West Coast 4 Wheel Drive Club, Inc.
Feb. 19-21
The Hammers
by Steve Friend
(Daydreamer)

Well, we could not have had better weather for Friday night or Saturday.
Sunday, got pretty windy and cold. By the time the evening had got to
about 8 PM, all of those showing up for the next days run were setting
around the campfire, with smoke going straight up, no wind.

Attending:
Myself, my wife Renie and daughter Denise CJ7
Phil Demarco, with his wife Liz and boys Louis and Dominic CJ8
Dave Swanson, CJ7
John Hively, his friend Phil and his son and girlfriend TLC and Sami
Rob Adams and his wife Linda TLC

And guest
Jim and Sandy Matthews CJ7

Jim and Sandy were the last ones to arrive Friday night.  I had only met Jim on the net, so this was the first time we could put a face to the name.  The first thing that Jim asked was if it sounded like his on-board air compressor sounded like it was on.  Yep, so up went the hood. We found that the compressor brake was frozen engaged. So, he ran with us both days with that thing a going.  Sounded like a locomotive instead of a Jeep. 

Saturday AM had us heading for the trail head of Aftershock.  I actually took a wrong turn and we entered the trail just past the entrance, which was basically a mild looking wash.   

Aftershock was (is) one of the shortest trails. We completed the trail at just after Noon. There were a few obstacles, one of which tagged Phil's CJ8, right rear quarter. The trail is pretty tame compared to some of the other challenges we had gone on. There were a few obsticles, one of which took us about an hour to clear.  This was where the Sami broke his birfield joint and Phil tagged his passenger rear quarter.

We all decided to run for Clawhammer as it was only about 12:30 or 1 PM. So we headed in the general direction of the trail head.  Somehow, I got off track and we ended up at Outer Limits (we think).  I got sort of stuck on a rock. All right, really stuck. I tried to go over a darn cliff.  Had both front tires way off the ground, hanging with full suspension drop. After everyone had fun poking fun at me, we tried to pull me back.  This is where we heard Davey's 44 front axle break. About 1.5 hours later, we had turned around, with me in the lead, ahead of Dave in case he needed a tug. It took us about 45 minutes to make camp, with Dave putting his rig on the trailer and heading for home.  He was a bit disappointed I think.  I felt bad 'cause he busted trying to help me.  After his break, I hooked up the winch to a very large rock and I pulled myself up and off the rock. I landed on my new beefy gas tank skid plate and left a mark in the paint. Damn thing works bitch'n. On the way back to camp, John decided to do a short cut.  Cut a tire, and ended back at camp about 40 minutes after us.

That evening we had a great fire, with hordeavors and deserts.  We told lies 'till everyone was tired and were off to bed.   It got to 29 degrees that night. 

Sunday morning we had a cold wind.  And pretty severe too. So, we headed for the entrance to Claw Hammer. This is suppose to the be the shortest trail, and it is rated only a 4+.  Well, this was a great trail, every bit as tough and challenging as Sledgehammer, rated at a 5. Right from
the get go, we had rocks, very large rocks to scale.  We had almost vertical cliffs to climb, all on loose chunks of rock.  My Swampers were really digging in and crawling me ever so slowly upwards.  Man I love those tires.  About 3/4 the way thru, we ran into a pretty severe set of rocks that kept the cruisers busy and after they were done, making it more challenging, up came Phil in the CJ8. We spent about an hour here. Further up the trail, was another off camber obstacle that challenged everyone. We finally had to winch Rob up and over. His rig kept finding the same holes.  Making it tough to get a line.  Just a short time afterwards. we were out and having lunch.  We made it back to camp at about 3 pm. 

We had a great trip and really hit if off with Jim and Sandy.  They are great people and obviously enjoyed wheel'n. Jim just fit right in. 

Well, that's it for this report. I will have pictures soon.
SF