Trip Report: 20060730
Day 2 of the MogFest was focused on a harder trail ride. There was some damage, but generally most folks made it through with little or no damage. One hallmark of the day was food - we had plenty of it. Kai, Tina and the cook crew did an excellent job of food organization and preparation. The weather was great and the friends were better. The photos below are what we saw.
Here is a very clean 416. I never got to meet the owner, but this baby is as clean as it gets. Maybe too clean for trail work.
Tina (left center) directs the serving of breakfast. They made pancakes, eggs and sausage for the whole crew of 150.
To prove that Unimog guys are NOT vehicle bigots, we allowed this hummer to come with us. Sadly, the operator did not want to go on the hard trail to show us what it would do (we already know that....).
Here is a back view of a Case Unimog backhoe with the bucket assembly removed.
Interesting wind caves in the side of the canyon.
Kathleen caught me concentrating on a tough part of the trail. Since she shot through the mirror, I did not know that she was taking a photo of me.
Matt and Nancy negotiate a narrow spot in the trail with their 416.
Our progres was blocked by this big boulder that fell into the center of the trail as a result of winter rains last year. The crew uses the winches on several of the trucks to drag it out of the way. This was a big effort that spanned the better part of an hour.
While I was shooting, Kathleen drove the 1300 through the narrow spot. She did a good job. Here Kai was spotting with Morris watching.
Despite the fact that the boulder was mostly out of the way, we still had to drive around it over a steep bank. Here, Kathleen attempts to navigate around the rock.
With the steep tilt angle, she tagged by rear tool box on the rock. Due to the tight quarters, this was pretty much unavoidable. All told, she did a great job negotiating this obstacle..
Ouch. I never checked to see if I could open the tool box after the hit as the simple act of opening it may break the hinges.
Morris Yarnell attacks a steep portion of the trail. He goosed the motor and caused some big air on the left front. He slipped and came back down on the right front quarter panel causing some damage and de-beading his tire and bending the rim.
Ouch. This did cause some damage.
The tire came off the rim and damaged the side wall as well as the wood side rail. Then we towed it up the step.
Here Morris and his Pinz are strapped up the step.
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This Pinz got air on the front tires as well.
The 421 with the "training wheels" had no problem with the step.
This 404 had no problems with the step either, but I question whether having a rider on the back was a good idea. Particularly if the driver did a "Morris" it would throw him onto the rocks.
John Wessell's synchro struggled with the step and he did damage the under carriage on this obstacle. We had to remove some of the bash-bars underneath as they were bent and interfering with the drive line.
This Pinz came up no problem.
This was a little step but offered no problems to any of the group.
This is an example of the folding in the beds near our camp site.
More intense folding in the rock.
Roberto organized a pinata bash for the kids. Later, after a few cocktails, we held a pumpkin carving contest.
Here is a good shot of the MAN with the cab in the service position. This thing is a beast that weighs 50,000 pounds. You can judge the size of this truck from the height of the person examining the engine.
The motor on this bad boy is a MAN V-10, but the displacement is not known to me. After examining the trucks, the dinner bell rang. Scott Ingham had prepared smoked bbq chicken, ribs and brisket for the group. This was served with all the fixin's including beans, rolls, potatoe salad and smoked peaches for desert. Very tasty.
Kai and the cook team made machaca, eggs, tortillas and beans for breakfast. In the rear of the photo are the pumpkins left over from the previous night's carving contest.
We had a great time with the mog group. These are very nice folks and all of us share our common interest in unimogs, camping and offroading. We are looking forward to next year's events. Many thanks to Kai and Tina Serrano for organizing, hosting and executing this great event.