Welcome to Botches Off-Road. Join us as we talk about everything from gear reviews to trail stories, tent camping to rock landing, and all things to do at the outdoors.
We have a pretty special episode. We've got two other guests here today. We've got Mike, we have Shane.
How are we doing guys?
Doing well. How are you?
Doing good. We brought these guys on because we're going to do a little bit of a poker run decompress.
It's been what, seven days since. So it'll be good to talk about what happened, the experiences everybody had, and these guys are part of our group too.
So it is only fair to have everybody's insight on this. So guest to start off, did anybody have any breaks later down the road here other than Mark?
Other than me. I mean, Mark hasn't talked about his breaks yet.
No, I haven't yet.
I mean, now being on the Toyota side of the house, I'm on and healthy.
Yes.
Yeah. I think we have the whole group of Toyotas here. I think Mark, you ended up debuting your tire, right?
Yes. That was the last obstacle. That was my fault. I should have aired back up from 10 PSI to at least 15.
But I was like, ah, we can do it. Make it for the rest of the day.
I blew out a driver's side shock. So that's fun.
Oh, I actually, yeah. Yeah, that's.
That's not your problem.
Yeah, it's not really your problem. It wasn't your car. Yeah, but I have to fix it.
He does have to fix it.
Isn't your car stranded in like Cedar Springs with like a bad wheel bearing or something or two of them?
No, I made it home.
I gave it back to him. It's in front of the shop looking cute and broken.
Yard ornament. It's the best job for it.
But I think I had a slight D bead.
You know, every time I went to work, I had to fill up to go to work. I have to fill up to go to lunch and have to fill up to get home.
And that was really annoying. I got a lot of compliments on my air compressor system in the parking lot of my job.
And you guys sell that here?
Oh, that's pretty cool. Do you like go off road? I look at my truck and I go, nah, I just like to air up in parking lots and show off my shit.
I give a question. Do you actually use that for off roading? No.
It's just a really expensive lawn ornament.
To be fair, if we didn't have so many mall crawlers around, they wouldn't have to ask this stuff.
So much you can assume nowadays, man.
But so, you know, like I was telling Mark here when we were recording last night, I did a little bit of guy math, as we would call it.
And like, well, shit, I'm going to have to, you know, have somebody take my tire off and rebate it and anything.
So since it's already coming off, Joe's got this killer price on these wild pigs.
I'm like, man, you know, if it's going to have to come off anyway, I might as well just throw new tires on it and just call it a day.
So, so somehow, somehow a $35 D.V.
That convinced my wife and just saying, Hey, you know, that's a really nice Christmas present.
And I know you haven't got me anything. And technically it's my money.
And she's like, yeah, we can make it work. I'm like, sweet.
So, you know, $800 later, but I have five brand new wild pigs with like less than a couple of thousand miles on them.
And that was awesome, man, took it took it to never enough had him had them back up to the garage door to drop all the tires off because it wouldn't fit my FJ, of course.
And they put those on. And then of course, I'm right down like I told my boss I'd be there by 12.
It's like 1145. And I'm like, yeah, your spare tire carrier ain't fitting these on here because your tire is so big, it's hitting the bumper.
And I'm like, God, I'm like, dude, come on, dude, just get it on.
And they're like, we can try a spacer. And I'm like, just do it. Just just get it done. Just do whatever you're going to do.
So they go hunting for spacers and they find like a Chevy like five log or six log spacer.
Six put it on there. Yeah, six log. They put it on there. And they're like, yeah, this might work, but we're going to need bigger.
They're like, hey, we're going to have to do like a two inch spacers that okay, I'm like, I don't care. Just get my fucking spare tire up there, please.
I got to go to work. So they end up getting a two inch spacer and put my put my tire up there.
And they're like, hey, just so you know, I definitely get like a relocation kit later. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And hey, man, I've been running two inch spacers for the last two years. You're good to go.
Yeah. I mean, it's just on my door. What am I worried about?
Yeah, except I can wear it.
You're really good.
Yeah, I could hear it the whole time.
Every time I hit a bomb.
I'm not used to these tires being so stiff. Like just they feel like everything's bumpier.
This is like a 30 psi and just ride around on them for a month.
Yeah. Yeah, they're at 35 right now. And I put them on to 20 and I was like, ah, this rides a lot more like my work horses now like back back to those.
So so now that now that my repair, which wasn't even like an issue is all fixed and my my 1d beads fixed and nobody else had any issues, guess we'll we'll move on to the start of the day for the poker run.
I think we all met up and ever and except for I guess, Shane and everyone we met up at Alex's house. We met Mike and ever.
Everybody aired down everybody stole one piece of my air down kit.
I will definitely say not having my apex deflaters. I don't think I would ever do that again.
I was so much I'm like, everyone's like, I have to I have to deflate us and then Alex has one mark has one and we're all just waiting for each one to get done.
It's like, man, this sucks. Oh, the deflaters are a lifesaver. I bought the quick releases for him. Pop them on walk away. Yeah, you have the same thing as I do now.
Yeah, you can't beat them. Yeah, I like you can definitely beat them.
So well, you get one of those cracking kids or something.
Apex has actual valve stem that has a little valve on it and you thread your your pressure gauge on you pull the stem and it takes me about 10 seconds to air down all four tires.
