2009 Year End Run

Friday evening it was Tom K, me, John and Jennifer Stowe, Jason Low, Doc Elliott from Rocket City Rock Crawlers, hanging out in camp waiting for it to start raining. On Saturday morning Brandon Moretz and his wife Ashley came down and met us for trail riding, and the rain finally started up. We hit the trails and headed right for Daniel. The first ledge on Daniel proved to be pretty difficult. John Stowe made it up but it put Tom on his side. The rest of us attempted it but all had to pull cable. We went on up Daniel. We made our way over to Dutch John and here we hit traffic. There was a group of Ford trucks trying to make it up but were having difficulty. They finally got up and we all gave it a shot. Doc Elliot had all the chipmunks screaming in his Toyota motor trying to get up the hill climb but he had to pull cable. Jason Low, who gets the most improved driver award for 2009, made it up after several determined tries.

Mid afternoon the rain cleared out and we decided to run up Rocky Mount before we left. We got up to Kodak and each tried different lines. The rain definitely added a new dimension to Uwharrie as it was slick and gooey all day. By this time it was later so we headed back to camp to cook supper and hang out by the fire.

Sunday we got up to more clear skies. We had breakfast in camp and then headed out to Dutch John to do trail maintenance and trash cleanup. Andy had joined us on Saturday night and was along for the ride Sunday. Andy had ridden along with us on the opening day run 2009. We picked up a lot of trash along Dutch John, trimmed back overhanging branches, and cleared some of the log jams of debris to allow water to flow. We got to the hill climb on Dutch John and Andy was giving his stock dana 35 all it could handle when he broke the pinion off the yoke. I'm not sure how it all played out next, but it ended up that John Stowe towed him back to camp. We got back to camp and had lunch and the raffle. Jason Low won the Smittybilt winch and Brandon Rummage won the high lift and winch pack, and they were able to work out a trade that better fit their needs.

It was a fun weekend. Brandon Rummage gets the tough luck award, having done all the work on his Datsun SAS and then blowing out his knee the Thursday before the run trying to finish it up. The weather posed a little problem but it wasn't nearly as bad as it was forecast and made the trails a whole lot more fun.

I need to get dues soon to get them into Southern. I can take paypal for dues if you want, my user name for paypal is tsjeepxj@carolina.rr.com Dues went down to $50/year due to the decrease from Southern.

Jason Low has decided to head back to Arizona in order to be closer to his family, so unfortunately he won't be rejoining this year. Let's all wish Jason the best of luck and he'll definitely be missed!! Stay in touch Jason and send us pic's of you wheeling out there in the desert...

I don't have any pic's, but found a youtube video of Stowe on NC4x4... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c9RKTWeHuI