Gary and I pulled into the parking lot at Reiter at about 9:30am, to find several early rising Tamers already there, aired down, and chatting! The Quadrapaws (Paws) rolled in about 10:15 or so. We had 10 Tamers, guest Judd Bergeson, and 6 “Paws” members, so we broke into two groups….One led by Steve Yeager, to the more challenging trails, and the rest with Gary in the lead and Casey in the rear, to hit the easier trails. Our Drivers meeting was done with folks spread out, and using a Megaphone, that worked pretty well. We also noted that Chris Green had stopped at the Monroe Fred Meyer, and pickup lots of TP! Thanks Chris!
We planned to start off with the Easy Green, move on to Lovers Lane and then take a lunch break….then head down to the newer Purple line, called the Twizzler! This is not quite how the day went!
Easy Green, went as planned, as we exited, Gary went left, instead of our planned right. Oh well, we will hit Twizzler, then do Lovers Lane. Past the 2nd parking lot, and turned left onto what we THOUGHT was Twizzler….once in the trail, and finding LOTS of large obstacles, and in fact, our fearless leader Gary, completely turtled on his Diff, with zero possibility of getting it lose himself…. HMMMM, this is NOT the trail we planned to take. The “Paws” folks were thinking…. “wow, this is what the Tamers call the easy trails”? As a “Paws” member went to see what he could do to help Gary get out of his predicament, he slipped on a flat, slanted and muddy rock and crashed to the ground. He said he was OK, but we could see he was in pain, and not fine. Crash happened to be behind Gary in his very stuck position, so I asked Crash to please try to help fix Gary, while I talked to the injured Paws. It appeared he may have pulled his shoulder out of the socket, when he fell. This this happened to me when I was 16, I actually have some experience with it. He assured me he was good enough, and wanted to continue the run. I advised him to keep his right arm tucked in under his seatbelt, and for his Co-Pilot to do the shifting! Interestingly, they just purchased this new-to-them Toyota, so they could maybe compete at RRC, and were still learning the gearing! Good thing we were NOT moving very fast, as we had some JK’s and Unlocked rigs with us, and some challenging obstacles that took us a ton of time! Eventually, we all got through, including some turtles and tow fees, then we headed to Candy Corn to lunch.
After lunch we did Lovers Lane, then proceeded down to the new Twizzler Trail, now that we knew we had taken a wrong turn earlier in the day. We figured this long twisty trails would take us to the main staging and the end of our day.
I was the last rig in our group, and we were at the last 100 feet or so from the end of the trail, where the last little rock crawl up the hill is. You can go around it, with the tight turns, doing your 15 point turns or you can go up and over. I chose up and over to give my arms a rest! I can see Deer Flats Road, and am ready for the days end……………. As I go up the rocks, I started to slide right, so was going to back down a bit, to adjust a bit more to the left…..and my truck started running crappy, and then died. Hmmm, ok, let’s restart this thing, and get ‘er done. Restarting, got it barely running, but when I gave it gas, it just did nothing, then died….. So, I figure the first thing is to get off these rocks….trying to back off the rocks, with no steering, no breaks, diff locked and Gary’s voice in my head saying “What did you do to it this time”?
I radio Gary I am having issues…. The “Paws” had gathered near me, and began to look at issues, as I explained to them, that my normal is to call Gary for help, he shows up, starts the thing, and drives home, and I look like a dork! Thankfully, this was not the case, Gary had the same issues I did, Whew! As the swarm hit the Miss Creant, it was quickly assessed there was little or no fuel pressure. After a few quick test, they discovered it was the Fuel Pump Relay. A tiny little box about 1” x 1”, that was causing my truck to sit still. Gary says he has about 5 of them….at home of course, so they put a jumper wire on it to get me out. Decided to put the Miss Creant on the trailer, so something like this wouldn’t happen again on the way home, like on the Tressle? Thankfully, Gary’s Zuk drives quite well on the road, so that was my ride home!
It was a beautiful day out in the woods and beneath the mountains! Lots of “air hugs”, and radio chat, to do the best we could to maintain social distance.
Running with the “Paws” was a ton of fun, and are a great group of folks to wheel with! Hope to do more with them, as we can!
Thanks for reading!
Casey
TT #256
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