IE4W 2001 New Year's Extravaganza - TruckHaven

Well, we got back yesterday afternoon, still brimming with excitement over the best trip I've been on yet with this great club of ours (and there's been a LOT of great trips). So, even though I wasn't trail boss, I thought I'd share a little of the festivities for those of you who were unfortunate enough to not have been there. 

Day 1 - Thursday 

I left the house around 11:00 A.M., wanting to get there during daylight. I arrived in Truckhaven just past 1:00, and was surprised to find I was the first one there. I got the RV set up, and just as I was unhooking the Jeep, the Maynards showed up. They got stuck in the wash (this would be a recurring theme for the rest of the weekend), and I helped Dave get unstuck and into camp. 

About an hour later, Larry, Randy, and Super D showed up. We pointed them to a better route into camp, and they made it no problem. Around 3:30, those of us in camp decided to head out for a little fun before the sun went down. We had just started warming up when I noticed I was warming up more than normal. I think it was the steam coming out from under the hood. I took a look and found the fan jammed into the fan shroud. The cause of this was a broken driver's side motor mount. Sheese. That's the third one I've broken since I've owned the truck. So, Dave graciously offered to tow me back to camp, and we headed off to Coachella to get a new mount. Thanks Dave!!!!! 

I guess the rest of them had a good time, but I wasn't there, so I wouldn't know. 

Day 2 - Friday 

I woke up bright and early to do the repair on my Jeep. I was looking at lowering the fan shroud to avoid any future problems when Paul offered me his spare electric fan as a replacement. I accepted, and as I started the motor mount repair, Dave Maynard installed the fan. I had the mount replaced and the fan wired into the kill switch for the Jeep in a little over an hour. Not too bad. By 9:00 A.M. I was ready to roll. I even had time for breakfast. Mary's wonderful breakfast burritos were just what I needed to motivate my day. Thanks Mary! 

By this time there were quite a few people in the group. When we headed out to the South Side of Hwy 22, we had 17 vehicles with us. Randy led us this day, and off we went. The funniest part was when we stopped at the highway and everyone jumped out to unlock their hubs. Then we went 1/4 mile down the road and were right back in the dirt, where everyone jumped out to re-lock. Then we were off to find virgin notches. 

Randy took the lead and drove right into this nice canyon. Then he announced over the radio that he was stopping to take a look up this one notch. We all jumped out and took a look. The entrance looked kinda severe, but Randy came back down and announced "It's doable!" With that, he jumped in his Jeep and headed in. Wow...I didn't know a Jeep could lean that far over and not roll. Oh, there's a wall on the other side holding him up. The entrance was very tight, and randy was plowing through it. At one point, Paul and I were adding ballast to keep his nice new body work from coming undone, although he did do some neat new things to his front fender on the right side. He finally did make it, and headed farther up the canyon. Where he decided it was NOT doable after all, and turned around. After he made it back out, we headed off to find another way through the canyon. We finally came to a very loose hill climb that turned to powder at the top. Larry and Randy made it up, but everyone else had to take the strap. Dave lost a bead at the top, and this led to Randy's nice shiner in an unfortunate High Lift incident. 

We played around for a little while longer, and then headed off to camp. It was about an hour later when the kids hopped in Dave's Jeep and earned the Stupidity Award for the weekend. Sorry Dave, Don, and Jim! A bunch more people showed up Friday evening, and we all sat around the fire and watched the parade of RVs getting stuck in the wash. Paul brought out the blender, and started making Mud Slides, which I was particularly fond of. Denni pulled in late that evening, and I fell into bed after getting her settled in. It was a great night. 

Day 3 - Saturday 

Owwwww....my head hurt. I guess I had more Mud Slides than I thought. Four aspirins took care of that, and we headed off to play. Julio and Laura had showed up the night before, and Julio took us out to play in the twisties that cover the North side of Truckhaven. We worked our way through the notches and wound up at the waterfall that Julio had conquered at the November Beginner's run. He crawled Laura's Jeep over the top, and then Kelly had a go at it. After a couple of tries, he made it, and then Larry took a shot at it. After an incredible bounce that everyone though would surely tip him over backwards, he made it. Then Laura took her Jeep down it. This is when things got a little hairy. As she came down it, those big 38" Swampers pulled her into a hole. There was no way to drive out of it, so Matt came up from behind a winched her back to safety. 

While we were hanging out watching the big dogs play on the hill, some of us drove around exploring some of the other fun stuff in the immediate area. I followed Super D for a while, and found out what an adrenaline rush REALLY is. Then, as I was heading back to where everyone was parked, I saw Kelly heading into a very tight notch. I hopped out and started spotting him though it. At one point, he had to crawl up the side of a wall to get around a tight turn. I started directing him up it, and then he slipped off the wall. He fell, and the little CJ-5 kept going, up and over. That was the first roll of the weekend. It was really amazing to see just how fast Brian can climb out of a Jeep! 

