Spring Isuzuwharrie 2009

On Thursday April 22th, I headed South and hooked up with Tad just South of DC, on I95. We established the radio channel and ended up and caravanning all of the way to the Arrowhead Camp Ground.  On the way down we hit JRs for cigars and a huge surplus store.  Other than that, the trip was uneventful except for a bearing that went bad in my AC tensioner pulley.  

Once at Arrowhead, we set up camp and I pulled the pulley so that the Trooper would stop screeching.  This was the only mechanical issue that I had the whole trip.  But, unfortunately, a heat wave hit the East coast so I really could have used AC.

After setting up camp, greeting the others, and having dinner, it was time for a night run.  I follow Tad and Andre followed me.  Somehow we got lost and after a couple of hours we had no idea where we were or even where the trail went.  So I pulled out the big flood light (a Christmas present from my wife) and searched for the trail. It turned out that we were at the top of Daniel.  So there was nothing to do but head down. This time Andre lead.  At one point, Tad was worried about following him.  Doug got on the radio and said, what are you worried about, Hack is behind you!  After I saw the ledge swallow up Tad's 34s, I decided the only way down was to slide on my rails. Luckily, we all made it down with no damage, even though the ledges seemed vertical in the dark.

On Friday morning we took a run on Rocky Mountain Loop. The ledge was even worse than last year.

 
   




Once we got to the top, it was time to try Kodak rock.  I didn't make it until Doug helped with some stacking but others had no such trouble.

After returning to camp and lunch, several of us hit the range.  That was lots of fun except for the heat. We had a collection of pistols. The Ruger was a pleasant to shoot, just the opposite of the 45 cal derringer.  My hand is still smarting from firing that one!  The best shoot of the day had to be JoeB hitting a bee with a 22 round.  We asked him to do it again, but, of course, he was wise enough to decline.

Then it was time for another run.  This time the Trooper made it up Kodak rock on the very first attempt, no stacking was necessary.

Dinner that night was grilled chicken by chef Mike.  

Some made a night run, but I decided to celebrate the Trooper's run by smoking a Churchill with Andre.  

The next morning, it was time for an easy run and some posing.

After, lunch some went back to the range.  But I thought that it was too hot and instead headed to the Lake with JoeD, Aussie and Hitch.  Here is some of the video I took.

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Then it was time for another run up Rocky Mt Loop and another crack at Kodak rock.  This time the Trooper took three attempts to get up.  Once up we watched the show for a while before heading back to camp.

Saturday night was the traditional trip to Zenos.  Chris (Marlin) let me ride to dinner in his VX; it was my first time in one.  

After dinner, some took a night trip.  How they did it, I don't know as I was stuffed and only had energy for another cigar with Andre.

The next morning was time to break camp and head back North.  Tad and I headed back together; he in his nice air conditioned 2nd gen Trooper, me in my 1st gen with no AC because of the missing pulley.  According to Tad's thermo, the temps hit 109 in the sun.  While I was wilting in the heat, Tad called over the CB and told me to exit.  (It just so happened that we were at the exit to Matt's, but this was a Sunday.)  Turned out, Tad's Trooper was missing.  A quick check under the hood revealed that one of the ignition wires was off.  Whether it worked loose on it's own or was helped by a PlanetIsuzoo member, we'll never know.  In any case, the Trooper ran fine after Tad reconnected the wire.  Other than that, the trip was uneventful.

Link to information on Uwharrie National Forest.