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Intermediate Run
Troy Power lines Written by: Ian Winston The Fall Gathering Intermediate run for Saturday had a lot of potential participants. A few folks decided to join the Hardcore group and few decided to join the Stock group. This worked out well, as we were quickly in over out heads when we started running the powerlines at Troy, affectionately known as Electric Avenue. There was a lot of recent rain and the ground was soaked and flowing with runoff. Plus a lot of erosion had occurred since last year's run. The direct line up the first ridge was a washed out trail where at times, heading uphill the left wheels could be 2-3 feet lower than the right wheels.All of us opted for the go-around which was an easy trail parallel to the direct line. The intersection of the two trails was the hardest part. Rain water had created a 2 foot deep crevice that had to be crossed, creating a real articulation tester. Dave Beattie, our fearless trail leader, made it up and through the intersection with ease, his FJ-60 performing like a Cruiser should. Jacques and his FJ-80 had an interesting time as he cut across the crevice early and wound up putting his right side in the crevice. Dave B. gave a slight tug and Jacques was out. During this we noticed Roger, of TLC of NJ had joined us in his FJ-40. He was winding up his engine with his SM420 heading up the direct route to the intersection. Halfway up he was stopped by a small boulder on his left front tire. All the way up he was pinning his left side up against the wall of the trail to keep him from high centering. When he hit the rock, his rear end (locked) began digging, and we noticed his front wheels weren't moving. He had made it halfway up the trail in 2H!! He shifted into 4H and seemed to have no trouble the rest of the way. Ahhh, lockers. Once Jacques was clear, Dave B. pointed out a good line, and everyone made it through. The next hundred yards or so where some nice articulation rocks and some off camber sand trails with some water crossings thrown in between. The next hill climb was exceedingly slippery from all the rain, and we had to all turn around and take a different fork. This is where some of the troubles started. Bud R. would up in the front with his huge boggers. There was a sandy incline that dog legged to the left that was to be our next obstacle. Bud made it up, but in the process, he dug a fairly deep hole on the ride side while trying to climb out of the rut and onto a root. This proved to be the hardest part of the hill climb. As with most of the up hills, the rain water had dug a channel through the entire up hill, and just created a tough off-camber, articulation challenge. A good line was found, and we sent everyone up. By the time Ian's truck made the trek, we had to skip the root section. Karl, a few more trucks behind Ian, then took care of anyone else going up the root side. He dug that up nicely. Ahhh, lockers again! Jacques and Dave were left with really churned up mess, and both had to be strapped. The root found the one unprotected spot on the front fender of the FJ60, and made a nasty dent. Bud then continued up the trail to through a nasty muddy section. His boggers created a wide path through a muddy section that proved to be a challenge for a FJ-40. Kristian was stopped in the mud by a climb at the end of the mud section. Bud couldn't even pull him out because the hill was so steep and the end of the mud had a 1-2 foot wall to climb to get out of the mud. During all this, Al Romero and Ian walked a go around and decided to take everyone up that. It was a nice trail with some rocks, but at the top was a steep rock face with some well placed boulders that would prove to be a pain to those with long wheel bases. Bill Fiora led the way up this trail and made it up and over the rock face without hesitating. Ian followed Bill up and got stopped by a well placed rock. Moving slightly to the left on the face allowed him to make it up. Al Romero found a good wagon line and he promptly made the hill look easy. After Al, the rock face became wet and slippery. Jacques with his weight and long wheel base found it difficult to clear the last ledge on the face and had to be pulled up by Bud. Allan Waters had an interesting time trying to get up this obstacle, taking some liberties with the trail. He made it up with some help from the gas pedal. No problems for the rest of the pack. Lunch TimeAfter lunch we were all facing either a very steep slick rock that was about 30 feet tall, or a 30 foot long water hole. Bill Fiora decided the water hole looked less threatening. At the end he got stuck fighting against some under mud rocks while trying to climb out of the hole. Dave Beattie used a go around to get to Bill for a strap. This cost Dave more body damage. Al Romero went next through the mud hole and also got stuck. With Dave again pulling, Al was removed. He also seemed to have cleared the way for everyone else to make it through the hole. No one else had a problem. In the meantime Karl Bellve took his 4-runner up the rock slab. Within three tries he made it up. Thank you lockers!! Once around these obstacles, somehow Ian became trail leader. We ran into some guys in Jeeps that had just finished recovering a rollover from a few days prior. They suggested that we use a go around to bypass the Rock Garden, which features a long nasty climb that culminates with an off-camber steep slick rock slab. The rock was coursing with water on this fine day. This sounded a lot easier that it was going to turn out to be. There was a small but all-consuming mud pit right at the point where the two trails split. Ian and Dave wisely stayed out of it. After a small ramble over some slippery little hillocks, Ian was confronted with another nice mud puddle that turned into a mud hole. Dave Beattie came to the rescue along with Jacques and pulled Ian out. We decided to go help Bill, who was struggling on the main trail with the big rock slab. But that meant getting someone to the top, which didn't look too easy. At this point, things looked pretty bleak. Folks were stuck all over the place and we had no winch at the top. Roger sprung into recovery mode, but immediately went into that first mud hole. He just ground it out with serious horsepower and managed to finally get free. He got his machine over to where Ian and Dave were, but then proceeded to go into the other hole. But he got free of that, made it up and over to the main trail, and became the puller to get all the trucks up the slick rock, (except Karl, of course.) There was a lot of Hi-Lift jacking and rock stacking going on for the folks trying to make it up to the that point. Al Waters really plowed onto the slab with authority, sliding right back down onto the massive left bank. He really didn't need that side-view mirror. The day was starting to wear on, the sky was looking ominous and the evening's cook was still at the bottom of the hill. Meanwhile, we needed to make the go-around a feasible alternative. Dave had started up a phantom trail between the mud and the slab, but was stopped by some small trees. Cory, Jacques and Ian just did a little pruning and the say was clear for Dave to drive on. That became the trail of choice for Ian, Jacques, Kristian (who really had a battle with the mud hole), and Ken. This whole sequence took about 2 hours, and afterwards, we were all ready to finish. Roger led the way up a relatively easy stretch until we could find a good escape route. We took our chances on one, and soon found pavement. Dave got us onto marked roads and on the way home, only about an hour and half later than planned. Lots of hungry folks were waiting at Field and Forest, where we soon found out that the Hardcore group had a much easier ride that we did!Trucks and Drivers Included In This Adventure:
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