Die Trying Revisited August 2000

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Short Cuts

Bart picks his way through the rocks

Fixing Steve's bent tie rod

Mike in the V Crack

Steve drives on with Bart's XJ temporarily abandoned in the back

Sean catches some air showing his "poseur orange" bead locks

Terry gets a little tippy

Bart in the tippy squeeze

Mike welds up Bart's frame around the steering box

Steve ready for some hurt on the Ugly Rock

Mike comes up the Ugly Rock in the dark as Bart looks on

Story by Bart Jacobs and photos by Tony Woods 8/23/2000

It was almost a year since a group of friends got together and made an assault on one of the toughest trails around, and due to a couple of coincidences and circumstances, it was decided that it was time to do it again. I wasn't sure I could make it this time after recently starting a new job, and getting ready for some other 4-wheeling adventures coming up shortly, but Mike Garner told me I had no choice, so that was that.

I should have taken the omen that this might not be great timing on my part when the brakes on my truck went out the day I was leaving, but after working on them, and delaying my departure for 3 hours, we (my 9 year old son Eric and I) were on the road. The plan was to meet at the same campground as last year by 9 or 10 that evening, but with my mechanical problems I wasn't going to get there until after midnight. This wouldn't leave much time for sleeping as we wanted to get an early start and be the first group on the trail. The previous year we showed up a bit late and waited 3 hours to start the trail behind another group.

As we pulled up the dirt road toward camp, about 12:40 a.m., it was raining and I remembered how the rain last year turned the run into a winch fest and caused us to abandon our rigs on the trail and return the next day to finish. I was unsure as to the spot where the camp was when I finally saw a flashlight ahead. Mike, after driving all the way from Iowa, was sitting in a chair, out in the rain, with his (Jeep's) bikini top over his head, waiting for us. With a short greeting and hello we retired to get some sleep before the rapidly approaching sun rise.

It's funny how a lack of sleep can be shook off when the adrenalin starts pumping when it starts getting light outside and you know you've got an action packed day ahead. Quick breakfasts and Jeep packing was done and we were on the way to the trail head by 8:00. There were 5 rigs again, Terry Howe accompanied by his neighbor Zack, in his flattie, Steve Smith in his CJ7 (that was way more built than last year), Sean Lazelle in an early Bronco with very trick rear coil suspension, Mike Garner and his buddy Tony, in the Feep, and Eric and me in my grocery getter XJ, Flo. We were all better built and better prepared than last year.

As we approached the first obstacle it was clear to all of us that the trail had been run many times and things had changed. It was not near as menacing as the previous year. Of course not having three of the five rigs in the party in front of you broken down right there was also mentally comforting. We were just into the trail fifty yards when my front, left coil popped out and wedged between the axle and the tire. Hmm, this had only happened once, so I didn't pay much attention to it and had it fixed in a few minutes. Fifty yards later it did the same thing. Mike and Steve had some spare bolts (which I would find out later, I wished I had lots of) and we bolted a wrench into the spacer mount on the coil axle bracket to hold the spring from coming out. Things were going well and I made the mistake of mentioning that this should be a quick trip. Not a good thing to do.

About a quarter of the way up the trail is the V crack (not the real name I'm sure, but you'd recognize it by that name) and this was the first place to see winches used. When I looked up I saw Terry and Sean around Steve's Jeep. Steve's tie rod decided to give up the ghost so we did the old handy man handle over the tie rod, trick and he was moving again. This is the spot last year where I realized the 4.56's in the pumpkins were not low enough to climb really steep stuff. Since I had recently installed a 4:1 kit in my transfercase, I was excited to try again and was making good progress when, BANG! I got out and we looked underneath. We couldn't see anything and thought is was an axle or hub. Either way I'd have to get out of there to fix it. I got back in and tried to crawl up a bit more and BANG again, only this time 2 of the 3 sheared bolts flew out of the side of my steering box. We worked with the Jeep and got it up and over the V, but this was serious.

No one had the right size replacement bolts and the rest of the broken bolts had to be extracted from the box. After spending an hour of so getting one of the bolts out, we decide I would run back into town and get some replacements and the group would go on. It's not like they'd be far away, the trail is just over a mile from beginning to end. After a few more brain farts by me, I got back to my rig with 3 bolts, only to find they were a smidge short and I (and everyone else) wondered why I hadn't gotten a couple spares and maybe some different sizes. Another brain fart, I hate when I do that.

The group had made good progress and headed back to my location on foot after I radioed them I was back. We got it put back together and started up the trail. It didn't take long to catch up with some great spotting and only one rig. It felt good to be back driving again but I was getting some alien noises from the box. While waiting for a couple rigs to clear I grabbed some wrenches to re-tighten the bolts. What I found was ugly. The rear bolt had stripped out so only the front two bolts were holding. Because of the stress, the box had now torn the sub-frame mounting section. We used a smaller, but longer, bolt and nut to hold the rear of the box in place and Mike welded the broken frame together, thank goodness for on-board welders. Although I still got ugly noises for the rest of the trip, the weld held together.

We made good time to the last section of the trail. The tree that used to cause such a problem had been moved and made relatively easy, but the next 50 yards past that are UGLY. In fact, at this point there is only about 300 yards of the trail left, and none of it is easy. Terry made some great attempts and then in a spectacular balancing act, on the edge of rolling backwards, managed to get up the really ugly boulder. Steve was next and spent some time on different lines, then decided to winch, but while winching heard the ugly sound of a front axle shaft breaking. Terry worked with Steve to move him up the hill while Sean tried the Ugly. The Bronco carburetor indicated it didn't like the angles and started flooding while the tranny decided it didn't like fluid and started spewing it out. After a while of fighting the problems we broke the winch out, only to get that overheated and start having solenoid problems. By this time it was dark and Mike and I still had the Ugly to contend with. Mike tried a bunch of different lines and ended up pulling some spectacular front end lifts of his own but ended up winching over. By the time I got there I had spent all my fun tickets. I gave it a shot on two lines and called winch. It was dark and beginning to rain.

The rest of the trip out was spent fighting wet, poorly situated, slippery boulders and bad tree placements. We finally managed to clear the top at about 10:00. It was raining harder then but it still felt great to be out. It took a while to make it back to camp, but the beverages and food tasted really good, even that late. It had taken us 13 hours this year, beating last year's escapades by 3 hours. I have to claim 5 of those hours as down time under my Jeep. The V crack has kicked my butt two years in a row now, but I'll be back next year to try it again, and will be better prepared.