Trip Report for Fun In The Desest, 9-27-2008

Cork and I arrived on Means Dry Lake Bed around 5 PM on Thursday. It
was about 96F and no wind. Not bad.

Friday morning Kurt and Stu arrived. They have wheeled with us a
number of times and are good company. A little before we were ready to
leave, Joe Picker arrives. Did not know he was coming. Joe had to eat
and take care of a few things, so the three of us rigs took off. We
ran Big Johnson, Upper Big Johnson and came down Boulder Dash. On
Boulder Dash Stu had a really large rock move on him and that laid him
over on the driver's side! And we did not have a camera. Wait, Stu had
his phone camera with him and took a couple of pics. Nice.

We went back to camp and Ric arrived a bit after noon. We hung around
camp until dark. It was too hot to go out. It was over 100F and only a
slight breeze every so often. Andrew and his wife Shari arrived and
they were going to passenger with Stu and Kurt on Saturday. Andrew's
rig is getting totally rebuilt and the build thread is on Pirate
(http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?
t=699940&highlight=dirtbuilt). VV4W opened their sign ups at 5. We
waited a while for the initial rush to get over and signed up. Had
some other folk we know stop by and visit (Paul Arc from Ventura and
his buddy). After dinner a few of us went over to Back Door to watch
Paul. Paul made the first waterfall, but the second section just kept
denying him. A guy with a big buggy and high horsepower rig showed up.
He lit his tires and eventually got up, but lost his cooler and beer!
He made the second fall and winched Paul up. While at Back Door, Mike
Wickham asked if I would lead Outer Limits on Sat. Sure. Ric would be
mid gunner and Joe was sweep.

The run was to leave at 7:30, but people were slow to show. We finally
left at 7:50. Shortly after arriving in the wash, four additional rigs
showed up. One was the buggy from the night before. All in all we had
a great run. Outer Limits has not been getting back to camp until
after dark. We got back at 2:30. OTR did great. We really only had
problem with one rig. At the last major obstacle he cut his sidewall
pretty good, but 14 plugs later he was going again. Then after that he
somehow lost the ability to engage his rear drive and had to finish
going back to camp in front drive only. Joe Picker did a great job of
pulling him when he needed assistance. We had a total of 12 rigs on
the trail. That is a pretty tough trail to run with only 35s and took
a lot of rock stacking and winching in some sections.

Stu and Kurt ran Wrecking Ball and got back to camp about an hour
before we did. They had a good time. All but one rig winched up the
last waterfall and Stu put his rig on the side two more times! At
least that is what I believe he said.

Once back at camp, it was still over 100F. We just hung around and had
beverages. Later in the afternoon Ric brought out horsdeourves and
margaritas. Ric is MARGARITA MAN. They were very good, ask Joe. Joe
and Stu both left before sunset. Kurt, Andrew and Sherry and I went
over to the raffle. Andrew and Kurt won a few things and of course I
got nothing. After the raffle Kurt went home.

Sunday morning was once again beautiful. Ric and I decided we would
just go home and not run any more. Probably a good thing for me, since
I found out I had a bolt come loose on my rear traction bar. Gotta put
locking nuts on them.

Rich