Yeah, yeah, which you know what I don't need. But I think I think I like the quick releases a little bit more just I think preference.
I like to be able to just pop them on there and then throw them in the side of my truck and I don't know that I need anything crazy like that. I feel like I just air down way too much.
So you're like 10 seconds is a lot.
I'm already I'm already like walking over to Mike to talk to him before I'd like turned back around and my tires are flat.
So yeah, we did that and then of course, of course, we had some issue with coms so we had to share coms and then Shane was in the dark.
It wasn't even my thoughts on my kids.
Which we kept talking about you're like hey make sure you don't slam on your brakes so Shane gets the picture like use your blankers.
But you know Alex still has to give me my coms back but it's kind of a hoarder.
Oh, and Shane we we voted on the trip and decided that you can become a member of botches.
Yeah, I'll get the detail and get it set up.
Yeah, so apparently you talk to the group message.
I don't know man you talk to MST being a part of the botches is like it's like a death warrant or something.
I came from Land Rover so I've always been.
So that was so we started on coms of course and Alex also didn't have navigation to we forgot his phone at home.
Yeah, it was a guy was wrecked because he slept until eight which is when we were supposed to meet.
No, we're supposed to meet at 830 but I still had to do chores.
So I and my wife ended up having to improp to lead and which we did.
We did all right.
We direct drop the cords at what 1030 11 something like that or 10 o'clock right 10 o'clock and see and put them into her navigation locked them all in.
And then we kind of went backwards.
I think right we did.
Yeah, we hit six first.
Didn't we? Yeah, we did.
And I think six was just the long coast basically like there's just a long drive.
There's nothing really special about it.
If we did it from the other direction then there's a decent hill climb but we went down hill climb.
Yeah, on the other side when we did that over the summer for third gen weekend the other side that will climb.
So knowing what we know now I guess.
It's a walk.
Was it was it easier going the way that we did or would have been easier the other way.
I'd say they're about the same either way.
Right.
The hill climb is just the hill climb just fun.
It's just a neat hill climb.
Right.
Because it's just a nice.
It's just a nice gentle rocky hill climb.
Nothing crazy.
Yeah.
So then then we moved to that one and we found the cards.
I honestly thought it was going to be a bigger flag or something but it was like a little electrical company's flag.
So I kind of jump right out at us.
Derek's like.
Derek's like we'll have nice big flags that you can easily see and there are these itty bitty little contractor flags.
Yeah.
I like how he marked it. He's like they'll be blue or maybe they won't be maybe they'll be blue.
Yeah.
I'm like what am I looking for.
Yeah.
By the way we're on a logging road.
Yeah exactly.
I was just about to say that too.
We got orange logging flags on the left and right and we're like you see cars.
You see him.
No.
I was thinking on the random pink and blue ribbons that have been strung out over multiple years.
Exactly.
Yep.
I'm thinking like hunting flags or what.
I was thinking he would use like rocks and valley flags or like dune flags you know that makes sense being an off road event.
Maybe even an MST flag or something just.
Right.
One of those out.
Yeah.
So we did we did that simple trail there.
We and then we went to number five and that was a off camber hill climb and the way that that was described is that you'll go down the same way that you came up if you try to follow the trail west.
It's a dead sense.
We did five last.
Oh you're right.
That was the bad one.
Yeah.
The D.
Yeah.
That's.
Yeah.
You guys are right.
After five trucks had already gone up it.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So we started with one after we hit six.
That's what it was.
And that was on supposedly a blue trail.
That was called the Everett sunrise Lake Hill Climes and we did that one.
It was a small challenging hill climb.
We entered from the north and we were driving a beast I think.
Yeah.
And that one we ended up.
Yeah.
We ended up going up that one I guess backwards and I guess it wasn't really all that hard to get up it.
If you just missed the one rock that smacked my axel like the first time I tried it.
So that was like that one scared me and see and I was like it was a dead stop.
Like we was just driving and then don't and everybody's head went forward and we're like oh there's something there.
We hit it.
So that was that was nice.
We got up top of that and then right at the top of that freaking hill it already starts coming back down.
We we grabbed the flags or we grabbed the cards up there.
We met up at the bottom of the hill and then I think everybody made it up that one easily I think.
I don't think anybody's got a problem with that one.
Yeah.
Even the black truck walked up that one.
Yeah.
And then we met up at the bottom and we were just kind of chit chat and talking about your trail so far and then we had a big ass Tahoe come through and that was like what it was.
How much lift with that on there six to eight.
Six in the list and even.
The frame it's not that the frame was up with the body.
Wasn't it.
The body wasn't even.
Yeah.
It was just that it was a Tahoe GMT 800 Tahoe on a 3500 frame that was shortened.
Right.
There you go.
Yeah.
That was just a really cool build to we watched him go up that we had to sit there and watching.
I thought he was just so high that some of these steeper hill climbs are going to be kind of an issue just being so top you know top heavy.
But he walked right up to the bottom.
What was the YouTube channel we should give him a shout out.
Bro.
Not built but.
Yeah.
I'll have to look that up.
We'll link it.
What is it.
Yeah.
Yep.
And we'll have to we'll have to link him in the in the comments here.
