Annotations will appear as you listen
0:00
103:12
Car
Ford Ranger
The Ford Ranger is a pickup truck that’s designed to carry things and handle rough roads. People talk about it on off-road shows because it can be set up for trails and towing. It’s a popular choice for driving to outdoor places and getting through tough terrain.
Car
Wrangler Rubicon
The Wrangler is a 4-wheel-drive SUV made for off-road trails. In the podcast context, it’s being talked about in connection with racing-style driving on the Rubicon Trail. That’s a big deal because it shows the vehicle’s ability to handle tough, uneven terrain.
Part
leaf springs
Leaf springs are the spring part of the suspension that helps the truck absorb bumps. They also control how the axle moves up and down when you’re off-road.
Part
drive shafts
The drive shaft is the rotating shaft that sends power from the drivetrain to the wheels. If the suspension moves a lot, the drive shaft has to be set up so it doesn’t get too tight or too loose.
Part
t-case
The transfer case is the box that sends power to the front and rear axles. It’s what makes a 4x4 able to use low range for slow, tough trail driving.
Part
carrier bearing
A carrier bearing is a support point for a drive shaft. It helps keep the shaft lined up so it can spin smoothly even when the suspension moves.
Concept
full compression
Full compression means the suspension is squished down as far as it can go. You check this so the drive shaft doesn’t get too tight or hit something.
Concept
full droop
Full droop means the suspension is stretched out as far as it can go. That’s when the drive shaft is most likely to be too long or too angled, so it matters for fitment.
Concept
ride height
Ride height is how high the vehicle sits normally. It’s the reference point for figuring out how the drive shaft will behave as the suspension moves up and down.
Term
ratchet straps
Ratchet straps are strong straps with a handle that lets you tighten them down. Here, they’re being used as a temporary way to squeeze the suspension so the parts can be worked on.
Term
one-piece drive shaft
A two-piece driveshaft is when the power-transfer shaft is split into two sections. It uses joints and a support bearing so it can fit the vehicle and still spin smoothly.
Term
u-joint
A U-joint is a connector that lets the driveshaft bend as the suspension moves. It keeps power flowing even when the angles change on rough trails.
Term
gear oil
Gear oil is the special oil used in the differential to keep the gears from grinding and overheating. If you open or swap parts, you usually have to refill it and make sure it’s at the right level.
Term
bleeding the brakes
Bleeding the brakes means getting air out of the brake lines. If there’s air in there, the brake pedal can feel soft and braking won’t be as strong until it’s fixed.
Concept
tear drop
A teardrop is a small camper trailer with a rounded, teardrop shape. It’s usually easy to tow and gives you a simple place to sleep while camping.
Place
Barrett Lake
Barrett Lake is the place they went off-roading and camping. They’re describing how their trip started and how they planned fuel and parking there.
Term
fuel
Here “fuel” just means gas. They’re talking about how they filled up before heading out so they wouldn’t run out on the trail.
Term
roto packs
A “roto pack” is a rotomolded portable fuel container (often used for off-road and camping) that can be carried and poured safely. It’s mentioned alongside the vehicle’s tank to show they brought extra fuel for the trip.
Term
drag racing
Drag racing is when cars try to be the fastest over a short straight-line run. The hosts aren’t saying it’s an official drag race—just that the crowd’s behavior can feel competitive like that.
Place
Buck Island
Buck Island is an off-road area on or associated with the Rubicon Trail where groups congregate around specific rock features. The hosts mention multiple spots there, like Revellumet Hill and a “tree line,” to describe how people choose play areas for obstacle driving.
Place
Revellumet Hill
Revellumet Hill is a named steep rock section in the Buck Island area. It’s the kind of spot off-roaders aim for when they want a challenging obstacle to climb.
Term
blue granite
Blue granite is a type of very hard rock. The point they’re making is that it’s tough enough that off-roaders usually can’t “break” the rocks easily, so the vehicles are more likely to get damaged first.
Car
Toyota A90
The Toyota Supra is a sports car made for speed and quick acceleration. In the podcast context, it’s mentioned because people are doing intense driving near a very steep drop. That’s why it comes up—its performance makes it noticeable in those kinds of stories.
