Return to Slaughterhouse!
Sunday the 23rd of November seemed to be the perfect day for a return to Slaughterhouse gulch. With temps in the mid 60’s and sun shining all day it was a far cry from the March 11th 2001 overnight adventure on the last go round! We began the journey at our typical 285 and C-470 meeting spot. There was a sense of excitement in anticipation of the long awaited return to the gulch. Once to the trailhead we decided to head straight up the hill that was such a challenge with over a foot of fresh powder on it last time around. We had absolutely no trouble climbing it this time, still steep long and rough, but dry!!! As I was taking pictures of the crew I was taking a few pictures of Super Dave’s Cherokee through the moguls, and I realized Dave was walking up the hill behind it! I couldn’t believe my eyes the Nick monkey was driving!!! We proceeded down the long hill to the bottoms where we had spent time jumping the moguls in the snow last time. The John meister turned on his overhead lights and siren as another group passed us. They thought they were under arrest! We laughed our asses off!!!
That brought us the steeply rutted uphill that we had set up our winch line on last time.
What a blast running through that area when dry! About ¼ mile from there we sat down and had lunch in a meadow. The weather was so great, no breeze just sunshine! On the way out we decided to have a little fun in the mud bogs just to the right of the main trail. The other group up there said the bog itself wasn’t really the challenge it was the vertical hill exiting the bog. I was of course the guinea pig for the group! I took the granny locked, low low and slow approach at first. I climbed up the vertical shelf ¾ of the way up off camber feeling every bit of it I assure you! I ended up hugging the left side using a lunging motion and guided the crusher up and over! What a killer little climb! The Bo Meister took the Puncher to the shelf. He was just about over the crown when we all heard a CRUNCH… It was his T-case. Yep…no foreword or reverse! Bummer! Then Scott took the BAMF Toy to the shelf. I don’t know if it was the big V8, 38’s lockers or what, but he made it look easy! We made it back to 285 and Bo got his wife to shuttle the diesel up to tow the Puncher home. What a great return to a great train. Hopefully well get back up there soon to keel it! Cheers! Chris…
