Awesome turnout and a great time yesterday, thanks to everyone that showed up to play in the big sand box! I had fun, got my heart pumping quite a few times and enjoyed spending time with friends new & old. I hope everyone else got their fill of playing in the sand! I really didn't get much in the way of pics, so I'm glad you guys took plenty!
We had
@pELYgroso ,
@Subarudude54 ,
@93TJ ,
@Medsker ,
@Corban_White ,
@Hickey ,
@Bart , Kevin with Martha & myself with my wife.
We started out playing just above the parking area, waiting for others that were running late just in case. Pretty quick into the fun
@pELYgroso new F250 Tremor spit off it's low pressure return hose. The tool the factory used to install the clamp was left on the clamp itself, so it wasn't holding the hose tight! It didn't loose too much fluid, but enough that the pump wasn't happy. Fortunately
@Subarudude54 had a bottle of PS fluid and was able to top off the Ford enough to have functioning power steering.
We kept playing on the Chute side of Sand Mountain, working our way up to the American Flag overlooking the valley below.
@Corban_White gets the 'Hero' award for the day IMO, after pushing that stock Ford F150 EcoBoost HARD and going damn near anywhere he wanted!
Around Noon we wandered around the South side of Sand Mountain, checked out Spider Tree and then a few of us ventured out to the backside and the massive, never ending bowls.
I've never been on the backside in a 4x4 and was pretty nervous about being back there. The bowls can get steep and very deep, so you really have to be careful. We found some awesome lines, but the sand was pretty soft and wind-blown, so you had to be cautious. The wind was blowing hard enough on the backside that the tracks we had made coming in, were getting covered with blowing sand. We played in some of the bowls, circling around and following each other, then exploring what was beyond.
At one point
@Subarudude54 didn't have enough momentum to escape a steep bowl and ended up in a pretty precarious situation, leaning in towards the bowl but stuck. We tried to straighten him out with the PullPal and his winch. The PullPal kinda worked, but had rolled over sideways and didn't dig as deep as it should have. It was enough to get the Grand Cherokee straightened out so he could back down and get another run out of the bowl.
After that, we headed back to the parking area, aired up and loaded up!