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OCC Trip Report

Sat May 17th

There were 5 members camping on a perfect Friday night.

Chip Woods (member)

Rich Martinez (member), Brooke (member) and Jaye Rey

Ed Salas (member)

Virgil (member) and Bradley

Saturday arrivals:

Grayden Weideman and Katie

Ed Clark

In the morning we made some delicious coffee and various breakfast foods while we waited for the office to open. We were expecting others to arrive but wanted to be near the front of the line as the parking lot was begining to fill fast. We all checked in by 830 and waited for the other members to arrive. Grayden and Ed C. arrived but had to wait in a line the extended well into the parking lot.

After a very efficient driver's meeting, Rich led the group of six rigs to the West property were we ran Trail 10 (blue) and enjoyed the fantastic weather. Near the end of 10 we crossed Rock Creek and began Trail-13B (purple). We were making good progess when Rich heard a sudden, steady hiss. A quick checked revealed a sheared valve stem with the core completly gone. It looked as if some cut it clean off. Chip provided some duct tape that was stuffed into the remnants of the valve stem so Rich could pull forward 50 feet onto a flat area. With everyone's assistance, the wisdom of having a spare tire became apparent as it was called into service.

We continued on Trail-13B to Trail-16 (purple) and had lunch at the intersection with Trai-11. After lunch we took Trail-19B, then Trail-11 to Trail-23 and Trail-18A. We then jumped onto H to head to the South property.

On the way up H was came upon our camping neighbor in his Ford pickup (he gave us all the details of his truck (pos) the night before). He swears he never bottomed-out but had somehow put a whole in his tranny pan(?) He was with his friend in an older Grand Cherokee and they had just extinguished the fire from the tranny oil getting all over the exhaust. Note: I never looked underneath to verify. I asked them if the had a plan to get out and they said they didn't know what to do. So I asked Ed Salas if would pull his truck to the back exit and to the main road. I thought Ed was the best choice because of his heavy duty axles, lower gears and 4.0l torque.

We hooked the Ford up behind Ed and began the climb up H. We had about 1/2 mile to go and Ed didn't have any problems at all. At the top of H I led the OCC group to parking spots while Ed turned the other direction towards the main road. At the main road Ed pulled the Ford into a turnout in the road and I began to disconnect the vehicles. As I went to unhook the Ford, the tow point hook fell off the truck. The bolts had either torn through the frame or holes were bigger than the bolts/washer combination. Either way we were lucky the hook didn't sling-shot towards Ed S. during the pull.

Once we said our goodbyes Ed and I re-joined our OCC group and headed to the South property. On the South side went down E to S-3 and took the un-named blue trail to the backside of Lake Christy. There is a deep mud hole on this route called "black hole". This is the same hole Doug Masnick sank his Badger in Jan 2013. We got our wires crossed and Ed C. took the same line as Doug and found himself stuck in the middle of the mud hole but luckily it was as deep as it could have been. After a quick tug backwards, everyone made it through and we all had to turn around and do it again.

Now back on S-3 we mad our way to more popular side of Lake Christy and had a quick look. From there we head North on E and took the new Topless for Tatas Trail (blue). This is a fun trail,, not very difficult but keeps your attention the whole way. Plus with a name like that, how could we not run it?

After that trail we were all lookng forward to our planned cookout. Once back at camp out came the grills, ribs, steaks, beans, beans, corn, slaw, Texas toast, and beans. As always nothing taste better than a good camp meal. Katie even brought brownies for desert.

I for own had a great time and enjoyed the friendly atmosphere throughout the weekend.

Thank you to everyone who made the trip.

Rich Martinez