28 Jun 06, 06:23 am
Let me tell you a little story about a winter Manchu run.
A year or so ago, LawsonEOD and I headed out to Manchu for a little run around 11 am. We made it to the half way point at about 12:30. Things were going well, a few pictures here and there, nothing to write home about. Then around 1pm we started having trouble. We would drive for 50 feet and get stuck. We would winch through a snow drift and move on. Then it started getting more prevelant. Then to complicate matters, it started to warm up from -10 to about +15 which made the trail loose and soft. Then Lawson got stuck and I got stuck at the same time which took some creative winching. By this time it was getting on to 5 or 6 pm and things werent getting any better. At about 8 pm I tried to make a phone call to April to et her know that things weren't going well. Lawson was ahead of me in line, and his synthetic line came off of his winch drum, which left us dead in the water as there was no way for me to winch around him. April got the choppy broken up phone call and all she could make out was "stuck bad".
April called ChevyKev, who called Ja Make It Jon, who called HandyAndy, who brought a friend...so as Lawson and I are preparing to make a hike out of there sans Jeeps, ChevyKev pulls up on a snow machine with sandwiches and hot cocoa and say that Jon and Andy are on their way down the far side of the trail.
Then began the cold difficult ordeal of respooling Lawson's winch and winching both heeps out, 1 at a time, for over 3/4 mile, hence the name the great Manchu winchfest, also known as Manchu Madness. Lawson, Kevin, Jon, Andy, friend, and I all took turns towing out the winch line, wading through the waist deep snow to hook it to a tree, and re connecting. It almost seemed like an impossible task as I was sure one of the winches was going to burn up or a winch line break, or a rig overheat, but we packed the winch motor with snow and just kept going.
By the time we got out of Manchu and back onto driveable surface, it had been 14 total hours, 1 tank of gas, frostbitten feet and it was 4:50 am.
A year or so ago, LawsonEOD and I headed out to Manchu for a little run around 11 am. We made it to the half way point at about 12:30. Things were going well, a few pictures here and there, nothing to write home about. Then around 1pm we started having trouble. We would drive for 50 feet and get stuck. We would winch through a snow drift and move on. Then it started getting more prevelant. Then to complicate matters, it started to warm up from -10 to about +15 which made the trail loose and soft. Then Lawson got stuck and I got stuck at the same time which took some creative winching. By this time it was getting on to 5 or 6 pm and things werent getting any better. At about 8 pm I tried to make a phone call to April to et her know that things weren't going well. Lawson was ahead of me in line, and his synthetic line came off of his winch drum, which left us dead in the water as there was no way for me to winch around him. April got the choppy broken up phone call and all she could make out was "stuck bad".
April called ChevyKev, who called Ja Make It Jon, who called HandyAndy, who brought a friend...so as Lawson and I are preparing to make a hike out of there sans Jeeps, ChevyKev pulls up on a snow machine with sandwiches and hot cocoa and say that Jon and Andy are on their way down the far side of the trail.
Then began the cold difficult ordeal of respooling Lawson's winch and winching both heeps out, 1 at a time, for over 3/4 mile, hence the name the great Manchu winchfest, also known as Manchu Madness. Lawson, Kevin, Jon, Andy, friend, and I all took turns towing out the winch line, wading through the waist deep snow to hook it to a tree, and re connecting. It almost seemed like an impossible task as I was sure one of the winches was going to burn up or a winch line break, or a rig overheat, but we packed the winch motor with snow and just kept going.
By the time we got out of Manchu and back onto driveable surface, it had been 14 total hours, 1 tank of gas, frostbitten feet and it was 4:50 am.
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