He floored it, with 35 inch tires, and the stock dana 35 axle. It snapped.

 

yeah, he was alone.

 

The jeep story was in the first post there fellas....

 

That looks flippin awesome guys. I'd love to go on a ride like that. Curious, I'm still trying to find the limits of my truck. I was wondering if anybody in your line was locked.

 

Well, he had some girl with him, but for all practical purposes, he was alone. She just sort of stood there.


Ike is locked front and rear (if I have that right), Corey is locked front and rear, Matt is locked in the rear, and I am open front and rear, which is why my only hope of getting up that first obstacle was to floor it and pray. Got close, but didn't quite make it. Then the Jeep tried to do what I did, and lost his axle...I couldn't help but giggle deep down inside.

 

yup you got that right. Corey is locked front and rear from the factory (i love FJ-80s). I've got ARBs front and rear, with some other goodies, and Matt is locked in the rear from the factory.

 

Awesome pictures. I love Colorado.

 

I thought Corey added both his lockers later?

 

Nice pictures guy's, beautiful scenery.

I was going to say it looked like someone was marking their territory on that rock until I read it was a fluid spill.

Yes, you have jerks on the roads and the trails it seems, hard to get away from idiots.

Sorry that guy ran into you Issac.