DHappel

Stand by for updates...

I'm sure there's already a thread but I didn't see it... Who's planning to go to the rally in September? I know a few of you are such as myself, Lutz, Robert, Mike, etc. I'm planning to go out early and run a few trails before things kick off, but haven't made any actual plan yet. I need to be booking a hotel/etc pretty soon and thought I'd see what other people had in mind. I don't think the event has a formal campground though I'm sure some will want to camp. I expect Michele will want a hotel though as she will have to work some of the time while we're there. I'll probably make the drive in 2 days, but perhaps one long day if I leave early. I'm thinking I'll leave Friday but possibly a day earlier depending on what Michele's schedule looks like. I'll be trailering out. So ... anybody already have their plans in place?

So no lookout for us; at least the gate for the trail to it was closed. I think Nick and Gustav were thinking of hiking up to it. We got a late start as several people were running behind so we actually left about noon. Of specific interest, we found the gas station in Downieville is closed so the nearest fuel is 30 minutes (about 17 miles) away. There were a bunch of others including some bikes all looking for fuel as we were meeting up. In the end we had about 4 jerry cans between us and topped up most of the crew then Gustav made a run up the hill to fill the now empty cans on the idea that he would be able to catch us on the trail since we'd be moving pretty slowly anyway. All told we had- Don - LR3 Gustav - D90 Mike - D110 Nick - 109 Andrew - D2 Jamie - riding with Andrew Jake - LR3 Rupert - LR3 Plus guests in a G500, FJ40, and X3. The G did come along on the trail (she had a wonderful time) but the FJ and BMW (Gustov's girlfriend and father respectively) hung out at camp. While the FJ could certainly have made the run, the BMW didn't stand a chance. The trail starts just outside of town and heads uphill. It's basically a dirt road all the way up to the fire lookout with no challenges and could be driven in anything. However as we started to climb we first saw a few traces and finally some large patches of snow ranging from just across the road to perhaps 100' long and up to about 2' deep. Given the warm temps it was very soft and slushy for maximum sinking. We quickly ran into another group who had a Chevy Colorado beached in a longer section of snow. He'd made it about 3/4 of the way through but got stuck. One of their jeeps tired to winch him forward but couldn't so they then tried to winch him back with another one and again couldn't do it. Mike and I were confused and asked why they didn't just use a snatch strap to pop him out forward? They didn't have one was why. I lent them mine and despite repeated assurances they had used one before and knew how to do it, the Jeep then proceeded to idle forward and fail to pull out the truck. We then urged him to back up and take a proper run which he kinda-sorta did but did manage enough inertia to get the truck out. Thinking we were then done, we retreated back to our rigs to get going only to find they had promptly gotten another Jeep stuck. This time Mike and Nick in the Defender and Series went up around him and pulled him free. We did have a few trucks struggle through the snow but nothing serious. The G got beached as Gail was completely new to off-road and a bit uncomfortable with the way the truck would slew around in the ruts. I got to drive it a bit and we learned the front locker didn't appear to be engaging though I'm not sure if there was actually a problem or if I just didn't speak German well enough to convince it to do what I wanted (though the center and rear were working). We did have to snatch it at one point but it was just a small pull to get it out of the hole it had dug. Jake got a bit stuck and needed a small pull to get moving. He hadn't aired down yet and was still at street pressure which certainly wasn't helping. He decided to try a set of maxtrax which, as predicted, didn't work. I should point out that these sort of traction boards were originally intended for sand and they work well for that but slick snow usually results in just spinning the tires and melting them. They're better than nothing, but in snow I find a kinetic rope or strap the go-to device. At that point Rupert tried to winch him back only to find his winch wasn't working. Possibly the controller or a fuse. Regardless, Jake only needed a small pull so we used the winch cable as a tow strap (yes, I know....) to pull him about 3' backward. After that we aired him down and he was able to make it up the rest of the way under his own power as did the rest of our group. Once to the top we found the gate blocking us from the fire lookout so we decided to have lunch here along with the other people we'd encountered on the trail. We did hike down the other side (north side) of the ridge to look at conditions and found the drifts were much larger with some around 4' deep and no quick end in sight. While the larger trucks in our group could have done it the less built rigs would have been struggling a lot so we decided this was as good a point as any to head back down. Along the way we hooked up with Gustav & Co. who'd stopped and set up camp just above a mine in a really nice spot. A couple of our group (Nick and ?) also stayed behind to spend the night there as well. So while we didn't expect this to turn into a snow run it did. I guess 6000' will do that for you. We were able to get a few people in the dirt for the first time and had some recovery work to do so everybody got to have a little fun. We didn't get to to the harder part of the trail with the river crossing but there's nothing keeping us from coming back once the snow melts. Perhaps we'll make it a weekend event and hit both this and Sierra Buttes fire lookouts on the same trip. The only issue is now we have a Mercedes* owner who might want to join the club. At least she used to own a D2 and her son is looking at either a RRC or P38 in the future, so they aren't beyond hope. LOL *of note, this was the first time I'd gotten a chance to study a G-class. This was a 2002 G500 with a small lift and 35x12.50x20 tires that has updated plastics to make it look about 10 years newer. It was really interesting to see how it was packaged. Divorced transfer case. The dual exhausts are run on the outside of the frame rails. The front is radius arms similar to a Rover but the swaybar is connected on the arms instead of the axle. Everything is tucked up tight - you could pretty much bolt on a flat plate as a center skid plate. The axles didn't look particularly large and I don't know much about them, but always interesting to check out something new.

