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The Saga of the Bike and Jeep Killer by Adam McCreight |
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Part 1This is a little adventure I had a few nights ago. Quite a story, sorry it is so long.
I am awake. Nothing like 3.5 hours sleep to make you feel like a million bucks. Since the camera has few pictures and none at the beginning, I shall write. I am sorry for this. It is 5 pm on Tuesday, I ask GetBent (Jim) if he wants to go riding, he pauses then says “sure, I don’t have anywhere to go.” The dirt starts 10 miles from the house, and then 5 miles of dirt road gets you to a jeep trail. I have taken this in the jeep, then on bikes by myself, with Terra, and now with Jim. It is rocky, but a good warm up for things to come. At some point I tell Jim, if anything happens, keep on making left hand turns and you will get out of here. It is 5-7 mile loop with many trails off of it. At the halfway point we decide to go to some water falls, but unlike PhotoJoJo’s rendition, there isn’t any water anywhere in S. AZ. We do not get very far when it is turn around time by the watch, 7ish. We are coming back up the trail at a good clip and abra kadabra, my front end is no longer going forward, but sideways. Jim had a while to check out the scene and things it was just a pile of sand in a curve and a bad placed rock. I landed exceptionally well, stand back up, go to the bike that is still running, but gas is spewing, hold in the clutch and lift. Antifreeze hits me square in the face. Good thing the goggles and helmet were there. Kill the bike, and that is when Jim offers up this XR650 to me to get the jeep. Great friend! All I gotta say is the XR was very smooth, my WR is sensitive to on/off inputs from the throttle, his was not. His is also stock sprung, so it absorbed all rocks. I did stall once, I sware it was a snake on the trail, roots are deceiving. Good thing it wasn’t a snake, I tried to go around it again, front end again hit the 8” pile of sand on the side and washed out. I would have fallen on said snake. Got back up, started and went home. It took me 30 minutes or so to get home and get the jeep. Get all the supplies, where is that mag light? Ahh, forget it, Jim is waiting. I have to go to work; I am now a little late… And this is another note. I have blisters on most of the bottom of my feet, they are killing me. The high spots are now sensitive low spots. Every step was painful coming into work, and I believe everyone knows how far a walk it can be at any TI site if you get to work around noon! Terra, I drove your bike to work, and I haven’t killed it yet.
Part IIWhen people have off-road vehicles they accessories them. In the beginning I made some beginner mistakes, but I soon figured out what I wanted this jeep to be and followed that path. One of the first things I bought were these cool 135w fog/running lights. Well, in N or E Texas you are either on a road with other traffic or you are on a rocky jeep trail and a pencil beam light doesn’t do too much good. Diffused “fog” lights work best. I am driving up the dirt road with switchbacks and all, trying to make it back to GetBent in less than 45 minutes, 1 hour total would be tough, but in the dark with a broken bike, in a place you really do not understand yet, would be antagonizing. It is great; the 135w bulbs are making daylight out of the black hole that surrounds us. I see rabbits and other varmint, I am thinking I should have brought those other two beers in the fridge, and we could have sat up here afterwards and drink a cold one looking out at the city.
Sunset over the City - from the Desert
I drive from the entrance to the exit, 5 or so miles away, hang a right and start up the trail. I decide to stay in 2Hi to make up some time, and I was flying. The trail was a little rough but not bad. I have to be there, I have been going for long enough, it is 9:30, and it has been dark for a while. I start up a hill and tick, tick, tick, boom. The drive shaft explodes. I roll back to flat ground, pull out the blanket/ carpet, tool bag and head lamp in the tool bag and go to work. I have the drive shaft out in minutes, tossed in the back, lock the front hubs and I back up for some momentum and go. The jeep is pointing straight up zigging left and right, but no forward momentum.
Oops! Don't we need that part?
