OK, everyone, I know a bunch of folks were on the trails at RC on Saturday and Paragon on Sunday. We want to hear about it, especially the trail damage!
I rode with Aaron and Don today. Aaron's jeep had been cooped up in the garage all winter, getting some work done (chrome mirrors, stainless steel door hinges...oh, wait, scratch that, I think it was a fuel cell, replacement ram assist steering, and some other neat stuff for Neuroc next month). On Saturday evening Aaron and Don spent a couple of hours trying to re-fit a temporary replacement front driveshart that just received in the mail -- I just watched, not good for much more than that.
Don's flattie needed some exercise also, so we hit the Paragon trails. We started at Voodoo, after a long ride to the other side of the park, dodging and crashing through the tree limbs still hanging over the trails. As Aaron turned into Voodoo, pop went the driveshaft. It turns out the splines on which the shaft slides were too short, even after some last minute fabrication in the garage last night. With the shackle reversal, the front axle swung forward more than expected, and let the shaft fall apart. After 15 minutes with a ratchet and BFH, he was ready to go. Up Voodoo he went -- 100 feet. Pop again. This time he tried to stabilize it with a ratchet strap. That probably kept it together a lot, but it still popped two or three more times.
But we continued up and through Voodoo. With a good line and a bit of good spotting, I made it past that nasty spot where last time I smashed my axleshaft and locker about a year ago. This time, walked right up. We finished out Voodoo and then headed up the pipeline to Rattler.
After lunch, we head into Rattler. After my traditional smashing of the front diff, I made it past the spot where in December I broke my fuel line and had to be towed out. Up the ridge we stopped for a brief break for Don to pull off the steering brace that had broken and interfered with his turning. Then down the rest of the trail, around the big rock, and down off the trail.
We then headed across to Rattler's trail, where miraculously I haven't broken anything yet, and we cruised through that (with one stop as Aaron put his DS together after taking an optional line). At the end I took one of the fun lines up and off the trail.
Heading back down Valley Road, Don noticed an odd wiggle from his front left tire. I could see that even from behind him. We stopped for a while so I could drink a bottle of water and Don could take apart his hub. There was nothing obviously wrong, but since the rim was bent he swapped in his spare. (((Edited out --> dangerous situation involving highlift jack and BFH))). We continued out Valley, but the wheel still had the wiggle. Don has some work to do.
We were going to check out the Neuroc trails up the hill, but Aaron through the "Keep Out" sign meant him, so we headed up to the rocks at the entrance to Trail 25 ("the endless trail"). Aaron was considering trying one of the Neuroc trails there, but we instead decided to pack it in, so we headed back to the Staging area.
It was a beautiful day to be on the trails, though I think I'm still spitting out mud from all the dust I ate on the trails. We all got a bit of sunburn, I have a bit of those raccoon eyes around where my sunglasses were. Time to get some leaves on the trees!
That was our day. Thanks Aaron and +1 ( 
) for letting me tag along and not break anything.
BlueJ
....Now comes the fun. We got to a pretty tuff section and Sandy's Rubi got into a tree, slighty denting the windshield frame. ( If you ask me the dent adds Character, but they didnt think so). So it was decided to turn it around and head back, however, in the process of turning, the rubi sustained a broken front axle shaft and a snapped in half front lower control arm. After limping it off the trail Lynn came to the rescue and had a lower control arm and a hi lift jack for the repair. THANKS LYNN YOUR A LIFE SAVER. So we pulled the axle and replaced the hub and stub shaft. Meanwhile we noticed the ball joint had ripped out of the lower part of the knuckle. So we limped it back to the hotel and Elff and Artie came at 1 in the morning for the next day of wheeling with replacement parts and a ball joint press.We all Wrenched on the rubi (Well, Elff and Jason did) untill about 3 in the morning changing the ball joint in the hotell parking lot. Im sure the guests loved the sound of on board air and air tools at 230 in the morning.......So that ended day one.
It's a bit off camber and likes to throw you off to the right...I felt it going right and steered to correct but it was too little too late. Some creative winching and strapping and we had it back on all four wheels. Surprisingly enough there's _very_ little damage. The top right of the windshield frame has some creative bodywork and the rear corner is a little munched but nothing that'd make you think it was laying on a bunch of rocks...some PSC corners and you'll just think I put the windshield frame into a tree.
