FM2CD & VA Jeep
Girls at Uwharrie - Oct 6 & 7, 2007
This trip was a blast. We arrived at Arrowhead
camground on Friday in the mid afternoon. We thought about doing a night run,
but those of us that only had passes for Sat and Sun decided not to risk it.
(those that did have Fri passes went). Susan had made a big pot of chili, so we
all chowed down and hung out for awhile before going to bed. In the morning,
after a breakfast of pancakes and bacon (thanks Susan), we hit the trails.
Between FM2CD and the VA Jeep Girls, we had 10 Jeeps in all.
From left to Right: Mark (XJ), Trevor (TJ), Susan (TJ), Jen (TJ), Jericho (TJ),
Sean (LJ), David (YJ), Earl (YJ), Wade (TJ), Me (XJ).
That picture was taken at the eastern entrance to Daniel, our first trail of the
day.
David getting some style points:
Susan getting some style points at the same spot:
Sean coming up the hill:
Jen coming down a small rock ledge:
I'm not quite sure where this was...I don't think it was Daniel and it doesn't
look like Kodak Rock...anyway that's Jericho climbing it:
Me on Kodak rock:
After running steep, rocky hills as well as playing on some rocks, we decided to
spend some time at the mud wall. Although there was not much mud involved, it
was still fun. It's pretty much a 3 sided 4' wall that you need to climb...good
times. Pictures are worth a 1000 words:
Mark making his approach:
He did get his front end over (I think he was the first one actually), but then
there was nothing to get traction on to get the rest of the way.
The same thing happened to just about everyone:
Trevor:
We played there for awhile, if you couldn't go up...then turn around and go
down. It wasn't until Wade found a log and threw it in the right side that
suddenly, everyone got traction.
Earl:
Wade:
This was also the place where we took damage. First there was Susans bumper...
When we got back to camp, Wade (Susans brother) thought we could bend it back
straight with a tow strap....it didn't quite work out as planned...
The funny thing is that the bumper actually looks better now.
It was also there that I found out that my rear locker wasn't engaging...again.
I did a trail repair to basically wedge the cable all the way in to keep it
locked up for the rest of the day, but once we got back to camp, we jacked it up
and dialed it in.
In the second picture, you can see how my exhaust tip is bent...I don't have a
good picture, but the entire tailpipe got tweaked...gonna have to replace
that...again.
After fixing our damage and having a dinner of brats and kraut (yum)...Wade,
Sean, Jericho and myself decided to do a little night run...which was a blast.
We didn't stop for too many pictures, but we did take some poser shots on a
rock. If you look carefully at this pic, it looks like Sean is fast asleep
dreaming of a Redskins win.
Sunday, after Wade made breakfast burritos for everyone (which were really good)
we decided to do a lot of what we had already run, just in the opposite
direction. Just before he hit a steep hill climb, Trevors passenger side ujoint
started disintegrating. Luckily, Jericho had full axle assemblies...including
unit bearings, so the fix was fairly simple. What I find funny is all the
pictures are similar to this:
Four or five guys standing around (including the owner of said Jeep), while one
guy (not the owner of said Jeep) swaps the axle shafts.
Anyway, while all that was going on, I managed to lose my footing and sprain my
ankle. At the time I walked it off, and as of now (just about 48 hours later),
it has not swollen up or become bruised...so I'm thinking it's just a light
sprain. Here's the picture we didn't get though, no one had an Ace bandage with
them, so what we did was use duct tape to wrap up my ankle to keep it from
swelling...now that would have been a trail damage shot. It's kind of ironic
though...I bent a few things but didn't break my Jeep...I broke me.
After the sprain, since we figured it would take them awhile to swap out that
shaft, we decided to head over to Kodak rock and play for awhile. Unfortunately
there are almost no pictures of that cause while Wade, David, Jericho and I were
playing on the rocks, everyone else was behind us fixing Trevors Jeep. Then when
they caught up, they all sat down and had lunch....so no one took any pictures
while we continued to play.
After playing, we collected some deadwood from around the trail so we could
build a campfire that night. We then headed over to Daniel to run it in the
opposite direction (west to east).
Jericho going up a small rock ledge on Daniel:
Susan on the same ledge:
David:
Anyway, that's about it. Dinner that night consisted of Kabobs, mac & cheese, a
pasta salad and a Korean beef dish that Lori made called Gabi....which was
awesome. I want to thank everyone who came. We did some good wheeling, ate some
good food and had some good times...and that's all that really matters.
This is our (FM2CD) last sanctioned ride of the year....so we'll see ya'll on
the trails in 2008:
Rock On!
Steve
