Since
@Larry 's truck has seen some major changes over the winter and mine has only 3 off road runs under it's belt so far we needed one last quick overnighter to prove out everything is right. We also needed to make sure our gear was in order to camp as well as all the other intangibles you didn't realize you needed until after you left.
We met up at Larry's Mother in law's place after I got off work. Our buddy Bill was going to drive up with us, but wasn't camping overnight. The three trucks took off shortly after I got there. We took a different route off the beaten path to get up to highway 69 through a local mountain community. It gave us a few miles of dirt to see how the new shocks for both of us could handle the washboard roads. We both commented over the radio how different the trucks ride, or glide over the rough dirt road. Back onto the highway we are barreling down the Wet Mountain Valley for our target trail to Rainbow lake.
While Larry and I started to air down, Bill pulled his t-case lever into 4hi and we all heard a loud clang ring out from under his Dodge. Larry investigated and found only 1 bolt holding the front driveshaft to the t-case flange. This is why we do a run like this. Find issues now, before we are 100 miles off pavement. So needless to say Bill doubled back home to address the problem and left Me, Larry and his Mother in law for the run to the lake.
This area has had a couple of fires in recent history, the start of the trail winds through the older of the two fires. Vegetation is starting to come back here.
I got a lot of this view and will have more of the same next week. That damn ARB badge on the diff cover was reflecting light off it intermittently like Lightning McQueen's chrome bolt throughout the afternoon.
More of the same. One thing I did notice from prior runs is that his truck wasn't rocking back and forth as it was before.
We are starting to gain elevation here.
@bent72 you are right, the area is very picturesque. That's the road into the trail from Highway 69.
The snowmelt was running in full force. Creeks were roaring.
I've been through here in the fall and this is normally a trickle compared to what you see here.
Further up the trail is where things got interesting. Larry had pointed out a lady with a small daughter just sitting on the side of the trail. I saw her, no gear to speak of, not a hiker or anything like it. Odd. She wasn't in distress so we figured we would run into a camp nearby. So we plodded on. A couple switchbacks later Larry has a teenage boy approach his truck. He proceeded to tell Larry his Mom saw us and (she called both of our rigs Broncos BTW) and to warn us about the trucks above us that were stuck. The boy explained there were two Fords up above us that one got stuck in the snow and almost slid off. They were working to clear it, but told us to hold down here as there was no wide spot to pass. Pretty soon, both rigs come down. A mid 90's F150 and early 2000's F250. Both beat to hell with bald tires no less. On our way out we saw the F250 at the turn to get on the highway:
Apparently, the F250 didn't quite make it home. But the guys did explain that the were a couple of snow drifts across the trail, forcing F150 to slide it's rear off the trail requiring the use of a come-a-long to bring it back up again. We decide to proceed with caution.
You can see the first drift here. The trail is narrow requiring careful placement of the truck through the snow.
We scouted it and Larry gets through the first two without much drama. He gets to the largest snowbank and radios back to me to get up there to spot him. So I walk ahead and our plan was to get his left side up on the snow and let the wieght of the truck break through the crust and allow the width he needed to pass safely. He did that, but the snow didn't budge. It was solid. So Larry's sitting at what I would estimate a 30* angle to the downhill side. Neither of us liked how it sat so he backed down, scooted over a little and crept up again. The ARB was on and as he applied light throttle the tires broke traction and the whole damn rear of the truck shifted to the downhill side. Larry felt it, but I couldn't see him off from my point of view. He wisely stopped and got out to investigate. I walked up and saw it too. The trail was soft from the snowmelt and it allowed the truck to dig through the edge. In the process of trying again to drive it out the right front went off the edge. We regrouped and deployed Larry's rear winch. I ran the controls while Larry steered and gave light input in reverse. We make some decent progress, then the damn winch broke. Score another one for Shittybuilt Chinese winches. Every time Larry's tried to use it the stupid winch breaks. Motor runs but won't spool in or out. Freespool won't release. I got my winch going and hooked up to the rear of his truck. From that point, Larry figured going straight back he could get out and just needed the winch as a way to hold it. It popped right out. By now it was going on 6.30 so we wisely backed down to a flat spot and made camp. Between the ordeal and backing down the slope with snow on it, I was ready for a beer. I know Larry was. Lynn was a Godsend guiding me down backward.
