Escaping Redbird SRA and earning Jeep Badge of Honor trail badges.

The day had gone great, we were having a blast riding and helping people out of tough spots. Most were tug outs for solo rigs, and helping random other Jeeps who guy stuck somewhere.  It’s a think we all do for each other in case we ever need it there is someone to help us too.  Karma.  Good Karma is better.

2x was going to be our last trail of the day. It ended up being more difficult due to the recent rains, it was very sloppy. We all had to wench, love tap, and tug each other along the way. There were a few long slides, where all you could do was ride it out and hope for the best. 

Definitely challenging but not out of our ability range. 

Then disaster struck.  We hit a popover hill and when we came down the other side slid sideways into a fairly deep puddle, not a big deal except….something sliced a huge gash on the inside of the back tire. We get the rig up and out of the puddle and assess the damage. The tire was  toast. 

• My spare is on Cinco’s rig parked at the trail exit (he chose not to drive this one, smart choice).  So I don’t have a spare.. and no one else’s spare fits my rig.
• It’s getting late in the day so daylight will become an issue.  We have maybe an hr.
• The trail is challenging enough that it was unwise to send a solo rig to retrieve the spare.

The only choice was to tow the rig out.. and it took a lot of negotiating the terrain but we managed to get us off the trail. 

This is the reason difficult trails should not be done alone.

After we limped out, I’m working on changing out the tire so we can get back to the tow rigs. And realize…the tire isn’t going to work – the backspacing is not enough on the spare we had.. Ugh.. IT WAS A SPARE RIM THAT WASN’T GONNA WORK.. Yes, I could have done the dangerous way of using ether to re-mount the tire, but it wasn’t THAT far..and I didn’t want the spend the 90 mins it would have take to dismount one tire, and remount it on the other rim.

I knew there is an access gate just a little way down the road, if we can contact the park to open it,  we can just pick up the tow rig and load Gadget up.  At this point it’s dark and the park is “closed”, we can’t hail anyone.  So we decide to continue to limp back to the main parking area. Hopefully I don’t break anything else, and only ruin a rim.

Once we get to the access gate area, Cinco realizes his Jeep can fit through a fence near the railroad tracks to the state access road. It really felt like a live escape room mission. We didnt’ have to go far ( a few hundred feet.. WOOP!)

The rest of the group decide to follow the rest of actual trail back to load up. 

So, Cinco and I get our rigs out to the access road where I park Gadget and he drives us up to the main parking area to retrieve the tow rig in his Jeep.

We grab the Gladiator and go retrieve Gadget (who is Gadget?  Click Here)

Another successful Trip.

Did I mention, that by making that trip I got another Trail Badge?  Yep. I did!

BONUS.