Ok, first, i have to apologize for 2 reasons: this story is hella long, and
both me and Tass forgot our cameras....
Ok, I've been tryin to get a weekend that i can meet up with this guy Tass,
a guy i met through another bulletin board, in his neighbourhood (London
area) for like 6 months now, and our schedules just never worked out
right...
So finally, this past weekend, we got together for some wheeling.
He knew of some trails and heard of some others that would be fun, and
probably quite a bit of mud. So of course i was up for it.
Well, i brought along a Jai Morris to help with any spotting, or hooking up
of straps, in case of stuckages....
We met up at a gas station near the trails, and chit-chatted a bit, as i
took off the front license plate (it hangs pretty low, and gets ripped off
easily) and hooked up my flag, a staple when i go wheeling.
So, looking at the trucks, mine a 2000 Dakota with 32's, and his an '82 or
'84 (i can't remember) Toyota with 36 SX's on it. I knew we would have a
good day.
We took off to the first trail.
He led me down this short hill, a very slick right hander, with a tree to
the right, the way the land dipped...
He went down the hill, and continued a little ways to check out the trail. I
started down the hill, and although it was a right-hander, i had the wheel
jacked all the way to the left to try and avoid sliding into the tree. This
however didn't work so well..... I got some new scratches on the passenger
side, always a lovely sound!! And, the branches of the tree snapped the 1"
dowel that my flag was attached to. It had survived probably a dozen
wheeling trips already, but not 5 minutes into the trail, it was toast...
Anyway, slid down the rest of the hill, kind of bumper-carring off the tree,
then stopped a little ways behind Tass, as he was out of his truck, checking
out the river crossing up ahead.
So, i walk over and we start talking. Apperently he has only been in the
area during the summer months, and never during the spring runoff....
Needless to say that the water level was significantly higher, and the
current quite a bit faster than he's ever seen it. So we decided to go back
up the hill, YAY!! and try the next trail.
So, i turned around, carefully avoiding falling over the steep 4' river bank
into the drink, and took 3 runs at the hill, and a lot of throttle to
finally get up. It's at this point that i realize I REALLY NEED NEW
TIRES!!!!
And Tass of course walks right up the hill, not even much spinning...
Bastard!!!!
So we head on to the next trail, which used to be an old country road,
likely just gravel covered, that used to connect 2 concession roads.
Basically now, it's a dirt/mud lane that runs between 2 farmers' fields, and
then through a wood lot.
So, as it was fairly warm, the little amount of snow that had been on the
ground had melted, and made a pretty muddy area. Tass led again, and as i
was following, i got stuck in some nice deep ruts, and was resting nicely on
my skid plate. Tass came back and gave me a decent pull, and i kept spinning
them until we got onto a bit firmer ground. I realized i was going to have
to use my patented ALL THROTTLE approach if i was to get through this. So
that's what i did, and although me and my Jai heard that skid plate doing
lots of work, i kept the momentum up, and made it to the wooded area without
getting stuck again.
But of course, that's when the trails got really tight and curvy, and the
ruts got deeper.
So, after getting yanked out a couple more times, we knew we weren't getting
much further. Even Tass was having some trouble getting grip in that slop,
and had to really get into the throttle to keep goin. So, once again, we
turned around, and headed on towards the next trail. Just as a side note, i
didn't get stuck in that same rut on the way out. I had to reverse a little
ways, and build up my momentum, but i didn't need to get pulled out again.
Ok, so Tass had mentioned that the next place was a favourite playground of
4x4 trucks, and quads etc... It had some nice open spaces and was basically
like a "playground" area. This is where probably the funniest thing happened
during the day....
As we are coming off the road, these guys are backing their trailer out of
the parking area, with 2 quads on the trailer. It hits a rut, and the little
flatbed flips up, and the bikes and trailer are pointing almost vertical!!!
The guys bolt out of their truck, and rush to the back of the trailer and
heave it back to it's flat position. They forgot to put the pin in that
holds the flat bed flat onto the frame of the trailer.
We had a pretty good laugh at them later.
So, we get along into the play area, and Tass leads us around a bit, and
again, my truck is just not steering properly, just kinda following the lay
of the land, which turned out kinda fun, cause i ended up sliding around and
having to give 'er some serious juice to keep going, much to the enjoyment
of my friend and passenger. hehe
Anyway, Tass said that there was another river crossing up ahead, we just
had to get up this one hill, then the trail was a bit easier past that.
Well, the ruts were nice and deep, too deep for my truck, even with all the
throttle i was giving it, and i got stuck again. Tass came back via some
alternate path that i never saw, and pulled me back so i could try the hill
again. Well, i got further the second time, but still got hung up. So he
went around again, and pulled me up the last bit.
We went on, played a little in the sandy part around the edge of this
quarry. I tried going up this very steep sand hill that had obviously been
dug out by some heavy equipment, and ended up with my front wheels catching
air as i crested, then my truck smacked down on the crest, front wheels a
good foot off the ground. Again, Tass pulled me back out, but it was funny
cause i left a near perfect imprint of my skid plate where i had been
high-centered. hehe
We then went on to look at the river crossing. Of course, it was higher than
Tass had seen it over the summer, but he was willing to try it, and i was
willing to watch. hehe
So he went down the steep bank, probably nearly 10 feet high, and entered
the water, the current looked like it was going fairly swift, but wasn't
pushing him downstream, yet. So, he crept forward, the water getting deeper
and deeper, almost up to his headlights, (at the level of my hood) and then
the current pushed him off course, and he slid into A LOT deeper water,
probably close to a foot over his hood. And he shut the engine down so as
not to drown it out. He was now pointing forward and down at a decent angle,
and climbed out of his window and onto his roof, because the water was
coming in, and rose to about 8" above his seat level.
Jason (i knew i brought him along for a good reason) jumped in the VERY cold
water, up to about his waist (at the rear of the Toy) and hooked up a strap.
We tied 3 together so that i could get some decent grip from solid ground
and yank Tass out of his predicament. I pulled him to the bank with no
problem, but getting him UP the bank, that took more effort. As i mentioned
before the bank was quite steep, and we had to get him up in stages. I let
the strap have some slack, then gave her and kinda bounced at the end of the
strap, pulling him about 2 feet at a time, before i lost traction again. It
took about 20 or 30 minutes, but after we realized that Tass's truck was
digging into the bank, we straightened out the wheels and it went smoother.
hehe
He popped the hood, and dried out the distributor, looked around, then
hopped back in and started her right up. Both me and Jai friend were quite
impressed!!!
So, we had a sandwich, and headed home.
It was an especially good day for me as i hadn't been wheelin since July,
and i got to pull out a guy that had 36's on his Toyota!!!
Hope everyone enjoyed reading my freakin novel!
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:04:07 EDT