PANAMINT VALLEY DAYS
November 2005
West Coast Members:
John Hively
Steve &
Renie Friend
John B.
Steve G
& Loni Lewis
Ray &
Marilyn
Frank &
Beverly
West
Coast Associate Members and Official West Coast Groupies:
Julie &
Carol
Unofficial West Coast Groupies:
Chris
Hively (Grand Cherokee w/ separation anxiety)
Steve
Hively
Michael
Johnson (TJ)
Tom Shea
(CJ7)
Bill &
Chris from
Smokey
(Phil Klein) (new Grand Cherokee)
John Hayes
& Daughter Sarah (Cherokee)
George Mansour (Wrangler)
and 7
dogs...?
A few
pictures from PVD '05
Pictures
from PVD 2005. Steve G. led a couple of
the Historical Runs.
http://lttlbddy.com/albums/Trips%2DPVD/05%2DPVD/
Pictures
from
http://aaaprodisplays.com/misc/IMG_0284.JPG
http://aaaprodisplays.com/misc/IMG_0282.JPG
http://aaaprodisplays.com/misc/IMG_0283%201.JPG
Steve Friend wrote: Just got back from PVD. Had a great
trip. I played tail end on Isham and Defense Mine Friday and
Saturday. We had about 26 rigs going across Isham. That is about 16 too
many. It is a 4+ rated trail. We had no issues, but I blew up my
Link Arc getting ready to weld up a drive shaft for someone. I blew the
box. Man, white smoke just bellowed out of it. It will head for Premier
tomorrow.
Defense mine is pretty easy, but there are
three places to have fun if you want too. A few of us did. At water
fall zero, there is an off shoot off to the left. I tried it, as did two
others. I should have attached my winch line to someone first. I
got vertical and apparently, had some help from by standers to keep me from
going over back wards. I made it out fine, but needed the winch for the
last foot.
Wayne Flowers wrote: Had a
great time! Thanks to all that helped pull things together! I feel like a real
leach since I didn't bring any fire wood, or appetizer to share. I'll be much
better in the future!
Had a great time out there. My hat is off
to John B who put up with all of my playing around in the buggy, not to mention
the "screw the passenger" seat layout I have in the buggy. His new
motor for the Jeep just wasn't done yet.
I think we all had a good time, and I don't
think the club members managed to break anything on their rigs...? Just a
scratch or two, and a torn top. We won’t count tow rig and trailer issues here.
(We got a flat on the trailer on the way home.) Old Red could be a whole email in
itself. :) Ever have an airbag go off in your face for no reason?
Weather was almost perfect. The first night
it rained. No big deal for most folks, but I was sleeping under the stars, and
John B. was in a small tent with a crappy rain fly on it. Soon enough we both
ended up sleeping in his Ford Expedition.
Isham - I ran around behind Steve F as the post-shotgun
position. Progress was slow with this
many rigs, but we made the best of it. I found a place to play around and try
to get the buggy stuck in. I actually managed to scratch the cowl in this
little play area as I was really off camber in the obstacle. The main trail was
pretty much about the same with the tight turns, the water fall and the v-notch
taking their prey in stride. A few dings and dents, a busted drive shaft and I
think someone bent a tie rod. Steve F.'s on board welder blew a capacitor or
something. Wow, that was different! There was probably more carnage for the
group, but with so many on the trail I never bothered to walk all the way up to
see what was holding us up. I did walk about 3/4 of the way up once, and it was
a long hike! We had a lot of vehicles on the trail.
Defense
Mine was a lot more fun for
me. We made of point of getting into the front 1/3 of the group, and this paid
off well. Progress was steady and constant. No huge waits for someone to stack
rocks etc. We made it up to the Water Fall Zero, a small ledge at the bottom
and some rocks in the middle. Easy. Next was a really nice looking white V-notch
with a huge rock in the entrance. I checked to make sure it was an optional
part of the trail as I did not see any tire marks on this very pretty obstacle.
