dustybronco
www.sextonoffroad.com
- Location
- Kamas, UT
If you haven't read Part I or Part II please do at the links below. Here is the rest of the story.
http://www.rockymountainextreme.com/...719#post671719
http://www.rockymountainextreme.com/showthread.php?t=72734
We hit Resolution with a fever. We were tired of traveling and twice we had miss read course markers and gotten off course. While neither time cost us very much it was irritating to miss read the markers. The GPS download was a savior. At the top of Resolution Fred decided he needed a break and with little or no warning he flipped on the passenger side. Carl and I looked surprised at each other being we were both looking ahead to the next steep drop neither of us knew what happened. Carl put it in reverse and quietly Fred rolled back on all four. Luckily we were lined up for the next drop and fell down the rest of Resolution with no incident. Back door was next on the list. Since we had climbed it successfully during LCQ we had no trouble slipping down the waterfall and out of the canyon. There was a little course confusion again trying to get back into main camp, and after Roger Lovell passed us again we followed him in a couple 360’s to the pit.
The pit crew was ready again and filled up the fuel tank and we received a couple Three Musketeer bars from Mike Klemson’s pit crew. We knew Mike dropped out of the race at race mile 40 and his crew was happily cheering us on. The entire pit area was full of well wishers that showed support as we drove by. I don’t think Roger Lovell pitted but we caught him at Race mile 105 and we thought he was out for sure this time. We passed Roger and moved onto “Chocolate Thunder”. This was a rock section I didn’t even know existed.
Chocolate Thunder did not look to difficult but as we headed into the first obstacle Carl slid off one rock and wedged the front passenger under another. With the drivers two wheels in the air the vehicle would neither go forward nor back and I jumped out again. Assessing the difficulty I thought it would be best to winch out. Grabbing the winch from the back I heaved it to the front and hooked it up. I then grabbed the line and ran up trail 100 feet and hooked it up to a rock. With the front differential wedge against one rock and the rear differential against another it was a dead load pull that over came the power of the rope. Snap! Ok, time to reassess. Telling Carl to steer hard driver I picked up a 60 pound boulder and shoved it in between the passenger tire and a rock. “Steer hard Passenger”, I said and saw one inch of movement. “Hard driver” and I grabbed another big boulder. Stuffing it in, we moved another inch. One more 60 pound boulder to go. Now “gun it” I shouted and Fred popped out. Lining up again I spotted Carl up and with the cheers of the crowd we headed up “Chocolate Thunder”. At the top there was a 3 foot ledge that became our Demise. I was still out of the vehicle and watched as the small ledge, like many of hundreds of others we had climbed today, broke the front axle. What a pisser, we made it through the entire desert and had only a few rock trails left. Mile Marker 110 was the final course marker we passed and it was a short limp back to camp. We took it slow and sunk into the suspension seats not wanting to end the day.
We had made it up to 20th place when we broke but we did not finish. Next time we will not let the hammers beat us and will be finishing the race. Thanks to every one who helped us out during the race and all of our families that provide continual support through out the year. A special thanks goes to our pit crew, Danny, Mark, Wes, Aaron, Joe, Steve, Mike, Kevin, Abby and Stubby Nate.
http://www.rockymountainextreme.com/...719#post671719
http://www.rockymountainextreme.com/showthread.php?t=72734
We hit Resolution with a fever. We were tired of traveling and twice we had miss read course markers and gotten off course. While neither time cost us very much it was irritating to miss read the markers. The GPS download was a savior. At the top of Resolution Fred decided he needed a break and with little or no warning he flipped on the passenger side. Carl and I looked surprised at each other being we were both looking ahead to the next steep drop neither of us knew what happened. Carl put it in reverse and quietly Fred rolled back on all four. Luckily we were lined up for the next drop and fell down the rest of Resolution with no incident. Back door was next on the list. Since we had climbed it successfully during LCQ we had no trouble slipping down the waterfall and out of the canyon. There was a little course confusion again trying to get back into main camp, and after Roger Lovell passed us again we followed him in a couple 360’s to the pit.
The pit crew was ready again and filled up the fuel tank and we received a couple Three Musketeer bars from Mike Klemson’s pit crew. We knew Mike dropped out of the race at race mile 40 and his crew was happily cheering us on. The entire pit area was full of well wishers that showed support as we drove by. I don’t think Roger Lovell pitted but we caught him at Race mile 105 and we thought he was out for sure this time. We passed Roger and moved onto “Chocolate Thunder”. This was a rock section I didn’t even know existed.
Chocolate Thunder did not look to difficult but as we headed into the first obstacle Carl slid off one rock and wedged the front passenger under another. With the drivers two wheels in the air the vehicle would neither go forward nor back and I jumped out again. Assessing the difficulty I thought it would be best to winch out. Grabbing the winch from the back I heaved it to the front and hooked it up. I then grabbed the line and ran up trail 100 feet and hooked it up to a rock. With the front differential wedge against one rock and the rear differential against another it was a dead load pull that over came the power of the rope. Snap! Ok, time to reassess. Telling Carl to steer hard driver I picked up a 60 pound boulder and shoved it in between the passenger tire and a rock. “Steer hard Passenger”, I said and saw one inch of movement. “Hard driver” and I grabbed another big boulder. Stuffing it in, we moved another inch. One more 60 pound boulder to go. Now “gun it” I shouted and Fred popped out. Lining up again I spotted Carl up and with the cheers of the crowd we headed up “Chocolate Thunder”. At the top there was a 3 foot ledge that became our Demise. I was still out of the vehicle and watched as the small ledge, like many of hundreds of others we had climbed today, broke the front axle. What a pisser, we made it through the entire desert and had only a few rock trails left. Mile Marker 110 was the final course marker we passed and it was a short limp back to camp. We took it slow and sunk into the suspension seats not wanting to end the day.
We had made it up to 20th place when we broke but we did not finish. Next time we will not let the hammers beat us and will be finishing the race. Thanks to every one who helped us out during the race and all of our families that provide continual support through out the year. A special thanks goes to our pit crew, Danny, Mark, Wes, Aaron, Joe, Steve, Mike, Kevin, Abby and Stubby Nate.
