No time for pictures right now, but here's a quick synopsis of some of the notable events:
Fri:
Hit the road towards the trails at 12:30. 6 trucks (one truck never showed - bigezzyk) (Gas was $3.45 there!)
Hit old Rt 33 and the out-and-back trail.
Tried to get to Dry Run trail - no success - gate was locked.
Headed up Skidmore to the top of the mountain.
Crossed from Flagpole to Meadow
Arrived at camp early, nice relaxing evening. Great weather.
Sat:
3:30 AM, we got a visitor. 3 kids in a new model crossover SUV. I awoke to a kid yelling "Hello?!?!?... WE ARE LOST AS ////!" So Mike and I got out of our tents and gave them some simple directions. Poor kids were a bit scared. It was cold - at most 32 that night with some light wind.
Morning came quick, headed the rest of the way down the ridge road. Beautiful views.
Stopped a few times at some of the more difficult sections to get some video.
Mario's rear diff blew at the last difficult section (luckily). Longish story: His front end disconnect wasn't connecting up, steep rock section... tried a few times to get up with rear end power only. G80 wasn't engaging. On one attempt - BAM. His dash read "stop engine now" (or something, I didn't see it). Figured dash was due to low oil pressure due to the slope. Kenny was in front of Mario, so we roped him to Kenny's truck, which allowed Mario's truck to get to level ground, so we could check on the engine. It started up again fine, no issue. Put into gear to test diff - just grinding noises. So Kenny was going to attempt to pull Mario through the rock section - not enough traction for Kenny's truck. Mario ended up winching himself through the rocks. Still had a good climb to get out - so Kenny tried to tug him the rest of the way. Still not enough traction, so we doubled up on the pullers - had Rory and Kenny both pulling Mario up the hill to a flat spot. Where Mario removed his rear driveshaft, and we were able to engage the disconnect with a little ju-ju magic. He drove on out from there.
Ran across two girls with one bike.
Back to pavement - said goodbye to Mario and Brandon.
The 4 trucks left headed over to 2nd Mountain, explored a bit. Took it slow and leisurely for the most part.
Then made the 1600ft descent down to our campsite for the night.
Rain, Rain, Rain, Thunderstorms and Rain.
UFO.
Sun
Extract mouse from truck - required 4 men.
Drive out.
Air up - Mike's compressor is a beast.
(OH! - and for that method of connection that I was trying to remember... here it is... a little different than how we did it. Putting that in my long term memory now.
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/t ... post424417)