Latest Report

Barrett Lake
Sept 11-15

Trip Reports: Fordyce Creek Trail

Aug 03-05, 2010
Trip report by Paul Wubbels

If you went then still have the smile on your face. If you did not you missed yet another great trip. Members in attendance. Robin and Michelle with sons Jacob and Alex, Bill and Nancy, Rick, Brian, Tony, Eli, Peter and myself. Former member Terry Crawford and Guests Mark and Alex.

The Friday run started out at 9 am heading out the bypass from up from the bottom up, with Robin (yes Robin) ready to roll out of camp first. At the first hill climb Brian showed Mark and myself how easily it was to keep a jeep in the about to roll over backward position until someone pulls a winch cable to the nearest tree. Very informative. them off for the first river crossing. all I can say is, clean rigs. Rick started the rest of the trip out with a bang ,firing his cannon off while crossing. we found that the trail had been rerouted which made for soon new obstacles.

We finally made it to winch hill one. Brian being the educator that he is once again showed us how easy it is to break a model 20 axle 6 miles back in the boonies. Rick also showed us that the under carriage of his jeep was still clean from the river crossing. Eli, Tony and Robin did not want to winch and decided to just drive up the ledge. Why call it winch hill if you're not going to use one ? short break and off to committee trail crossing. Typical river crossing there, you go first- no you go first - No let's let Rick go first he'll try anything. We decided to cross at the lower end . for safety we hooked the rigs together with our winches Rick went first followed by Brian ,Eli ,Tony ( floated across) then Robin( winch line?, I don't need no stinking winch line ) plowed through and up out the other side. Shot the cannon again and rallied up the new rerouted exit trail very fun .About half way up Brian grew tired of his front bumper and had Rick pull it off with his jeep. UPGRADE time. Hauled @#$ back to camp to see much dust we could make ,lot's. back at camp everyone broke out chow and pretty much retired for the night.

Saturday had Brian operating on his rear end (axle) to see if we could fix it, determined it was not a good idea to try and run the rest of the trail with a broken axle. Bill and Nancy joined the group for the upper half run to meadow lake. slower start leaving about 11.am. I jumped in the back seat of Eli's rig. I had to explain to Eli's pit bull, who was going to get most of the rear bench ( I settled for a small corner). Brian jumped in with Robin and we we're off. At the first obstacle Bill with Nancy spotting showed off how much flex their rig has, these guy's wheel great together. Down at the river crossing we decided to go cross the standard way through the rapids. Rick, Tony (floated) Robin next Eli sucked in some water and stalled filling the back of his jeep with water. the dog was able climb to a dry spot faster than I could. did I mentioned that she is pit bull, so she stayed dry. After Terry hooked us up and we we're winched out, Eli and Peter pulled the plugs, dried the intake system put it back together .fired up first crank. Some club members (don't know who) gave up a couple quarts of oil to some guy's in a buggy, SC4WDC to the rescue.

While hanging out watching some guy's bashing their rigs on a ledge. Bill almost got a serious trail rash when one of the rigs came off the wall backwards stopping very close to the side of his jeep. We gathered for a group photo and fired the cannon again. wheeled up to winch hill three, broke out lunch waiting for the line to go down. Tony rolled up followed Rick, not to be out done by Brian, Rick parked his rig within a half a inch of rolling over backwards till Tony got a hook on him. Eli took a leisurely Sunday drive straight up and out followed by Bill making it look easy. Then came Robin who decided Bronco Power was the right line, after a few entertaining tries ,popped out like a lemon pop tart. Rick ,Alex ,Mark ,Eli ,Peter and myself decided to head back to camp, while Bill ,Nancy ,Tony ,Robin,Michelle and crew went the rest of the way to Meadow lake. After crossing the river we watched a Cherokee heading up the chute, flop to the passenger side throwing a four year old girl ,who was not buckled in to the ground. Eli sat with her checking her condition and calming her down while the rest of us got the rig back on its tires.

Eli them had a well deserved talk with the father ( dumb ass) about trail safety. Somewhere on the other side Bill was unhappy with his front end alignment and made a taco out of his tie rod. the 1st group rolled into camp around seven got a fire going with the second group arriving shortly after. Lots of laughs and off to sleep. Sunday had us all packing up and heading out early. With everyone looking forward to the next year !

Sincerely,
Paul Wubbels