"High Riders Challenge 2002"
I’d have to say this July Long was one of the best wheeling trips to date. This definitely was the place to be . The High riders club had an awesome set up and got some of the best trucks out there together. The base camp was at Cork Screw mountain. What a beautiful area. Talk about virgin trails. The scenery was spectacular. The wild life unbelievable. I have never seen so many deer before .The people were friendly, hospitable and a great group . We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and will definitely be back to the challenge next year. After wheeling with this group, I can definitely tell you that the "Knight" will be undergoing some major upgrades this coming winter
Kevin, Steve and all of the High riders- thanks for a great time.
This Video clip pretty much sums up our trip. Just click on the pic to watch
And another little clip taken by CDS. Just click on the link below
Now for more of the detailed story
Day 1
We arrived to base camp Thursday afternoon. We set up and introduced ourselves to the few people that were already there. Evening rolled around fairly quickly . Some of the High riders started setting up this huge screen so that movies could be watched in the evenings ( super idea and a great job )
Day 2
Hung out for the morning as more arrivals rolled in. We decided to do a pre-run on Dan’s bog with Dr. Dave on 44's and Wdave40 on 35's . Very cool trail. Some really nice muskeg. Going through it slowly was the best way to get through, otherwise you’d just dig yourself in. We were half way through when we noticed Wdave40 was stuck. We backed up and that was it. We were also stuck. Dr. Dave also tried to back up and yes he got stuck, so it was winching time. Winched the rest of the bog. Dr. Dave’s battery died out so we pulled one of the batteries from the Knight to get his truck going- done. We both decided to do the trail and come back around to get Wdave40. Doing the trail with the two trucks on 44’s was awesome . We plowed through. What a great trail. Hooked up with Roger on the road . He came with us and pulled wdave40 out. We chewed up the trail pretty good , so Dr. Dave figured we should do another skeg trail for the challenge the next day.
Day 3
The day of the Challenge. More arrivals. The run for this day was to be another skeg run. Participants this time were The Knight, Dr. Dave on 44's, Neil on 44's , Goliath on 40's and Jim on 40's. We didn't get too far into the trail when we encountered our first obstacle. Jim tried to climb and embankment and got stuck. Winching him out , a bead on his bogger blew. So , we're in this deep hole with a blown bead. Watched the guys work it for about 3 hours. Goliath had a spare so that worked out great. As we went on we played in the upcoming skeg for a while and on our way out Neil pulled out a fisherman on a mini van, believe it or not. Another great day. I'd like to give a great big thanks to Dr. Dave and his wife Wendy. My daughter not only fell in love with Dr. Dave's jeep but their two little dogs. She stuck around Wendy and the two little dogs for most of the day.
Day
Ready for another run. This time around 44's got together for a run. There were six trucks in total -The Knight, Dr. Dave, Neil, Wolf359, Roger and Frankenstein. It was going to be awesome. Started out with Frankenstein overheating on the way to the trail. Quick fix done by Mark from Rocky Mountain Off Road( who happened to be driving by with his group). Thanks Mark!! On our way, get into the trail...so far so good. We get to a very steep hill. Remember the rest of this guys are 3 linked. We have a mud racer. Hills and a stiff suspension don't mix very well. We see Dr. Dave and Roger work the hill. Well, here we go, it's our turn. We start climbing up when we hit a small berm mid-hill. We bounce left into the woods about five feet, we bounce right another five feet. Both hubs and front stubs bust. Still in somewhat control climbing, the carb starts dying out, Holy shit!!!!!!. Rob floors it , it kicks back in and we climb the rest of that hill at 6000 rpm on two wheel drive. Another 25 feet and we would have been toast. That was the closest to rolling that we've come to. What a trip!!. Wish I would have some footage of that ride. We didn't even realize that we had busted the front end till about 5 minutes later when we reached a small skeg area. Neil offered to pull us back to the road but we didn't want to ruin his day so we told him to go ahead with the other guys and to come back this way just in case :) . Thanks Neil!!!! So we're now in 2 wheel drive , by ourselves . Should be an interesting day. We have a picnic and then start heading back . Man, you don't realize how much that 4 wheel drive works. The smallest of holes or hills become major obstacles. We winched 16 times in a span of 3 hours . Some of the hills took 2 winches as the cable was only 150 feet long and we only had one 30 foot strap. Talk about getting a work out !. We took a break and just about that time Dr. Dave showed up. He was busted. So were the others. Wolf359 had a fire . It looks like all 6 trucks had carnage... some more serious than others. Roger pulled us through the last part of it. We were almost at the road. What a day. !!!
Finally rolling in back at camp
After the supplied yummy supper came the car meltdown and raffle winnings. The meltdown was fund to watch but then some of the bigger boys decided it was time to DRIVE over the melted down car. Wow!! What a show!!! Talk about a hoot. Quite a few trucks went for it. So did Rob with the Knight. He tried to go over the car sideways but ended up busting a rear axle. Crap!!! Man are those upgrades ever coming up, especially after watching Clayton's truck JUMP the freaking meltdown car. Wow!! His set up is awesome!. Looks like we'll be going 4 link and 35 spline front and rear upgrades this winter :)
The final carnage for the Knight
Well, as I said at the beginning , the High Riders Challenge rocked!!!. I can see this event getting bigger and bigger . Met some great people ( CDS, so nice to meet you :)) and had an awesome time.
