Caribou Hills 02

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Caribou Hills

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08/31/2002
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Bgreen and Molly (me and the wife), John W. and Ray, and Timmy met at Johns house at 8:30 on Saturday AM. We gassed up at the Short Stop and headed on our way toward the Caribou Hills. When pulling out of the gas station I head a weird groaning sound and a loud bang. I figured the groaning was either the brakes grabbing or the clutch packs in the Limited Slip rear diff acting up, and the bang must have been the trailer hitch. After making a quick check of things, we were back on our way. We cruised all the way to Oil Well Road without any problems. Once we made the turn onto Oil Well Road, things got ugly. About 2 miles down the road, my rear end started making a nasty racket, so I pulled off onto a logging road and started pulling the diff cover. I noticed a nice bulge in the upper right hand side and knew things were going to be ugly. After removing the cover I discovered that both spider gears were completely gone, and the ring and pinion were missing several teeth. I cleaned the housing as best I could, re-filled it with a few quarts of fluid, and continued down the road minus my trailer and the 76. John pulled his buggy to the trail head and came back to pickup my 76 and take it to the trail. I parked my truck a few miles down the road at a friends house and loaded up with Timmy. We weren't about to let a blown up diff ruin our weekend! 

We all unloaded at Johns Dads cabin and headed down the Straight In Trail. We arrived at the first washout and watched the two Sammy's play in the first few feet of the ruts. Wanting to see some action, John and Timmy pointed toward the wash and egged me into dropping into the worst part. At the point where I dropped in the wash it was about 3 feet deep. Where I finally stopped, it was about 6 feet deep, and only 3 or 4 feet wide. I was dragging the bank with the door above the window opening!! At times I would have rolled if it were not for the ground pushing up on the door and window sill. Forward progress came to a halt with the first loud bang. 
I had twisted off a stub shaft, and grenaded the locking hub on the passenger side of the Dana 60. It was time to get out of this mess so I put it in reverse and started backing out of the wash. Only a few feet later I heard the second bang. This time I broke the drivers side inner axle shaft in the 60. (Man this is turning out to be a $pendy weekend!) At that point both John and Timmy left to meet the Jeep Club guys and I sat there trying to fix a heater hose that got pinched between the cab and the fitting on the passenger side head. I got the hose fixed and started to winch out of the wash backwards when I heard the third bang. This time it was the steering box. (NOT AGAIN!!!) I hopped out of the truck and to my dismay, I broke the ears off the steering box, and 2 of the new Lawson extra high tensile strength Grade 8 Bolts. Fortunately the repair I had made to that area of the frame was still looking good. I bolted what was left of the box back on the frame and started winching again. Bang! That's 4 for those who weren't counting. This time it stripped out the 2 remaining bolt holes in the box. By now, Doug had shown up with a friend, in Baisden's CJ-5. Ray and John were back and so was Timmy. Josh had also shown up in his sweet lifted XJ with his girlfriend. Ray helped me bolt the steering box back on the frame. This time we bolted through the box and installed nuts on the back side. Fortunately after the last box incident, I had plenty of long 7/16" bolts! This time it all held together and I headed for the the trail head. John, Doug, Josh, and Timmy continued on down the trail. 

When I finally made it back to trail head, I had to move Doug's Dodge to load up my 76 on my trailer behind Johns 2500 HD. John was going to let me use his truck to tow both my broken rigs home. I turned the Dodge around, put it in park, and jumped out only to see the dodge rolling back toward johns Very Nice 2500 HD Silverado! I tried to grab through the window and kick the Dodge back into park, but the damn thing is lifted and I couldn't reach. The Dodge came to a stop within feet of disaster. Doug's car dolly had jack knifed and brought the truck to a stop at the cost of some huge dents in Doug's fender and cab corner. 

We made it home un-eventfully and got a good nights rest. The next morning Molly and I drove her 88 Blazer and John's HD back to the trail head and dropped the HD off. After talking with Johns Dad, we learned that the Jeep guys were in a bad hole with an F-250 on 40" Boggers. Apparently the Ford had driven down in a nasty swamp and got stuck. The Jeep guys went in to rescue him and ended up getting stuck themselves. The Ford was winched free and rather than going around the holes and heading home, he hit the same hole again, this time with a vengeance! I did not see the action, but was told that there was mud flying right along with t-case parts! The F250 still had an NP-208 transfer case, and it came apart with reckless abandon, spraying aluminum, gears and fluid everywhere! 

Molly and I cruised down the Straight In Trail clear to 4 Corners and met up with the rest of our group that we had left the night before. I apologized to Doug and offered my soul to repair his Dodge. After hearing that the Ford and the Jeep Guys were still stuck, I conned our group into heading back down to see the carnage. When we arrived we found several stuck Jeeps, a stuck and busted up Ford, and a broken 6x6. The 6x6 had left the night before to get parts and the jeep guys were trying to free the stuck and broken Ford. We watched the action and helped out as much as we could when John brought his dads moose buggy (Side Show) to help fix the 6x6 and free the stuck F-250. Molly and I left after all but the Ford were free.

Unfortunately not everyone was getting along and the tempers were flaring. I'm sure there was damage to the relationship between the two clubs, but I hope that we can all settle our differences and make another run together again someday. 

Molly, me, Timmy, Josh and his girlfriend, all made it out without incident, and home safely. As of this writing, John and Doug are still in the Hills. Big thanks to Ray for helping me attach my steering box AGAIN! and to John and Tina for letting me and Molly borrow their HD. Also thanks to Timmy for giving us a ride and Eric for letting us park my junk in his yard for a few days, and Doug for not having a COW.

The 2 Pics on left are from my Dana 60, and the three pics to the right of that are of the 10 Bolt rear of my '00 Chevy.

I had a good conversation with the Jeep Clubs (Midnight Sun Mud Runners) representative, Dan. We discussed the situation between both clubs and discovered several misinterpretations of the weekend. The person who made the most trouble in our eyes was not a club member, simply a quest attending the trail run. Other issues have been taken care of as well, and we both look forward to meeting on the trail again. The relationship between the two clubs remains solid, and we are already planning for Alaska Offroad and the Mud Runners to run Captain Cook. 

Brook Green

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