Sunday, February 26, 2006
Engage 4WD
Fixed the four wheel drive again today. If only I weren't so darn lazy it would have been fixed long ago. Total cost... about $10 for a tube splice at Napa that I got today and a couple hoseclamps I got sometime earliner in the winter or last fall. Total fixing time... about 20 minutes. So yeah, there had to be a reason because no other way I'd take the time to fix it. There was an incident last night calling for my spectacular towing skills. I'm not the only one that gets stuck. Anyway, forgot how cool this equation is: my truck + 4wd + chains = stupid fun. We got probably close to 10 inches of snow over the weekend and since I'm so lazy, after pulling Johnson out of the ditch I smashed down the snow in my driveway, beats the pants off shoveling...
My truck has quite the yin and yang. With the chains (and 4wd working) it can go any place but without them it's more like insta-stuck... Not like that ever happens... like back in September... it didn't make the pages here but would have if I hadn't gone down to watch The Donnas in Anchorage (that's a whole nother story... scored a guitar pick, broken guitar string, the set list, and they yelled at me down there) and then headed up to the north slope a day or two after that.
So, Johnson and I went out grouse hunting one weekend down Rosie Creek just down the Parks Hwy from town. Didn't see any grouse so after killing a couple trees instead we started following all the logging trails we could find. With the added bonus of having my GPS with us we could see how close we were getting to the regular part of town. Anyway, had a blast, drove around a few trees that should have stopped us and through super heavy brush and generally got to thinking we were invincible. So, of course, head down the last trail. It's been raining out but that hasn't mattered much. It gets real bumpy all of a sudden and I try to power through just as the darn thing necks down to become a four wheeler trail. Yay. Totally stuck. So, for the next eight hours I try to build a courduroy trail from the twigs and branches around the truck. Jacking each tire up two or three times and stuffing as much wood under as possible only to have the darn thing settle back into the clay and mud. So, finally Hagen gets off work and comes to pick us up. First off though we give it one more try with his truck. It works!! But momentum is the enemy and I nearly get towed off the trail:
Monday after work we headed back out with Ken and his brother plus a couple come alongs, a handyman jack, some 8x8 chunks of wood, a couple ramps and some rope all from Mike... Another four or five hours of tugging, mostly with the come-alongs and we finally get out of there.
Lesson learned? Yeah, more like tune in again next summer.
My truck has quite the yin and yang. With the chains (and 4wd working) it can go any place but without them it's more like insta-stuck... Not like that ever happens... like back in September... it didn't make the pages here but would have if I hadn't gone down to watch The Donnas in Anchorage (that's a whole nother story... scored a guitar pick, broken guitar string, the set list, and they yelled at me down there) and then headed up to the north slope a day or two after that.
So, Johnson and I went out grouse hunting one weekend down Rosie Creek just down the Parks Hwy from town. Didn't see any grouse so after killing a couple trees instead we started following all the logging trails we could find. With the added bonus of having my GPS with us we could see how close we were getting to the regular part of town. Anyway, had a blast, drove around a few trees that should have stopped us and through super heavy brush and generally got to thinking we were invincible. So, of course, head down the last trail. It's been raining out but that hasn't mattered much. It gets real bumpy all of a sudden and I try to power through just as the darn thing necks down to become a four wheeler trail. Yay. Totally stuck. So, for the next eight hours I try to build a courduroy trail from the twigs and branches around the truck. Jacking each tire up two or three times and stuffing as much wood under as possible only to have the darn thing settle back into the clay and mud. So, finally Hagen gets off work and comes to pick us up. First off though we give it one more try with his truck. It works!! But momentum is the enemy and I nearly get towed off the trail:
Monday after work we headed back out with Ken and his brother plus a couple come alongs, a handyman jack, some 8x8 chunks of wood, a couple ramps and some rope all from Mike... Another four or five hours of tugging, mostly with the come-alongs and we finally get out of there.
Lesson learned? Yeah, more like tune in again next summer.
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These pictures look suspiciously like some from before...know what I'm talking about? How many times have you been towed out of the brush?
Well you might have seen them back in the fall but I didn't throw them up on the ol website here until now.
But yeah, getting stuck so many times has made them start to run together. Shoot, when I wrote this originally I forgot that we'd tried getting me unstuck and proceeded to get the truck stuck waaaay worse Sunday night.
