Walker Valley Oct 2014

Did the Walker Valley run today. 3 Rigs showed up. Rick and Jennifer in the Cherokee, Ron in a 4 door Rubicon, and Janessa and myself (Kurtis). We got a little late of a start but it looked to be a
promising day and the weather looked to be holding out.

I figured with a smaller group we could go play around on Upper Mainline and Expressway. To my surprise there is now a gate with a bypass going to Expressway and Upper Mainline just after the gravel pit. It’s pretty tight. I promptly lost a tail light and a couple pieces of fender flare. Ron in the JK removed his driver rear door a finessed his way through. I was impressed. Shortly there after Rick moneyed it as well and we were on our way.

We wound our way through the trees and rocks, taking note of the greenery. We swung to the left to head toward the rock wall. I was first on station. I skipped the first section and head straight for the left line (and for the record I have done this exact same line before…. with witnesses). I left the front unlocked as I am sure Autozone is tired of me asking for CV axles and locked the rear. This was a mistake.

My rear end started to slide left about half way up and it found a nice little, nope, giant hole. The suspension unloaded in the rear and we started to go over. Yay! Yardsale! The landing was decently soft and we were uninjured. I could see that Janessa was already plotting against me.

After making sure we safe calling so on the radio, I assisted Janessa in escaping the Runner. We crawled from the wreckage and assessed the situation. We got Ron hooked up to my passenger slider and pulled the 4Runner over. Janessa was a trooper though I will probably pay for it later. We scooped up my back window into a baggy and moved forward. We finished half of Expressway before we took a right down onto Upper Mainline where I forgot most of what the trail looked like. We finally made it to the gravel road for lunch and a good 30 minute chat sessions before we moved along.

We took EZ Valley connector across to the other gravel road and then to the gate and bypass where we discovered someone had moved the rocks AGAIN on the left line. We were nice enough to push them back so they were in the way and hang out for a while and coach some folks through the right line. It was a good day. Now for the next couple days of getting back at me for all the jokes I’ve gotten him with lately.

Kurtis and Janessa Messmer
TT # 270