Attendees : Mike G. CJ5, ScramblerMike, Mike J. XJ, Samurai Steve, Jess R. CJ5
We all met at the Safeway parking lot as scheduled. We headed out for the FS70 to unload and get to the trail head around 8:30pm. Trail conditions were good, traction wasn’t an issue as there wasn’t any snow. We reached the top of the first hill climb in record time without any issues. Arrived at the old Jamboree camp site around midnight, set up camp and had a small fire and swapped stories of past Red Eyes. We did see a little snow in the shadows along the trail.
Saturday 11/15: I headed to Whistling Jacks for fuel while the others finished breakfast and packed up. We got on the Kainer trail around 9:30.
Elephant Dung hill was slick & I found out why it’s named Elephant Dung. The mud is so sticky it clings to anything that touches it, even to itself. We spend 45 min or longer repairing ScramblerMikes winch. Once he got up the rest of us followed, one at a time, stringing cable onto the back of the rig in front. All of us winched up to the top. Mike J. winched me up as my cable wasn’t long enough to reach the top. Thanks Mike J.
I wasn’t quite to the top and still on cable when a group of XJ’s from the Crawl Magazine came full throttle up the hill. We made room for them at the top. In doing so, ScramblerMike’s power steering pump froze up solid. We all chipped in trying different ideas to get the Scrambler repaired. I thought the guy in the white XJ was a rude SOB, making comments that the Tamers where “always unprepared”. The others in the XJ group were just as rude, drinking and packin heat. Thankfully, they left before we had a solution to get the scrambler back on it’s own power, less power steering.
We made it to the next road crossing where ScramblerMike & Mike G. decided to head back home. Samurai Steve, Mike J. & myself continued on after ScramblerMike gave us some directions. Samurai Steve lead us to the Elk camp as he had a better idea of it’s location than I did. We arrived at Elk camp around 7:30 that evening, made camp swapped more stories. Note to self: back more batteries for the GPS & mark trail locations next time. We did a couple turn-arounds in tamer fashion.
Sunday 11/16: We were up around 7:30ish, had breakfast, packed up & on the trail at 10AM. Once we got back to the Little Naches road I headed back in to Whistling Jacks for more fuel. Glad I did, as Samurai Steve ran out at around 2:30PM on the trail. Both Steve & Mike J. added their spare fuel before we left camp. So we disconnected my return line at the tank and slowly pumped 3gal into the Sami, luckily it was enough to get him back to the tow rigs.
Jess & Christina
TT154