But yeah, getting stuck so many times has made them start to run together. Shoot, when I wrote this originally I forgot that we'd tried getting me unstuck and proceeded to get the truck stuck waaaay worse Sunday night.
Dude, this sort of thing just doesn't seem the same without Adam there to offer critique on style and execution, and my brother to holler Buuusssseeyyyyy!!!!!! What've you done now? --grin--
PS I gave up four-wheeling years ago 'cause it was hard on my wallet and nerves as well as the environment... But now I'm thinking if you ever get to Idaho, there is some chance for some old-time mutual "good idea" brain storming. Remember climbing Victoria Rock with J.P.? Thats what I'm talking about. But with trucks! You seem to have developed loads of experience in the art of getting artistically unstuck. Just the Kinda guy I need riding shotgun and saying "go for it AJ, you can make it....."
Yeah, sign me up. I'm all about getting stuck, badly... and then not learning the lesson.
My favorite by a mile was a couple years back down south of Kenai I took this GW summer hire lady from Texas down to see the Kenai Peninsula after we finished a week of work in Denali Park. So, going exploring we come across this clamming beach, Clam Gulch. The sign said "Four wheel Drive Only" but you know, who listens to signs... yeah. about 30' past the sign I bog down in the sand. So, just leave the truck there and go check out the beach. Despite the beach being packed it takes thirty or forty minutes before somebody finally offers to pull me out. Yay. Get unstuck and I promptly get stuck again driving through a pile of beach gravel when I didn't listen to the girl's turn around instructions. Hah!! Man was she screaming and yelling. Cracked me up. Darn glad I wasn't her fiance (down in Texas) that's for sure. So, the people who helped me out before just shrugged me off this time and I waited for a bit longer before some other dude with a big dodge ram pulled me out.
To cap the day the empty light came on in the middle of nowhere on the Seward highway as we were headed back to camp in Turnagain Pass. It was classic cartoon style, too. The check gage light turns on when I'm nearly out of gas and so the light turns on and I was like what the heck?! That light only comes on when I'm... ALMOST OUT OF GAS!! Cue the eyes popping out of the head like in the cartoons. So, we coasted about 20 miles into Hope (across Turnagain Arm from Girdwood) crossing fingers about finding a gas station. Didn't see one and went back to the one bar in town on the beach to ask them... we hadn't driven far enough. So, on fumes we head down the road again. Run out of gas before the end of the road and coast into the parking lot of this old lady who has a 1950s era pump. Pretty good day. So yeah, I do stuck well and make an effort to rack up the quality points.
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My favorite by a mile was a couple years back down south of Kenai I took this GW summer hire lady from Texas down to see the Kenai Peninsula after we finished a week of work in Denali Park. So, going exploring we come across this clamming beach, Clam Gulch. The sign said "Four wheel Drive Only" but you know, who listens to signs... yeah. about 30' past the sign I bog down in the sand. So, just leave the truck there and go check out the beach. Despite the beach being packed it takes thirty or forty minutes before somebody finally offers to pull me out. Yay. Get unstuck and I promptly get stuck again driving through a pile of beach gravel when I didn't listen to the girl's turn around instructions. Hah!! Man was she screaming and yelling. Cracked me up. Darn glad I wasn't her fiance (down in Texas) that's for sure. So, the people who helped me out before just shrugged me off this time and I waited for a bit longer before some other dude with a big dodge ram pulled me out.
To cap the day the empty light came on in the middle of nowhere on the Seward highway as we were headed back to camp in Turnagain Pass. It was classic cartoon style, too. The check gage light turns on when I'm nearly out of gas and so the light turns on and I was like what the heck?! That light only comes on when I'm... ALMOST OUT OF GAS!! Cue the eyes popping out of the head like in the cartoons. So, we coasted about 20 miles into Hope (across Turnagain Arm from Girdwood) crossing fingers about finding a gas station. Didn't see one and went back to the one bar in town on the beach to ask them... we hadn't driven far enough. So, on fumes we head down the road again. Run out of gas before the end of the road and coast into the parking lot of this old lady who has a 1950s era pump. Pretty good day. So yeah, I do stuck well and make an effort to rack up the quality points.
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