[Storm]

so nice, had to post it twice, couldn't figure out how to delete the 2nd one.

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[Storm]

dang that's a nice rig! Tim prepared to do some spotting if needed.

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[Storm]

[Storm]

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[Storm]

On Saturday night Tim called me and said Brad was wrenching like mad and would be till the midnight hour. Sunday morning Tim called me a few times with updates on Brad's progress, the last time being when Brad, filling his gas tank in Cottonwood on his way to Red Bluff, called Tim to let him know he was on the road. I couldn't wait for them to load Tim up and come over so my buddy Tony and I jumped in the cruiser and headed to Tims (we'd been packed and ready to roll for a couple hours and were chomping at the bit, even though we knew exit time was scheduled for about 10a.m.). Found Tim and Brad organizing Leroy's backpack, a couple pictures and off we went.

As Brad mentioned, his radiators hoses needed a bit a retorquige, burping, and refilled (first time I've seen a radiator filled through the thermostat aperature). For the first of many times (thnx for the patients guys) we stopped and let the cruiser cool off from its' 130 degree rages. While investigating my custom expanding overflow tank Tim got hosed with said 130 degree water/antifrozelen to the face and gave us a demonstration of "stop, drop and roll". Tim must be one tough son of a gun cause ... although I saw him get blasted with the scalding brew, not only didn't he scream, I couldn't find any burns on his face. He must be immune to the heat after living through Red Bluff summers for so long.

The drive through Sierraville to Tahoe was nothing less than sweeet. The cooler temperatures made my life much less stressful.

Tony is not an experienced 4wheeler. Having him along I got to re-experience the Rubicon for the first time. After we'd got to the dirt road to the trailhead Tony got to spotting the larger rocks for me, I mentioned that as a general rule spotters must be outside the rig, he stopped spotting. When we did get onto the trail he said something to the effect of "we aren't going down that are we?!!!". He got out to get a picture and yelled out which rocks were biggest and spotting a bit again, I told him "spotters don't talk! hand signals only!". He took that well and did a pretty dang good job of spotting after that! Thanks Tony!

Rest of the trip was very cool and somewhat uneventful. Brad and I both seemed a bit overprepared and had spares or a plan for whatever gliches occured. Brad did make a reverse drill bit upon discovery I left my easy-outs in another toolbox. Thanks Brad! I must admit, after Tim's demonstration of stop-drop-and roll I expected more out of Brad when he caught on fire putting a bit a fuel on the campfire. Instead, he acted like he does that all the time at home, calmly put the burning bottle in the fire then exstinguished his burning hand.

[Storm]

Leroy gettin flexy with it

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[Storm]

Brad, Tim and Leroy coming down the "Captain Morgan" ledge.

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[bzmarsh]

More pics...

At Tim's house gettin' ready to leave. The world's our oyster.



Almost losing the camera out the door.



As stated, it's a lovely drive.



A few water hazards on the way in.









Getting ready to find out our headlights don't work.



Next morning getting ready to leave Rubicon Springs.






Obligatory bridge shots

[bzmarsh]

Big Sluice. Site of Storm's yearly talking me through the tough ones.



Recovering at the top of Big Sluice








Buck Lake

[bzmarsh]

Lunch and camp at Little Sluice






Not many pictures on Day 2 on the trail, getting to Wentworth Springs Campground. Some great wheeling, lots of heavy obstacles. It'd be tough going up!

We had the campground to ourselves. All afternoon and the next day, we only say 2 ATVs and that's it.

Camp at Wentworth Springs



Tim gettin' ready to drive us to the swimmin' hole



The swimmin' hole



Parked at the Roundup Cafe in Sierraville. Restaurant is nice. Watch out for the lady who runs the feed store behind it! Note the sign in between our rigs: Falling Snow - Park at your own risk.


Mount Lassen, taken along Lake Almanor. Storm was cookin' at about 70mph.

[bzmarsh]

Final picture at the Mineral Lodge



Storm's "carnage" - minimal, to say the least






Leroy's battle scars

The DOM slider is actually bent outward



Frame bent at shackle hanger



Same damage, both sides.