Term
oil pans
The oil pan is the part under the engine that holds the engine’s oil. If it gets hit and breaks, the engine can lose its oil and get damaged fast.
Term
plug for their transmission
The transmission has fluid that keeps it working. A plug is used to drain or fill that fluid, and if it gets ripped out, the fluid can leak out and the transmission can be damaged.
Term
transfer case
In a 4x4, the transfer case is what sends power to both the front and rear wheels. If it gets damaged, the vehicle may lose 4-wheel drive and can be costly to fix.
Term
bio cleanse
Bio cleanse is a cleanup material meant to help deal with spilled oil in a more environmentally friendly way. They’re saying it would take several gallons to clean up the mess properly.
Concept
eighth of a tank
That phrase means the truck’s fuel gauge was down to about one-eighth full. When you’re going up and down steep terrain, the fuel moves around, so the gauge and warning light can change more than you’d expect.
Concept
downhill descents
Downhill descents are steep downhill sections where you have to go slowly and stay in control. Drivers often manage speed carefully so the vehicle doesn’t slip or overheat the brakes.
Concept
rock garden
A rock garden is a rough trail area covered in rocks. Your tires have to find traction and you have to choose a careful path through it.
Concept
hydro assist
Hydro assist is an add-on that uses hydraulics to help the steering work with less effort. Off-road, especially on tough terrain, it can make the vehicle easier to control.
Term
tie rod
A tie rod is a metal link that helps control steering. When you turn the wheel, it helps move the steering components so the tires point the right way.
Term
Heims
A Heim joint is a heavy-duty metal ball-and-socket style connection used in suspension/steering. It lets parts move through angles without wearing out as quickly as softer joints.
Term
single shear
Single shear means a bolt is being stressed in a way that tries to “slice” it from one side. How the bolt is clamped and loaded affects whether it holds up under impact.
Car
Dodge Ram
The Dodge Ram is a large pickup truck built to carry heavy loads and tow. In the podcast, it’s mentioned in a situation where someone is securing parts using simple tools and materials like clamps and tape. That suggests it was being used as a practical vehicle for a specific task on the trail.
Term
ATF
ATF is a specific fluid used in automatic transmissions. Some vehicles also use it in certain hydraulic systems, so if you’re low, the system may not work right.
Term
worm gear clamps
Worm gear clamps are the screw-type clamps used to squeeze a band around a hose. They’re handy for quick fixes because you can tighten them down firmly.
Term
stainless steel banding
Stainless steel banding is tough, rust-resistant metal strip. It’s used to make a clamp that can hold parts together even in harsh conditions.
Place
Fiora
Fiora sounds like a stop or section of the trail they’re talking about. They’re using it to explain how much fuel they burned between points.
Term
engine flooded
Engine flooding means the engine got “too much gas” and can’t burn it correctly. When that happens, you often have to clear out the extra fuel before it will start and run normally again.
Term
hand transfer pump
A hand transfer pump is a manual tool for moving gas from one place to another. Off-roaders use it when they need to drain or transfer fuel carefully on the trail.
Place
Ice House Resort
Ice House Resort is the place they keep using as the starting and ending point for the trip. They’re talking about it to show how much gas they should have used.
Place
Little Sluice
Little Sluice is a named part of the trail they drove through. They mention it because it’s between the places they’re using to track fuel usage.
Place
Lawrence Lake
Lawrence Lake is where they went hiking. It’s mentioned as part of what the group did during the trip.
Term
headlights
A “headlight” is the front light on the vehicle. Off-road trails can hit rocks or branches, so headlights are easy to damage and can be expensive to replace.
Term
air up
“Air up” means pumping the tires back to the higher pressure you use when you’re not off-roading. Off-roaders often lower tire pressure first for better grip, then raise it again afterward.
Topic
wheeling
“Wheeling” just means going off-road on trails and obstacles. It’s the kind of driving where you go slow and let the tires and suspension do the work.
Term
ball joints
A ball joint is a small metal-and-rubber joint in the suspension. It helps the wheel move and steer smoothly, and if it’s loose or worn you can get handling problems.
Term
evaporator
The evaporator is the part of your car’s AC that actually cools the air. Refrigerant passes through it and turns into a gas, pulling heat out of the cabin air.
