Re: Scout 345 V8 starter woes.... - trail closures

[tsm1@domain.elided (Tom Mandera)]

>Lube,
>   The first time I did the starter on my Scout took about that long.
>But,after doing it 10 or 12 times I can swap one in about 25 minutes,
>including pulling and replacing the front tire.

*nodding*  I think I've changed a starter out over lunch before.... ;-)

Speaking of which... I used to brag of a spot I'd go wheelin' over my lunch
hour... 5 minutes from my office and home...

Well, I went up their last night to check things out... there was a
developer that wanted to develop this area.  The city said, "No", so he's
closed off the area to everyone... sorta.

I drove up the somewhat difficult but not too hard trail last night after
work (this trail has a deep washout almost in the center of it.. requiring
one to hold the side, which puts you tilting/leaning enough to make some
folks cringe I'm sure)... reach the top of that, around the bend, up over
the big rock pile... "NO TRESPASSING".  Dang.

However, I turned around, and headed back down... went back to 2wd, and
drove around to the other side of this "mountain" (Mount Ascension)... here,
there's a regular road that loops through the hills.. not onto Mt.
Ascension, but along the bottom in the gulch formed by it...

Well, just after you make a turn onto this "loop road", where the gate is
(which is now permanently open.. it was closed a few years back, but people
live up here now...)... well, if you look just behind the steel gate, you
*might* notice there's a swath of dirt n' rock that goes *straight* up the
side.  If I hadn't come *down* this trail before (see
http://www.tmcom.com/~tsm1/scout/antics/May_1_1998.htm ), I wouldn't have
known it existed... 

Well, *this* trail doesn't have a "No Trespassing" sign on it!

Heh heh.... back into 4-low, down into the ditch on the side of the road...
well, first time I put the tires so hard into the rear fender it just
stopped.  Second approach was more direct, and the rubbing was less severe,
and I just pushed through it, and climbed *straight* up.... heh... and
reached the look-out vantage point I was hoping to show a friend in the next
few days.  Sure enough, no signs the whole way up.  I turned around and
headed back to the main road n' home.

I just sent an email to some friends that live at the bottom of this
particular play area... asking if that back-side of the mountain is actually
"No Trespassing" or not... *technically*, it's not posted... but my guess
is, whoever did the posting just didn't figure anyone *could* or *would* try
going up this "back road"... well... then there's me!

:-)

Bummer that some of the fun rock crawls are off-limits... well, unless I
push my luck coming up the back way a bit farther than I have... 

*sigh*  

But... I guess it's "only in a Scout" to get to this place now.... dang..
there were still a few places I wanted to explore up there.. 

-Tom