Wow, a voice from the past! I didn't even know you were still in the club!

I'm sorry, I draw the line at Toyotas. Well, OK, I guess a Toyota can come but only if they stay 100 yards behind the rest of the group. Nah - kidding of course. For a MORG I'm pretty lax. He's welcome to come. The idea of course is non-members are welcome to join a MORG with an eye toward joining. Obviously we don't want to just let anybody come to all our events without being a member but it's hard to decide if you want to join without getting a feel for the group. Hence the 'free sample'. I'm sure Martin isn't really looking to join a Rover group, but on occasion I'm fine with somebody coming out on a MORG. As for the Merc - She herself isn't actually looking at a Rover but her son is interested in one. Unfortunately he's not able to make it himself this Saturday. Further, she's the owner of Morris Motors here in Walnut Grove; a shop that started as more of a Merc specialty shop but now does work on everything from Toyotas to Ferraris. Including Rovers. They also host a number of club cruise-ins throughout the year and I've been thinking of seeing if they wanted to host us for a possible future cruise-in. Not exactly off-road, but we've been known to do non-dirty things every once in a while.

Downieville meeting location - 11:00AM Parking lot at corner of Main (highway 49) and Nevada. Basically Downieville is small enough we can't really miss each other, but might as well put a pin in it. This is about the only place big enough to park several vehicles together. See you guys there!

Does anybody want to meet up on the trip up? I'm planning to head out from Walnut Grove about 7:30 and will stop for gas somewhere on the way. I'll have the G500 along with me it looks like. That puts me in Sacramento around 8-8:15 depending on exactly where. I'll be coming up 5 then 99 - 70 - 20 - 49. Or basically straight north to Yuba City then NE to Downieville.

I don't expect any problems for a stock LR3. There are only two spots that are anything more than basic fire roads (as I understand it); the river crossing and a hill after that. Both are rocky but nothing a little tire placement can't solve. No ledges, wash outs, tight squeezes, or big climbs, etc. But you shouldn't need to worry about getting out alone as only some are camping while others are heading home on Saturday.

I may have a guest come in a G500 - owner of Morris Motors here in town. She bought here 'dream car' G500 a couple months ago and was talking to Michele about getting it in the dirt. This would be good beginner trail so I invited her. Her son is also interested in either a P38 or RRC (er.....I know which I'd take!) and they work on pretty much everything from Ferrari and Lambo to Rover and Bentley to Toyota and Ford, though they originally specialized in Merc. Hope to hear from her today.

Regarding lunch, I think we should eat on the trail - possibly at the fire lookout or if not there one of the ghost towns would make a good lunch spot.

OK then, only two people chiming in so I suppose we'll be doing Poker Flats! It's a bit of a haul from the bay but not so bad from Sac. It's an easy trail with a great view from the fire lookout on the way. Should be doable with any Rover. One water crossing that could pose a bit of challenge but otherwise smooth sailing. (says the guy who's only seen videos of the trail...) With the distance let's start a bit later in the day. Perhaps we plan to be at Downieville at 11:00. I expect the trail to be about 4 hours if we do the full version through the old ghost towns/etc. We can set up caravan meet-up points in the Sac area if we have enough people coming the same route. I can't do an overnight myself as I need to work Sunday but looks like Eric will be camping. I'll leave it to him on the details of that part.