Interestingly enough, GetBent, 2 hills away sees the aliens landing and thinks it is me. Then they go away and come back. Then nothing. So he guesses it is drug runners or something similar this close to border and decides he needs to start making his way home. It is now 10pm. I told you I pulled that DS quickly. I am going to get GetBent and come back; we will drive the jeep backwards out of here! I have the head lamp, phone, camel back with ½ gallon of water, Dirt bike jersey, pants and boots. That is about it. About 5 minutes into my walk the led head lamp goes to zero, I pull out the phone and use the light for the camera. He has to be right around the corner, let’s get out of here. One bad thing about those 135w lights, or the rock lights in the previous picture. I now have no night vision and can imagine walking over rattle snakes and such. But, I have on MX boots, not the best hiking boots, but they should keep off a snake bite. Over a few hills the cell phone light goes out and it starts ringing. It is my wife. I had called her when I was driving up to the trail head on the jeep, and she was calling back. I tell her the news that it is gone from bad to worse. 2 dead vehicles. She is in Texas right now, and can only come up with; you have the best adventures without me. Interestingly enough while on the phone with her and no lights, my night vision comes in. Hmm, keep one eye closed if you use a light so you have night vision. I remember that from a Hamburger hill. I shall do this! So, I am walking and talking. Nothing like being stuck in the middle on nowhere, but yet you can talk on the phone. Crazy I tell you. Soon I get off the phone, I hear a rattler. Nope, with one ear hearing outside and one hearing the phone, a locus sounded bad and low, instead of harmless and in a tree. I call her back and say that I need to have all of my limited senses, it is late, go to sleep (2 hour time difference). I walk and walk, I get to an intersection that I remember, and this was ½ mile back, I have walked past the site of the accident. I thought I had heard motor sounds. I am sure Jim is trying to ride it out, but has to stop to let it cool. This whole time I had been shouting “Jim” but no response. If he has his helmet on, and bike sometimes running, he is never going to hear me. Plus the desert wind is blowing at 30mph. I turn around and hike out, and about a half mile later I see the sign that takes you from the main trail to this one. I completely missed it going the other way due to a tree. It is amazing that I cannot really 4 feet away. Now my phone is getting low on battery and I only use the light to go up hill since that is where most of the rocks are. Jim should be long gone by now. I am going to relax, enjoy the stars, and try to not come into contact with any illegals, snakes or pretty much anything else. The stars are great, the moon has not come out yet, and the pitch dark made for some great stars. I decide to start slowing down on the water consumption just incase I have to hike out of here. Once in a while I can see the city and get cell reception, so I use that to line up the stars to get my bearings. It is around 11:30, I wish I would have been keeping track of time so I could know when I was coming up on the jeep. (Mistake 3)
Part IIIThis part is a rambled, it was a bit of a blur, Hours seemed like minutes: I gain cell reception again and call Terra. It is around 1 am you/her time. 11ish here. I know I have missed the jeep somehow. When I was pulling the drive shaft(DS), there was 6” of trail on either side of me before it went into the grass and beyond. How could I have missed the jeep? Did I forget to put it in gear and use the parking brake and now it is down the hill never to be seen again? No, I lowered it to flat ground to pull the DS. Did illegals get it going? No, it would barely move under my expertise. Where is the jeep? Soon after I am out of cell range so I am now cut off from the world. It will be a long haul, but I am getting out of here. I do not turn around, I could go in circles and get lost, just keep on going, I had the possibility of not getting the jeep to move on its own power and having to hike out anyway. I keep on walking and come to some land marks that I saw during the drive in and say, yup, I lost Jim, and I lost the Jeep. How do you loose a yellow jeep that was in the middle of the road! I am