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Second S10Extremist Bash May 2001 Eldorado North Carolina USA
It was about 4:30 Saturday afternoon by now, and we were all a little hungry and thirsty. Mark announced a 1-hour break so that we could all head back to camp, get a bite to eat, use the rest rooms, etc., before returning for an evening trail ride on Dutch John. It was pretty hot and dry, and water was worth its weight in gold by now, so the break was welcome... Don't let that fool you into thinking that I wasn't anxious to get back on the trails, though! By this time, everyone had had plenty of time to get to know one another, and I personally enjoyed the opportunity to see how other folks had modified their trucks. It was a welcome change from the usual trail ride where I have the only S-Truck. I learned a lot about suspension lifts as well as all of the little quirks that are specific to S-Trucks. And as most S10 owners know, many times S10's don't get a lot of respect from other 4x4 brand owners! It was nice to be in the majority for a change! One confused Toyota owner blurted over the radio as we drove by him, "This is Toyota country... You guys should just turn around and go home!" Funny... his claimed 'Toyota Country' didn't offer much that a stock S10 couldn't handle!
The campground quickly filled with the smell of burgers, steaks, and chicken cooking on open grills... in my own opinion, one of the finer points of camping. Of course, any time food is involved I get all warm and fuzzy, but there's something about grilling your food on an open flame while sitting back and relaxing out in the forest. My head was full of memories from the previous trail ride, and also flooded with images I had imagined about what Dutch John would look like. I had been told that it was much more challenging and longer than any of the trails I'd seen so far. Woo-hoo! Soon enough we all had our bellies full of grilled goods and junkfood, and were ready to head back out into the great wilderness! Dutch John was everything I had imagined! More steep hills and rocks, but this time many more rocks, and larger ones. The steep hills were more frequent, and the trail offered several creek crossings as well as tight foliage. The trail also made a great setting for photos! Several parts of the trail had such quantity and quality of rocks that spotters were necessary to help navigate through them. Dutch John was the kind of trail that every 4x4 enthusiast wishes he/she had just down the street. I was happy to hear that we were only about 1/3 of the way through when Mark called back to tell me that I should ride up the next hill with him so that I could photograph others on their way up... Seemed like a great idea at the time!
Angie McDaniels joined me with the video camera strapped to her waist so that we could both capture the action from atop the hill... She rode in the back and I claimed 'shotgun' next to Mark for the big climb. This is the big hill that I'd been hearing about all weekend... This is the type of hill you either make it up or you don't... there's no in-between! The hill is extremely steep with at least two or three curves along the way. The trail is deeply seated in the hillside, so it is basically surrounded on both sides by steep banks, probably 3 to 5 feet high. These banks leave the drivers with little choice of what line to drive... basically right down the middle is the only choice! As if that weren't enough, there are plenty of big rocks thrown in to help bounce a wheel off the ground and lose traction on! I wasn't worried, though, because, well, I'm immortal and all. Furthermore, I'd been riding with Mark all weekend and he seemed to me to be a skilled and careful driver, so the odds seemed to be in our favor... of course, I've told myself the same thing about roulette before, too... And up we went! A strong, steady pace, right from the beginning... not so fast that the bouncing caused a loss of traction, and not so slow that we couldn't conquer the small rocks. Everything was going fine until we neared the final bend at the top of the hill. We were home free! And then the Baby Blazer started to stumble... Hesitated a little more, and then died completely! Certainly not a good place for it to take a nap! Mark got on the brakes right away and we came to a steep, yet complete stop. Hmmm... We sat for a moment and all looked at each other, then smiled before Mark cranked on the ignition and brought the Blazer back to life. Whew! A close one! Still not out of the woods yet, though! Regaining forward momentum without spinning on the steep incline could be a problem. Spinning could lead to slipping, and slipping to tumbling! Tumbling bad! But Mark was an ol' pro, and had us moving in no time... Just as the grin started to return to my face and the final curve was just within reach again, the Blazer sputtered and shut down... We all looked at each other again and only had a moment to smile before we started slipping backwards. Mark had both hands gripping the wheel for all its' worth to get leverage for his firmly planted feet on the brake. But still, we slid backwards. And continued to slide backwards. Now, I have to take a break from the story to give you some background on me. I've been in a fair number of car wrecks, rollovers, barrel rolls, motorcycle wrecks, etc... my point is that I've developed a certain instinct that tells me I'm on the verge of impending doom. It's a welcome feeling for me, similar to the feeling most people get when they return home after a long time away. So when we started to slide backwards down