It wasn't long before we were greeted with multiple downed trees. The wind was very strong the night before, and this was no surprise. No one had brought a chainsaw nor a bow saw this day, but luckily we had a couple axes. A few of us jumped out and cleared the trail for anyone traveling behind us.
We eventually reached the turn off for Jenny Creek and headed down the narrow slope. The trail was a lot narrower than I remembered , and it certainly took its tole on the plastic windows.
Right before we reached the creek crossing, we were greeted once again by another downed tree. Chad attempted to drive over it and got himself high centered on his diff.
We were able to winch Chad off the log, and then came out the axes. After a long chopping process, we were finally able to move the tree off the trail.
We crossed the creek, met up with 2 fellow Jeepers, and attempted the rock obstacle. With every failed attempt, the rocks became more and more slippery. Chad took a good 8 tries and then moved out of the way for Ryan to attempt. He was almost successful on his first try, but just couldn't get the rear tires over the iced up boulders. He finally opted for the winch. Chad took another few attempts and finally made it up and over. He would be the only one on this day to make it up the obstacle unassisted.
As we continued up the creek, someone mentioned over the radio that they had blown a drive shaft. We get out to inspect, and sure enough, one of the Cherokees and broke the slip yoke on the rear of the t-case. After further inspection, we found that the the Cherokee had actually broken a center pin on the driver side leaf. top of that, the u-bolts weren't tightened down, so the whole set of leafs fanned back to the rear of the wheel well, which in turn pulled the pinion down putting tremendous stress on the drive shaft causing it to snap at the yoke.
We worked for well over an hour on resetting the leafs and getting a new center pin installed. The yoke was trashed and so the Cherokee would have to finish the day in 2wd. The 2 jeepers in front of us had actually turned around and told us that the trail had about 6 trees that were 3'-4' in diameter and that it was no longer passable us we had a chainsaw, which of course we didn't. So we all got turned around and headed back out.
Even with the trail repair, it was a great go for wheein'.
