Summary:
It was a great day in the woods, with beautiful scenery and fall colors. Then it was a bit of a disaster getting everyone home. OCC tradition prevailed, making sure that everyone and all of their rigs made it home safely.
Details:
Unlike many times in the past, leaves were actually still on the trees for the fall foliage ride yesterday. The news reports told us that we were hitting right on peak for color, but I think we were probably a week or so beyond peak. There was still quite a bit of color, and it was a great day in the woods.
We all met at the Sheetz in Haymarket. Nearly everyone was on time, but we waited for Chris L since we had confirmation he was on I-66. Coffee was obtained, tanks were filled, and we headed West.
In attendance:
Chris S, 2010 JKU, Member and Trail Leader, w/ co-driver Danielle, and 4-legged children Max and Kara
Stephen G, 2003 TJ, Member
Chris , 2002 WJ, Prospect, w/ riders Caitlin and Wayne
Dave M, 1997 TJ, Member, w/ Lucas
Alan S, 2014 JK, Member, w/ 4-legged child Tea (sp?)
DK S, 2013 JKU, Member and Tailgunner, w/ co-driver Natalie, and 4-legged child Roscoe
Side note: I think this may be the first time that everyone on the database showed up AND everyone that showed up was on the database. This makes the trip report so much easier!
Going West was uneventful, with just sporadic CB chatter. We reached the Harrisonburg Sheetz, filled tanks, grabbed lunches, and finalized the plan of attack.
We entered into the GW National Forest via Union Springs Rd, working our way up the mountain. We passed a few oncoming vehicles along the way. When we got to the mud flats, we found a fire that was still burning fairly well. We believe it was left behind by some guys coming out in a White Tacoma with a cap and roof-top tent and a black JKU. We stopped and extinguished the fire by shuttling some water from the mud holes and burying it. We also picked out as many of the beer can remains as possible and packed the trash out with us. I'd like to think that everyone associated with OCC knows better, but please make sure that you always fully extinguish your fire when camping. The dry leaves and the wind could have very quickly turned that small camp fire into a huge problem.
From there, we continued heading up the mountain. Multiple parts of the trail have gotten eroded and/or torn out since the last time I was up there. I wouldn't call it impassable for a stock vehicle, but it would definitely require a skilled and knowledgeable driver to go UP in the direction we did. We had to do some spotting in a couple of places, but did not have any major hangups. Once we reached Meadow Knob, we declared it was time for lunch. The views were great, there was a light breeze, and abundant sunshine. Everyone enjoyed their lunch while Alan flew his drone to get some shots of the scenery as well as a drone selfie of the whole group with rigs and the fall colors in the background. We decided to let the four dogs out to expend some energy, and they all seemed to thoroughly enjoy chasing each other around the big opening and playing. Once everyone had eaten, gotten pictures, etc, we headed on our way.
The ride to Flagpole Knob was relatively uneventful, with just one section that required some quick spotting for Dave. Once there, we found that someone had left their camp setup. I presume they were out hiking or biking. There was also another guy on the ridge that had ridden his cyclocross bike up from somewhere in the valley. After a short pause for bathroom breaks, taking in the scenery, and chatting with the cyclocross guy, we headed towards Reddish Knob. The trail from Flagpole to Briery Branch isn't much to speak of but a bunch of rocks just big enough to make for a bumpy ride.
Once we got to black top, I made the mistake of trusting my GPS and turned right instead of going straight up to Reddish Knob. Alan immediately caught the mistake, but 4 of us had already made the turn. We drove until we got to a long enough straight to safely turn around in the road. Alan and DK headed on up the hill and we worked on catching up with them. We had to pass a few oncoming vehicles on the narrow road headed up the hill. Once at the top, we all parked to take in the scenery. It was a beautiful clear day and you could see for miles in every direction. Even though the path to get up there is paved, it was well worth the visit to Reddish Knob. Alan flew the drone again to get some pictures from one of the highest points in Virginia. He was having problems getting the connection between his phone and the drone to allow recording. We decided to declare that the signal was being blocked by the NSA satellite listening station that can be seen down in the valley. We were considering going back towards Flagpole Knob and taking the trail down to exit near Switzer Lake, but ended up deciding to call it a good day and start working our way back towards civilization. The day was absolutely fantastic.
Then it happened. While coming down the road from Reddish Knob, I was being careful to slow down around the various blind curves because a number of people were coming up to take in the scenery. A young girl in a JK came around one of the corners coming up the hill, and she was in a hurry. I got into my brakes hard and got as close to the guard rail as I could without hitting it. We managed not to hit each other and carefully passed. I immediately noticed some weird noises as I was rolling. Once we got down off of the narrow road, I pulled across the street to the wide area of the trail headed towards Flagpole to investigate. We found that the bottom bolt for my right rear caliper bracket was missing, and the caliper/bracket had rotated upwards and smashed the backing plate into the rotor. The bracket had also gouged some aluminum out of the inside of my wheel. A few people went back up the road on the off chance they could find the bolt and others of us started looking for a place to steal a bolt that was less important. No bolt could be found. I moved the upper bolt down to the lower hole and rotated the bracket in at the top until it was hitting solid. A zip tie in place to keep it from rotating out and it was time for a careful drive down the hill to a hardware store. I didn't love it, but several of us agreed that it would work as long as I didn't use my brakes while rolling backwards. The drive down into town was uneventful, if a bit a slower than it might normally have been.
Alan peeled off on the way down into town to visit a friend. The others continued on towards home, leaving my dad and I to deal with my Jeep. They offered to stay with us, but I was confident that I could get a bolt and it would be a quick parking lot fix to drive home safely. Well, Home Depot didn't have any M12-1.50 bolts...crap. Ace Hardware was closed, crap again. We were nearly ready to give up at Lowes when I found that they had exactly two M12-1.50 bolts, both of which were too long. I got a bolt and a stack of washers to keep the end of the bolt from protruding into the rotor, and some loctite. Just a couple of minutes in the parking lot and we were ready to head home.
While driving up I-81, my phone rings. It was Dave Matheu. He had lost his power steering and overheated. He had discovered that the serpentine belt came off, but seemed to be in good shape. He had made it safely into the rest area. We were just a few miles short of there, so pulled in minutes after I hung up the phone. A quick assessment revealed that the bearing had gone bad in the idler pulley. We pulled it off and headed to Advance in Timberville. They had the pulley and an appropriate bolt, since the original bolt had gotten mangled/bent. With parts in hand, we headed back to the rest area. It was then that we discovered the pulley wouldn't turn when we bolted it in place. We took it back off and realized that the bracket itself had gotten worn down by the pulley riding against it when the bearing went bad. It was at this point that we realized the shop he had taken it to a while back because the belt was squealing must of having just tightened the belt and not paid attention to a bad pulley. We scrounged up a couple of washers to put behind the pulley and this put the pulley perfectly in line with the other pulleys and it was spinning freely. We installed belt and fired it up. No issues. Shut it down and double checked bolts and belt tension. With everything good to go, we headed up the road with 4 vehicles.
Other than a high volume of traffic, the ride home was uneventful. The cold beer was amazing once I walked in my door. Now I just need to source the correct bolt to finish a proper fix on my Heep.
Good times, as always!
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Chris Stewart
OCC President