Pritchett, Memorial Day weekend, '06

[Greg]

We had a decent sized group of rigs that ran Pritchett on Saturday the 27th. Let's see if I can remember all the folks. In all, our group had 10 rigs in it.


- 'drtsqrl' aka Jeff Stevens was leading the trail.

- (I forgot Jeffs friends name), in another well-build Sammi.

- Shane Herzog.

- Shawn w/ the whole fam damily.

- 'yellowbronco' & 'BroncoMama' aka Chris, Tara & the kids .

- Wayne Hartwig & his friend in a red Rubicon.

- 'fordy4' aka Tony & the boys.

- 'the nag' aka Nathan... the man with the welding rod!!

- Myself.


Everything went well until Rocker Knocker, where we ran into a few rigs waiting their turn. One by one, we started to get our group up... I nearly flopped, but with the big rock on the left, I wasn't really going to go anywhere. I was very sideways though...

Shane was the last in the group and on his attempt... something happened. I'll let him fill in the details. Luckily Nathan had a selection of welding rod and after pulling 3 Optima batterys and getting a few pairs of jumper cables, Shane went to town welding up the broken parts!! It was really neat to see, I've heard of people welding with batteries, but this was the first time I'd seen it.

With the weather turning on us (it was horribly windy) and some breakage, the group split up. Half went on to complete the trail while the other half sought retreat from the wind & sand.

Sadly my camera fell victim to the sand and after getting a bunch of pics, it quit working. :-\ I'll see what I can do to get what I have uploaded on here, but it'll be a few days. In the meantime, anyone else have pics from Pritchett?

It was good running with you all, seems like we had a well-rounded & prepared group! That always helps. I'm looking forward to wheelin' with you guys again.

 

[Greg]

Looks like Nathan got some good videos from Rocker Knocker, they're posted here-

http://www.supermotors.org/vehicles/registry/detail.php?id=194&s=34672#content

Here's my balancing act (right click, 'save as')-

http://www.supermotors.org/getfile/330390//greg rockerknocker.avi

 

[Greg]

I got my camera to work, here's the few pics I got.

 

[Greg]

More...

 

[Greg]

My turn... On the first attempt I wasn't able to get on the right line, ended up facing straight into the ledges, so I repositioned & got on the line. -


I thought I was on the right line...

 

[Greg]

A few of Shane. -

 

[waynehartwig]

I had a blast as well..! It's always a good time, though!

Drtsqrl, his friend in the other sammi (I don't remember his name either :-\ ) and I ran behind the rocks on the way out. Just about the first obstacle we came to, there was a gold unlimited stopped in the middle of the trail. Turns out he busted a tie rod end, and his dad went to town for a new one. We offered up water and continued on. We bypassed white knuckle hill and continued out. When we got to the highway, after a slow trek behind another group, we think we saw the guys dad coming in. Either that or it was someone camping or something...It was about 6-7pm. I doubt he was going trail riding.

 

[Herzog]

Shane was the last in the group and on his attempt... something happened. I'll let him fill in the details. Luckily Nathan had a selection of welding rod and after pulling 3 Optima batterys and getting a few pairs of jumper cables, Shane went to town welding up the broken parts!! It was really neat to see, I've heard of people welding with batteries, but this was the first time I'd seen it.

I guess that's what I get for trying a slightly different line than I'm used to!

Broke the second yoke on my 2 piece drive shaft. After watching video footage of it, I realized that it didn't take much at all to break. I wonder if it had been in the process of failing for a while now.

As for the battery trail welding, I've had experience with stick welding... the tricky part was knowing how to wire everything up right. Pretty slick! 3 batteries was too hot, 2 wasn't hot enough... so we stuck with 3 and I just burned it all in until I felt confident enough to get off the trail.

The welding even held up for the next day on Helldorado.

Besides the breakage and the nasty wind, it was a very good day on the trail!

 

[waynehartwig]

x2
That wind was nasty!!!!! I'm still finding sand....

 

[Greg]

I guess that's what I get for trying a slightly different line than I'm used to!

Broke the second yoke on my 2 piece drive shaft. After watching video footage of it, I realized that it didn't take much at all to break. I wonder if it had been in the process of failing for a while now.

I watched the video & thought the same thing, there was hardly any stress on it when it popped. Wierd...

 

[yellowbronco]

Besides the breakage and the nasty wind, it was a very good day on the trail!

I agree.

 

[Crinco]

Looks like a great time Greg. And don't feel too bad about Rocker Knocker, at least you kept the rubber side down!
There was talk about making the trail "one way", and removing the bypasses like the one at Rocker Knocker. Has that been done?
Thanks for the Pics, can't wait to get back down there.

 

[yellowbronco]

There was talk about making the trail "one way", and removing the bypasses like the one at Rocker Knocker. Has that been done?

Not as of Saturday. There has been a winch anchor installed there by the RR4W though.

 

[waynehartwig]

I saw three anchors on Saturday. Rocker Knocker, the bad hill just before yellow hill, and yellow hill. Yellow Hill's bypass has been closed off by a WSA plaque (brown thing), probably won't last long, but it's there.

The trail has also really changed over the past few months since I ran it last. Some of the easy spots aren't so easy any longer....The obstacles are getting dug out, not just by rigs, but by nature washing the dirt away.

 

[greenjeep]

Sounds like a good time, too bad I had to work !!

The 3 winch anchors weren't installed by RR4W, but rather another group of "concerned individuals" !

 

[drtsqrl]

Thanks for the report and pics, Greg. Jim (the gray Zuk) and I both had a great time, and it was good meeting everybody and putting faces with names. Wish I could have joined everyone on Helldorado Sunday, but our Tails n' Trails Humane Society Benefit Run was that day. (By the way, it went great too. Had 17 rigs with us, and we raised some decent cash for the Humane Society!) Looking forward to running with you guys again soon.

Jeff

 

[Crinco]

Maybe they figured putting in the winch points would be enough to keep people on the trail and not using the bypass. Sorry to hi-jack. Perfect time of year too, hot but not too hot. Sounds like everyone had a good time.
Chris R.

 

[Greg]

Looks like a great time Greg. And don't feel too bad about Rocker Knocker, at least you kept the rubber side down!
There was talk about making the trail "one way", and removing the bypasses like the one at Rocker Knocker. Has that been done?
Thanks for the Pics, can't wait to get back down there.

Yeah, you did roll on Rocker Knocker didn't ya! How did that happen, were you too far sideways?

 

[Greg]

Thanks for the report and pics, Greg. Jim (the gray Zuk) and I both had a great time, and it was good meeting everybody and putting faces with names. Wish I could have joined everyone on Helldorado Sunday, but our Tails n' Trails Humane Society Benefit Run was that day. (By the way, it went great too. Had 17 rigs with us, and we raised some decent cash for the Humane Society!) Looking forward to running with you guys again soon.

Jeff

Ah yes, Jim. From what I saw, he's a great driver...

That's awesome about the Benefit Run, glad to hear you guys were able to help them out. I really like what your group is doing for the community in Moab, you're making a diffrence that's being felt all over.

 

[sbr]

We ran pritchet saturday also . I saw some of your group coming back out just before rocker nocker we were the 2 cj5's and the black tj. It was a good day first time we all made it up rocker nocker and yellow hill. on monday we rolled one of the cj's going up the escalator on hells revenge.