OPEN RIDES & EVENTS > Past Rides : Pictures, Discussion, & Carnage

GATR RIDE 07/14/2011 HARLAN KY - PHOTOS AND RECAP

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kvom:
I'll chime in with a first report, as I came back a day early because of engine issues.

No pics from me, but lots were taken.

The first adventure of the trip was getting up the steep gravel driveway to the cabins.  I made it up the first part of the hill but not the second, so I unloaded the Jeep and parked the trailer there.  Then we heard another truck spinning tires on the grave.  It was Randy.  His day had included two ruptured trailer tires, but that was minor compared to what happened next.  He decided to unload his Jeep,an unfortunate decision; when the rear of the rig left the trailed, the front's weight tilted the trailer back and raised the truck's rear.  Result was no brakes and truck/trailer/Jeep sliding briskly down the steep drive.  Randy jackknifed the Jeep to try to stop everything, and luckily the rear of the Jeep hit some trees keep it from sliding down 20 feet onto someone's house!  Fortunately no major damage occurred.

Thursday afternoon a group headed out to "scout".  Did PinBall climb to Rail Bed, then a tour along trail 12 to Lower Rock Garden.  No carnage.

Then almost everyone thought a 10:15pm night ride would be a good idea, but the trail choice was not ideal apparently (yours truly skipping this one), and the required winching caused a late return to camp at 2:00am.

Friday we got started around 10:30.  Drove up to Lions Den for a looksee, but everyone declined to try it.  The major run of the day was Mason jar after lunch, with everyone making it mostly unscathed.  Then we drove down to Upper Rock Garden, but another GA group had the trail blocked up, so we went back down to Lower Rock Garden for another go through.  Calvin met the group there, and on his first ride of the weekend punctured the rear diff cover.  A repair involving duct tape and RTV sufficed to get him back to camp.

I headed back to camp as my engine exhaust was asphyxiating thr group, but it appears Ben led another group up another steep trail that required turning around near the top.  Randy broke a DS u-bolt and rear trackbar mount (possibly damaged during the earlier slide?), but made it back to camp with Kevin's help with a tow strap.

Both evening at camp were great;  my thanks to everyone for sharing grills and chairs and conversation.

Metro:
Me and Mike and the rest of the group are caravaning back as I type with four trailers and 5 jeeps on them plus Lawton brining up the rear.  It was one hell of a weekend.  Lots of great wheeling.  We decided to do Mason jar again late yesterday which is where Larry broke the mount for his hydro ram off.  I was about out of gas so Lawton and I hung with Larry while Richard Mike and Mark went back and got gas and a welder to fix Larry up.  We ended up getting off of Mason Jar around 10:30 last night.  Everyone was tired hungry and ready to tie a buzz on at the cabin.  The highlight of the day for me and a few of us that broke off in the smaller rigs group was catching up with the comp buggies we saw at the entrance in the morning.  A couple of the rigs had been in KOH and one had placed 9th in 2009 he said.  Jeremy, Kevin, Lawton, Randy, and I caught up with the bugies at the bottom of "Upper Damnation" and man did they put on a show for us!  I'll post the video I took of one of the buggies rolling half way back down Upper Damnation!  Incredible! I'll post a few teaser pics now if I can get them to upload on 3g and then I'll post the rest up later.

Metro:
Here's a few. 

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Metro:
Those uploaded pretty quickly with 3G so here are a few more.

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Metro:
And some more!

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