trying to make sure I say on the road, my feet are dragging a little, blisters are forming and I am starting to trip on rocks. I stop for a minute. It is so quite and beautiful. Yet, the next corner will bring wind, and animals. Both Jim and I heard barking; maybe it was the chipmunks, maybe the coyotes. Why can I not find that jeep and sit down? Just rest for a minute, my feet are burning from the boots rubbing each and every step. I keep on going and end up at the main dirt road, turn left and start the next leg of the journey. By now I have been checking my watch and drinking a sip of water every 15 minutes. I am at mile marker 11, asphalt starts at 3, it is past midnight. Walking down the road was nice, big wide road no real rocks, but I was in a valley and it was dark. Around 12:30 the moon starts to glow behind the mountains. By 1am the moon is out and I have enough light that shadows are being cast. I love the human imagination. I saw snakes out of everything there. I didn’t have an irrational fear of them before, but I could see tripping, falling face forward into a rattler. This whole time I have the head lamp in my left hand and cell phone in right. The battery in the cell is getting close to dead, so I do not have any light except stars and the moon when it isn’t behind the next mountain. I cannot imagine why my hands are not tired from holding on to these two things for so long, but they are not. Turns out they were, but it wasn’t until later that my body told me this. My feet are past bad I stop every 20 to 30 minutes to rest for 30 second and they just burn. At mile marker 8 I can see town, but no cell reception. I remember hearing that if you dial 911 it will try other towers, so I do it. I finally get a dispatcher who transfers me to the sheriff’s department. The dispatcher there asks what my issue is. I say that I am a stranded motorist, I was on a trail off of Reddington road and I am currently at mile marker 8, is there anyway someone can pick me up? She then asks me to call a wrecker. I say ma’me, I wrecked a dirt bike earlier, made it to town on my friends bike and was going back for him when my vehicle died. She then says, you were involved in an accident that is different and starts to take my info. I tell her that my friend was still out there, but I went to look for him and couldn’t find him. Then the phone goes out of signal. Cingular, the call doesn’t drop, it just becomes quiet. I just keep on walking. This whole time I can hear gun shots (on this road is an area to shoot), I know that is around mile marker 6. If I can get there, they can take me home. Or just let me rest on their trunk or something. Well, when I finally get the bend where the range is, I see tail lights light up and the cars drive away. So close! I couldn’t walk any faster, heck I could barely walk at all; the blisters surely had to be bringing blood by now! I just wanted to take off my shoes and walk on the sandy soil but I knew that would lead to something else, and this, I could handle. My pace had dropped to about a 20 minute mile by this time. Pretty slow, but it was as fast as I could go. I kind of give up, look down and have cell signal. Call up 911 and they say the officers should be there any minute. 10 minutes later a car comes down the road. The police officer lets me in, and he is kinda cold. But soon he warms up. I find out that Jim is at the bottom of the mountain, and that he rode the bike down. I didn’t know if the motor was fried or not, but I really didn’t care. He was alive and hopefully well. Actually he was well on black top, the boy had traveled. I was dreaming about coasting down some of the hills that I had to walk, but I wouldn’t have wanted to push that bike up them. The cop takes Jim home to get his truck and trailer, it is only 5 or so miles away, I stay with the bike, there is street light there, it is a school cross walk. This is the only light on this road. I put the back pack down look for scorpions, put my head on the back pack and fall right a sleep. This is the first time in about 4 hours that I could get off my feet. Jim came back we loaded the bike and headed to the house. We were on a mission, find the jeep. The next section will wrap it up. I know this is long winded, but it was a long, long night. There will be pictures in the next episode. Sorry, I left the camera in the jeep when I went on my walkabout.
