Since the Chevy was down, and we were offered seats in Eric & Kev's jeeps, we jumped on the opportunity to still get in another day of wheelin, and returned to Paragon! We took an alternate path down Turtle to Turtle's Tail, and then went down to Haul, to pick up Logging Road, whichwe took to Rock Swamp, Then Woodpecker, to Valley, to Lucky, back to Valley, and up to Rattler. We kinda mangled the log bridge on Woodpecker, hopefully no one will get too upset! We didnt really have any problems (other than Rob's leaky tire, and Parent's overheatign issue near Rockswamp) until we got to Rattler. Thats when all hell broke loose. Everyone was having problems on this trail, but we didnt realize just how bad it would become. Eric popped a bead, but it was leaking too bad, so he aired it back up and it re-seated. he took off to go further up the trail. Parent almost rolled his Xj right off the trail and down the mountain. he hoppedoff a rock, and it threw the passenger-side of hte jpp several feet into the air, but thankfully he landed back on all fours. i think there was a community gasp when that happened, cuz he was definitely going over and down the mountain, i swear! Phil got his Rubicon stuck pretty good at left turn, but attention from most of us was drawn away when Eric was coming up a hill, and tapepd a tree, which let out a loud BANG! He had broken his knuckle! Thats when things went to hell. He didnt want to fuck up the tire/rim, so they took it off, and made a slide of sorts out of a wooden ladder matt found the woods. it kinda worked for a little while, but eventually broke in half. At this point we had no choice but to drag him backwards down an exit to get off the trail. Enter a shitload of bangs and smashes and scrapes as he carved alot of rocks with his right rotor. We tugged him back and forth, left and right, in attempts to round cornrers, all the while he would give it gas here & there to help swing the ass-end around rocks. It seemed to be working ok, until he started pissing coolant. That was when Eric jumed out and noticed his grill was smashed. Thats when it got bad. upon closer inspection, it seemd his winch smashed right thru his grill & radiator.....when the frame gave way. We knew we were in deep shit at this point, and we realized we were going to need a trailer. Soo, Me & Paul jumped in his jeep, and had Phil & Rob follow us back to the parking lot, where we got the approval to bring a trailer in to resuce our fallen friend! Well, Parent (the guy w/ the XJ) had a nice small trailer, and i had the only lifted tow rig, so we hooked up his trailer and off wen went! We kept in touch with Kev on the way down, and when we got back they had him out of Rattler, but the frame was so bad we had no choice but to bring the truck/trailer down Valley to the Scrambler. We turned the trucka ruond while they limped Eric's jeep to us, and loaded it up in an open area just past the 3-way (where Mike jumped his red 79 on that little hill on the winter run). From there i towed him out of the park, and to safety.......almost 2 hours after the park closed! |
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