BIG DOGS MAIN JAMBO 2010 Trip Report

[smichaelR22]

Big Dogs Main Jambo 2010

Eric and I headed down about 5pm Wednesday night and made the drive down in about 6.5 hours.  This was the first long haul for Eric’s new trailer so the first few hours we stopped a few times to check tire temps and pressures, all looked good.

We pulled into camp late after hours and found a spot to park the trucks / trailers.  I crashed in my trailer as usual and Eric decided to just sleep in his truck as we knew in the morning after check in we would find a better site.  

Thursday:
We got up early, checked in and grabbed site 15 which had a nice fire ring, lots of shade 90% of the day and plenty of room from us and Ryan coming down later that night with the aussie buggy.  

Eric and I headed down to the sign in tent, got our bigdogs stickers and were off.  We did some cruising around the camp sites and checked out where the showers and bathrooms were, and hit the trails.  I think we ran pucker, squealer, logcabin, parts of K2, Trickle all the way to the quick sand (I think we extended the trail a little) and a few other easy fun trails.  On the way back we hit parts of Cobra or Corum, all P’Tucky, and then a few others making our way back to camp.  The Toyota decided to die in the middle of Cobra- after checking fuses, fuel pump functionality, and pulling a plug we found no spark.  We checked ignition relays and finally found a loose connection on one of the brain boxes mounted inside the cab.  Eric said it had happened once before, but came back on its own.  We were glad to have found the problem and were back on our way in less than an hour.  My buggy picked up some new crinkles trying to make the right side hard line out of Ptucky.  Couldnt make it even with some spotting by Erik from 043 that we bumped into on the way out.  The toyota 3 wheeled out the middle! At the top of Ptucky after some sharing of stories with a few of the WNYOR guys running with Erik and Eve, I noticed a thrown belt on the buggies steering system.  We got it cobbled back on, it flipped again, and I left it and headed back to camp being nice to the steering to help keep the belt on.  We headed to autozone which was about 12miles from camp and grabbed some belts.  Returned, fixed the buggy (so we thought) and settled back at camp.  We got fire going, ate some food, drank some beverage, and greeted josh, then Ryan who pulled in later.  Temperatures were great, nice cool day and dry night- good first day of wheeling.

Friday:
We met up with Matt and the samauri who was signed up in a group with a few other trucks for the day.  Josh decided to lead us and we went right for the good stuff.  We headed to KGB and bunnyhole first thing.  About half way into KGB, Eric got the Toyota pretty stuck and high centered on a huge rock on the edge of the trail.  We noticed the rear drive shaft was pretty angry and probably was near failing. After some stacking and rocking, we decided he needed a strap to minimize more shaft damage.  I pulled the buggy around and hooked up, a few tugs the yota was free and on top of the large rock.  Suddenly the combination of either tugging and Toyota braking Eric’s front tire dropped into a hole and he slowly slowly rolled onto his driver side / lid corner.  It was around 11am now.  Eric had been belted in, but braced himself with his left arm on the roof of the truck.  After he stumbled out and began to gather himself we realized his shoulder was dislocated.  We recovered the truck and rushed eric back to camp to see John who was the best medic on site. As soon as we got to camp, it was evident eric needed to get the the hospital as quickly as possible.  Eugene from Rose crawlers truck was the closest and that was the plan.  Josh and I picked up the deserted Toyota back on the trail, and got it back to camp.  With nothing to do we hit some trails and ran some pretty good stuff.  We met up with one of the Team Xrated Guys with a pretty cool bronco and kept an eye on the phones waiting to hear from eric.  My power steering again gave issues at the top of bolder after crossing over death valley and a few other trails.  We broke (literally) for lunch and got another spare belt on and continued on.  minutes later at squeeled and flipped.  i left it and wheeled the rest of the trip like that.  We ran Vtrail and both Josh and I made it up “B” climb.  It was all the both of our trucks could do but I was happy since last year I couldn’t make it.  Later Ryan and I picked Eric up at the Winchester hospital around 3PM, they had got him back together and he was feeling good considering the circumstances.  Back at camp more fire and fellowship.  After dark we headed down the charity “Mud pit” event.  Eric rode with me.  Ryan and I threw the rock lights on and pulled the buggies right in up close.  An interesting experience, and fun to watch.  Great food vendor with sausage and sauerkraut right at the mud pit! It was awesome!   Probably 250+ trucks at this point packed into camp6.  we headed back and crashed.

