Everyone met at Wendy's and left for Forest City at 9:05AM.
Attendees:
John (Leader) and Lori
Joe and Pup
Ron and Pam
Brian
Gil
Scott and Friend Cliff
Gordon & Maureen and Whiskey
Gary & Debbie
Mike (Prospect) & Jacob
Dusty & Jacob (Guests)
From John:
Everyone aired down at Forest City. From there, we went up Sandusky and had to stop and buck some downed trees. Continuing up, we turned right to try to get to Henness Pass Road. Eventually, snow got about 2 feet deep, and a few of us developed car trouble.
I had a transmission line come off due to over heating. We had to do a trail fix in the middle of the road. Club members came to my aid. Gordon took over for me as I could not find where the fluid was coming from. So after about 2 minutes he found it and now how to fix it? At first it was duct tape because we needed a seal at the transmission. As we where doing that we asked if anyone had a small seal instead of the duct tape. As luck would have it Gil brought up front a box with vacuum plugs. Gordon looked at that with a smile on his face and said I think that could work. He picked a size and had Ron cut on the rubber for a snug fit to the transmission. Gordon put it back together and wrapped a ratchet strap to hold it in place. Started Jeep up only to hear him say, "Stop. Shut it off". We forgot to drill a hole to let the fluid flow back to the transmission cooler. Now we had to do it all over again but, less time because we knew how to do it. Just like that it was fixed. About 2.5 hours later.
The club sat patiently while we fixed it. Some decided to continue up to Henness Pass only to find the snow was too deep. They turned around and came back down. At that point, everyone went back to Forest City. Once in Forest City it was noted that Dusty had a bad knock in his engine but he was able to nurse it back to Nevada City. Mike Hylan followed him to make sure he made it. They got a trailer and hauled it back to his home in Auburn. Gary and Debbie followed me to make sure I made it back. Thanks to everyone for pulling together and stepping up to lend a hand; Gordon aka (Mcgyver) for getting under the Jeep and making it whole, and everyone else that pulled out tools and checked their stashes for goodies to help make things work.
The rest of the group sitting at Forest City wanted more, so they went up Henness Pass Rd and found it tuff going; they had all got stuck at one point or another. They came across a Forest Service Jeep (which we had seen in the A.M.) which was stuck deep in the snow. Joe assisted them and pulled them out. Smiles for all. This is why we go as a group.