Mike n' Loretta Kelly ('74 EB, ARB/Detroit, 4.10s, 33s, 351/NP435), Don Gordon ('79 BB, 460, ARB/Detroit, 4.56, auto, 36s), Nate (EB w/ 33s), myself (SII w/ 4.09s, Lockright/Tracklok, 33s), and a guest - Rich and Carrie Burnside in their Dodge pickup.
We left town, got off at Jefferson City, and headed up.. the first two pictures are of Mike Kelly pulling the Dodge up the first difficult hill.
We're all at the top now:
Michelle plays with young "Boephus"
Mike Kelly braves the large snow field.. "Too deep for 33s!!" and he's stuck. Nate comes to his rescue.
Meanwhile, Don Gordon stomps on the Go-Pedal and buries his FS Bronco the same way Mike did.. only Don is on 36s!
Yup, you guessed.. I had to try my hand at driving farther into the snow field than Mike did.. I succeeded a little.. but kept sinking and backing up.. it was fine until I re-tried the same track once.. STUCK!
Mike comes to my aide. ;-)
With me and Mike un-stuck, we head over to help Don.. Mike hooks his little Bronco up to Don's BIG Bronco and proceeds to tug.. and tug. ;-)
The rest of us wait n' watch.
Don got out and plowed the road.. I followed but got a little stuck. Don helped me through.
Then I helped Nate.
Then we had some shoveling to help Rich.
Nate backed up to help Rich.. while Mike Kelly tries to go around.. because he can. ;-)
Around the corner, Don buries himself again and lines out the winch. Again, Mike thinks he can go around..
They're neck n' neck.. Don's winch labors the entire time, and we'd shovel the snow out just to let the Bronco move.. while Mike Kelly works his way around.
Don's through, and Mike gets to follow
Must be my turn to try.. it took me several tries to make it up.. even at 7psi or so, I just couldn't get traction when I'd reach the top.. it was fun to just stand on the throttle and try a banzai approach.. or lug the motor up until it would slip..
After I reached the top, I took a pic, then headed down to help Rich and Nate.
The age old trick of getting a rig un-strapped when both are stuck.. get a few guys to pull back and forth on the strap, and you can move mountains!
We tried to get Rich n' Nate up by chaining the two together, then using Nate's winch to winch to me.. we gave up after a while and turned back.
Mike dug a hole and put Boephus in it! Poor guy!
Something like 7psi in those tires...
We turned around and headed for the North Fork I believe..
Don makes big holes again..
Mike knocked Loretta down in the snow!
Look at this goofball!
Rich finds another tree to hit..
I tried to hit it, too, but I missed.. dang!
Rich blew a bead, so I drove back with the on-board air to fill it up.. he had to drive forward while I applied air to get the bead to re-seat.
On our way out, we came to the big snow field we'd skirted early in the morning.. Don Gordon took the "easy" path.. so I hammered the throttle and headed through the snow field in 3rd gear low.. it was a wild ride. I wish I could've seen it from behind! I was fishtailing and weaving through the field pushing the Scout as hard as I could.. but before I reached the other side I ran out of UMPH and had to back up.. I tried a few times to go nice, then I just stood on it.. and leaped out of my packed track and promptly high-centered. Mike Kelly just idled on by and hooked the strap up..