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Azusa Canyon 7-7-01

Are we having fun yet?

The day started like any other Saturday the sun comming over the horizon, the birds chirping, the cat snoring by my head, and the alarm neglecting to wake my butt up on time. Fortuantely I was able to wake myself before it got too late to throw my clothes on, wake my friend Rob the radio guy, and run out the door. After a quick fill up of Del Taco breakfast buritos and coffee we were on the road. Fortunatey there was no traffic on the road so my 30 Min. cusion time I had planned on having wasnt needed. Rob and I arrived at the El Encanto restraunt at about a quarter to 8 and waited for the others to show up. An hour later we decided to continue up San Gabriel Cyn road to see if we could find the OHV park to see if the others might have just passed by and headed right to the pit. Finding noone around we just said the heck with it and entered the OHV park by ourselves. After locking the hubs and securing what we could we headed down to the pit to go exploring.

It wasnt long after we entered the OHV area that we found the others who we were supposed to meet. As it turned out we were the only ones who were actually on time. Everyone else was late and just bypassed the restraunt as it turned out. As a group we moseied over to the only halfway decent mud pit that was there. While we were caravaning over to the mud we found a stock early Bronco (yes some stock ones still exist) flooundering in the sand. At that point Jeremy pulled out his tow strap, one that would get more than it's share of uses that day and pulled the Bronco out. After saying our thanks and your welcomes we continued to a decent sized mud pit. Unfortunately for Chris (429Stroker) the mud pit was more pit than he bargined for. At that point I tied my tow strap to him and pulled him out while Jeremy prepared to do some mud runs in the same ditch. After two or three runs Chris decided to play in the mud too. After a few runs back and forth the mud got gooey and a little deeper than Jeremy thought it was and soon got stuck. This was no mattter to him as he was prepared. Soon after he was unstuck and with our bellies starting to growl we all decided to break for lunch. Lunch ended up taking a few hours while we all swapped stories and watched the Chevy boys get stuck in their overweighted suburbans. After a while I got restless and decided to just go out and play and get people unstuck. One colossal stuck I helped out with (was the 3rd anchor) was a brand spankin new F250 Super Dukey whom it's new owner stuffed deep in a mud hole. This thing was stuck so fast that the FS Volenteer had to use 2 snatch blocks and a suburban and myself as anchors. All were connected to an awesome '70 F-whatever 4x4 with everything a trailboss would ask for Christmas on it including a PTO driven 20,000 pound winch in the bed. After a few pulls the F-250 was finally out nd ready to sink somewhere else. :) After that bit of excitement and a few pulls later I went over to a mud pit that was getting gooey by the minute. After seeing a lifted suburban go though Jon (Jeremy's Brother) decided to show them up by taking his mom's new Powerstroked Excursion through the slop. The slop had other plans though. 2 breaks of a tow strap and many other attempts later the FS Volenteer was about to step in when a bystander in a jeep decided to give it a try with his new Warn winch. The first couple of attempts only suceeded in pulling the jeep 2 feet closer to the wollowing Excursion, but after I hooked up to him with what was left of my tow strap. At this point the Jeep had a chance of pulling the excursion out but not a very good one. After a couple more pulls that only suceeded in taking my Bronco and the Jeep closer to the Excursion I decided to give the jeep and the poor stressed winch a hand. I set my Bronco into low range and pulled on the Jeep. Only then did the 8000 Lb + Excursion finally get back on solid ground. After unlatching from the Jeep and securing my strap I decided to go through the same hole. I made about 4 or 5 runs through the hole each time going further and further before bailing out until I was passing through the slop without turning the wheel. What happened next was two acts of absentmindedness causing one heck of a stuck. After the run before I had switched out of 4WD to make a rather sharp turn (U-Joints bind up if I make a sharp turn in 4WD) and entered the line to run through the slop. When I got my turn again I went for the whole length, in 2WD. When I started bogging down I tried to bail out knowing my front axle was on somewhat solid ground and when I noticed it wasnt biting I realized my folly. Quickly i hit the 4WD switch on the dash and hoped for the best, which didnt happen. At this point i was stuck good. With a little bit of crawling around the back of my bronco and hanging off the tailgate (I had gone the whole day without sinking my feet in the goo I wasnt going to start now) I got Jeremy's strap connected to my truck and was pulled out in no time.

All in all It was a great day. I learned a lot, didnt break anything, and had a LOT of fun. I hope to go back soon.

 

 

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