Part IVWe are at the house and I am sure both of us just wanted to stop, but I know for me there was a part of me saying there is no way I am going back up there tomorrow, so it is now or never. And, will the jeep be there? At least we will have lights and they should make the tail lights reflect. We go in, I grab a gallon of water and put it in my camel back and then think, food. So I say lets get some carbs in us. I take a piece of white bread and stuff it in my mouth, I hand Jim the bag, not knowing if he will just down a plain piece of bread or not. Hungry men don’t complain, he takes his slice and walks to the fridge, grabs some mustard and that is about it. Open face mustard sandwich for anyone who comes to visit from now on. We hop in the CJ and I mention that it needs gas, we fill up and I am thinking about fuel consumption, I think the jeep has only been 50 miles per last fill up (the speedo is off by 20 or so percent). Dang, it just took 10 gallons. That is terrible; I guess the carb is running rich. We drive down the road, and I am thinking, what will go wrong with this vehicle. Now is appropriate to insert Terra’s comment from yesterday in response from Brutus’s comment Brutus: 3 out of 5? How do you damage three of your own vehicles riding a motorcycle? And yes with Adam's little teaser my imagination is running wild! Terra: Do you know how when you shoot a prairie dog, the rest of the member's of the colony will attempt to retrieve the dead or dying, and in turn the sinister aggressor will shoot another one and so on...same story with our vehicles. Accept the man vs. nature roles were swapped. Back to the story. We are driving to the trail head. This is when I realize that it isn’t 5 miles from the house, really about 10. Still, much better than driving 3 hours to Clayton, OK to find a good trail. As we are driving, I keep on telling Jim that this jeep is running rich, I can smell gas. At the trail head, we put it 4wd, and I step out to lock the hubs, I ask him to turn on the rock lights and sure enough, there is gas on the ground. We do not have any tools with us; they are all in my jeep. We try to make things work, but the hose clamp that goes to the carb will not move. Turns out we couldn’t have fixed it, but this could have been big mistake #4. A side note. Jim said he was spooked, I just didn’t realize how spooked. This is a guy who is pretty laid back, but while I was checking the fuel line, he got out with the riot shotgun we were now had with us and circles the jeep, two times. Then he stands to the side in and holds the gun ready for whatever might pop up.
GetBent (Jim) On Guard - just in case... We check the gauge, ¼ tank gone. If we hustle to get down the trail and find the jeep we can fix the line, maybe still have a half tank left. I am pretty sure I have fuel line in my jeep; we just need to get there before we don’t have any fuel left! As we are driving, I tell him I can’t be more than 2 miles down this trail, there is no way I walked that far in the dark. He agrees because and says this part of the trail is worse then the part he went down and cannot believe that I walked this. (He said it again last night, so I am sure he meant it) At around 3 miles we come up to a big hill that had a ridge in front of us. To left there is a very rocky trail going straight up, to the right there is a slightly lower angled trail with a yellow jeep pointing to the sky. I must have been on the rocky left trail and would have actually had to turn around to see the jeep! (Note to self, if you ever leave a place, turn around look at the area for reference points) We kill the CJ and I go to the TJ and I still have a camera, tools and fuel line. We pull the old line; it is cracked on the inside, not outside. I am glad we had new line because the old one wouldn’t have made it. But, before we do this, we have tools, and light, let’s fix that dang head lamp. I have been caring around batteries for 8 hours now let’s use them! It takes both us 20 minutes a screw driver and a clawed hammer, but it opens up. We now have light. I was reminded of Cast away when we is back in the world and picks up lighter, lights it and laughs. How handy it would have been to have just a lighter on that island. We devise a plan; I shall back up into a bush, Jim goes around, strap up and pull me up. Will this old CJ be able to pull a dead weight? Who knows? Sure enough the CJ being built by a pretty good fabricator pulls it right up. Jim later said he could barely feel the extra weight. We unstrapped a little later, he mentions a burning wire, so we pop the hood and sure enough, gas has melted the insulation on a wire and it is shorting out. Wow, good catch Jim. We do some work and remove that part; I also mention that I can see the tire moving in and out (left and right) on my jeep from the side mirror. Sure enough the bracket that is broken in the picture in Part II is also the track bar bracket. So I ratchet strap the bracket back on and the axle pretty much holds in place. We disconnect the strap and drive on. By the way, the sun is starting to come up now. Very pretty. You gotta stop and smell the roses some time.
Sunrise... or is it Sunset? Stop and smell the cactus!
We strap up the last big hill climb, are at the main road. There is a bicyclist at the trail head ready to take on the challenge, Man; I would have died for that car to have been there 5 hours earlier. At 6:15 we got home, 25 hours and a lot of work later. 2 days later and hydrated, I lost 2 lbs skipping dinner and going for a hike, anyone wants to take on the Adam’s guide to loosing weight? -Adam McCreight Editor's Note: this could also be known as "Adam's Bike and Hike"
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