This photo was taken for the flex pose.......Notice that Christian is riding shotgun....we left his rig back on the trail a good ways back, it started to overheat, so off to the side it went and I gained a passenger :-) We went on through the night following the Zuk through thick and thin, high and low...we wheeled till the wee hours of the morning.....then we came to a real steep hill approx 150 feet or more of seriously steep hill side with a smattering of trees to work your way through, roots exposed at spots, ledges at others...gravelly, rutted with small rock all the way up......Brian and the built Zuk that could went first...he crawled right up and through....I went next, the Pathkiller did fantastic as it crawled its way up the hill, very little hossing at all, went right up and through.....Scott went next with the big Woody...he made it about 3/4 of the way up before forward and upward motion came to a halt.....He was on a bad spot of the climb with a couple of ledges and ruts at different heights....this made his Woody lift a wheel or two which in his unlocked state, he was having to RPM his way up....he was hossing it pretty good , scrapping and clawing his way up the last part of the hill.....when he had the big rig slightly air-born...when it caught traction, it tossed the rear spider gears like they were plastic! We pulled him up the hill with a winch and he crippled it back to camp......actually made it by itself. Aaron went up in his unlocked TJ shod with Boggers.....he pretty much could go where he wanted to, but , this being his first time out, he just didn't know it......he had a great time that evening and he has learned a lot of what his jeep can and will do.....He of course made it up the hill climb with out assistance. We went and picked up Christians rig and got it back to camp also.......Cold was setting in hard core and we all went to bed...I slept in my haul van, Scott in his woody, Christian in his Cherokee, Marcos in his truck, Brad in a COLD tent, and Aaron in his new haul truck, a 2002 Chevy 4 door 4x4....sweet indeed Sunday was a day of hard wheeling and no posing.....We started the day with some serious trail fix idea for Christians fan clutch....it was diagnosed to be way to loose and not spinning enough to pull air through the radiator....henceforth the following photo......Aaron and Christian putting sheetmetal screws into the fan clutch innards to tighten it up under the direct supervision of Scott.....another note to mention with this photo......Notice both Scott and Aaron are wearing coats...because it is COLD out!......and Christian is in a T shirt............This is due to the fact that he came in shorts and didn't bring any spare clothes at all....I am talking none!Ê :-) He did happen to grab an old set of jeans from the tool box on Marcos's truck.............on we go....

...and sure enough.....it worked... and on to the trails he went with it on Sunday..... as we were getting set up and ready to go, we got a call from David in his red YJ he was close by and wanted us to wait up.....so we did.....He showed up with a YJ with a stock drivetrain and 31" tires....he took that jeep everywhere ! The following is a collection of photos somewhat in order as each vehicle enters the creek bottom.......This was the first damage possible spot and Aaron and Christian decided not to do this one, they went another route and we were to meet up with them later.Ê We could hear them having fun as they explored their way around. The rest of us jumped off into the following....sure wish the pictures showed the real angles....seems to always not look so tough in the photos...... A bit of fender crunching going on....

After Marcos gets through this hole, we hear a weird noise, as in a broken right front u-joint.Ê He unlocked that hub and 3 wheeled it the rest of the way through...with a bit of strap help at spots from me. We went through that, made our way through some winding rutted trails through the trees the end up at another creek bottom, only, this has a 5' clay wall........which proved un-climbable ........I tried , and couldn't make it up so then you see in the photos I changed course and went for the go-around and ended up in a sideways slide into a tree....the pictures tell the story.......Marcos followed, we used a strap on his rear bumper to hold him from sliding into the tree, and then David and the red YJ went in and did a darned respectable attempt at the clay wall......then I also put a strap on him and helped him up.....

from this point we all followed the killer Zuk to a very steep drop off, I watched as the Zuk went down, and I mean nose down hard into it.....after that, I went through, as I crept over the edge, I slid so fast, that when I hit bottom, both of the rear wheels came off the ground!

anyway, after all the fun, we head out to meet up with Aaron and Christian....whom we find at the camp site......seems that Christian had gotten out of his jeep to look at the upcoming obstacle and when he did, the jeep went rolling down two ledges un-manned and ended up with some smashed fenders and damaged radiator......He , in all of this still had a great time and is looking forward to prepping his rig a bit better and coming back for more.

Brian actually let Scott put his broken Waggy on his trailer and drive the Zuk home.....Kudos to Brian (www.PythonCompany.com) for helping Scott out in a bind.........and also for taking a bunch of these shots as well.

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