Other options- Airport Flats off highway 50 Corral Hollow off highway 4

OK, I let this one sneak up on me. The 1st Saturday of May is actually May 1st; I thought we had more time but it's coming up next weekend. While I have some ideas closer to the bay, how does Poker Flat sound? It's an easy trail that stock Rovers could do (only one 'hard' spot but mostly fire roads) and has a great view from the saddleback fire lookout. The only negative is the distance from the bay - 3-4 hrs depending on where you're coming from. About 2 from Sacramento. So A- who's looking to get on some dirt next weekend and B- if so, does this sound like an option for you? Let me know!

And yes, I'll be there.

What, you don't like the Crue?

Before moving the CA I had a '68 911. I was never really a P-car guy; I only went to one track day with them and I took the Alfa because it was at Mid-Ohio and the Alfa Club's national event was also going to be there later that year. I wanted some extra track time. If I were buying one today would def look for a late model Cayman. The rear of those is soooo sexy.

Looks like I'm out. There's this little deadline looming called April 15th and I've been procrastinating....

I'm not sure I believe Robert was involved in this. Not enough blue paint.

My pics other than a couple short videos of I took on the drive north toward Reno are all uploaded as well. I'll work on the trip report hopefully tonight. Over all a good trip. I tried to add some challenges in addition to the usual DV type trip and I think the mix turned out pretty well. Of course some of the routes didn't work out as once I got there they were marked on the map but either non-existent or impassable. I also made a navigation mistake when I decided to avoid asphalt and take what looked like a fairly straight forward dirt loop toward Ballarat only to later realize I'd been zoomed out too much on my map and what I thought was an upcoming trail/road was actually just a boundary line which put us going well out of our way on a very annoying trail with small wash-outs every few hundred yards you had to come to a near stop to cross. Then eventually we ended up doing just as much pavement anyway. Oops. In reality there was very little carnage. Yes we had 4 tires cut but we had spares and though replacing tires can get expensive it's hardly "damage" or a failure of the vehicle. Cris did break a rear shock of unknown age though earlier he'd been discussing upgrading from his OMEs to Fox anyway so I'm pretty sure that was done on purpose to justify the change. It barely even slowed things down as we just removed it and kept moving. The only real issue was Nick K's brake line. We were able to bodge a repair to get him home but there should be some further investigation done to see about upgrading to longer lines to avoid the issue in the future. Stay tuned - story at 11!

I wasn't so concerned about the RRC moving it around the property, more thinking about that much trailer on a standard hitch going 70 mph down the highway. Tail...Dog...etc. Then just yesterday I passed pretty much that exact setup headed up I5 with a Transit and full size pickup on the trailer being towed by a SRW GMC 3500. So maybe I just never paid that much attention. I assumed it would have say 3 7K axles under it. The trailer must weigh close to 5000 alone. Put a pair of 5000 lb vehicles on it and you can max it out pretty fast. Then again I don't really deal with big trailers much so I'm just guessing. I would however be willing to bet at least half if not more of the 4x4s you see on trailers are just on 3500 lb tandems and hence likely overloaded.

Look at that - it's not even 10:30 and I'm done packing. Seems light though - pretty sure I'm leaving something critical behind.

OK, currently packing the LR3 for my morning departure. One day I'll get this streamlined and be good at it but as it is I always take different things depending on which truck, where I'm going, how long, etc. So it's always a PITA. I'm expecting to meet in Lodi: Cris Nick K Nick B Johan We'll watch for Mike as we turn onto 395 Paul and Will are coming in from the central coast and we'll meet them at Gold Point. For those meeting in Lodi, try to be there a little early to get gas, coffee, etc so we can roll out at 8:00. See you there!

We'll have more trips for you. As they say 'watch this space'

I'm not far off this. Working on my packing now. I planed to have a half day so I could do my packing easily. Instead I got home after 7pm. Plans....why do we even bother?

Especially when you consider people do this with a backpack for a week...