Dateline: Tinkham Road 05/11/04

A small group of us, GrnTaco, Midiwall, Dread, FunRunner, JRuz, Shane, Smegal and myself, decided to have one of our infamous weeknight runs. We had high hopes of making the summit and watching Dread wreak havoc on the hill that flopped him last summer, but alas, it was not to be. Snow was the name of the game again and I am sure pictures will be pouring in soon. As far as stucks go, honorable mention goes to Smegal for taking "the more difficult line" and executing the first stuck of the night. Another great one was the chain reaction stuck with Shane connected via a strap to Midiwall, who was then connected via a strap to JRuz, all stuck. I will let someone else go into the gory details of how they got that way, but sure was fun to watch

However, I happened to be in the drivers seat for what turned out to be the worst stuck. I had turned around and was cutting new tracks to get beside Shane to winch him out of the chain stuck. That went fine, so I continued to move forward to then extract Midiwall. About then, the snow under my rig decided to give and my right side dropped into a ditch. It was pretty deep and it will be fun to see if the pictures do it justice. No problem I thought, I will just winch myself out. I anchored to JRuz and started pulling, but I was stuck enough that instead of moving, I popped him loose from his spot in the chain stuck instead. So, we moved him out of the way and attached my winch to a convenient tree with a tree saver strap.

Everyone there got to witness exactly what happens when a winch cable snaps under load. Thank goodness I am so paranoid and run synthetic cable for safety. Even so, it snapped back 100 feet from where it broke, a foot shy of the hook and came in the open window of my truck. So, we tied it off and tried again. It snapped again. And yet one more time. Yep, the cable denied me THREE different times. Each time the break was another foot further up the line, not at the knot like I would have suspected.

I got a couple of years out of that cable, so I am not complaining, but it sure sucks to be THAT stuck and have the winch not be an option. With a bit of ramp building and a couple of helpful tugs from Shane, I was able to drive out of it.

If you have a winch. Your cable is going to snap eventually. I hope that yours is as uneventful as mine was this time. If you are running steel, rethink it.

 

and to add something on the fly tonight...

WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had a great time, stuck and all - this is an incredible crowd to hang with. We were all pretty anxiety ridden from our work week and we just had a blast tonight. (GO KIM GO!)


My cent and a half on the winching...

HOLY CRAP! It was VERY scary to be around a rope snap. and snap (the one that hit Rob). and snap again.

We obviously all got out tonight, but I have more and more appreciation for being out with experienced people. Thank you all.


Pics from me tomorrow, and more on Thursday.

 

Mark, your pictures would be the first thing that I expect in the morning. j/k. take your time and post us some nice pictures. we sure will love 'em!!!

 

Here's Rob I told him to take the mud flaps off



Sorry about the pic quality

 

Mark liked being in the middle of the 3-way strap



This was a GREAT trip....

 

I thought I would never see ROB's truck as I am seeing it in that picture. Amazing!

Nice truck, SHANE.

 

Rob's truck only seems to get that way in the snow...

 

Snow and I have never had what you would call a "good" relationship. It comes up with sadistic new ways to get me stuck and I laugh at its death when spring rolls around...

I was doing really well in it this time, until I needed to get off the beaten path to free up the chain stuck. I figured there was a drifted in ditch there somewhere and sure enough I found it. Thanks to tugs back from Shane and some snow ramp building by Ben, Gene and others, it turned that I could drive forward out of it.

Ben is certain that I would never have been stuck if I had just removed my mudflaps like I normally do, but I am not convinced

 

AH! But look what happened when Ben freed your mudflap from all that snow. You simply crawled right outta' there. he he

Man what a great night. Last night had to be one of the most enjoyable times we had. It was a blast trying to get everyone unstuck.

Ben I think your the only one that didn't get a recovery trap or winch on.

I am looking soo forward to our next midweek run.

 

AYE!

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"...

Well, 1/2 of that applies!


(yes, yes I know... pics are coming - but the best ones of my batch will be from FunRunner and I won't have those until tomorrow)

 

True... maybe Ben is not a crazy as we thought... Hmm... Nah...

I 100% agree. A great run, a great chance to blow off some work stress and great people! I have not laughed that hard in a while

Watch for a thread soon

 

dang!! wish i was a bit closer to where you guys wheeled. have never wheeled on the snow though. nice pics!!

 

:cry: im so sad i didn't get to go!!!! i probably would have been made it a 4 rig chain!!!! hahahahahaha so is next weeks gonna be on a day other than tuesday?! looks like it was a great learning experience, and its a shame i wasn't able to make it!

 

Tuesday seems to work for the most schedules, so we will likely stick with it for now.

 

.....and the photo CD is on it's way to you Mark. A couple pics of Shane on the big rock and of the parking lot airing-up turned out too dark, but there's still some good ones.

Thanks to everyone who came and made it such a great time. I love hangin' out with you guys (and Kim); not a bad apple in the bunch! To my "left seat" - thanks for including me in the festivities. It seems hard to believe that last night I was playing in 2 feet of snow, brrrrrr!

 

Here's a good perspective of how stuck Rob was.
For the viewers that don't know Rob is sportin' 35's.

 

i'll tuesday you Rob!!!!!!!! maybe i'll have to see if i can switch work nights with my friend..... hmmmmm

 

Oh gawd...

Okay, in my defense, I was TRYING to look like a dork.
(did a good job didn't I?)

 

:pat:

 

Ummm, yeah sure Mark....whatever you say! j/k