Fathers Day Run Jun 2006

Fathers day at Elbe (#9). A tamer tradition or so I am told. This year, my Jeep didn’t make it. I broke the front Detroit the previous weekend and even though Tom Baker and I worked feverishly to get it ready, it was not to be. A quick call to a friendly wheeler (XJ Mike) and I had a seat for the weekend.

I met up with Mike at his house in Kirkland and we sat in traffic talking about how cool it would be to ramp the jersey barrier while we were waiting. I guess that’s what you get for leaving at 3:30 on a Friday afternoon. To took a little while to get out to Elbe but we arrived at about 7ish and set up camp. GaryTJ, Dirtball, Scrambler Mike, and John and Gina lane were already there as well as Tom Bakers parents. We set up camp and ate some dinner, and it was decided that we would go on a night run up the Sunrise trail to check out the new obstacle that we built earlier in the year. We loaded up and headed up to the top. Boy what a mess it was. Tow fees for everyone. The rock garden was a little slick and you had to either take it and risk smacking into a tree on the right, or take the mud climb to the left. We built the obstacle about a month before hand and someone had already made a HUGE bypass around it. Everyone had to pull winch cable to get around it. After we were over that we ran down through the few waterholes and back up by the entrance to the busywild. By then it was getting pretty late and we heard over the CB that Tom Baker, Penny, and Ann Typer had arrived so we headed back to camp to help them set up.

Saturday morning we woke up to a light rain but nothing serious. Over breakfast I had told Mark how easy the busywild was when Tom and I had run it the previous month, and he informed me that even after a light rain, it got nasty. I scoffed in disbelief only to find out later that I was wrong. We slowly got ready and waited for the rest of the group to arrive. Eventually, Tamers trickled into camp. Rick K and Laura got there. As well as Mike with his Toyota, Moose, Mary, and Teri. Suzuki Tom arrived and was raring to go as this was the first time he had his rig at Elbe.

We got loaded up and headed out for the Busywild. My Jeep was broken so in one way it was kind of nice because I could walk around and ride with anyone that had a spare seat, but I found myself thinking at many obstacles how I would do and what line I would take. Ehh, there’s always next year. We got into the trail about 100 yards before everyone was slipping around and having trouble. But what fun it was. There was a group in front of us that was having carburetor issues but I never got up far enough to see who they were, but once they got fixed they headed on and we didn’t see them for the rest of the day. Everyone was having a little trouble here and there through the trees and it took quite a bit of teamwork to get our group through with no major damage. Laura proved to us all that a Rubicon on 31 inch tires and the right driver can tackle this trail with no damage. She rubbed her front bumper a few times, but that’s why she put it there. Though it took some help in a few areas (sometimes with about 7 different “helpers” giving her different directions), she did awesome. XJ Mike with his winch less Cherokee proved us all that you can Drive the Busywild without obtaining a single tow fee which was a testament to either his driver skill or his skinny pedal. Though most of us think it’s skinny pedal, he will never admit to it. And he has the body damage to prove it.

In one section of trail, Mary blew her rear hub. A search party was quickly assembled to find the parts that had been violently ejected from her Jeep, while Gary decided that it would be a good idea to assemble and fling mud balls at people. As he stood there proud of his mud catapultation skills, I decided that it would be a good idea to repay him for his kindness and push him off into a mud puddle. This proved much harder than I expected and with some help from Tom Baker, we had Gary pretty well rolled around in the closest mud puddle we could find. This didn’t say much for us young guys as it took two of us to get him and we pretty much covered ourselves with mud in the process. (Note to self, Gary fights back). After the trailside mud wrestling extravaganza, we got Mary headed on and we tackled one of the nastier sections of trail. Ann made it through and turned herslef around to provide a winch for the group. Most rigs made it about halfway through the goo before they opted to take the winch. Most notably, the rigs without winches (XJ Mike and Toyota Mike), made it through with sheer finesse and many prayers. With only Dirtball and Scrambler Mike to go through, Ann reeled in her cable and headed on. Mike pushed some mud back into the already muddy trench and Dirtball gave it a go. On his 3rd attempt we heard a “tink” which we thought at first was a broken axle shaft. Cable was pulled and the decision was made to get Mark’s rig off the trail before dis assembly and inspection. Mark ran the rest of the day in 2wd. The rest of the day was rather uneventful. Just easy wheeling in a great place to be. We all finished up the day at another mud hole where XJ mike popped the hatch on his rig and filled the cargo area with about an inch of watery, muddy goo. With that done, we headed back to camp for some dinner and recantation of the days activities around the campfire.

Sunday morning, I was roused to find that someone removed all my tent supports and it wasn’t much of a tent at all. I guess I got what I deserved. I got up and enjoyed some coffee with Moose and crew and we headed over to Marks Jeep to see if he needed help fixing what he broke. After a complete disassembly of the drivers side hub and axle, it was determined by Mark, that he had assembled his hub correctly and if you do it that way, it doesn’t work. Mark put it back together incorrectly and all was right again. After breakfast, we drove out to the Rainier Vista trail headed towards the gotcha trail. On the way down the first hill, Moose blew his drivers side axle u-joint. We determined that the best way to fix it would be to weld in a new one. Tom Baker and Dirtball headed back to camp to perform the repair. Another group of Jeeps came up behind us and we had to move out of thier way. During the move, Ann T decided to emulate Moose and took out her drivers side u-joint as well. Luckily I had brought the spare shafts that I usually carry in my rig, for Mike. But instead we used one to fix Ann’s. Did I mention that she also crushed her thumb in her door while exiting her Jeep? Not such a good day for Ann.

After everyone got fixed, we headed on down the trail about 100 yards before Dirtball had a spring pop out of his rig. A quick fix and we were headed on again. We ran part of the gotcha trail and half the group headed down the swamp trail, while the other half headed down the mainline. We all met back up on the main road and after some deliberation, the consensus was to go and run the lower mainline trail. We searched for about an hour only to discover that it had been blocked off from further useage by the logging operations. So we headed back to run the rest of the gotcha trail. GaryTJ must have felt sorry for me, because he let me drive his rig for the rest of the day while he instructed me on its proper operation from the passenger seat.  What fun it was. However we quickly found out that even with 39 inch tires, I still can’t drive. We finished out the trail and headed back to camp to pack up.

The majority of the group headed out to dinner in Eatonville. Scrambler Mike and John and Gina headed for home after a long weekend of playing in the mud.

A good time had by all, I can’t wait till next year when I can bring my junk and show everyone how it’s done.

Karl