I think one of the Hively clan jumped on top and acted as my spotter, and I
drove in. Up and over the huge rock was no big deal, but then my front end
dropped into a widening section of the v-notch this concerned me at first, but
seemed to have dropped me in nice and level. I adjusted my steering a bit to
stay as level as
possible and drove right up and out. Wow, I
didn't expect that! I thought that was going to be slippery, but it turned out
to be pretty grippy stuff. I talked Bill and Chris from
Once we got all the way up to the mine I
joined the flashlight crew and went for the tour of the mine for the first
time. Wow, that is a big one, and in very good shape! Well worth the visit. (I
love exploring mines.) We had a little 2 or 3 year old boy in line in front of
us. He had the coolest flashlight, when you pushed a button the hippo shaped
flash light let out a roar. Very funny. Fearless little guy too, big ladder
climbs, dark, you name it, he loved it.
On the way down we played in Cumins Cut and
had a great time. I went in first and had a little fun on the middle line of
the black wall. After getting a feel for
it I was able to throttle up it. Then Michael came up and tried the left line.
His TJ got a little funny on it and I suggested he give the middle line a try
as it looked easier to me. (I'm a
horrible spotter!) He moved over and the TJ kept trying to slide off to the
left in the front. This kind of pinned him into either the center line or the
easier right side line. But all attempts to move him over to the right side
line were answered by the TJ lurching to the left. This was kind of funny as
folks up above watching kept yelling, "move to the right!" We were
laughing down below. They must have thought
us pretty stupid. Eventually we got a good
line and the TJ jumped up. Then John H. took his CJ and jumped right up it.
Time to pull forward to make room for the next guys. I kept going for a bit and
then looked back and felt bad as I had pulled to far forward, so only one thing
to do, drive all the way out and start over again.:) I caught the tail end of
folks playing in the cut and gave them a hand. Eventually I made it back to the
black rock face and tried the left side and up it went again. I thought for
sure that side was going to give me trouble, but it went easy.
About this time a couple of folks came up
to me and said they had a line for me to try in the buggy. I spotted this
obstacle in my earlier pass, but thought I better not mess with it. But these
guys really wanted to get me stuck or something, so I finally gave in and drove
over to it. It was kind of a steep and skinny V-notch with some large rocks and
voids on the entrance. I figured if a tire fell off the planned path I might
get trapped. I put the tires where my spotter suggested and luckily my tires
stayed and up I went. Pretty damn neat!
When I crawled up the rest of the trail
John H. was a bit upset as he and Barry Cumins had been eyeing that obstacle
for a couple of years and were planning to be the first to go through it. :)
Sorry John. You can still be the first Jeeps to do it! A fun place to play. I
think there are some more obstacles in there yet.
Since I had some death wobble as a result
of some minor steering box issues (falling off) I decided it best to take the
dirt road back to camp. John B., my passenger seemed comfortable with the idea
and knew how to get to the road. Once on the road. I had done the road last year,
so figured we would be OK. Sure enough that worked out well. Just wish we
hadn't left our jackets in other Jeeps. (Still need to work on storage in the
buggy.)
Saturday night I had the honor of taking
the passenger seat in John H's CJ for a night run of Isham. That was great fun
and over a nice and quick in a bit under 1.5 hours or so. John was a bit off
his game as he touched both sides of the Jeep on this pass. Considering he had already
done a day run and a night run on the same trail that weekend without touching,
all I can figure was it must have been my fat ass throwing off the balance of
his excellent driving skills. Darn that was a cold return trip on the highway!
That was about it for me. We stopped at
Domingo's with some of the Hively clan for a very nice buffet, and even ended
up sharing the table with Steve G when he arrived a bit later! Not bad for no
plans! Going down the 15 a motorist was nice enough to get our attention and let
us know we had a flat on the trailer. We also discovered that all of the lug
nuts on the trailer needed to be tightened! (This was
Well that's about it for me.. Had a great
time and always look forward to the next event.
John Hively wrote:
My thanks
also go to all of you who participated and especially our most patient and
helpful Tail Gunners, Steve & Renie Friend--because as Wayne points out it
takes a lot of patience to be at the end of the line. (Steve even
managed to hike up and lend a helpful hand with the above TJ.)
I
personally had a great time and was fortunate to have three of my sons attend--the
Hively's were also fortunate enough to experience three Isham Cyn. trips during
PVD--the Westcoast Day Run and two impromptu night runs. It was great to
have the River Gals (Julie & Carole) in attendance for the 2nd year in a
row--they say they will be back next year as long as Westcoast plans to attend.
We enjoyed
the best weather PVD has had for many years--so good that nary a stick of
firewood in the Westcoast camp remained unburnt.
Already
looking forward to next year!