Yeah.
The comments like it's YouTube.
Yes.
But.
And then we so after we did that one we hit down to number two and that was a kind of a taller hill climb.
We pulled into that and that had kind of like a little play area.
Yeah.
There's a whole.
Bunch of little stuff that we could have went and actually played in.
And I don't think we really ended up doing that.
We just kind of pulled in and started scouting out for the for the climb once the guys was at the one when they had the children of the corn.
Yeah.
So when Mike and I we went up we went up the one hill we thought it might have been up of the one of the easier sides because no one Derrick you're kind of thinking it was going to be maybe on that one of the easier.
Yeah.
They kind of tease potentially making one of them poker runs.
That's why I thought on that.
On that side because they teased about it.
Right.
So Mike and I went up that one and we're we're kind of looking around for a flag because obviously they're not super easy to find.
So we're sitting there looking for a small pink or blue or yellow or orange flag with cards next to it.
And and then we look at the distance.
Mike goes.
Hey, do you see those kids?
And then they we get on the other side.
Yeah.
And so it's just a couple of times when somebody's proud of the two kids.
If they're proud of me and my wife we're like what the fuck is he talking about?
I don't why it wasn't probably 60 70 yards out.
There's yeah it's like those like three or four kids just standing in a line staring at us by by like the lining of the woods.
And we're like are those the hikers that met us on the other side.
Yeah.
But yeah, but you didn't see the parents before.
Division and we're like, yeah.
All right.
Well, we're not sticking around here.
This is it.
Yeah, this is it.
So we went down and then Mark, you could hear him.
All right, Lincoln's up here.
So we went and tried to get up that hill.
And I think I ended up putting it in low gear and then third.
That's what you guys were recommending.
Putting it in low gear third.
Went up that pretty easily, got up there.
And then I think we found the cars right off the bat up there.
And then I followed you up in four high and drive.
And then then Mike.
Mark.
Oh, yeah, then Mike.
And then Mark tried like 100 times.
Yeah.
And then I decided to air down to 10.
Got up there with no issues at that time.
Yeah, we'll just get more out of that hill.
You Shane gave us some valley network.
I think you could have.
Yeah, I think she did.
If he aired down to like 15, I'd made it.
I know he was at 20 like I was.
Yeah, I was one of the PSI.
And oh, yeah, I would.
Yeah.
And I was at 15.
Yeah, you would have rolled right up it.
Yeah.
I think I was at like, you know, my exact math.
I think it was like a 13 and a half, something like that.
Because I meant to hit 15, but I was too busy chit chatting
or waiting for another piece of air equipment
to complete my collection.
So I ended up being like 14 and a half on one, 13 and another.
So it just gave good traction to every other wheel
when A-track was engaging.
Yeah.
It's quite the hill climb.
The last little bit is the worst part
because you got the little zigzag and just loose sand.
It just is a lot of loose sand right at the top there.
Yeah, I did actually.
Yeah, I actually slowed down when I got up there.
I didn't actually make it all the way up clear.
Up or about Shane stopped.
I think I stopped a little before that,
backed it up and hit it again just from where I was up there
and got up the rest.
But I just didn't have enough.
Especially if you're open, open, open.
That would be terrible, open, open, open.
I'm close, close, close.
You have a front, rear, and center?
No, I thought you just had what you were talking about.
Oh, lockers.
Yeah.
No, I just have a rear.
I had my rear locker on.
Yeah, same.
I think yours and Mark's both.
I don't think you need a center locker
because I don't think you have a center diff.
I don't think so.
But the third gen forerunners, we
have a center diff and the front and rear.
Oh, I'm just rolling center.
Right, that's all that was on the lock truck, too.
The silver truck is locked in the center
and then has a rear locker.
Oh, right.
So did we hit lunch after that one or was it after number three?
We hit lunch at number three.
You meet at three.
You meet at three, Gavin.
Yeah, so Mark and I did three, which was like a little woodsy
loop mud.
There's lots of mud.
Lots of mud.
We definitely did some jumping and skipping around
getting through that.
And it was pretty rough.
Sienna Bumpter had a shit ton of times.
Came out of there quite concussed.
My son, thankfully, was somewhat secured.
He was holding on to the car seat for dear life.
And now we made it out of that pretty good.
It was just that one little loop going around the corner.
That was pretty much the one issue.
That one's fun.
That whole loop is fun.
It was cool.
You could definitely feel like the ice, the large chunks
of ice in there as you were going through it.
But yeah, we made it through that one.
That was pretty cool.
And then we ended up stopping to get lunch.
And what did everyone eat?
I know what three of you ate because you ate what I ate.
Mike, what did you eat?
Did you have uncrustables or something?
No, we had frozen pizza from the night before.
Yeah.
Yeah, actually.
We ate easy with it.
I was going to bring steaks and Lisa was like, no,
don't waste your time cooking steaks.
We won't have that kind of time.
Had I known we had that kind of time,
I would have definitely brought steaks.
Me too.
I knew we had 45 minutes.
I didn't bother bringing the cooking set up.
I just threw lunchables for the kids.
Yeah.
We brought lunchables for the kids
and we had the frozen pizza.
So when I was cooking up hot dogs, Mike walked up to me.
He's like, please tell me you're not cooking up steaks.
