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Description:
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At 7:00 on Sunday morning Mike Borum, Matt Dodds, Dave Peaslee, Bob Novak and I arrived at the Nevada house to pick up ten kids and two counselors. Mike and I were flat towing our Jeeps; Dave had his Rover on a trailer while Matt and Bob (accompanied by Jerry Haufield) were driving their Jeeps to the trail. I got there about 20 minutes early and the kids were already outside waiting for us. They all appeared to be eager to go. It was going to be tight on seats when we got to the trail but we did have enough to go. The weather was perfect and everyone was ready for a great trip. Then Drew, one of the counselors, arrived in his Sami with an extra seat. He also had his son Gabe along for the trip. After a review of the rules we loaded up, lined up and headed towards Alma. We stopped at the top of Wilkerson Pass for a pit stop and then again in Fairplay to fuel up. We then proceeded to the trail head.
When we got there we unloaded and aired down and everyone looked up to the sky to decide how the weather was going to cooperate. It looked really promising and we proceeded to remove doors, windows and tops to prepare for a gorgeous day. When everyone was strapped in to head up the trail. We left our tow rigs at Montgomery Reservoir and headed up under the old Magnolia Mill. When we got to the first obstacle, Flopper, Mike went up the hard right side and did a pretty good wheel stand in the process. Everyone else in line, except Matt went up the steps to the left. Drew had a little problem with the Sami but a little good spotting got him up and over. The rest of us made it and then Matt showed us that he could just walk up the hard path.
At the V it was pretty much the same story except that Matt followed the rest of us this time. Drew had a new clutch in the Sami but he was quickly learning that a lower gear and a new set of jets in the carb were going to be necessary to get his rig to perform better.
We headed up the trail and stopped just short of Bowling Ball Hill for lunch. Matt and Bob took a long time to get there and we later found out that the ground strap on Bobs starter had come off and it had taken Matt and Bob a while to diagnose and fix the problem. When they showed up we finished eating and let some people on the way down pass by.
When we got to the hill the Sami was really laboring and we could all smell that new clutch getting “broken in", So Mike hooked up a strap to give him a hand in getting to the top. During this break Bob and Jerry went down into the valley to look around and proceeded to put a hole about ¾ of an inch in diameter through the sidewall of his tire.
When we all got to the top, we spent the better part of an hour taking pictures and even jumping in the lake. I started to rain just as we reached the top of the trail and we all marveled at Mike's ability to make the sun reappear by simply spending a few minutes putting his doors and windows back on. When everyone was done getting wet and taking pictures we headed back town the trail.
It was pretty straight forward until we got back down to Flopper. Mike went back down the V side of the obstacle. Drew followed and rolled the Sami over on the passenger side. Everything in the back was thrown on top of Gabe and when we got there we sound that the gas cap had been left at the station in Fairplay. Gas was pouring out everywhere and we quickly stood the rig back up. There was some damage to the B-pillar but other than that all was well. He now realizes that keeping the spare tire on top of a safari rack makes a short and narrow rig very top heavy. Everyone was OK and we cleaned everything up and headed for our tow rigs.
There we aired up, loaded up and lined up for the trip home. We stopped again in Fairplay and then headed home. We got back to the Nevada house and unloaded at about 6:15. Aside from a little trail damage to the Sami and a trashed tire it had been a great trip. The kids thanked us and we all headed home while Drew began to prepare for when Gabe told his mom his exiting story about a day out with dad.
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