April 22, 2001
The weather could not have been better, I thought to myself while waiting at my 'perch' at the on ramp for the North Eagle River overpass. Bad Co was trying to show me the manifold breakfast burritos he was cooking up, when I went scrambling for my truck as an impressive sight of 12-14 lifted vehicles passed by. The caravan grew again as we took the Old Glenn cutoff and the valley troop fell in line. By the time we got to trail head and stopped so everyone could lock in hubs, air down tires (it seems everyone airs down but me), and do a general preflight, there was 23 vehicles. Some from Alaska Extreme, some from the Last Frontier, and other perspective members. I will not try to list all the rigs or drivers, as I would undoubtedly miss a lot of people.
We had a much needed drivers meeting. With moth balls worked out of the tail pipes, cobwebs off the shifter, and new lifts installed, everyone was itching to start the season. That is, if they hadn't already. Eddie made the first weigh point the large sand dunes. There a place for kids would be set aside, and some winching demonstrations would be done. How far we head back from there would be determined later.
Everyone made it to the sand dunes with little incident. With a few exceptions of course. One Wrangler became stuck in the mud on the trail, I think he lacked momentum. This in turn brought the Toyota behind him to a stop (who was in front of me). So I was more than happy to break out my fresh cable and winch, pulling the 'yota backwards so he could get going again. And figuring this may happen again, I left my winch controller plugged in, as I have many a time. Of course this time the cable fell down, got into my tire, and broke. So I was quickly reminded of my greenness. The last water crossing before the dunes also took one unfortunate Jeeper by surprise. Luckily no water seemed to have made it to the engine, and a little time in the sun with the hood up seemed to cure the problem.
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| Eddie Angle runs an exercise in winching basics. |
At the dunes Eddie Angle (with help from other veterans), but on a winching lesson. I think basic operation, and safety issues were covered. Since I was in the process of getting my winch controller wires spliced together I missed most of it. Suppose I'll just keep learning through mistakes.
Some time was spent running up and down the dunes by most. Some for longer than others. One well modified Jeep attempted to climb the dunes in 2wd, and was well on his way until axel wrap brought him to a quick halt with a broken yoke. They decided to head home in front wheel drive.
We finally began moving again, with the glacier being the destination I suppose. The trail was relatively dry, and I think most everyone made it through the trees portion easily. At one point, the trail forked. The high road was the easy road, which most of took. And the brave took the shorter lower trail that went through a fairly deep mud hole. We even saw a large swamp buggy break out his winch trying to get through the hole.
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| A CJ-5 from the Last Frontier club fights its way through the mud. |
Further along the line was changed a bit when the leaders went into a water hole near the beaver dams and realized not everyone had a snorkel (which would be a requirement for this particular hole). We made our way back closer to the old dry river bed area. This had been the closest to the glacier I had been, and as far as the trail goes I hadn't missed much. I can not say I enjoyed the miles of silt, dust, and large bumps (large when driving a leaf sprung 3/4 ton truck). Henry Lee managed to bust both his rear shock mounts loose, right off the axle tube. But luckily Oddball had a welder on hand and had Henry back on his way.
By this time, the group had split up into a number of smaller groups. Not surprising. I hung around long enough to get some pictures of the trail fix, then left to catch up with Badco, who was exploring around the glacier face. Due to some lack of communication, I was driving all over the rocks on four wheeler trails looking for him, until I figured out I was heading completely the wrong way. The lack of visibility on some of the ledges was a bit unnerving, especially for my passenger. He obviously hasn't seen how off camber my truck has been before.
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| A CJ-7 pulls itself out of a water crossing near the Knik Glacier |
Finally, through much CB dialog, I managed to find him. At that time we could see the group near where the welding was taking place. But after descending down from some of the rocks, and crossing the major glacier run off, we lost track of the group. I found out later some had pressed on further to trails I still no very little about, and others after having gotten to the glacier had started on their way back. We were a little disappointed we had not heard anything on the CB where everyone had gone, but we shrugged it off and began our way back out. By simply back tracking, and bypassing the large mud hole of course, we quickly caught back up with a large contingent of the group. Apparently someone had broken a spindle on the trail, and no one had a spare. With no room to squeeze by there was a traffic jam. But everyone was patient for the most part, knowing how easily it could have happened to anyone. They managed to limp the CJ-5 off the trail to let others by. A few days later I heard when Eddie got there, he came up with the bright idea of sending a bolt through the inside threads on the end of the axel (from manufacturing I guess, not really sure of the purpose) to hold the spindle halves together enough to get the jeep to the trail head. I think some good team work took place there.
Badco and I myself decided to press on, as we had nothing to offer in the way of aid. As well, my passenger was already late for work, so the two of us continued on out on our own. That went fairly tame.
The post trail quick inspection revealed my own damage consisted of my OEM jack coming loose under the hood, more fender trim coming loose from rubber contact, and of course the winch controller mentioned above. I had to be satisfied that I got off easy. Over all for me it was a great time, observing such a large group travel together, lots of teamwork during trail breaks, and finally getting to the glacier, what more could I want?
For more pictures, see the gallery.