And I looked at it and I'm like, no.
But in my head, I was like, we were going to too.
We were going to.
And then by the time I got done cooking all the hot dogs,
I was like, we could have cooked up a couple of steaks
in that same time.
What am I doing with my life?
So he got me like, I told C and I said, from now on,
if we ever go anywhere, we're just cooking steaks, not hot dogs.
It's all red meat.
Yeah, mostly.
And we had the Kogles, Jalapeno, Cheddar hot dogs.
And then C and I have like chili cheese brats.
And man, I tell you, I think, God,
we didn't have any kind of issues on the trail.
But at home.
Yeah, those hot dogs are one of those hot dogs
that you eat at home or at like a barbecue with a toilet.
Like, I got.
Dude, what's your need?
I got home and it was like, it was explosion, man.
It was bad.
But it was kind of worth it.
They were delicious hot dogs.
That's just kind of.
They were delicious.
You end up paying later.
So we we ended up doing the yeah, we did three.
We had the the carbs are pretty much right at the beginning
anyway.
So I don't think we.
Oh, wait, was that the one that we're right at the beginning?
So we didn't have to do it.
But we did anyway.
Yeah.
But then we so then we kind of chit-chatted for a little bit
because from experience Alex's experience and everybody else's
that's done it before the path from three to poker run number
four was pretty rough.
Lots of mud, lots of lots of deep holes.
Pretty true.
It was dry.
I did the best trail on the loop.
Yeah.
So, you know, we I really was I really wanted, you know,
to our group to hit all five.
I just I don't know.
I was just kind of pushing for it and I was still kind of having a blast.
So we ended up we ended up, you know, making that making that run from three
to four and God did we find some stuff?
But we most of it was passable.
You know, between bypasses and stuff like that.
I did.
Yeah.
I did sink my truck into a hole and have to have Mark back me out of that one
pretty quick.
Yeah.
But as you know, I was kind of the tester to so if I could make it just about
anybody else could that, you know, with my stock tires and everything pretty much.
So yeah, I pretty much drove into that hole and I just felt that same
thud like I hit something and everything stopped.
And I'm like, yep, not even going to try to climb up that one.
So everybody in the car just shifted forward.
Yep.
They looked at me.
I rolled the window down and I heard blub blub blub blub blub blub blub blub blub blub
and I got right on there and I go, yep, Mark, pull me out, buddy.
So it was pretty easy for Mark to pull me out.
I we didn't even like hook up properly.
Just kidding.
No, we did.
We totally did.
But did we did we have a winch with us at all?
Mike, do you have a winch?
Yeah, I've got one.
I was like, Mike, I had a winch.
So we did have a winch if we needed it.
Sounds like not full poverty crew.
Yeah.
Yeah, we have bougie micro less years, bougie, Michael.
This isn't a warrant or anything like that.
All right.
It was like the Amazon special, but I'll tell you what, it's work every
single time I've needed it to.
So all you need exactly.
That's all I mean.
I run an Expo.
So I get it.
I think it paid like 300 bucks, but it always works.
That's what I'm going to run to when I get mine.
Yeah.
Granted, I've got a $200 end link on it, but, you know,
I've got the same end link.
So except my, the rubber on my end link keeps falling off.
And now I've only got two pads instead of four.
Yeah.
Well, see, that was kind of one of those instances where as you were saying,
you were doing the guy math, because that's what happened to mine.
I pushed it into a rocket.
He's last August.
I'm like, man, now that that rubber fell, I'm going to figure out something.
That's where I found that cover for the rope.
The rope.
So yeah, that's sick.
Mm hmm.
Yeah, I think I'm going to end up doing it in ultra hook soon, though.
You know, we'll have to we'll have to show some pictures in the show notes or
something or maybe our chapter art just so people know.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So he did.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
We did we did that one.
We went to number was it we're at four now.
Yes.
Yep.
And that was a long water crossing.
Derek's description with this one was use extreme caution in the area between
three and four when going through the puddles, stick test, multiple parts of
each mud hole as some mud holes have deeper parts, depending on where you
drive through them.
So we definitely had stick testers out there.
I had Sienna with our with our Toyota takeover Silver Lake dunes flag and she
was just swimming swimming swimming.
I had that on video.
That was, you know, I would have loved it that moment.
I knew the rest of the ride, the rest of the ride would have been just hell, you
know, so and she would never stick test for me again.
So I was so glad that I like having her as a stick tester.
I didn't have to get out as much.
So that was really good.
And we honestly, a lot of those holes that we hit weren't bad.
They weren't as bad as we thought they were going to be.
No, because the sign isn't there for a vagina trail.
The giant.
Yeah.
But my alternator from this summer can confirm that if you go center on that
pit, yeah, yeah, for sure.
We're straddling and we did that trail and we we bypassed through that one, right?
Yeah, we didn't do the main water.
We didn't do the main water crossing because last time we were there, I got
stuck or like, yeah, no, we're good this time around.
Kind of find out.
Some of the videos that guys posted and didn't look that bad.
No, it didn't.
That hurt me a little bit because I was like, that was the perfect, the perfect
chance for us to get some cool water cross videos.
Like I told you, this time around, it was way drier down there than it was.
You did.
Yeah.
