Trip Report

[cookiedan@domain.elided (Daniel Nees)]

Digesters,
   Joe Costanzo, Nicole (Joe's female friend), Matt Palguta, Sele Scull,
Roger Jones, and I went back into the Pines today. We met at 8 AM and
had breakfast, then headed out to the trail. 
    We headed to the little cliff like spot that Joe had been able to
scale during Scout the Pines, but I couldn't because of my sagging rear
and my step bumper exhaust pipe combination. Now with the lift and now
tail pipes at the moment I wanted to conquere it. 
   So I lined myself up, and headed right for it. I wish I could have
watched myself do it. It was so cool. Joe said I had about 6' of air
under the rear tires. As I crested the hill my non-locked hood came
bouncing up like it usually does, only this time, it went all the way up
and stayed up! While I was still moving! Boy those breaks work good when
you really need them.
   So we then headed for the monster mud puddle.
   The road that the Monster Mud Puddle is on is called Mud Road by the
locals. With good reason. We had a weeks worth of rain so alot of the
puddles were wet anyway, if not filled up. So we were splashing along
enjoying ourselves as we neared the Monster Mud Puddle. Two puddles
before the MMP Joe heads into a puddle that I went through with no
problem, because I straddle the ruts that I saw in the puddle. Well, I
call instructions back to Joe over the CB, just in time to see him run
right into the ruts and sink into the puddle and stop moving! So I back
it up to pull him out. I figure I'll pull him out forward, since I went
through the puddle. I get my strap out and we had to loop it through his
shackles, not my favorite thing, because Joe hasn't fixed the brush
gaurd. I pull and pull, then all of the sudden, SNAP! My 2" 30' Keeper
snatch strap that I've used 8-9 times (How many pulles can you get out
of a snatch strap?), broke. 
   Leason learned, never ever again attempt to pull someone through an
obsticale, always pull them out of the obstical.
   So, after getting him out we headed for the sand dunes. 
   When we got there we started climbing hills and stuff. Matt started
down into this hole when his front axle flipped up a large, say
6"x18"x12", block of concrete and proceded to lodge it under his tranny
crossmember, tilting the tranny forward into the radiator and jaming a
fan blade into the core. With water leaking everywhere, we decided to
just drag him, backwards this time <g>, off the block. Wonce we had him
leval and in the clear we were able to assess the situation. Since Matt
had a 4 hour drive back home we decided that he shouldn't try to drive
with the radiator spraying water. So, we drove back to my house and I
pulled my spare radiator out of the garage and we swapped it in. 
   So, this trip into the Pines we lost a tow strap, and a radiator. I
would say that was better than last time, except last time we were there
for 3 days not one! <G>

Dan Nees
cookiedan@domain.elided
1979 Scout II 345, 727, D44's w/3.07's, 4" Triangle lift.
1971 Scout II 304, D30/44, D20, power steering.

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