Trip Report: Desert Run,
By Steve Friend (aka Daydreamer)
Member of West Coast 4Wheel Drive Club, Inc.
We started out with 4
members going and ended up with seven.
Club Members attending were:
Chris and Arlene
Steve and Renie
Frank and Bev
John B. Passenger
Paul Beckman
Vince and Junior
This was to be a maiden
voyage for Chris with all of his new equipment on his YJ. New springs, Atlas Transfer case, Tires, and
a bunch of suspension stuff. It all
seemed to perform well. Nice since he
had just finished it the weekend before this event.
Our trails of choice this
year was Turkey Trot and Sidewinder 2 on Friday and Twister, Early Times and
Tom Cat on Saturday. I know, these names
don’t mean anything to you if you were not there, but they were fun trails and
managed well by the Havasu Sidewinder Club.
Thursday night while off to
dinner, Chris found his first gremlin in his new lift. The dreaded Death
Wobble. He decided to address it while
the rest of us headed out to dinner. He
had it fixed by the time we all came back. At least, we did not hear about it
being a problem again.
Friday AM had us all lined up and ready to head out with a group of about
20 rigs. As we were getting ready to
leave my Jeep would not start. Nada, Nothing, Neit.
Found out the nut on the battery cable had vibrated loose and the rig
lost connection with the battery. Tightened
it up and off we went. The obstacles on
this first trail were challenging, lots of waterfalls, and generally climbable.
Except for one or two. All of us had to be strapped or
winched at one point or two. Right near
the end of the trail, Frank was climbing a good spot when we heard the dread
“SNAP”. We all knew it was a birfield so
we stopped and hooked him up to the rig in front to pull him up and get him out
of the situation he was in. While in the
process, we noticed the rear end just rotate around like it was on ball
bearings. After we all stopped and contemplated
the situation, we decided to get him out of there the best way we could, and
that was straight up the hill and out of the wash we were in. I found a way up and out and finally we had
Frank on a strap and winched him out.
This was about a 100 yard pull, with me having two anchors
attached. Man that Cruiser is heavyJ. We finally
made it back to camp at about
That night we sat around and
had an hor devoir dinner,
with drinks, instead of heading out for dinner.
Great time and lots of stories.
Saturday, we headed out to
Twister. Frank decided to stay and get
his rig ready to tow home. We met up
with him and Bev later that day.
Twister was a very short trail.
It had several obstacles and one that was virtually vertical. I was second behind Eric, the Sidewinder Club
trail leader. After he climbed up the
obstacle, I was at it on my way up. Got very straight up and down at one point. I was told that the front tires left the
ground and I settled back on my spare tire and gas can. Renie said “STEVE!” I said yes dear, do you want out? YES!
NOW! So I put it in reverse and
out she scampered. I don’t think she
likes meL.
We finished this trail by
10:30 so we were off to Early Times which we finished quickly as well. While the rest of the group decided to do Tom
Cat (a trail we did last year) Renie and my work colleagues Jim and Evelyn
decided to go house shopping and visit some friends that just retired and moved
there. The rest of the group got back
about 4 PM. There was some rock rash on
a few of the rigs, so I know they had a good time.
Dinner Sat. night was
outstanding. And a few of us even won
some of the raffle prizes. We all were
back home Sunday before 5 PM.