I think it was a lot like me.
Alex was the first time we were out there where I made back in March.
No issues.
Yep.
Yeah.
I'd like to hit it in mid to late summer again.
Maybe when it's drier, just to see what everything was like.
Oh, it doesn't get dry.
It doesn't get drier than that.
I don't I mean, I like dried up.
I mean, you got to think we went through in August and it was a swamp.
Yeah.
Well, maybe not the nevermind.
Yeah.
I don't, I don't.
I don't want to go over to get Toyota reliability first wheeling trip out.
And I just closed my.
Close up.
Yeah.
Toyota reliability extends up until the alternator and then that's where it stops.
I still remember.
I still remember our first trip.
We went on our first trip and it was, it was really wet, like insanely wet.
I think it rained for three days straight.
And I remember like the first day Derek's like, yeah, anybody with Toyota,
you should probably keep your truck running for, you know, half hour or two
just to dry out that alternator.
And I'm like, oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Here we go.
Yeah.
That was the first thing I bought.
I got bagged, jumped on a rock auto.
I'm like buying an extra alternator.
Yeah.
Nope.
That's something that I'm going to have to start carrying around with me is just
a spare alternator.
I just know that one of these times one of us is going to lose one.
So.
Well, and even if you don't get a premium one, it's just something to live home with.
Yeah.
The very least.
Exactly.
So yeah, we got through, we just, I mean, we made it pretty well through three to four
kind of had us feeling a little bit better.
Like I said, we took all the bypasses that we could.
And then we got to number what, five?
And that was the final and last and.
And that one as we were going up to it, I don't really even know what I was thinking.
Going up to it.
There was, there was a couple of you guys like, no, probably not.
But I'm like, come on, it's right there.
I could see it like.
And so I knew, I knew that I was going to challenge myself a little bit with this
off camber stuff.
And I was like, I'm sure it's fine there.
But then we got into that rut area where it was just.
It was like, what do you get?
So you do, yeah, four foot rut, like, and I'm like, oh God, I, you know, you can hear
me, I have my video on this whole time I'm on the truck and you can hear me go.
Yeah, guys, I don't know about this one.
Stock wheels and tires, very little lift.
Yeah.
And so, you know, Alex is like, you need to play bars.
And yeah, exactly.
Alex is like, you want me to come out there and like take a look.
I'm like, yeah, I just, I'm not going to have to go to the truck.
I'm like, yeah, I just, I'm not sure.
I'm going to need some actual expertise out here.
He came in.
He's like, I'm glad you did it.
I said, selfishly, I'm glad you did it.
Cause he's like, Hey, you mind if I drive your truck for that off camber section?
Like, yeah, sure.
Go for it.
Yeah.
No, I, I looked at it and honestly, I got to a point on there when I've
explained this to Alex and Mark to where I felt like for me backing up,
would have almost been more dangerous than it would have been just to try to push forward.
So, you'd have definitely done more damage.
I mean, I think you'd have done more damage for sure.
I didn't, I don't think that I had the experience.
I had the experience, I guess, to go up it, but to back down it and still hit the
right line, I think I would have ended up doing more damage.
So to me, the only way forward was forward and, um, and I majorly regret it.
I just wish I wouldn't went up it.
It was really cool.
It's really cool.
It was like really cool hindsight when I went and laid on the ground and was like,
okay, nothing is broken.
My wheels are still straight.
I don't have air hissing out of my tires that I know of.
And it's like, I, you know, I felt cool for a second.
Everybody's given me like, Hey, you know, congrats, you know, here's your kudos.
And I'm like, I never want to do that again.
Ever.
I was like, that's like, that's where the stress is just too much.
Like, like, because I'm looking at my wife, my wife's just like, ooh, you know,
she's clenching over there too.
There is a point where we're trying to straddle the rut and we just fall right
into it.
And I, and Mark knows what I mean.
Like you could reach out your window and just touch mud and grab a hand.
Oh, it was deep.
Yeah.
All I heard was no, no, no from Alex.
Yeah.
I'm heading off.
I'm going to probably hurt this later.
I'm heading up to see what's going on.
Yeah.
I got, I got video of that too.
Hey, it's Alex goes left or driver, driver, driver, driver, driver.
And then just boom.
And I come, I go right into that four foot rut and see.
Cause you weren't turning it driver.
You had it straight.
I was.
It was not, it wasn't turning well, man.
It was, it was not doing what I asked it to do.
It was like, can I just go back?
I kept on like it was even Barry was like, bro, I think you bit off one.
You could chew.
I'm like, Hey, everybody, but we're in this together.
So we got, we ended up getting through it.
You know, there was a point where I thought, you know, from just from my driving
experience, I felt like we were on our side on the body panels.
It's what it felt like to me.
And Alex was like, you're good.
You're not tipped yet.
And I'm like, well, as the damage is done, I'm getting the fuck out of here.
So, you know, I, I, you know, slammed it reversed and just kind of slammed the
hill a couple of times open.
I could dig something up to at least get up it and then eventually got up it.
You know, check the whole side.
Everything was good so far.
And I'm like, okay, take a breath.
Let's get out of here and, and Mark's behind me.
I'm like, oh yeah, Mark's why would why, why, why?