Intentional scuff on bumper to avoid a rig parked in the trail


I have some videos that I'll post as soon as I can get them reduced to a reasonable size.

[fj40Tim]

Here's a video (68mb) of reseating BZ's large tire.

Bzmarsh, while normally extremely accurate at placing the passenger side tires in exactly the right location, failed to consider the location of his right rear valve stem while brushing against a rock about 1-mile into the Rubicon. He sheared it off in view of several folks working on their broken rig. At first he was convinced the hissing sound was coming from the folks we just passed, but after a few feet he resigned himself to reality - the hissing was really coming from Leroy (the well built Jeep Gladiator). After stopping, the carnage was apparent - he sheared off a valve stem on his right rear tire. Having a spare made it easy to get back on the trail, but did not do any good for the confidence - BZ was terribly shaken by the minor incident, (unfounded) self doubt in his ability was evident. Later, on the trail (while Storm was replacing his front diff drain plug and the rest of us were wiping gear oil off the granite) other wheelers passed that happened to be in posession of some spare valve stems, which we quickly relieved them (no firearms were necessary - cash was enough). That night, at camp, we decided BZ needed a spare (no drinking was involved by most of the descision makers). BZ ("arms of an orangatang" Marsh - you had to be there to understand every discussion was annotated by a quote from a movie - this one was circa 1965 from Johnny Quest courtesy of Storm - I was not able to keep up with the movie quotes - it mostly went over my head, but everyone else laughed themselves silly) suggested we all jump on the tire to break the bead like a band of monkeys. Being without the "arms of an orangatang" I suggested we use the high lift jack against the Chevy 454 front on the Jeep to break the bead, which was eventually agreed (with some discussion). This worked well, with all watching BZ in dissapointment of the missed opportunity to have some fun. We removed the broken valve stem with little effort. We had seen the utube video's of reseating tires with some explosive aerosol and were anxious to see if it really worked. Storm had some carb cleaner handy was wasn't afraid to use it. BZ fearlesly joined him with matches. I stood a good distance back, taking the video - as I already had my brush with death when my loyal partners wanted to roll me over in a roadside ditch for dead, after I received a face full of hot water from a boiling radiator overflow tank. The good news, is it worked, just as advertised - the bead seated with about 2 PSI in the tire. The bad news, as with all my videos, Tony walked in front of the taping, negating any Emmy potential.
Now The rest of you will understand why my wife bored quickly with my long winded story telling of this great adventure as this is one of several notable events on the trip.
Tips on attaching links are welcome. Cut and paste didn't go as a link, but you can copy the url into you browser.

[Billy D.]

great now I have Rubicon envy just keep rubbing it in lol
Great pis and storys looks like you guys had a blast if I ever get a few extra bucks maybe I'll get to go again

[bzmarsh]

fj40Tim, on 17 July 2010 - 05:32 AM, said:

BZ was terribly shaken by the minor incident, (unfounded) self doubt in his ability was evident.

Yes, I was a wreck, just quivering jelly on the side of the trail

Quote

Tips on attaching links are welcome. Cut and paste didn't go as a link, but you can copy the url into you browser.

Worked fine for me. Much better quality video than the ones I have.

[fj40Tim]

Here's a few dozen pic's of the Rubicon trip... no it's not all, only the ones I found interesting...
I'm also downloading more videos to youtube - coming soon

http://s525.photobuc...ubicon%2072010/

[fj40Tim]

bzmarsh, on 17 July 2010 - 04:25 PM, said:

Yes, I was a wreck, just quivering jelly on the side of the trail


Worked fine for me. Much better quality video than the ones I have.

OK, so I elaborated a bit Just for the record, BZ recoved quickly from the valve stem catastophy

[fj40Tim]

Here's some videos of the trip - they took a long time to upload.

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=WjV01-6dbPM
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=B461MXLJf10
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=1jjGnpSEP4Q
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=Gd4MA7n-bGc
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=zVLMxIlELKc

[bzmarsh]

Thanks Tim!

[Billy D.]

Thanks for the videos Tim now I really wanna go back to the con

[Storm]

I'm in