I'd like to thank all those that made it. I didn't write down names so I am
sorry if I forgot anyone.
Myself with my Dad, Kris and his 3 boys William,Alex and Nick, Ric and his
girlfriend (insert name here),Bill,Jed,John and Wendy, Mike and Laura, and Mike
aka. Marie (M.R.E.) 8 Jeeps in all.
We hit the trail about 2 pm. Made it up Chicken rock and stopped for photo's.
Courtright res. is the highest I have seen in a long time. We slowly made it to
camp by the Dusy creek. I really like that meadow. Then next morning we made a
ton of pancakes. Plain,blueberry and bacon! We ate like royalty! Then we packed
up and started for Thompson Hill. We stopped for a bit to winch a dead tree to
block off a bypass. Then we slowly made our way to the hill. This is the
roughest I have seen it in the 7 times I've been. It took us about 7 hours to
get to camp. On the way Jed broke a shock mount off the rear of his Jeep.
Luckily I saw it just as the spring was about to drop out on the ground. We used
a strap to limit his droop. Once at camp we settled in. A group about our size
set up camp not far from us. Some of us went over to say hello. Turns out they
had a broke Jeep still on the hill. I gave them some tube to make repairs on the
driveshaft.
Next morning I welded Jed's broke shock mount on. We broke camp and headed for
East Lake. About a mile or two from camp Marie's Jeep died, then about a minute
later Mike's Jeep died. We thought Mike had a bad CPS (crank position sensor) so
the started to swap it. Normally this only takes a few minutes. But Mike raised
the drivetrain and the CPS would hit the firewall and couldn't be removed. So
the T-case skid needed to be dropped. Still needed more clearance so a BFH and
pry bar came out. 3 hours later the new one was in. It still wouldn't run right.
So in the mean time on Marie's Jeep we found the fuel pump wouldn't run. So we
checked the fuses and determined the pump died. Luckily Jed had a pump assy that
would work. So in the mean time we swapped throttle bodies on the 2 mikes Jeeps
do see if it would fix Mikes jeep. Nope it would still not idle, but at least it
ran. So Mike and Bill headed back to camp. John towed Marie with assistance from
Kris on the steep hills to get back to camp. We got back to camp around 5. After
camps were set up we went about swapping out the fuel pump on Marie's junk.
After the swap they wanted to check to see if the pump would run. It wouldn't!
Another check at the fuse box, that was all good. Then it was like a light bulb
went on. Check the wire harness! A short time later a broke ground wire was
found. Add one butt connector and voila the fuel pump would prime! Just after
dark we had the tank back in. It was near 10 before work was stopped.
The next morning they finished up with Marie's Jeep and determined we did not
have enough time to run the whole trail so we headed down Thompson. We made good
time. It only took 3 hours to get to our first night's camp. We had lunch. Then
we started for chicken rock. We passed the group that had a broke driveshaft.
Turns out the repairs only lasted a few miles. We made it down Chicken Rock and
set up camp at Voyager Campground. Nice place to camp. We enjoyed getting
cleaned up in the lake.
Next morning we drove the easy 2 miles back to pavement. We aired up and took
PICS. Then we headed home.
I really enjoyed the trip. I know my Dad had a great time. Thanks for coming
along, looking forward to the next time.
Scott