We got Kelly righted, and he drove the rest of the way out of the notch. Then Rob Jackson had to try it, and he made it through, at the cost of his left front fender. We played around a little more and then headed back to camp. By this time, Jim Jones had broken a Birfield on his Toyota. Then he announced that he suddenly couldn't turn left. Apparent, his broken birfield had frozen solid. George and I started escorting him out and around the hill. It was interesting getting him out when he could only turn right. We found an easy climb to the top of the hill, and then looked for a way back down. I found one that was fairly straight, and down we went. At the bottom, Jim announced that his steering had come back, and so we headed off back to camp. To get there, we had to dip down into one of the notches and come back up the other side. In making the attempt to climb out, Jim twisted the rear driveshaft in half. At this point he only had one working drive wheel. Luckily, he had a winch, so we winched him out of the notch and I towed him the rest of the way back to camp. At this point Larry and Rob had showed up, because we were taking so long to get back to camp. They led us out and we dropped Jim off at his RV. 

I then headed over to my RV to get ready for our trip to Glamis that evening. Knowing that it would be a little chilly, I put the top on my Jeep. We drove out to Brawly, where we had a nice dinner, and then off to Glamis. I had never been there before, so I was excited. We got to the entrance to Comp Hill, and aired WAY down for the sand. When we drove up to Comp Hill, there was no one there! I had heard many stories about this place, and I was a little disappointed. Since there was nothing to see there, we headed off to find Oldsmobile Hill. Dr. Jack (who would now like to be known as "DJ") led the way, but we never found the hill. We decided to head back to Comp Hill. When we got there, we found that quite a few people had shown up in the 1/2 hour we were gone. Along the way we ran into JR, and we all headed over. All I can say is "WOW". What a party. I have never seen such an insane environment. We played on Comp Hill for a while and then decided to head home. As we were pulling out, we stopped to help a kid who had shredded a rear tire on his pickup. After he was fixed up, we headed out. By the time we got back to camp, everyone else was asleep, so we followed suit. Another great day. 

Day 4 - Sunday 

By now I was beginning to feel like I had permanently moved to Truckhaven. When I woke up, Denni told me of the previous night's fun. Apparently, Kelly had some military flares, and was launching them away from camp. I guess they didn't work as advertised, because the flare he launched landed right under my RV, and fell in my toolbox!!! Our lawn was burned right through. The burn was less than a foot away from the propane tank. Luckily, there was no bad damage, and Kelly came over the next day and cleaned my tools up. I'm sure I'll see the humor in this by the meeting. LOL 

We all grouped up around 10:00 A.M. and headed back out to the South side to find the canyon the club had run for the MDA trip a couple of years ago. George bent his drag link early, but we managed to get it fairly straight, and continued in. At some point, we split the unlocked Jeeps from the rest of us, and they headed off to find another way to the top. The run was fun, and the hill climb at the end was very challenging. 

We then headed back down into the canyons. As we were going through the wash, we played on the little hills that go around the turns. I followed Laura over one hill, and then watched as Frank came over. He seemed a little off line, and as I was watching he started to turn down a 4 foot drop off. My reaction time wasn't fast enough to warn him, and he fell off the drop-off hard, munching his Jeep. Ouch! We got him righted and assessed the damage. His windshield and windshield frame were crushed, as was his front right fender. Amazingly, the cowl was undamaged, and there was only a small ding in the tub. The soft top was on, and the frame got a little bent up, but not too badly I don't think. 

We played a little more. Larry found a nice virgin notch that made a small loop around the wash and headed in. Most everyone made it, and then Marvin went in. Earlier, he had cut a tire coming up the hill climb from the canyon we had just run, and then coming out of this he lost two beads. After the second time, his ignition system decided to not work for a while, and it took about 15 minutes to get him running again. Once we were moving again, we found another little loop, and Larry headed in. Matt went next, and then Laura went it. Those big tires of hers don't always give the best turning radius, and she wound up in another hairy spot. Matt came to the rescue again and winched her to safety, and she finished the notch like a pro. I have to say here that even though she had to take the winch twice, it was not because of bad driving. She went places that I would never even think of going, and sometimes that means you have to have help getting out. 

At this point, I decided to head back to camp. Paul and Annie called it a day also, as well as Jim, who had gone all the way back to Riverside to pick up his Samurai so he could still play. THAT'S dedication! We got back to camp around 3:30 and rested up in anticipation of the night's festivities. We all sat around the campfire and played games and generally enjoyed each other's company. Midnight rolled around, and we lit off the Christmas trees, laced with M-80's and firecrackers. Sometime around 1:30 AM, I realized that I had to get up early and head home, so I wished everyone a happy New Year and headed off to bed. 

Day 5 - Monday, January 1, 2001 

I had to have my kids home early, so we packed up and headed out. Denni took off early with the kids, and I packed the RV and loaded up the Jeep. As I was hooking up the towbar, I had an unfortunate bungee cord incident, and I think my index finger on my right hand is broken. The swelling has gone down quite a bit, but it still hurts a lot. Oh well. The drive home was uneventful, and I pulled into my driveway just a little after noon. All in all, this was a great trip. I was very sad to see the weekend end, but was happy to sleep in my own bed after 5 days of eating dust.

Pete Griffith