Well, I'm back already.
It was a cold and windy Thursday night. Temps dipped below freezing and the mountain top was gusty. Dan and Sarah arrived first, with Tom and I shortly behind at about 7:45p. Harry and Hannah after 11p and Shane about midnight. Tents were erected, cargo was shuffled, and prep for the chilly night completed.
After a fitful and shivering night, the morning sun was welcomed. Still cold and gusty though. Brrr! With hot coffee and breakfast consumed, rigs prepped, sign in completed and we headed out toward the old office and L3 area. We got everyone up to the top of Stair Step after a few challenges and then pointed toward C and CV trail.
Somewhere during all of this, I broke a lower rear shock mount and shock shaft. No problem? Let's keep going. I had no idea where the pieces ended up. This would come back on me later...
Off to Yellow Jacket and trail 8 where Dan rolled a tire bead off. Some creative jacking and safety winch cable had the tire remounted and bead reseated and back "up" to pressure. Then off to Trail 2 and back to camp for lunch.
Full bellys and supplies replenished, we were off to trail 1C, Pole Line, and Crawler Ridge. A few challenges met with success, one way or another. At a couple of points, I had to stop and return the coil spring to its proper location. Apparently, the shock provided a droop limiting function.
We tried a couple of limiting strap ideas with a small ratchet strap but none were successful for very long.
At about 4:30p, we decided to return again to camp but hit black "O" and Walk In The Park on the way. After the steep decent into "O" and completing the short section before the climb out, I lost brake pedal. I found that the caliper brake hose had torn off, probably from too much droop out. Oh, and the spring had popped out again too. I crimped the hard line off and jacked until the spring would go back into place. On the way up and out of "O", the spring vacated again, so a quick tire climb helped Tom pop it back into place again. We were getting pretty adept at this task.
On the way back to camp, I met up with an old club member, Josh from western NY, briefly. He was leading a group of friends around in his JKU. Always good to catch up with friends!
We arrived back at camp with no more spring issues and no more brakes. I think we reseated that spring 6+ times. I made the call that my "new" pile was too broken to continue on Saturday. So I loaded up, said my farewells, and headed uneventfully home.
A hot shower and warm bed were very appreciated!