And Mark comes right up it and I'm like, I see him doing real well.
I'm like, oh yeah, he's fucking, he's good.
He's just going to climb right up this.
I climb up most of it by myself.
I think I had to bump it one area, but that was about it.
Other than that, and then I stopped and was waiting to see how you were doing.
Yeah.
So I'm thinking I'm like, well, Mark's going to climb up and everybody else is
going to be able to climb up at due after this.
So, and then I watched the whole, yeah.
Then I watched Mark slide right into that same fucking rut and I'm like, ooh.
And that's just when he was done.
So we, uh, we heard something hiss and I heard a pop.
I heard a pop like, oh, please tell me just to break a CV axle.
So I thought it was either a CV or ball joint.
That's what I saw.
Definitely everyone was, everyone was feeling it.
I heard it.
I can tell you right now.
There was no way that I was driving that black truck up there.
No stock height still has a sway bars to no way and help.
Nope.
So now Mark, uh, Mark D beat it pretty well.
Um, at that point we all knew that it was better to just pull them up.
So we had the, they hooked me up the strap up to me and I yanked a couple of times.
I was trying to be really gentle.
Cause I, the whole time and Alex was like, you got to really get on it.
And I'm like, I know, I know, I know, like I get it.
I'm like, but I, every time I, you know, slam on the gas, I see these videos of people
like having the straps snap through the, you know, the, the, the cats of the vehicles.
And so, so that was going through my head.
I'm like, I'm just trying not to give it too much beans.
And, uh,
Well, usually those people don't have it connected to a proper, uh,
tug point and they also will end the loop, the strap and then hook it back to the main
vehicle.
And both of those are a big no-no.
Yeah.
Looping the strap back to the vehicle is no different than putting two condoms on.
It's just, it's, it makes it worse and it's not as safe.
And at the end of the day, someone's getting fucked.
So unless you got a D ring at the end, right?
Yeah.
We call those Prince Albert's.
And, uh, but anyway, we got them, we got them up and, uh, and we used everything in my truck.
I had Jack out of my truck.
I had like this cheap ass two ton four jack.
We had that out.
We had, uh, my traction boards out, air compressors out.
And I had a lot of, I had a lot of, I had a lot of, I had a lot of, I had a lot of,
I had, uh, my traction boards out, air compressors out.
My wife's digging my fender out from the mud with my gloves, which I come to find out today.
I went to go look for my gloves and I'm like, why am I, what, what is this?
I have a piece of red sticking out of mud and I go and knock them off and it's my gloves.
My winter gloves.
I'm like, I looked at my wife and I'm like, you son of a bitch.
I had to get your fender off or your, or those, you gotta make sure that everyone knows we didn't
use the traction boards as traction boards.
They were just a base for the jack for, for traction for the jack.
So it's still, it's still working.
He's got raw.
He was playing so.
So, so, so traction boards work everybody.
Um, they don't work in mud, obviously.
Sloppy, sloppy mud.
We all know that, but like, but for a couple of times that we, I have used them, uh, they,
they, for a jack bass.
Yup.
I think I've only ever used mine to level my truck when I'm getting ready to set up my
tent.
That's about it.
You know, it's one of those.
The most expensive tent levelers ever.
Yeah.
Right.
They're there though, if you need them.
So I feel like, I feel like.
You never need them.
Yeah.
See, you know, that's where you're wrong, buddy.
We used them.
That counts.
How long I forgot they were even there.
The one time I've tried to legitimately use them to traction boards.
All miserably during third.
Was that?
Yeah.
They just shot out behind the truck.
And the other tire wasn't even contact slams, slams on the gas and shoot some extract out.
Why didn't they work?
Oh, you fucking shot him out like a hot wheels out of there.
He wasn't, he wasn't even slamming on the brakes.
He was just gently pushing them and it was just like behind him.
Nope.
I've, I like I said, I've seen them work in certain, certain occasions, certain, uh,
certain uses they have their own.
Um, I used them for my buddy when we were up on, uh, he had a stock traverse.
So I used it with him for one of the little places and he actually used it more like a bridge.
If anything, just so he didn't go super off camber and hit his bumper.
So I mean, they have the use of gear in there, but I feel like if you have to use max tracks,
you're not actually stuck.
I don't know.
You can always get out of a situation without max max tracks.
I think deep sand is the equalizer.
Yeah.
I would say, I would say deep sand.
I've seen a lot of deep sand, deep powdery snow.
Those are the kind of situations where I see those doing really well.
Like mud, they don't do it super well in mud.
A lot of, yeah.
A lot of those.
I used them on my Ford Maverick.
Yeah.
When I was in my lawn in the snow.
Yeah.
There you go.
That's embarrassing, isn't it?
Yeah, I've seen a lot of the Australian overlanders, they'll use max tracks to get like unstuck
out of deep sand and stuff, but they'll see a lot here, that's for sure.
But well, I run mud drains, so deep sand is like the last place I need to go.
Right.
Yeah.
The other thing is having the proper tires to get through a situation.
Yeah.
And at that time, I did not have the proper tires to get through the situation.
I probably would have went through it a lot easier if I had something with a lot more
like side tread, any kind of tread at all, comparatively.
Yeah.
