Natrual Bridge trip

[Redriverranger]

Hey, I had a great time as well. Glad you guy's had fun.

Casey.

[94Dodge Truggy]

Weekend pics

This is the wife - he owes me.........again! Enjoy the pics!

[sarge]

OK ! I'm gonna try to give a readers digest version of the week-end , but I'm at work so I might have to take a few breaks.

We checked the weather about 100 times and I decided that since it was Thursday evening and I was loaded that we would go ahead and head down and make the most of Friday ( since the weather man said Friday good , Saturday wet ) . We rolled in to a very wet and muddy camp at around midnight , started a fire and kicked back a few cold ones to relax at little from the very foggy drive in. got up Friday morning and headed out . 2 rig group , Me and Jon ( grey YJ like mine ). We headed for Rattle snake and carb. hill , Rattle snake was nasty to say the least , so we drove up the bypass right next to the notch and headed up to Carb.
I tried about 10 times to make it up on the left and in the middle and gave up . Jon did the same and made it to the same stops as me . We decided to move on and just cruise a little before the rest of the group arrived . We headed back down and went through the woods bypass for Rattle Snake . The big hole on the woods bypass is bad and required alot of skinny pedal . Jon's jeep with passenger driving was denied and when he tried to go around it dropped a tire in to it, very close to rolling . This required alittle winching to get him out safely. Trip back to camp was uneventful , we played at most of the spots along the creek and gathered a bunch of firewood.
Shortly after we returned to camp Truggy and George rolled in only to advise us that everyone else pooched out :( .
So now there were four , we headed out and played in the creek on our way to Widow Maker 2 ( Little damnation) and then on to Last Chance where Truggy was denied followed by me . It was nasty !!!
We continued on , and ended up in the Widow Maker , just before the hat box Georges rear end started making some really bad noises and just as I said something about it on the CB I blew a front inner shaft. I pulled out of the creek on to the sand bank and pulled the inner axle and then turned around and made it out in three wheel drive unassisted . I waited on everyone else to exit , however, it was obvious something was wrong back at the Hat Box.
I walk back up the creek and find out the Jon had broke his front shaft aswell trying to turn around and was now stuck , Scotts winch decided to quit and with goerges rear end problems he was not sure about going back to help. It took some high lift help and a strap to finally get Jon out of the pinch and then Truggy helped him out of the Alley in true Truggy fashion it was very entertaining to say the least.
Everyone made it back to camp for a fire and cold ones to end the night , repairs were waiting for the morning .

Gotta go , be back in a little bit

[sarge]

Ok I'm back ,

Sat. started off by me slapping in my spare shaft and Jon loading up and heading home ( I forgot to bring another shaft :mad: ) .

And Then there were three.

Truggy , me and George headed out to Rattle Snake where Scott decided to give it a shot ( he fixed the winch at camp ) and as you can see ...... he didn't need it .











George and I took the bypass , 36 in tire after 42's = stuck.

We headed to Carb. next

to be continued !

[sarge]

On to Carb. , Scott was the first to try it . It was slime covered and slick , He tried the left and almost slid off the face of the mountain we ended up pulling cable just for safety. back down to the bottom he went. Next he tried the straight up the middle .... denied again ( this is where Jon and I tried Friday ) he made to the same spot ! Back to the bottom again. I walked up and it appeared the right side was going to be the sweet spot and it was , Scott walked right up .
Now it was my turn , as I approached my cable in my posi lock pulled out and I lost 4x4 , so I backed down, fixed it and then tried again, this time on the right , I went right up.
George wasn't going to try it due to having some break issues ( as in No Brakes ) but after some ribbing from Scott and I he made an attempt. As he made it to the first big ledge his rear end made some very bad bangs and he was having trouble bumping it up the ledge so he gave up.
Scott and I slid back down the hill and we then slid down Rattle Snake. We ended up back on the main trail and decided to head for camp for lunch and fuel .
We loaded up and headed back out but George wasn't behind us , we backed up and found him at the creek in camp. Back to the trailer! He ended up breaking the king pin ........ finishing his week-end of wheeling .

And then there were two !

Scott and I headed back out and decided to go up towards Stump cave area and see what we could get our selves into and on the way ran in to Casey in his Ranger and another CJ on tons ( sorry guys I'm bad with names)
we decided to hit Devils Brew and then Stump Cave.

And now there are four !

We arrive at Devils Brew !! WOW it was very exciting watching two rigs on 39.5's and then one on 42's flog their way to the top, knowing that I'm on 36's and gotta go forward ! The little YJ walked it ! Now I'm not trying to blow my own horn here, but it really did walk right up both sections on the first time , knees shaking and all.
We lost the CJ , they had to get home .

Back down to three !

We then headed for Stump Cave and then to Townsend Cave via some less traveled trails ( thanks again Casey ) . Scott wanted a piece of Widow maker so we headed there , only to find a traffic jam !! So we hit little Widow maker again and then headed back over to Last chance. Casey hit it but was also denied, I think is was even worse then the night before . We ended up back at camp at about dinner time . Chili and grilled cheese was fixed in my corner and George made some Sausages on the grill ( after his afternoon nap ! ) in his corner .... all were full !
I got a few phone calls, after dinner, from friends warning me of a pending severe thunder storm with tornados just west of Lexington heading our way, so way decided it might be smart to just roll out and call it a week end. I did not feel like repeating 2004 !
We made it home about mid-night with no problems, was a great trip and I wish a few more had shown up.
Sorry for the long post's but I will not be at the meeting again next month ....but i only have four more weeks of seconds

Sarge

[sarge]

oh ! here are a few more pics. I'm sorry but I never do get very many , I'm to busy more pics to come , we lost one camera to the rain but have another one that was with Jon.

[Jopa420]

Looks like a good time. We went down fri night. Hiked the gorge sat and camped at koomers ridge.

We ran little damnation alley and played in the creek for a bit sun. Lots of folks wheeling it seemed like.

[sarge]

more pic's :

[carwash]

nice report! man makes me miss wheeling.

[sarge]

well get out there and finish that thing !

Just to give everyone a clue of how slimy Carb. was , this is the start: