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NCLR - Northern California Land Rover Club

Volunteers for TepuiFest

TomOwen

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DHappel Mentor

DHappel

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sorry, but looks like i need to back out. but also seems like there's a good number of back ups to fill in. have fun.

Oh-oh....we've lost Phil!  No more Defender for people to stand around and stare at!

 

We have a few people on our back-up list - who's up to jump in?

 

Jared/Erin?

Jason?

Alyson?

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Teds Apprentice

Teds

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Have fun and stay dry. I am assuming the 'adventure' guy is Todd Rogers who went with us to Baja. Good guy and easy to work with. We ran into him last month at an event in Roseville as well. He drives a 4Runner with his Tepui on top.

 

Some pics of his.  http://www.strphoto.com/Travel/Baja-with-NCLR/

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DHappel Mentor

DHappel

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And we're back.  Actually, most of us bailed last night for a variety of reasons including but not limited to mud and sickness.

 

But let's back up to start on Friday.

 

I rolled out about 11:00 Friday and stopped in Stockton for fuel and food, arriving in Area 5 about 2:00.  I only passed a few small sprinkles along the way.  When I got there I found a good number of people had already arrived and the Tepui folks were getting things dialed in quickly.  I offered some help but they seemed to be pretty much there.  A short time later Todd arrived and we talked about what he wanted/needed in the way of trail runs and support.  We decided a simple run to Top of the World via West Trail and through the quarry would be best, plus we would supply a rig to help him and Brenton with the recovery demo they had planned to do in the quarry.  We'd run one group at 10 and he'd start the recovery demo at the same time.  We'd then run a second group at the completion of the demo.  Then we'd do a 'blind driver' challenge as well in the afternoon. 

 

I set up camp and laid down for a bit as I'd been fighting a cold for a couple days and wasn't in the best shape.  I then decided to head out on a scouting run just to make sure I mapped the full route.  When I got to Top of the World I happened to get a phone call from Matt (DiscoBear) saying it was pouring rain in Roseville and his wife had called him to say the roof was leaking like crazy and he was going to have to check that out and wouldn't be able to make it.  Crap - but as long as I had cell service I put a text into Erin and she and Jared got back to me saying they would be able to come out and fill in on Saturday.  Back on track!

 

On my way down I again heard from Matt saying the leak wasn't so bad after all and he was going to pack up and head down that night.  I had thought from our initial conversation that his house roof had been leaking but it was actually the roof on his Disco.  It ended up only being a door gasket that had pushed out so a simple fix.  Of course the delay put him in awful traffic through Sacramento and Stockton and he didn't arrive until about 9 that night.

 

Back at camp, Nills arrived and set up his gear as did Jason Hines who didn't camp with us since he lives in Hollister anyway.   I spoke again with Todd, showing him my mapped route and discussing it further with him and the plan changed a bit.  He now wanted to do the recovery demo at camp since he didn't know how many people would be willing to drive up to the quarry.  He also asked if he could ride along if I went back out so he could get a better feel for the trail.  No problem - we headed back out this time with Jason following.  After leaving the quarry on West Trail you come to the junction with McCray and Fremontia - with Fremontia being the more challenging option.  I pointed this out and told Todd I had deliberately skipped that trail to keep it easier and he said 'well, let's take a look at it anyway' so up we went.  While both my LR3 and Jason's unlocked D2 had no troubles with it, it was clearly more than we wanted to run a mixed group of vehicles up so we planned to stick to our original simpler route.  We also detoured over to the Adventure Course where Todd decided he'd rather do his blind drive there than at Area 5 since it offered far more interesting terrain. 

 

Back to camp again about 6 (after spotting a number of dear since it was dusk) and the rain was just beginning to fall.  Nothing heavy, just a drizzle but enough to start turning the dirt of camp into a clingy slime.  I had nearly lost my voice by now and my cold drugs were only so-so effective so I laid down for a rest in my tent while the Tepui folks got the bar and dinner up and running.  I did take a moment to grab some dinner from Mexxi's though - one should make a point not to miss Enrique's cooking when you can.   :)

 

A little before 9 while I was tossing and turning in my cot in a stuggle to get some rest a light lit up the front of my tent.  It was Brenton arriving and seeing my LR3 parked he pulled in next to me.  A short time later Matt too arrived.  They headed over to the stage where dinner and the band were in full swing and I called it a night by 9:30.

 

After a long and warm night, much to warm for the sleeping bag I had brought though that could have been the fever talking, I got up about 7 on Saturday.  The rain had been on and off most of the night, though only mildly heavy briefly and had pretty much stopped by 3AM.  The camp was a muddy mess though.  I watched a couple 2wd trucks get stuck just trying to drive up the very minor grade to turn around the upper bathroom.  Normally you wouldn't even realize this was a hill, but it was almost like ice and watching them slide down with tires locked made me a little nervous about what the trail might be like.  Breakfast was on though I only managed a cup of coffee and some juice, then Jared and Erin showed up in RedRover packing donuts so I *forced* myself to eat one.  Must keep up my strength and all that.  I also learned that Matt had had a bit of an experience with his tent in the night.   He described it as an 'as seen on TV' commercial for Tepui.  Picture the unhappy camper in the rain and mud fighting tent poles while his gear gets wet, with a voice over saying 'does your tent look like this?'  Cut to the nice happy campy easily setting up a RTT while the smiling wife cooks dinner and the perfect kid plays with the dog in the background and 'Why bother with that old fashioned tent??  Introducing TepuiTents!'   You know, there might just be something to this RTT thing after all.   :)

 

Jared and I went out for a quick recon and found that the actual trails were in good condition.  The only real slop was in camp.  With that we set up with myself planning to lead the first group at 10 with Nills and Matt as sweep.  Jason and Jared and Erin would bring the second group up at 11 and we planned to pass each other at the quarry where we could get lots of rigs together without troubles.  At least that was the plan.  

 

We actually got away about 10:45 with I believe 7 Toyotas in the group.  Along the way Tom had arrived and was riding with me along with Will who had recently joined TepuiTents.  By the time I got to the quarry the group had already started to grow with people jumping in at random.  Before even making it that far a Unimog that I hadn't even known was in our group lost a valve stem and needed to change a tire but didn't have a lug wrench.  We ended up leaving Matt and Nills with him then taking the rest of the group up the hill.  Still not without some challenges as we did have one truck bounce a tent loose from it's mounting, but we did eventually make it to the top with no mechanical or trail difficulties.  At the top we counted 12 vehicles, 10 of which were Toyotas plus an Explorer and an Xterra.  ToyotaFest anyone?

 

After hanging out at the top for a bit to take the obligatory photos we could hear/see Nills, the Unimog, and Matt making their way up the trail.  We made arrangements to get past them and came back down, again keeping radio contact with the group Jared was leading up so we could meet at the quarry.  We made it down with no problems and had some play time there while waiting on our other three guys to catch up.  I took a few interesting lines around the obstacles to help get people in the mood and after some of the Toys had problems I had to 'show them how it's done' with the LR3.  No one-upmanship involved; purely for educational purposes.   ;)  I also had to break out the recovery strap when a Tacoma high-centered himself on one break-over.   Having been here for a while some of the group broke up and headed back down to camp while I talked with Nills to see how the three of them were coming.  Not far they assured me.  However we didn't realize they had missed the turn for West trail and were heading down McCray.  That'll still take you back to camp, just not past the quarry.  The rest of my group headed back down to camp while Ethan from TepuiTents headed out into the park for a little exploring on his own and I headed up the hill to see if I could find my three missing ducklings.  I got as far as the West/McCray/Fremontia junction and still hadn't crossed them so I knew they had gone a different route at that point.  I turned down McCray and from the top of Truck Hill we saw the unimog and Ethan together so we knew they'd been able to hook up and would be able to get back fine.  Back at camp when asked about what had happened Matt simply said 'I'm not following a Unimog again'.  Mog's are many things, but fast isn't one of them.