Now that I like guy math my way into wild peaks, I have something that's going to get me through
pretty much anything I need to now.
So we did, we finally got everything all fixed up and Mark's truck.
We threw everything back in ours and we were cutting it real close to the four o'clock
off the road.
Time.
Time stamp, I think is what it was, or off the trail.
We're like an hour late.
Well, it was supposed to be four off the off the trails, five.
Yeah, it was supposed to mean it's a place of five.
So they were just wondering whether, no, they were just wondering where the fuck we were all at.
I think after Derek's second cigarette waiting to see how it turned out, he said, just bring
the cards back and meet us.
Yeah, right.
Yep.
So we, so we kind of got back on the trails.
We took some, oh, and by the way, we instead of going back down that hill on number five,
because that was the way we're supposed to go, Alex did some scouting and he found a little
bypass to get back down it without going down there.
And yeah, it wasn't as hard here.
Yeah, it wasn't as hard, but I tell you what, it was a lot better than going back down that fucking hill.
So, so yeah, we got back on the trails.
We kind of doubled back a little bit, I think back onto our original, I think it was number six trail.
And we got back back into the town.
We sat there at the bowling alley and pretty much as soon as we got there, we did the card thing.
They had no seats left.
I mean, we are going to see that's kind of when we saw how big that MST party was, it's like, holy shit, this is even all of them.
I'm sure some of them just went home and that place is packed with people.
And then we have like what 35 30 people there or something like that.
I mean, I would say trucks more than that people.
And we've been more of us trucks was what Derek said.
How many 25 plus.
Yeah.
So that was a really, really good turnout, honestly, to one of those events and, you know, the credit where credit's due to the staff, dude, they were scurrying around like answers only a couple of them.
The one woman had a shell shocked look on her face.
Yeah, she's like she's like she's walking in and she's like, she's like shaky.
She's like, I never want to do this again, just crawling up behind the car on the pool table shaken.
They had to find us a table.
Yeah.
Yeah, they literally have a table.
Six foot table.
Drew got up with his boys and left and he's like, you want our table or a capital take it.
Yeah, for real.
So we got there.
We chit-shatted for a little bit.
Derek did the few prizes.
I think, and this is where Derek was like, oh, yeah, okay, maybe we have some learning tips for next year.
Maybe not putting two full decks into each flag area.
Yeah, because again, they ended up coming with like, I think there was like six guys with royal flushes.
Yeah.
And I had the second highest hand.
So I'm like, yeah, you know, maybe I'll get second place in something.
Then he goes, how many you got royal flushes?
And then like half the room's like, yeah, me.
I'm like, dammit.
So did all of us at least make a hand?
Yeah.
Yeah, I don't think it would have been too hard.
I had five of a kind.
Yeah, I tried five of a kind.
I had five of a kind.
Yeah, what did you have?
What did you have?
Five of a kind, what?
I had, I did nine's and 10's.
So Lisa had 10's and I had nine.
Damn, you guys were doubled up.
You were ready.
I had eight's.
Oh, okay.
I had eight's.
Okay.
I had five of the same suit.
I was trying to go with royal flush, but I was just the one card for that.
No.
Yeah, so I ended up having the second.
I think next poker run, just do one deck and have it shuffled and then just on our
system, take the top card and go, yeah.
I know, I know me and Alex talked about this and he said, when he's ran poker runs,
they had actually people at the checkpoints, but I don't think we're going to get this.
I mean, I don't, I mean, I don't, I don't, I think you could find five or six people
that would be willing to relax all day, chill out and just have a good time.
Shit.
I think admins.
I would go admins and mods of that group.
Yeah.
I'd prop up a diesel heater, set up a little shelter and just hang out and drink the beers.
Nal, drink the beers, winch people out.
Now that I'm a group expert, I would gladly sit at one of those spots.
There you go.
That was really cool.
The most important locks I had to take after this.
Oh yeah.
I'd go pick you an obstacle that I wanted and chill there for the rest of the day.
I ended up, I ended up with a back pain so bad that I'm still have a tight spot in my
back.
Oh, I'm the one.
I spent three days when I couldn't turn my neck either direction.
Oh, geez.
Like it was all in that full body, trying to check the mirrors.
Yeah.
Yup.
I know that pain all too well.
Yeah, damn.
And I'll tell you, digging shavings out of a turkey barn when your back hurts.
Oh, hell no.
You're in like Batman one suit where he's like, yeah, body moving just a look.
I was ready to die, man.
That was awful.
Yeah.
It was a lot of fun though.
I tell you what.
I think that was one of Derek's coolest events that he's put out.
Definitely a really good start to this year.
I definitely look forward to what's to come on as far as the events and stuff coming from
MST.
I know.
I hope he does more of those gamified ones.
That was really fun.
I know.
We want to do something around at some point later in the summer that's somewhat similar.
But we'll see how that goes just with scheduling and everything.
If we can actually do it, but it'd be a really cool to do something revolving around that.
Oh, yeah.
We were kind of looking at doing more of like a cryptid hunt.
So like a kind of like a search for the cryptids.
But kind of the same thing.
You're going to pick up certain each trail or each obstacle that you do.
You'd get one of the cryptids for and you're going to try to find all of them.
Sticker.
Yeah.
Like a sticker or something for it.
