Saturday the 14th

1.  The camp is a flurry of activity with people wrenching on nearly every rig in sight.  I luck out and discover Nolen has an unused sway bar on his buggy that is the exact same model as mine.  He sells it to me (I need to send him a new bar) and I install it back on my rig.  My luck then runs out, just as we are going to leave my rig dies.  I notice my voltmeter is at 8 volts and I immediately suspect the alternator.  I swap out the alternator but accidentally blow one of the main fuses in the process.  After rigging up a new wire connection I fire up the rig and the spare alternator looks to be charging.

The above shots show how Wade's buggy was positioned on a trailer so they could use some winches to pull the cross member back into position.  It ended up taking 3 winches to get the cross member to bend back to its original position.  A spare link was used to fabricate some braces to reinforce the cross member.

We had about 12 rigs to get thru S&M and more to come as guys finished up their repairs in camp.  I was up first and slid off the wall to the left and nearly roll while trying to get a winch line hooked up.

Jack makes a clean run up the wall, video link.

Brian has an exciting run, he pops a pretty good wheelie at the top, video link. next, Scott breaks the breakage streak and makes an easy run up the wall much to his relief, video link. 

2.  We don't experience another break till Jason hits the wall with a full throttled attempt that results in his rig launching itself several feet into the air!  When it comes down the passenger side stub shaft gives in under the pressure and explodes. Video link 1 and video link 2.

3.  Nolen is up next, he tries the wall once on the right (video link), then chooses to try the left line (video link).  His attempt looks beautiful but on the second hop, right about the middle of the climb the back of his rig seems to collapse.  As he holds the brakes a bunch of coilover parts drop from his rig.  Once we have his rig secured we discover his passenger side rear axle tube has been torn from the center section.  The rotation of the axle tube also snapped the coilover mounting eye off.

4.  Once Nolen was off the wall his friend Jim lined up and gave it a go.  He ended up sliding off to the left side like I did and broke the welds on one of his front links in the process, video link.  We were able to do a trial fix on this break.

Video of Randy's climb and video of Dennis's climb.

At this point we decided to name the first waterfall on S&M the "Money Shot",  you either made it or your shot at the wall cost you a lot of money. 

Further up the trail, despite no rain in months the water was as deep as ever.  Here's some video of Scott and Pat's run thru the waterhole.

The last waterfall bested everyone who tried it today.  Here is some video of Scott's attempt along with Randy's attempt.

The splash in the first picture is from the heckling section, video link.  Pat was raining down rocks to encourage people to get to the top.

Karma caught up with Pat later as small pebbles were lobbed at his plumbers crack......  

After a quick stop at camp for a late lunch (around 3pm), we headed up the road to run Seed of Chucky.

Once at the trailhead I told Randy to head up first figuring if anyone could climb the top fall it would be him in his superlight buggy.  Sure enough, he made it top the top and rocketed up the last waterfall being the first person to climb it.  I gave it a go but couldn't quite make it.  Jack, Scott, John, Dennis and Barry all made the climb. 

5.  Carnage ensued again on Cary's attempt, he snapped a front longside axle in his FJ80 front end, video link.

6.  Somewhere along the way Jeff snapped some steering arm studs on his Toy axle.

7.  On Jason's attempt he busted the front long side axle in his 60.

8. After Seed of Chucky almost everyone headed back to camp to start making dinner.  Jack led a few people to SC, but on the first waterfall he broke his front driveshaft and had a tire go flat.  he had to go back and recover his rig in the morning.

Back at camp we started dinner.  A huge thank you goes out to the Texas boys who brought with them 40 some pounds of BBQ beef brisket, beans, bread, sausage and hot sauce.  We also chipped in some sides and a few pies for desert.  Everyone was stuffed and sitting around the fire by 10pm when talk of a night run started to circulate.  Randy wanted to run Pet Cemetery so I said I'd take them if they wanted to go.  We gathered up a small group of wheelers (Myself, Randy, Jason, Wade, Shane, Jim with Nolen & Scott tagging along for the ride).  We arrived at the large crack and it was as impressive as ever.  Randy made a run thru it and nearly made it until his back end slipped into it a little early.  We used a strap and some people pushing on the cage to keep his cage from getting hooked on the rocks.  He then proceeded to drive the last part unassisted with a line right up the middle.  At this point I decided to run the trail and as I was walking back to the buggy it started to drizzle, which would later turn to light hail.  I drove the crack using my line from last time but didn't make the end climb thanks to some slick rocks.  Wade followed me and after an initial roll he followed my line but used his rear steer to crab walk the length of the crack.  It was an amazing sight seeing his rig at times only on the two opposite wheels.  Jason was up next and drove the right line but his spring hangers kept him from crossing the crack.  While maneuvering around we got him more and more stuck until we finally had to winch his front end up the hill as he used rear wheel drive to pull the back end down and back inline with the obstacle.  Once we freed him both Jim and Jason headed back out (Jason was going to drive down the end of the trail and meet us) and the rest of us continued on.

 Next Page - Page 3