 

The day had been sunny and warm and by the time we got everybody back to camp around 2 things had pretty much dried out and the mud was nearly gone.  Todd's plan to do the blind driver event had been scrubbed as most of the attendees seemed happy enough to hang around camp and socialize.  His recovery demo had not happened at all that morning and was going to be pushed to 'happy hour' around 4, but in the end was reduced to an X-jack and Hi-lift/WheelMate demo (which got a fair bit of attention) and a simple set-up of a winch re-direct using a snatch block though no actual winching was done.  The crowd was more interested in the bar, the band, and dinner.

 

As the afternoon wore on the clouds began to return and forecasts were saying rain starting at 9.  Given that both Matt and I had less than wonderful nights prior, we both packed up planning to leave that night as did Nills who wanted to spend some time visiting with his son who's in school in the bay area.  Jared and Erin had not planned to spend the night since they were just filling in last-minute (luckily as it turned out), and Jason and his wife hadn't camped either since home was only 15 minutes away.  I eventually left about 6 and was home by 9:30, catching up with a fairly steady rain a little south of Stockton.  Brenton and Tom were both still there when I left, as was Enrique who was again Captain of Team Mexxi's.  

 

Today I'm spending in a self-imposed mute state hoping my voice returns by Monday.  With Michele out of town I'm going to huddle on the sofa under blankets with the remote, waiting on a break in the rain to unload the truck.  At the moment that doesn't look very promising which I'm fine with given I'm not feeling especially energetic.   :mellow:

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TomOwen Newbie

TomOwen

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That's what Tom was there for.  After all, photographers are a dime a dozen....   :)

Ha, the trail was littered with them and rig kept picking them up like trash... 

 

Pics are uploading HERE: https://norcalrovers.smugmug.com/Event-Photos/TepuiFest2016

 

Thanks Don for organizing the trail support for TepuiFest!

 

And thanks to Don, Nils, Matt, Erin Jared, Jason and Patricia for coming out to support!!

 

Tepui and NCLR have a great relationship and this support is a big part of it. I spent time with the Tepui founder, COO, Head of marketing guys, etc.. and they all commented on the current state of the relationship with NCLR, how it has really taken root of late and wanting to get together to talk about more collaborations. For example, they have a great showroom in Santa Cruz next to a micro brewery... we were encouraged to come to them with ideas of how we could utilize that space. Coast Side DitD? Maybe. Rendezvous point for adventures heading south (Pismo, Big Sur, etc..) Yup...  

 

How about a re-do of the Santa Cruz adventure of last year? Baron, David West, who else?  Rendezvous at Tepui, driver's meeting, use facilities, etc.. then maybe close the trip there with Hot Cocoa and snacks before heading over the hill home? Remind me who lead that trail run and let's se what we can come up with here ;-)

 

To me it was just so cool that they would offer and encourage further collaboration - clearly we are something they are happy to be a part of as well as NCLR being a group they are willing to have as an extension of their brand as they continue to grow and innovate. 

 

Thanks again NCLR TepuiTeam!

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DiscoBears Newbie

DiscoBears

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Awesome event, it was nice to trail run with Nils and a UniMog and yes we got lost in the hills. Definitely had the worst experience trying to put up a wal mart ground tent in the Rain, as Don described it ...I did get into a tough conversation with the Goal Zero guy when I mentioned to everyone at his booth that Goal Zero prices are about 1/3 less on Amazon (oops) but overall it was great to hang with the club members there and we got everyone back in one piece. 

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astateofmike Contributor

astateofmike

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....... Matt simply said 'I'm not following a Unimog again'.  Mog's are many things, but fast isn't one of them.

 

And that's not just any Mog, that's a Doka.....I would go slow in order to drive that any day.  4 doors.....unicorn...

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DHappel Mentor

DHappel

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I talked to the guy a bit.  He lives up in the Sac area and his company remodels 4WP stores so he gets a lot of parts at a good deal.  He also builds Jeeps and it sounded like this was sort of an on again, off again hobby.  He claims it will run 65 down the freeway without the high speed axles, but I'm not sold on that.

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