“Trail Clean-up”

by Joe

Here's my little write up I posted on the NEA site from todays work. Thank you to EVERONE who came out to help. We found some really kick-butt hill/rock climbs worthy of being called hardcore.

I want to thank everyone for coming out today. Despite the rain and cold, we had an awesome turnout. Armed with a borrowed umbrella and tarp for my windshieldess, doorless, topless POS, we located, cleaned, and attempted a couple of pretty nice hill/rock climbs.

On the way in, we found a Honda Civic about 50ft into the trail. We thought about pulling it back to the trail head, but seeing as it was raining and we started at 10, decided to get into our mission and come back after.

The NEW Honda Civic 4x4!!! With stock 13's....		Joe just before breaking his hubs...
The next ledge
		I'm calling it "Stump Hill" because that stump was a pain in the ***

We split into two groups; one to clean up diaper hill and the other to search for a rock outcropping I had spotted some time back. In my group, Navman and I went out on foot to locate my rock outcropping while Pat and the others checked out a new hillclimb with a couple of ascent options. About that time, we heard that Eve had put her fan into her radiator while climbing Diaper hill. They ended up parking the Jeep and headed over to meet us so Ryan could verify our location with his GPS. Unfortunately, we were just over the property line, so the obstacle was a no-go. We then headed back to clean off the hill climb that Marky and Jay had found. When it was my turn to try the climb, I assaulted it like a SOB and blew both front hubs at the same time when 300 lbs of 38" MT Claws came down hard. Bang she went. Fortunately, the Warn hub fuses did their job and saved the rest of my front high pinion Dana 44. I pulled the fuses and continued on in 2WD. This was after making fun of Navman's Dana 30 - LOL

The other side of this hill had another technical climb with two options. We headed over and Ryan gave it a go. Seeing as it was pretty slick and not wanting to push it, he gave up to let Navman attempt it. Strapping in, I rode shotgun and once we had the right line, we dragged up the rocks, ascending the hill. It was pretty cool. There was another option to the right, but IMO, that would be something for the buggy crowd.

The last rock climb we cleared was at the west end of the property. I jumped in with Navman and he hammered his fuelie 302 powered YJ on 37's to try and make it up. Unfortunately, it was just too slick and we had to give up before we ended up on our lid. I think once it dries out, it's going to be a very nice climb.

Getting back to the Civic. We decided not to extract it out of fear that the owner might blame us for unseen damage. When we were done for the day, Pat headed out to stop at the PD and follow up with the landowner while we were extracting Eve's Jeep. Apparently, the Civic owner did in fact call it in, but didn't know where he was to go back and retrieve it.

At any rate, it was a pretty nice day. The next mission will be to head back in with Navman and Pat to do a dedicated scouting run and then schedule a trail cut to maximize everyone's time. I think that's the most efficient method. Thanks again to everyone and stay tuned....