Chinaman Gulch - Sat May 28th, 2022
What an amazing but long day. I was wiped out after 15 hr day from when I left my house in the morning until I got home.
This was my favorite run and my new favorite trail.
Nick is a relentless animal who proved all the doubters wrong more than once. His XJ is a beast. Mike also did a fantastic job getting more comfortable as the day went on for a very difficult trail in his very capable rig.
7 of us were on the run, it felt like the perfect size to meet new people and get to know everyone a little better.
Pics and videos to follow.
Re: Chinaman Gulch - Sat May 28th
That was an awesome run! It's already making me hungry for more rock crawling trails this season.
Scott, I think you impressed all of us by maneuvering that giant truck through some of the tighter sections of the trail.
I know folks usually post clips on youtube, if you'd like to add videos to [URL="https://photos.app.goo.gl/NWoCyPLQsdPGPCNC7"]this shared album[/URL] I'll put together a 3-5 minute video of highlights. I believe I need to add your email address to let you add to the album, so DM it to me or post it here.
I think my friend and non forum member Vlad gets the award for "most bent tie rod", seriously that thing must have been tacoed 30 degrees. We "fixed" it with a winch and snatch block at the rock pile, then he removed it at the staging area and expertly straightened it by hitting it against a rock. We made the 2.5 hour drive home with no issues. His Cherokee also took some big rocker damage that we didn't even notice til back at the staging area.
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/hH28BlKl.jpg[/IMG]
Re: Chinaman Gulch - Sat May 28th
It was quite a run. I uploaded my pictures to Andrew's shared folder. I wanted to thank everyone that helped me through the different obstacles.
Re: Chinaman Gulch - Sat May 28th
I've uploaded all my photos and videos in case people want to download the videos of themselves. I also plan to upload the videos I uploaded to YouTube for easier viewing and will post those videos here
Re: Chinaman Gulch - Sat May 28th
Great trail day! It was tough and took way longer than I thought. It was great to be with a group that didn't pressure anyone and was took the time we needed so it was fun instead of frustrating. I think we experienced the "Moab effect" where as the day went on, parts of the trail that would have been super gnarly get-out-and-checkums were a non-event between crazy obstacles. Definitely a rock crawling trail by my definition and that's what all of us were there for so it was a lot of fun.
Added bonus was experienced offroaders in rigs that were "just right" and not overkill using their experience and custom work on their rigs to make it through. Vlad and the crew's trail fix on the tie rod was great. Sent a pic of Vlad beating a tie rod against a rock to straighten it out to a friend with no context and told him to guess what was going on, he said "was there a snake?" !
I'll add my photos to the shared link. I'm really proud of completing this trail and glad I went. I think if I ever did it again I'd have to camp out in the area if I'm still living where I'm at.
Oh and by the way, sweater with hoodie up plus leather jacket and winter gloves works great for 47 degree 65mph topless half door Jeep driving, although I think I'd have preferred some thermals under my jeans :)
Re: Chinaman Gulch - Sat May 28th
Also I'd like to say, this was Gerald's last Colorado trail run at least as a resident. Fitting send off I think, thanks for the great wheelin and bringing a lot of experience to the trail runs.
Re: Chinaman Gulch - Sat May 28th
That reminds me... not sure if Vlad plans on joining but big thanks to him and Andrew for helping fix my hub lock selector. We started off and when I went to lock my driver's side hub it felt funny and was stuck, I gave it a little more pressure and it went past the normal locked setting. When we hit the trail I was struggling on a tiny little rock to climb. Turned out that the hub was not locked. Nick had an allen wrench for my warn hub. Vlad took it apart, him and Andrew inspected it and everything connected to it. Still not exactly sure what happened but after taking it out the spring part of the handle mechanism seemed to fix itself. Vlad installed it back on and engaged the lock and it worked perfect, no problems with it the rest of the day.
Re: Chinaman Gulch - Sat May 28th
that jeep on ORIs that we passed in the beginning is sick af
also glad you got a picture of that rat rod crawler Ty
Re: Chinaman Gulch - Sat May 28th
How had we not thought of or done a single shared album for a run before? It's automatically more organized and everything is kept together. So simple yet so beneficial, good job Andrew
Re: Chinaman Gulch - Sat May 28th
Awesome pics and videos, looks like a great day! :thumb:
Re: Chinaman Gulch - Sat May 28th
It's really nice to see all the photos and videos everyone took! Selfishly too, it's hard to film yourself going up an obstacle :)
I got a bunch of questions about the wackier parts of my truck's "engineering", I have a build thread on the marlin forum for those that are curious:
[url]https://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=105193.0[/url]
Re: Chinaman Gulch - Sat May 28th
Also, looks like with the right settings folks can just add to the album with just the share link. That's even easier than I thought originally.
Re: Chinaman Gulch - Sat May 28th
Hot off the press, a quick video:
[video=youtube_share;4Ez1uFTpZnI]https://youtu.be/4Ez1uFTpZnI[/video]
Re: Chinaman Gulch - Sat May 28th
Great edit Andrew, thank you!
Re: Chinaman Gulch - Sat May 28th
I have some minor regrets I didn't wait for someone to record me going up whales tail. It just seemed at the time every one was going to be able to take that same line easily
Oh well, next time
Re: Chinaman Gulch - Sat May 28th
Here are some carnage pictures from the Boulder I ate rather than tip
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/7qbrFmV.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/crMYevb.jpeg[/IMG]
Re: Chinaman Gulch - Sat May 28th
Looks like the bed liner paint job held up pretty well
Re: Chinaman Gulch - Sat May 28th
What an absolutely fantastic day. I could write a ton, but in the end...this entire group is a great group of people with fantastic attitudes. I would be priveledged to wheel with any of you again.
Chinaman Gulch is the type of trail I've been building my XJ for, and I'm so damn happy with how it performed. Thank you everyone for trusting me with the little tires; I'll happily accept "relentless animal," 🤣 and Ty's award for best use of rocker guards.
My photos and videos have also been uploaded!
Re: Chinaman Gulch - Sat May 28th
[quote=Gearwhine;348562]Ty's award for best use of rocker guards.[/quote]
For the record, this award was granted based on them getting him through some insanely difficult *optional* lines! Didn't mean to imply he was belly sliding the whole trail. I didn't know those were 31" tires I thought they were 33s!
Re: Chinaman Gulch - Sat May 28th
[QUOTE=TyTheJeepGuy;348566]For the record, this award was granted based on them getting him through some insanely difficult *optional* lines! Didn't mean to imply he was belly sliding the whole trail. I didn't know those were 31" tires I thought they were 33s![/QUOTE]
Actual 31s? I measured my 4 year old 33x10.5 KO2s a week ago and they are nearly down to ~31". I think KO2s are around 32.5 new (run a little small). Time for new tires on my rig!