Hangover Run
Ah – not only a New Year, but also a reminder of the passage of
years. The Hangover Run in years previous used to be attributed to
imprudence of how much and what types of alcohol had been imbibed
the previous night. Now – for at least some of us who’ve been around
the club for more than a few years – hangover is more a measure of
how much and the types of food we’ve partaken over the holidays.
When we say it’s hard to get into our rigs – it is literally hard to
get up into our rigs.
Most of us were only suffering from it being earlier getting up than
we wanted, rather than an overabundance of alcohol – but with the
rain beating down on the Buzz-Inn at Monroe – you couldn’t blame any
of us for being less than enthusiastic about what promised to be an
exceedingly damp Hangover run.
No matter – somewhere along the line – going wheeling on a wet day
is still better than most other things we could have been doing. At
9:00AM sharp, those gathered at the restaurant all saddled up and
headed for Tonga ridge. Tom and Penny, Karloo, Chad and a few others
were on the trail early, while the rest of us drove through the rain
to the turn on Foss River Rd. It was a little snotty. There was
evidence of a skim of slushy snow on the road, and I decided to
bleed off the speed on the wet main road and get off the brakes
before turning into the slush. Having a 2 wheel drive tow rig really
makes a person very circumspect about how hard you want to fling
around a 3 ton van towing a 2 ton jeep on a big utility trailer.
Corner successfully navigated - as also was the case for the rig
following me – which turned out to be John and Gina. I know his old
Ford pickup was also 2 WD – so he wasn’t going to be doing much
fancy driving either. I had already decided to turn and park at the
end of the paved road before it started going uphill. And in fact –
there was evidence of a near mishap at the first 1 lane bridge
crossing, precede by a tight corner to the left – where tire marks
slithered off the right shoulder, and looked to have stopped just
short of the precipice down into the stream. I later found out this
was Crashie – who almost lived up to his name by inadvertently
trying to jump the stream with his pickup, trailer and tube Toy. At
the turnaround – even though there was about a half inch on snow on
the ground, I was able to get the van and the trailer turned around
with no wheel slippage and without having to drop the Jeep. John was
having a little more trouble turning his trailer around, but finally
succeeded in doing so in the company of his usual friends – RPM and
wheel speed – to go find a less slippery place to park. I got
situated and had just dropped Moosenstein off the trailer – when the
radio crackled to life – that Ann Typer had slid her truck and
trailer – with Jeep attached – off the road into a ditch. Gee –
didn’t that happen in 2009?
Yep – in what I call the 2nd coming of the Timber Tamer tri-tip
trifecta – Ann had ended up in the ditch in the fortunately little
travelled road. And to be fair – it was low speed, and she was just
trying to stop for Rudi – who had stopped to let John and Gina pass
going the other direction, as they looked for a less slick place to
park. As she braked – everything locked up – and there was enough
crown on the road to just slide her right off the road, and
everything was at about a 45 degree angle as she nestled down into
the ditch.
So – first challenge was to disentangle the Jeep from the trailer.
By the time I joined Rudi and John to figure out how to get
everything back on the road, Ann had her Jeep off the trailer. Well
– almost…..
In backing off the trailer – when the front tires were about to drop
off, a shackle bolt on the right side neatly dropped down – right
into one of the trailer D-rings. Those things ARE meant to keep your
rig on your trailer, and this particular ring was doing a mighty
fine job, while Ann sat in her rig, trying mightily not to slide
over into the passenger seat. High-lifting the left front corner of
the trailer didn’t really help by lowering lower the right rear of
the trailer at all as we had hoped. Certainly not enough for the
trailer to let go of the Jeep. Finally – it was decided to loop a
strap over to the passenger side of the cage, and hooked to a winch.
Rudi was able to pull heel the Jeep over to the left and get just
enough weight off the right side that we were able to lever the
shackle bolt of the D-ring using a hi-lift handle and a ramp – and
Ann neatly backed off. A left turn, going forwards and a little more
winching – and Ann had her Jeep up and out of the ditch. The truck
came out pretty quickly the same way – and after winching the
trailer tongue up onto the road – we hooked that to the truck – and
it also came out no problems. Assessment of damage only seemed to
indicate some dirt in the tire beads on the truck and Jeep - and
John said those magic words. “Problem solved. Let’s go wheeling.”
The whole time during the recovery – it continued to rain – and the
snow was sloppy and wet. Tom and Penny, Chad and Karl, Gary TJ and
Dirtball, Mike and Claire, and Terry, Amy and of course – Zeus the
Wonder Weiner - were all up the road somewhere breaking trail. The
snow was packy, buy not icy, and progress was okay. Then – some
radio traffic on the CB – that Chad (Mr. Propane) was having some
fuel problems, but even so was being generous, and pushing Tom Baker
down the trail on a strap. He was out of fuel in his one tank, and
had a leaky regulator on the other – so he was done for the day. We
met at the turnout where many years we’ve had a campfire.
It was great to see Chad. I reflected on the last Moab trip – where
Jana and Roger did their wedding vows at Top of The World, Mary
caught the bouquet, and Chad caught the garter – and somewhere on
the Moab pictures, I believe there is a pic of the two of them in
saucy embrace. In the good feelings of this New Year, I was pleased
to see Chad, and thought he and Mary might reprise the hug – but it
didn’t happen. I’m always glad to extend New Year’s Greetings with a
big hug – and this year was no exception. So in a kind of Timber
Tamer threesome, I gave Chad a hearty bear hug, and then transferred
that over to Mary in another big hug. “Was that good for you,
honey?” pretty much got me an eye roll from Mary, and a knowing
smile from Chad.
Chad and Karl continued pushing Tom down the hill on the strap, and
Rudi and family, Mary and Me – Ann and Rick and a few others headed
up the trail to catch up with the rest of the Tamers.
Most of the rest of the trip was uneventful. While absolutely
delightful to be out in my rig since the first time since July – the
rain never really did stop, nor did it really turn to snow. About
the time we met up with the first group, they had tired of breaking
trail in the deep, heavy, wet snow and were on the way out. As I
turned around, I thought I’d show off and romp through some deep
stuff in Moosenstein – because of course – my rig NEVER gets stuck
in the snow.
Ooops – that did it. Since usually that is the case, I wasn’t really
paying attention and was pushing through the deep stuff okay – well
– until I stopped going forwards. Then – I went to back up – and
instead started going down, not out. Of course – I only did that to
clean mud off the bottom side of the frame – I really didn’t mean to
get stuck. (Yeah – right.) I just don’t understand what was so
amazing – but Mike, Terry, and Mary all remarked, “Moose – I’ve
never seen you stuck before!” Well heck, boys and girls – even
Superman had his kryptonite. After a little digging at the wheels
(Thank you Dirtball and Mike Jones) and some winching from Mike
Jennings – Moosenstein was popped back out of the holes I’d dug, and
we were on our way back down the hill.
We did spend a little time hanging out in a wide spot in the road. I
brought out the Hostess donettes so we could declare the run a real
trail ride, and also out came the propane camp fire. Unfortunately –
the tank we brought only had about 10 minutes of fuel left in it.
But it was enough to tease everyone into trying to heat up a little
bit. Still in the holiday spirit – Gary TJ crouched over the flames
in order to have some roasted nuts by the fire. In a totally
unrelated, but not unexpected incident – Dirtball was seen to be
calmly munching on a ball of yellow snow. Fortunately – while no
Huskies were reported to be in the vicinity – at least a can of
energy drink was found nearby and provided some partial explanation
of this phenomenon.
We all got back to our trailers about dark – and loaded up and
headed for home – a great way to start the New Year.
Run Report provided by Moose