Saturday:
At the drivers meeting Eric got an award and recognition for the events the day earlier.  We headed out on our own and a TJ from WNYO decided to tag along.  Josh and 043Erik were competing so the plan was to hit some trails and then meet back up in the afternoon.  We drove around  a bit ran a few easy trails and then got to the bottom of corum to run the full trail up.  The 3 trucks were moving well, until the fuel pump on the TJ decided to not work.  We tried a few things, but ended up having to drag it back to camp.  A parts run would be the rest of his day.  The two buggies with eric passenger got back on the trail and headed up to the comp area on bunny hole.  Josh was spotting Eugens wife, Bunny, in class 3.  some very impressive driving and a clean run.  A few other runs we watched and the comp ended shortly after we got there.  I took ryan and eric up to the lookout as they had never been there before.  Awesome view you can see for miles once you make the ½ mile walk up the mountain from as far as you can get a truck.  Ryan finally got AT&T service!  We headed back down the mountain and decided to hit Insanity on the way back.  This was one of the harder trails in the park, an 11.  It was about 6pm when we rolled in, and shortly stopped as Nate from Twisted Toys had a Rockwell YJ stuck broke in the middle of the trail.  We found the WNYOR crew in front of him with a welder truck on job.  We got the next trucks moving again about an hour later.  By this time it was getting dark.  By the time Ryan and I got to that point it was pitch dark.  The rock lights came out and the buggies ate Insanity up!  We headed back to camp, and then down to the main field were the nights festivities were planned.  Awesome good food by the vendors again, probably 300+ trucks there now, food, music, crazy dancing , and the buggy/truck pile grew taller and taller as the night went on.  They had a slide show set up, and a bounce house for the kids!  We headed back to camp, burned the rest of our wood, and sprinkling rain finished off the evening.  It hadn’t rained in VA in 45 days.  It poured that night :)

Sunday:
We got up early, and had planed to get on the road early.  All packed, trailer tires aired up we headed out.  Grabbed some breakfast on the way and continued on.  Uneventful ride home, some rain on and off.  I made a stop in corning and picked up some H2 wheels I had found earlier in the week from one of the Backcountry guys, and we split our separate ways and all made it home safe.



This was an awesome trip.  Very unfortunate that eric got hurt, but he will recover.  It was an abrupt reminder about what we do can be very dangerous, and we need to continue take safety first.  I think harnesses are on the list for the Toyota, but the new exo cage performed very well.  Considering the circumstances, we got him out from the trail and to the hospital in good time.  Thanks to Josh again for helping with the recovery and to John Hunt and Eugeen for helping us in a bad situation.  

[etk300ex]

Great report smike.  Still had a great time even with the circumstances.  They put on a great and unique event down there, you really have to go to get the full effect.  

New exo held up great, the stock belt also held me in great, I\'m sure I would of been fine if I didn\'t put my hand up on the roof, bad move on my part.  However, defiantly got me convinced on upgrading belts and seats for sure.

Thanks again to all who assisted in the recovery.  The Winchester hospital was very nice and got me in and out in a few hours, not at all what I was expecting on the ride there haha.  

Titan averaged 11 mpg\'s for the trip, not bad for a lonely gasser :)

[etk300ex]

a few pics in the gallery, including my award.

[smichaelR22]

ill get my pics up when i have some time, i threw them on face book yesterday.

[CoraC143]

Great trip report Smike!!!!

Eric - glad to hear things didn\'t turn out too bad. Are you in a sling? Drafting hand? Great timing on the exo! Cam-locks are cool :)

Sounds like you all had a great trip!! We defiantly won\'t miss the next one.

[etk300ex]

Yes sling, left arm thank god.  Dr said I can use it to type as long as my elbows resting with no weight on my shoulder so works not too bad.  

Not in any pain at all so that good.  I damaged the nerve that runs along the back of my forearm and top of the hand and thumb so thats all pretty numb and tingly; Doc said it should slowly repair itself.

I\'m told I\'m looking at 3 weeks in the sling and a month or 2 of physical therapy, but we\'ll see.  Looks like no biking or gym or working on the truck for the rest of the summer :-(, hopefully I\'m all fixed for winter.

[CoraC143]

wow, that sounds pretty serious, feel better!

[ollllllo]

Glad to hear the EXO held up Eric. Glad your ok.

Its very impressive to hear a report about how a fellow wheelers safety was taken so seriously. never mind the fact that this one happened to be a club member and close friend.
great job guys with the first aid. This is what the wheeling community is all about, helping others.

Great report Smike.

Too bad Cora and I missed this years events. :sad:

[matt]

My buddies wife got the pics uploaded to photobucket from the jambo.  Including video of my flop on pancake rock due to having to reroute us to miss a broken jeep left from the night before hehe

http://s325.photobucket.com/albums/k372/Nancy1973_album/Big%20Dogs%20Offroad%20Park%20Sept%2010-11%202010/

A good time was had by all.

[ollllllo]

matt, where is the crew that you wheeled with from?
I recognize a couple of the rigs.

[matt]

The blazer and green k10 are from Adirondacks.  They are with the ADK trail challengers.  The 4 runner is from cuba, the others were from Virginia, and Jersey.

Been wheeling with the blazer, runnerand k10 for abut 10 years now.