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TRAIL TRAFFIC AND TROUBLE!

Sep 08, 2009

With the title of “Trail Traffic and Trouble” as this weekends trail blog, you may think we didn’t have fun. Well nothing could be further from the truth. We had a blast! There were lots of reasons not to go to Big Bear this weekend. Let’s see, broken rigs to fix, members physically recovering from the Dusy trip and money. There were plenty of excuses to leave your rig in the garage, but we managed to muster up enough club members to make a trip of it. Hey, if Ken from the famous “Ken Steel School of Throttle Control” could make it, we knew it would be a tire smokin’ good time. It was Labor Day weekend and we had to escape the late summer heat in San Diego. We were going to Big Bear. 

 As with many of our trips lately we had new people wanting to come along and with so many members sitting this one out it couldn’t hurt, right! New people always bring some potential, but we all remember Dip and Shit and their potential was disaster. So, I get a call from this guy Nick asking if he could come along on our trail run and as usual I said yes. Who knew the kind of characters we would be getting ourselves involved with. We met up with Nick and his buddy Travis at the Vons in Big Bear. They seemed pretty normal but Nick’s rig was a little unconventional. I’m just saying Mad Max would have been proud. We had been running late, so we didn’t spend a lot of time chatting in the parking lot but he did have time to tell me that his rig was part race car. I sort of left that one alone.

   After starting up the trail, Nick and Travis didn’t waste much time introducing themselves. I think we were on the trail for 20 minutes when Nick decided to take out his front tire in a big way. I won’t be surprised to see a tree trunk sticking out of it as a patch on the next run. I know he’s pretty handy with a tire plug kit. As if that wasn’t enough he then decided to put on his best show yet. He destroyed his clutch. There was enough smoke that you would have thought the flash pots had just gone off at a Kiss concert or that Ken’s throttle got stuck open. I’m just sayin’ this guy could give Rhett Carter a run for his money and a new meaning to wild spirits. So we found room for them! This worked out well because Nick’s a pretty nice guy and Travis loves reggae.

       As we made it to John Bull we ran into some trail traffic, some not so entertaining folks from Carnage 4X4. I have to say these folks were well prepared for carnage but by the looks of their rigs I think this is the only way they run the trails. Good luck to them. We finally finished up the trail without incident. We had not made a decision on where to camp but after talking to Nick he invited us back to the house that he and his friends had rented. He said he could find room for us. He probably didn’t realize that it would be like Animal House comes to Wood Stock! We had shit everywhere. The entire crew parked in the driveway, tents all over the yard and Johnny made himself at home in the hot tub! This had to be a scary site for Nick’s friends. Everyone was really nice and Nick lit up the grill. Seems he likes chicken, I don’t know if he was going for blackened but we now refer to his chicken as “clutch burn chicken.” I wouldn’t want to forget to mention the Beer Pong match. This is where we got to meet the other characters in the house. Let’s just say this was beyond description but it was very funny. This party continued until 4:00 am.

  The next morning’s goal was to recover Nick’s rig. It wasn’t his proudest moment but he was relieved to find that nobody had messed with his rig, go figure. We managed to move his rig down the trail by strapping both ends. I towed and Troy was brakes. This had to be an interesting ride down the hill. I could see Nick’s face in my mirror as he was trying to explain to those passing in the opposite direction what he had done. I know I saw Troy purposely allow slack to build in the rear strap just so he could slam on the brakes, poor Nick. Back on the trailer Nick’s rig was recovered. We loaded up the crew and went back to wheelin’. This day was pretty uneventful except for the rock Ken found himself on, no amount of throttle control was going to fix this. Winch time! We made it through trails, traffic and trouble. We met some great new people, had a lot of laughs and fun. Nick, Travis, Brandon, Stephanie and the rest, thanks for the hospitality. We won’t forget you and I’m pretty sure you will remember us. You’re all welcome with us anytime!

P.S. Nick, when you getting’ a Jeep?