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Day 2

I awoke to voices. Yep, that's Growly "G" alright. But, who's he talking to?? I roll over. Try to ignore. Need more sleep…Voices. Geez whiz it's early. Who's Bill talking to? Open one eye. Failed. Nope, not yet…<YAWN>.

Voices are closer. Arrgh. Open eye. Who is that?? Sounds like… Lift myself up 6". White roof, white www.bc4x4.com decal. Gawd, its Fozzy. Ever the fisherman, he got up VERY EARLY and came out for a visit, which happens to be a 10 min drive from his house.

After breakfast was dealt with, we gathered in commons to decide what trails to run, and who was going to run them. At this point we had added Brad and Leisha in Cherokee, Greg in IFS Toyota, Lee in F250, Brian in Mazda, Bruce in LWB Suzuki LJ and Mike in LJ to our ranks.

So, the decision was to have 3 runs. The modified vehicles of Bill, Shane, Lloyd, Gord and Brett would run Pig Pens Revenge. Mike and Bruce were going to head off and do No Way Out and other trails.

The moderate run was going to include Escalator. I was going to lead the following group down the stairs (The RIGHT LINE®, if you're so inclined): Bryan, Rhys, Chris, Brad, Lee, Tim, Greg, and myself. The first obstacle on Escalator is a short climb up a rock face, followed by a 90° turn into a creek bed, off of a 1foot drop into a small, babbling creek. Exiting the creek is a steep, off-camber, uphill climb that can be quite unnerving. Brian was first to come through the obstacle after me. Being quite stock, and with such a long wheelbase, Bri had a tough time getting the Right Line®, and risk of body damage was severe for his Mazda. After a few futile attempts, he decided that he and Shane would leave the truck parked and ride along for the rest of the run. Brad came through next, followed by Tim J and the rest. Chris required a little push up the hill exiting the creek, and Lee needed some attention as well, probably due to the extremely long wheelbase of his F250.

The climb to the top of the trail went without incident. We stopped for a few moments at summit to view the Ranger Station and panoramic view of the area. Then we walked the last 100m to the actual steps, for which Escalator gets it's name. It consists of 3 rocky steps. The first two are relatively "tame" and at most result in a bit of rear bumper scrapage. The last step is a bit off-camber, sloping right, but has a tree on the right that slopes left, over hanging the trail. If one's not careful, a bit too far to the right can cause your rig to lean into the tree. I also made sure I played the run up a bit: told everyone to be light on the brakes while descending…pumping them hard to bring a unnecessary ROLLOVER. J Greg made sure to mention that he didn't like hearing the term ROLLOVER, and that I should stop saying such. Everyone came down without too much trouble. Tim came a little close to the tree, getting a slight, red mark on his rear passengers door handle from the tree bark Brad's rain gutter, that runs the length of the roof, acquired a small dimple in the same spot, as well. There were some good "Photo Opp.'s" here as well… Tim J got some video footage that we should watch if Phil (Odie Monkey) ever gets his Monkey Arse in gear with that Video Night thingy. Finishing the run in good time, Brad and Leisha booted Brian and Shane back up to the trail head to pick up the Mazda and we headed back to camp.

Shannon. Where should I start…? It musta been something to do with the Slut awards competition. Cara goes swimming…BEER goes swimming. Cara dives off the rocks…well…I wouldn't exactly call what Shannon did a dive. He stumbled off of the highest peak, into what I would call a spinning Kamikaze front wards flailing of appendages and armpit hair. Thank gawd he was in the water in a few seconds!!

Races. Part of our planned itinerary was attendance at Western Speedway for the Saturday eve races. Billy 'N' Geeners daughter, Tia, was racing in the Figure 8's division, in Jo's old Honda. She was doing quite well, until she lost a CV joint, right in the middle of the track. (Aside: Turns out Tia had a date later that eve…I don't think her mind was on the race). Beyond that, the highlight of the eve was the Rollover competition. A ramp, a Bic Lighter (Chevy Sprint/Ford Festiva/etc) and a handful of speed got really funny, really fast. Now, in my eyes, this seemed funny: here's Island4x4.com members critiquing the contestants form and style on how to roll a vehicle over more effectively, speaking from experience/near experience!!

Home to camp by 12:30am, after my getting a chance to do a little night wheeling in Cara's Luxury Limo. Many of us stayed up quite late, that eve. I must say that I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Between Cow Boy boots, Vaseline, and Lego, then relating it all back to Shannon. I think I nearly lost my spleen.

ROFLMSLMAO = Rolling On the Floor, Losing My Spleen from Laughing My Ass Off!

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