August 11, 2001 Day Run
What? Los Coyotes!
When? Saturday, Aug, 11, 2001
Who?
Members:
Casey McClusky, with nephew(?) Eric - YJ
Pete Griffith with daughter Alicia - CJ
Guests:
None
Well we announced it, and this wasn't even originally my run, but there you
go. After seeing the request for someone who knew the reservation, I knew I
had to go. The only problem was, my Jeep was missing a critical
component; the transmission. I have to tell this tale, because it leads
up to the run for the day. You see, I had decided a while back that 'wheeling
with a 5-speed, well, sucks. So, I went off in search of a suitable
transmission for my CJ. And I found one! It was a bolt-in
application, and I didn't even have to change the driveshafts.
Anyway, I took the tranny to a friend to get it re-built, which he did in a
short amount of time. I took it back home, and it sat on the bench for
almost 3 weeks. I knew it was going to be a long project, since it was
just me, with nothing more than air tools and a noisy compressor that the
neighbors hate. So I procrastinated. Oh well. But then, at
the end of July, I decided that I had better get on with it or I wouldn't be
ready for Forest Fest. So I tackled it with a vengeance. Two
weekends later, I had it in. I filled it up and then I fired up the
engine. It vibrated some, but when I dropped it in gear, it
worked! Sort of...after about 10 minutes of not-quite-right operation,
it finally died completely, and that was that. No tranny. I was back to
square one.
So I called my friend and described the problem, and he immediately identified
it as the torque converter failing. He said if I could get the tranny to
him quick he could have it back to me by the end of the week. So last
Monday night I came home from work and in a Herculean effort got the tranny
back out in 1 hour and 45 minutes. The next day I ran it up to his shop
and then went off to work. Finally Friday came. I took the day off
so I could run all my errands, and went to pick up the tranny. After I
got it and picked up my kids, I eagerly headed home, thinking since it only
took a little under 2 hours to get it out, it shouldn't take much more than
that to get it back in...HA! I started putting it back in at around 5:30
Friday evening. It was completely in and road tested at 2:00 AM Saturday
morning. <whew!> A marathon wrenching session, just to go
Jeeping. I must be hooked. Now it was time to test the new
transmission. Which leads to what we decided to call our "Big Dogs
for a Day" run.
There are some people in this club who have earned the title of "Big
Dog". These are the people who have worked tirelessly on their
vehicles, constantly changing and improving them so that they can take on ever
more challenging obstacles. And then there's the rest of us, who
secretly in our hearts yearn to be "Big Dogs", but know that we'll
be ever chasing that elusive goal. Well, until yesterday, that is...
I met Casey in Temecula around 9 AM. Seeing as how I didn't get a whole
lot of sleep the night before, an early start was not in the books. We
got to the reservation around 10 AM, and headed off into the hills to have
some fun. It was a beautiful day, with the temperature hovering around
90 for most of it. It did get a little hot on the Anza-Borrego side of
the reservation, but we were out of there by the early afternoon, when it
started to get really hot.
So off we went to 4 Corners. On the way, I let Alicia drive, since she's
working on talking her mom into letting her get her license, and needs
behind-the-wheel time. As we came to the corral, she exclaimed
"What is THAT stuff on the ground?" and proceeded to drive right
through it. Well, those big ole mudders of mine picked that
cowsh..um..dung right up and tossed it into the Jeep, right where I,
unfortunately, happened to be innocently sitting, minding my own
business. 5 minutes and 2 handi-wipes later, and we were on our way
again. hmph!
We headed out to the back country first, to take advantage of whatever early
morning coolness still existed out there. We went all the way to Bagby's
rock, and tried some fun stuff along the way. Casey tried For Pete's
Sake Hill, and wound up a little crossed up, so we broke out the winch and got
him up the obstacle safely. We went through Bagby's from the bottom, and
drove up to take a look at the toboggan. It's incredible, but there is
still water on the trail. It looked like a big mess, so we turned around
and headed back out to play on El Hill.
As we were coming back to For Pete's Sake, we ran into a lone Jeeper who had
become separated from his group. We were able to make radio contact with
their friends, and after determining where they were, escorted him back to
meet up with them. We couldn't just leave them out there. They
didn't even have a map. Anyway, we got them back safely, and then headed
off to El Hill. As we pulled away, I heard them chatting on the radio,
expressing their Jeep envy for our Jeeps, which were looking and working
really well yesterday. Wahoo! Big Dogs for the Day!
El Hill. The very name conjures up scary images of violent roll-overs
and seat-wetting thrills where only luck makes the difference between making
it up safely or landing back at the bottom on your roof. Well, actually,
it's not that bad, but this hill is for sure one of the gnarliest on the
reservation, and is a must-do for anyone who really wants to have something to
brag about later. Or, if you're in a long-wheelbase vehicle, something
to really brag about when you go up it open. As always, there was a
crowd at the bottom of the hill, waiting for someone to go up. So I
did. No sweat. Then Casey tried it, but with this being his very
first time up the hill, he gave it a few shots and then decided El Hillette
was the safer course of action.
Another group of well-built vehicles came through at that point, but only one
of them tried the hill. I've seen this Toyota around before, but I have
never really met it's driver. Anyway, he had a Marlin, and crawled right
up. Then came a little bright blue YJ. It sure looked nice, but
with only a rear locker, he soon got into big trouble. He tried the left
side, and with liberal use of the go-pedal, was able to make it up over the
first ledge, where he promptly got sideways and all forward movement
stopped. Oops. He couldn't back down, because of how crossed up he
was, and moving forward wasn't an option, so Casey and I set up to winch him
up the hill. Casey came down as far as he could while staying on even
ground, and then I hooked up to him with a strap for stability. Then we
ran a snatch-block around a tree about half way down using a tree-saver, and
then hooked a strap to the end of the winch cable to get to him. We
pulled him up through the nasty part and then he was home free.
After chatting with all of the people who had shown up for a bit, we took off
and headed up the backside of Hot Dog Hill, and up Creek Road to Bronco
Hill. We did Bronco, and then headed up Dangerous Road for the
cool-down, and then we were on our way. We made it to the gate right
before they closed, and aired up and headed home. Along the way we
stopped for ice cream, and then home to Temecula (for me, anyway).
Some Los Coyotes rumors I head yesterday:
The reservation will close again in October. This is on a sign on the window
of the gatehouse.
The reservation will stay open to 4-Wheeling as long as we respect the land,
and follow the rules. This was on ANOTHER sign on the side window of the
same gatehouse.
The reservation will stay open, but only for clubs. This was being
spread around by a group of Jeepers who had heard it second-hand from someone
else.
So who knows. Maybe it will stay open, and maybe it won't. Either
way, we should take advantage of the wonderful opportunity the tribe has given
us to continue using their land for off-highway adventure. Who knows how
long it will last.
I want to thank Casey, who helped to make this a very fun and relaxing day. I
can't wait for the next run. See you all at Forest Fest!
Until the next time,
Pete