I arrived at Camp Gitchee Gumee about 9am, having seen Steve Nordby and a few others on the road up. I see one lonely jeep - belonging to Jeff McLean in the parking lot. He had come up the night before and slept in the back of his pickup! It was a cold night, and lonely with just him and his daughter around. He was glad to see another Jeeper - he was beginning to think he was at the wrong place or there on the wrong weekend!
Everyone else arrived shortly thereafter, and we had our drivers meeting. It was soooo nice to be able to air down right there at the campsite and drive less than a mile to the trailhead! So much better than driving another 30-45 minutes (after you just drove for 3 or more) to the trail. Rhonda and Barry Pratte lead the first group, with Scott Hatch tail gunning - and it didn't take long for the trail to get gnarly. It was hard to see the rocks - and harder yet to stay off the green, since the trail was badly overgrown. Not so after we left! This trail required A LOT of wheelspin! I spent the day between 2nd and 3rd gear, often spinning all 4 locked tires forward while the jeep slipped backward down the hill! Lots of loose rock and dirt, steep inclines, stumps and boulders for obstacles, and deep holes to drop a tire in. The worst obstacle on the trail was steep section of loose junk that culminated in 3 ft ledge or rock and dirt. Some (including me!) had to winch, others walked right up, and one of us didn't even make it to the ledge before breaking! Scott Hatch broke not just his u-joint, not just his axle shaft yokes, but managed to have his entire ball joint separate from the knuckle! Boy it looked bad to see his hub facing skyward with the rest of his axle flat on the ground! I had visions of a log strapped up where his front left tire should be, and skidding his jeep out of there! Believe it or not, we fixed it! It took a trail weld, my spare set of widetrack axle shafts, tools from 3 or 4 different jeeps, a lot of sweat and a lot of swearing, but we did it! It took about 2 hours to get us going again.
Just after that ledge I decided to take a wrong turn (and got an earful from Barry!) and almost rolled my jeep onto its side in some deep ruts. Embarrassing!
After everyone was up the ledge, we went on to the bottom of Horsepower hill and ate lunch. We all gave Scott a hard time about the fix and compared rigs- a lot of specialty equipment was out on this run, custom skid plates, swapped trannys, swapped axles, etc. 35's and 36's all the way around, except for my 33's.
Horsepower hill was fairly easy; I think I was the only one to winch. Gotta be the 33's..... or the fact that I put myself between a rock and a tree! Jim Lambert bent a tie rod, and we did a quick swap - he did have a spare (essential equipment!). After that we all headed back down the backside of the mountain. We waited at a trail junction for Steve Nordby and some others, and a few of us played in the deep ruts and small sand hills in that area. It is nice to be on a trail ride where we do not have to be paranoid about going a foot of the trail - since the whole area is a private off-road park, you have some options you don't have on most trails. I really hope that they continue to develop Mt Madness - it needs more trails, but also an "obstacle area" would be really nice - someplace with a bunch of challenges in a small area that rigs can basically "play" on without going too far.
When everyone got back to the site we all packed up and left - except for Jeff McLean - he spent another night there alone. But he did have some extra food to eat that night - since I had forgotten my cooler on the picnic table!
Mark Murphy