sounds you u had a blast! typical fordyce trip, never a dull moment.
the whole time i was at work that weekend i was just wishing i was up there beating the snot outa my rig like u were doing to yours!
yea those two trips should hold u over forsure, til awhile passes and u get the itch to go again, trust me, itll be back.
glad to hear u had fun steve!
Definitley not dull at all. Really glad we did the whole thing. There's plenty of scenery and plenty of fun stuff on that 7 miles or so before WH3.
Sucks you couldn't come out. You would've probably gotten into a "beat-down" contest with my buddy that showed up from Sac. There's not a straight panel on his 1st gen, but it just plain WORKS! He actually CRAWLED the right line at WH3. How often does that happen?
Believe me, the itch to return only continued to get stronger the whole time; not once has it receded at all. Wish I could go back right away, but I'm sure it won't be until at least middle of next year some time, probably longer.
My daughter first trip at 2.5 was the $5 trail. She was pretty upset to start there. Straight up and down. Freaked her out for a little bit. Now at 4 in oct she doesn't say much bout being scared and sleeps a lot. It's time to take it up a notch and flop it with her in. Lol
That sucks bout the piece blowing a hole in your housing. Did it mess up the gears?
How far did you go into rubicon? The section between staging to Cadillac feels like forever doesn't it?
Yeah, we got off the pavement and immediately were shocked at what we encountered. Not the most extreme hills I've ever done, but definitely some of the most unforgiving if you screw up. Loooong way to the bottom down below 80 in some spots.
You should totally plan that flop. Wait for her to be asleep and set up a camera on her to share the moment. I've had buddies that did that to their significant others just to "initiate" them into wheeling. Get it out of the way so they know what it feels like so it won't scare them so bad in an actual, unplanned situation.
The gears are completely untouched; the broken shaft was DS and so the piece got knocked out into the DS of the housing, which is the bolt side of the chunk, not the teeth side - damn thankful for that. No doubt that it would've completely destroyed the [almost brand new] ring gear. The housing repair will be a little labor intensive, but not very expensive in the end, so no big deal really. Might even redo the front the same as the rear while I'm modding stuff (front axle will be out for an overhaul anyway - nothing will stay tight anymore and everything leaks after this trip).
On Rubicon we got to Buck Island the first night, then went to Soup Bowl and all the way back out the next day. On the way out we stopped at Spider Lake? (the high point just above Little Sluice) where RTF (John?) was set up handing out info and spill kits to passers-by. Upon arrival back at the staging area, we ran into the one and only father of rock crawling, Mr Marlin himself. He and Christine were heading in to meet some peeps that we'd passed earlier. I was at his shop on Tuesday and he'd told me he might be up there that day, but I didn't tell my buddy so as to have it be a surprise for him to get to meet Marlin for the first time. Worked out perfectly.
And yes, that first few miles from the staging area really wears you down. The dust on the way out was especially bad too.
