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Scott and I arrived in Livingston about noon Friday.
A nice short four hour tow from home.
Matt G came to meet us at the Truck stop while the
rest of the crew were repairing Scott P's driveshaft just up the
trail.
I tried a few warm up climbs but both the carb and
transmission were not cooperating very well. Neither likes
being vertical.
We went on down to a set of steep rock cliffs.
We all watched Adam go doorless up onto a very steep rock and get
hung a in a very precarious spot. As we were stringing the
winch line down to him to stabilize him for the rest of the climb,
the sky fell. Adam sat there patiently holding the brake while
the rain poured in on him through his missing door. Of course
the driver side of the Jeep was facing up!
Once he was safely up we continued to explore the
trails. The trails at Livingston are some of the most fun I
have ever been on. There are plenty of cool V slots with lots
of flexi places. Lots of fun drops and climbs along the way as
well.
Just after the rain storm cleared, we discovered some
interesting plant life there. There was a tree with huge
leaves that had these monstrous white blooms that opened just after
the rain. The blooms looks somewhat like magnolia blooms just
much bigger. And they simply exploded to life after the rain
shower.
Later in the afternoon, we went back out to the truck
stop to meet Wayne and Kristy and help Scott P load up so Noah could
make his soccer game. Noah was a trooper all day making great
commentary watching everybody climb on the rocks. And even though he
told us some cartoons scare him, he was as fearless as his daddy
climbing on the rocks.
The trail back to the camp site was quite a challenge
after the rain. The rain had literally changed the landscape
in a few minutes. One double set of ledges near the abandoned
school bus was particularly challenging and entertaining.
Once at camp I fond that Mitch had popped a bead on
his tire and was not right behind me anymore. Neal went back
to help him get it changed while Scott and I set up our jeep tent and
tried to make fire with wet wood.
I was tending a little baby flame made from trigs and
oak shavings when Neal returned with his axe to help make some real
slivers to get the fire going. Soon we had a roaring fire.
Jake become our official smore chef and gleefully
created excellent smores for appetizers as we waited for our steaks
to cook. See our camp
fire cooking blog for the recipe.
Sometime later - I think we all got abducted by
aliens or something because it was suddenly near midnight was we
were enjoying the best steak I have ever eaten along with potato
boats and fire roasted corn. And for desert my mom had packed
a huge box of apple and cherry turnovers for every one to enjoy.
Saturday down cool and slightly foggy beside the
beautiful lake. The smell of gutted cat fish drifted in the
air.
Once everyone was up. Some elected to sleep in
- right Neal? We started work on Mitch's bent rim. We
were able to collect enough tools from the group to reshape the rim
to where it would hold air. The next task of course was
seating the bead. Just as we said, "Hey I wish we had
some ether like those guys on TV," Adam produced a can of
ether. While we all knew the theory , none of us had any
real experience with this trail fix but we all wanted to see it
work. So we gave Mitch lots of conflicting advice about how to
spray the ether into the tire and how to light it. The first
attempt caused lots of flames on the surface but no sealing.
So, like trying to recover the dud firework from the fire, we tried
again. This time with a little longer squirt into the tire.
Mitch lit it up again and it looked like it was just going to burn
on the surface again. But Mitch kicked the tire and BOOM.
The tire jumped right onto the bead. Mitch at the same time
parted company with the lighter and ether can in opposite directions
as he jumped about three foot in the air. No one inquired
about his shorts.
We all agreed that was the coolest trail fix
of the weekend.
See page two for more about our trip back out, Adam
loosing his tailgate, watching Suzuki
4x4's
and our chat with the friendly forest ranger.
Jeep Pictures
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