Organized Event: Fun in the Desert 2009

[RAT]

Thanks Victor Valler 4 Wheelers for another great event. Never miss the chance to make this event.
I lamed up didn't get many pics and little video but here's what I have for now.



Just noticed Flikr cut this one short again too. Man it's hard to find good help these days

[Mitch]

Kurt,

Nice short video! It was good to see you and Nick out there yesterday. I guess it's a good thing that I broke that spring when I did. Jack Hammer would have put a permanate hurt on the
great88. Maybe next time. Yeah right.

Mitch

[bullysteve]

awesome time , to bad my throttle cable broke saturday morning before heading out at the last minute, but got to run outer limits and chocolate thunder friday . this place is not for the weak hearted hehehe !!

[guardian7]

A day on Clawhammer!

[USMC 0369]

[COLOR="Sienna"]What it's all about: Great times with great people.

Of course, Kurt you know you owe me one. I saved your bacon once again. LOL... great seeing you man and I appreciate you letting me tag along with you to an event I've only seen parts of before.

The more people I meet in our "community" the more I love this sport. Andrew & Shari(fixed), I'm convinced I must get up to the Rubicon, and the sooner the better. I'll PM you about those parts I need.

I've met Stuart a few times, and it's always a hoot wheeling and camping. Man, you really know how to beat that beast of a rig into submission.

Drew! Sorry we didn't get to "wheel" together, but it was still great to meet you. Hope to see you out somewhere again, I'd like to get a closer look at your YJ. I'm always looking for innovations to steal.

Speaking of YJ's to wheel with, Jeff and Shirley(again sp?), I'm thinking our rigs are somewhat on the same page, I'd love to try Mottino wash sometime. We could have Mitch and/or Roger (who it was great to see again) lead us around. Now that I think of it, Kurt and I should have jumped into 'Hector' and gone on that Fisher Mountain run with you guys, if nothing else, than to get out of camp on Sunday instead of just baking there.

I even met Mary, who I'm not sure I've ever seen her screen name before! Although brief, it was a pleasure to meet you.

Mike and Sharon, always a pleasure. Mike, I'm sure you're already looking for a new tie-rod, hope you made it safely and quickly to your destination. Sharon, I hope you're doing better.

Although a little warm out there, I had a great time and a great adventure. I'll certainly go back again.

And oh yes...in case you're wondering, the trick to the raffle is to buy about $200+ in raffle tickets, and different colors of tickets. Shari and I figured it out.

Now, with all of this said, when I see you again, PLEASE remind me of your names... I'm worse than Stuart with faces to names to screen names to rigs to faces again. Seriously... :bonk:

Kurt, thanks again for letting me bum a ride from you. Let us know when you figure out what that rattle was, and get your steering linkage straightened, and your ARB line fixed, and your brake thingy figured out, and your rear linkage stops rattling...and um... what else was there?? [/COLOR]

[Jeep Virgin]

I will say i had a great day wheeling with you guys friday, the second trip up Jack hammer was the best. Thanks so much Andrew for dragging my pile up all the obsticles on Sun Bonnet.If it werent for you i would still be camping on the trail. Glad we did not do a hard trail !!!!! I will get the rig up and running again and hopefully stronger than before. I thought an Atlas was stronger than that. I guess i wont be doing the LS2 this winter, that 4.0 is pretty strong.

[Double AA]

Friday's cast of characters included Nick, Kurt, Stuart, Shari and myself. We took off for Jackhammer sometime around noon and it was more than a little warm. I haven't been up Jackhammer in years and outside of a couple of hill climbs, I didn't even recognize it. It's gotten much harder. Even so, Kurt drove his butt off and made it through on 35's without too much trouble.

However, Kurt did get a little piss off at what he called "a couple of azzholes with big tires" that apparently ran the trail before him, digging huge holes that he had to drive through. But as hard a we looked, Stuart and I couldn't find those azzholes. Oh well, maybe they shot back to camp to pick their buddy up a spare tire and some cold water. Whoever they were, I can tell you their antic's were not appreciated! :wink:

If you haven't run Jack yet, this should kind of give you a feel of what it's like. Soft sand with lots of rocks that that like to move when you drive or walk on them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyzWKb1gUnk

[aw12345]

That looks like all kinds of fun, I want a buggy or something to go play on that stuff

[Double AA]

Stuart and I completed Jack, went back to camp and came up the trail again with a spare tire for Kurt. From that point, the three of us finished the trail without any trouble. After Lower Jack there's a couple of fairly steep rocky hill climbs that are a lot of fun.

http://www.youtube.com/user/AACJ7#pl.../1/vzfKLnqq-cs

[USMC 0369]

[COLOR="Sienna"]Andrew, I see now why Shari says to get a new avatar. Your rig looks NOTHING like that now, and I wouldn't recognize you online at all if it weren't for asking before we parted. LOL.[/COLOR]

[Double AA]

[COLOR="Sienna"]Andrew, I see now why Shari says to get a new avatar. I wouldn't recognize you online at all if it weren't for asking before we parted. LOL.[/COLOR]

Oh, I see what you mean. Back when we shot the avatar I had longer hair, and I must have put on a few pounds.