this very steep, winding slope, I got that familiar feeling that we were in for an exciting trip back down the hill! I almost alerted Mark and Angie to what lie ahead (behind, actually) us, but then I decided that there was no need to alarm them any further... At this point, we were all just passengers. There really wasn't much driving to be done. Even if he had been able to control the truck as it slid back down the hill, there would have been no way to stop it at the bottom and we would have flown right into some big trees. It was another one of those situations where you just hang on and enjoy the ride... I've learned to go limp in these situations as to minimize injuries. Sort of like skiing tumbles. Anyway, backwards we went, faster and faster until we hit the bank behind us. It instantly and firmly flipped the Blazer up onto the passenger side, busting out the rear and side window. But don't think that was the end of it! We continued to slide down the steep slope with the truck on its side until we slid into the right bank, smashing the top of the truck and breaking the windshield and sunroof out. We slid just a little further with the side of the truck grinding the ground and the roof grinding the bank... Right good fun, I say! When we finally came to rest, I wasn't completely sure which way was up. It seemed like we were upside down, but gravity didn't go along with this scenario. Suddenly, I saw people looking down through the driver's door, and after my brain did some slow calculations, I decided we must be laying on the passenger side of the truck. They got the door open and Mark crawled out through it. This gave me enough room to stand up, pull the seat forward, and check on Angie. Her nose was bleeding, and she was definitely upset, but otherwise she seemed to be coherent and moving around OK. I crawled out to make room for her escape.
Once we were all out, we sat on the bank and underwent an inspection from our on-duty Paramedic, Jeremy! Some quick cleaning of Mark's cut got him in good condition, but Angie took a little more work. Jeremy was afraid that her nose was broken, and that she might even have a concussion. Jeff had rushed up the steep hill to see if she was OK, and in the process triggered an asthma attack. Luckily, Jeremy had an inhaler that got Jeff back in action. Chad climbed the nearest hill in an attempt to get a cell phone signal so that he could call 911, but even at the peak of the mountain there was nothing. (Somewhere during his climb he lost his camera... luckily, it was recovered the next day by Super Dave 'Puddle Skipper' Greer. Thanks, Dave!) I stayed at the top of the trail to stop any 4-wheelers, motorcycles, or trucks that might be attempting to go down the hill and right into Mark's wrecked truck. By the time Chad and I returned to the wreck, Aaron, Jeremy, Angie, and Mark had loaded up and headed out to get to the hospital. The rest of us began the recovery process... We had to, at the very least, get the truck off the trail so that no one would hit it the next morning. It seemed like a simple enough task at first, but proved to be quite a test of ingenuity. The main problem was controlling the truck while it came back down the hill with a broken tie rod. With an intricate maze of safety straps and Jeff's winch, we had it up on its wheels pretty quickly, which left us with the difficult task of slowly winching it down the hill. We got it about halfway down the hill before we got ourselves in a mess with the winch completely extended and one strap completely tight with no way to release it. By this time, the truck was nicely aligned in the center of the trail, and pointed in the right direction. This is the point at which Super Dave decided that he couldn't wait another minute to drive the Baby Blazer... he hopped in and strapped on the seatbelt, grabbed the wheel tightly, and proclaimed his desire to have the strap cut loose so he could back the truck the rest of the way down the hill. Under normal circumstances, we would have made every effort to relocate the winch cable, loosen the safety straps, and continue our slow descent down the hill with the Baby Blazer... Unfortunately, time was working against us! There was a serious storm moving in, and we had a good mile of difficult trail to crawl back out of after our chores were done with the wreck. With the super-slick clay soil and the many rocks that we had to climb on our way out, we were afraid that if we let it rain on us very much we wouldn't make it back out until the storm cleared. So, a quick vote was taken, and we decided to cut Super Dave loose in the one-wheel-steering wreckage! I had the utmost faith in him! We picked up all of our gear, cleared the area, and sliced the last safety strap... and there he sat! We had blocked the wheels with rocks, though we didn't think they were enough to hold the truck by itself... But when Dave let off the brakes, he didn't get the ride he had hoped for! So we gave him a nudge or two from the front, and off he went! On his way down, he let out a couple of 'Yee-Haws' or something similar just to show us how excited he was to finally get to drive the Baby Blazer! At the bottom of the hill it got away from him slightly, the front end slid around, and given that it had started to rain, we decided to let it roll on back in the direction it was headed. It wasn't off the trail completely, but there was no danger of anyone coming up on it too quickly to stop, and there was room for folks to squeeze by, so we jumped in our vehicles and headed for camp!
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