A two foot wood carving or something out of it.
Yeah.
We were thinking about painting in black and you know, you know, one of them should be
like a garden gnome.
Yeah.
Geocaching or.
Yeah.
That kind of stuff.
Yeah.
So that we were thinking about doing something like that.
It'd be a lot of fun.
Actually stashing geocaches around Everett would be really fun.
Yeah.
Just in general.
There's a lot of those that they do throughout the country and they always look like they're
having a blast.
I'd done geocaching and I really enjoyed it.
It was more of a hiking thing, but it would be really cool to do an off road geocache
around Everett and just to post up the cords and do that.
When I worked at the factory, every time that we had to go count parts at one of the other
suppliers, we would stop at like every truck stop on the way back and do a geocache.
Yeah.
No, that would be fun.
That might be an idea that we should, we should think about doing some geocaches up there.
Everett's done a lot of diversity.
So for sure.
Now that we're reaching the end of the podcast, what's everyone's drink of choice tonight?
Oh, it was Roland Bourbon.
Bourbon?
I feel so stupid.
Tropicanor refreshers, man.
This is supposedly for my son and I got like three quarters of the way drank.
Bush latte.
Yeah.
We're going to be at work in about five hours.
Oh, God.
I've got only tourists from short brewing company.
Yeah, you fancy.
It's a really good hazy IPA.
So I'm almost into this whole concoction of stuff that my brother bought.
The hard mountain.
Hard mountain.
Yeah.
Is that any good?
It's okay.
It's not my preferred choice.
Especially the pineapple.
Dude, what were those?
What were those seltzer waters he bought that were just so bad?
Oh, but.
Ranch, ranch hand or whatever.
Yeah, ranch something.
Yeah.
Oh my God.
They're so gross.
He did it because some podcast that he follows was drinking them.
What is this?
Definitely a sponsored, sponsored drink there.
Dude, drink every one.
Ranch hands.
They're so good.
I've, I tried every single flavor that they had and every single one made me want to throw
up like they were so gross.
I'm not sure if it's because of the way they're doing it.
Nope. I'm good.
Well, you know, it was a, it was really great having you guys come in here and help us with
this.
Good kind of having a recap of all of our group.
I think after that we all hurried home.
We all wanted to get the hell out of there.
Shane and I ended up waiting a good hour for our pizza.
Yeah.
It was worth the wait, but the kids passing out in the backseat by time I was out of the
parking lot.
It was the way we stopped and got Wendy's in New Wago and I'll tell you that the 20,
no, the 10 minutes we waited for Wendy's was definitely worth the wait.
Yeah.
No, Shane and I, Shane's kids are pretty much done with their beats.
By the time we got ours and Jasper was just throwing a fucking fit because he was hungry.
And then we get our pizza and they're like, careful.
It's hot.
And I'm like, perfect.
I'm like, that's exactly what we need is a boiling hot pizza for my son.
I'm like, what a way to end the night.
And Shane looks at me and he goes, Hey man, you can have one of mine.
I'm like, please.
He's fucking killing me.
Yep.
So, so he gave me a piece of his and I'm like, the kid finally starts calming down a little
bit.
I'm like, I'm ready to get out of there.
I thought, I thought it was hilarious.
Jackson wanted to go home since we hit obstacle like three.
Yeah.
And then when we got home, he's like, no, I don't want to get out.
Yeah.
That's how they always do it.
But yeah, we ended up, we ended up leaving and I went straight to that car wash that
Derek was talking about.
And that was a big boo boo.
I should have just went before while the mud was still wet.
All the mud was frozen on there.
Thankfully, the wash had some warmer water.
But we were going to do that and I ended up just going, I'm like, no, we're just going
to head home.
I figured I'll fight it the next day.
I couldn't.
I had a speed model at 35.
Yeah.
Too bad.
Yeah.
I had a still money.
Yeah, I bet.
I have not washed it.
I washed my rims off because I got appointment for reseeing all my rims now, but I watched
those, but I didn't wash the actual truck.
So I got to know.
We've got a car wash here that's unlimited for nine bucks.
Yeah.
That's it there for three hours if you want.
So that would have been really good.
The day or two after and just for an hour just to get that thing off.
Yep.
I have a car wash that's always free because it's the tank sprayer at the farm and it
works really nice.
Until you stoke the understatement of your truck for three hours and it won't start.
I've never done that.
Yeah.
Right.
It started.
I actually put it.
I put a sprinkler under there one time and let it run for like 18 hours at the farm and
it was beautiful underneath after it dried out and started.
Yeah.
It started right up.
Yeah.
Yeah, something's going on guys and start what I turned the key.
That was a loose battery terminal.
I figured it out.
Either way.
Potatoes, tomatoes, man.
But hey, yeah, I think it is it's bedtime for everyone.
So I appreciate you guys.
Mike, Shane, for joining in.
Thanks for the invite, man.
It was great having you guys on the trail with us.
We have Shane and we had a met in person before so it was really nice to meet you.
Mike, it's been too long.
I know.
I know we got to get back out there.
Yep.
So but yeah, we appreciate you guys tuning in.
Thanks for listening to Box's Offroad Podcast and we just have a good night.
Thanks man.
Later.
Thanks y'all later.
Thanks.