It was great meeting you Nick, you're a good guy to have on the trail. I look forward to running a trail with you soon.

Although Jeff didn't run with us, It was a pleasure having both him and Shirley in our camp for the weekend.

[Nipple Twister]

Just passin thru

I was in the area and decided to drive by and have a look, I saw Mitch limping back home driving thru the 247/18 split. Guess He didn't see me, tried to flag him down. Drove thru the lake bed area and saw some pretty nice rigs.........

[4xfiend]

Nice videos, Andrew. Looks like some pretty tough hillclimbs at the end of that first one.:wink:

[Mike]

(Moved from the Trail Run thread)

First of all, a HUGE thanks to the VVFW for an excellent event! This was my first FITD and I can guarantee you that it is just the first of many.

The folks that I met along the way were just as impressive. It was a great event in one of the most special Offroad Places on earth.

The safety inspection was quick, focused, and professional. Somehow, my 4" lifted, locked Jeep on 33's got a clearance for trails rated 5+! I didn't expect this, but who knows the trails better than the VVFW?

Given this, Sharon and I joined in with Rat Patrol (Kurt), Double AA (Andrew and Sherri), Drewminator (Drew and Cheryl), and Jeep Virgin (Stuart) for the 5-rated Sunbonnet run. Luckily, the run started late, but even so, I barely had time to disconnect and air down before we rolled off the lake bed.

The run began with a lot of dust, but once we got up on the benches of the hills, the view was nice:


We went up to an overlook that passed over a crack from an old earthquake before we headed to the Sunbonnet trail head. The view was great:


Afterward, we wound around the hills to the start of the Sunbonnet Trail. I believe that first climb is called the Sunbonnet Gate:


I'm not sure which obstacle is the actual Gate, but I was happy to get past all of them. The first obstacle looked like this:


Even though our trail leader, Chuck, was on 33's like me, he was definitely experienced with the obstacles. I didn't want to be 'that guy' on the trail so I took the easier lines whenever possible:


Even so, I needed to be strapped twice going up the Sunbonnet Gate:


Once we reached the top of the Gate, I realized that I need to slow down and choose my lines more carefully. Good thing that I chose to relax and to carefully pick my path when I did because the next part is the Sunbonnet Slide. This is the only truly dangerous part of the trail. A mistake here could be permanent:



At the bottom of the Slide, we entered into the Sunbonnet Pass. It starts with your choice of a nasty Squeeze or a tough extra credit line that pretty much requires a heavily modified vehicle. Most of us chose the Squeeze:


The squeeze is very tight:


Stuart and Andrew chose the extra credit line:


I was trying to keep up with Drew, Stuart, and Andrew, but it wasn't easy. When they got a small distance ahead of me, it was tough to find a line that would help me to catch up. What I want to know is, Does anyone see a ROAD here?:


This trail has lots of challenges, which equals LOTS of fun!:


Andrew tried a tough extra credit line:


But it seemed to be too tight:


So he tried climbing out the hard way:


With some help, he made it:


The trail has few by-passes and even those are especially tough. I made it through with some rock stacking and some good advice along the way:


But Andrew and Stuart made it look easy:




Unfortunately, Stuart snapped off the front driveshaft yoke on his Atlas on a really cool extra credit line. Andrew moved to the front of our MJR group to strap the now 2WD Stuart up the last couple of obstacles:


I have to give kudos to Drew because he worked the trail quite nicely in spite of some air issues with his lockers:


But the biggest congrats of the day has to go to Chuck from VVFW for his excellent spotting and trail leadership. I made it though the last tough obstacle with ease with his spotting:


The trail claimed (as far as I know), 1 Jeep to an unknown banging in the suspension, 1 Transfer Case, 1 front DS yoke on an Atlas, 1 bent Tie Rod and Drag Link (me), 1 brake linkage, and various body damage.

I just have to say that the folks working our trail from the VVFW were rockin'! I had an excellent time on the trail.

Unfortunately, we had to leave due to a serious situation with a friend. I hope that next time we can stay for the BBQ and raffle.

Thanks again to the VVFW team for a great event!

[Double AA]

I have a couple more videos I'll post tonight including Sunbonnet and Stuart's climb of upper Sledgehammer.