Here's a mini trip report from the scouting weekend. We were just getting started when it broke, so I hadn't bothered to photograph much. It started out as a rainy weekend:
I hit 7 construction zones in the 2 hour trip up to Marquette.

But otherwise traffic was light.
Met up with Luke, talked about his newly-finished tailgate conversion, and hit the road out to the boonies.
Here is our first obstacle. I think I stopped because I was slipping and not on the correct line. I do remember getting further than I had when
@Monty5150 and I tried the same climb.
We walked up the rest of the climb to see what the mud hole at the top looked like. The climb was fine, but the mud holes did not have reachable bottoms, so we opted to turn around and run other trails. Luke's kid started sinking into the hole, so we had the fun of digging him & his shoes out with a stick.
I backed down the hill and waited for Luke (who ran to the top and then turned around). Thimbleberries were in peak season. Yum!
Walked down another trail before deciding to head back to the highway and take a whole different trail through the woods. And that's when the truck broke. I rode back into Marquette like this:
Coming into town I missed the fact that Luke was turning and wound up running over the strap.

We gingerly decided to try crossing town anyways and headed into the city. The weakened strap snapped at the very first intersection we came to. Of course there was traffic, and of course it was a roundabout (new enough to not be listed on the maps yet). So as I'm coasting to a stop in the middle of the circle I crank up the engine and it roars to life. I throw it in third and run it WOT for about 4 seconds. It drives normally aside from the hideous clatter. Once the intersection is behind me I shut it off and coast into a nearby parking lot.
I decide to call AAA from here rather than trying to tow through the rest of town. Marquette doesn't have any good towstrap routes from North to South, so I decided I would deal with towing the last few miles instead of the first few miles.
Up she goes.
It was 126 miles to home, and AAA would carry me 100 miles. I picked a drop-off spot on a longer but quieter highway that let me bypass the town I live near. No use towing through town if I can go around it. I had wifey meet me and was towed 40 miles like this:
Yes, the strap was too short, but it's what I had available after the good one snapped. I immediately bought another big strap so I wouldn't repeat this during the UPO trip.
And here was the final resting spot. Rest in pieces, my undeserving friend.