Term
AC compressor clutch
The AC compressor clutch is what “turns on” the AC compressor. If it doesn’t engage, the AC can’t move refrigerant through the system, so you won’t get real cold air.
Term
rear diff
The rear diff is the part that sends power to the rear wheels. It also lets the wheels spin at different speeds when you turn, which helps traction and handling.
Term
ball joint eliminators
Ball joint eliminators are suspension parts that replace the factory ball joints. The goal is usually to make the front suspension last longer on rough off-road driving.
Term
e-locker
An E-locker is a locker for the rear differential that can “lock” both wheels together. That helps when one wheel loses traction, because both wheels can keep driving instead of one spinning.
Term
ARB
ARB is a brand of off-road lockers that use air pressure to lock the differential. If it leaks or can’t hold air, the locker won’t work reliably when you need it.
Term
optics
“Optics” here means how it looks to other people. Even if two groups aren’t connected, people may assume they are based on what they see online.
Topic
Rubicon trail
The Rubicon Trail is a well-known off-road trail in California. It’s popular with 4x4 drivers, but it can get damaged, so people talk a lot about staying safe and cleaning up so the trail doesn’t get ruined.
Concept
cleaned up responsibly
“Cleaned up responsibly” means you don’t just drive through and leave. It usually means you pick up trash and avoid causing extra damage so the trail stays usable for others.
Concept
trail etiquette
Trail etiquette is basically “how to be a good neighbor” on an off-road trail. It means driving in a way that doesn’t make the trail worse for other people or for the land.
LIVE
Welcome one welcome all to the snail trail four by four podcast if you like going off
running into it is wrenching on Toyotas camping into it is maybe even poking a little bit
about it Toyotas and of course hearing about how fast V8's drink their fuel than this is
the podcast for you. That's right ladies and germs. My name is Tyler joining me for
another episode of snail trail four by four podcast. How are you doing man? Good. Thank
you. Yeah. Do pretty good. Awesome. I like sorry if you guys are like watching on video
and you see me like poke my tongue in my cheek every so often. I like this stupid kanker
sore. It's like right where my teeth come together. Did you when I chomp? Did you like
chew on your cheek while you're sleeping at night? I do. I do that. That's really fucking
annoying. I hate that. It's been annoying the crap out of me for like five days. So I'm sorry
to hear that. No, you're not. Take it back. Okay. Sorry. Perfect. Thank you. Yeah. No,
good times as always. This is Thursday's episode. So we could tell you guys what we've
been up to. But before we get into that, we have a lot of stuff going on in the back end. Yes. This
is the month of the wolf box. So we got a lot of things going on with wolf box this month. So
the first one that you guys need to be aware of because we are kind of coming to a close,
I guess both of them are, is our monthly giveaway. Every month we give away an item. We partner with
a vendor, get to tell you guys some stories from the vendor, have them on, learn about the products
they have, the business they have, how they do things. And this month was with wolf box. So we
had a guy come on who's been using wolf box for a very long time, Austin. And we had some fun
conversations with him. That was back on episode was at 726 24, 724, I think. So really cool episode.
A lot of really neat information about wolf box and what they're doing, what they've been doing,
and really how these, the G 900 cameras, the review camera systems work and the functionalities they
have. So really cool episode, but we're giving away one for the month of July to all of our
listeners that support the podcast. So in order to get in on that, you need to be signed up before
the end of July. So July 31st is your cutoff date. And you got to sign up in one of two places.
There's irate four by four. You can go to the snail trial four by four form there.
And if you're on a mobile device, it's at the bottom of the page. If you're on a computer or
a tablet, something with a bigger screen, your option should show up on the side of the page.
So you sign up there or you can go to our discord, which the invite URL for the discord is down in
the show notes. And we are officially over 150 people on discord. Okay. I was looking at that
yesterday. So a lot of really cool, fun conversations going on over there. Some good ideas for podcast
episodes have been flying through over there as well. So we'll kind of keep a list on that. If
you guys have any fun ideas for podcast episodes, you guys would like to see covered drop it over
there in that channel. People are up in arms about needing a pets channel. I know. I'm kind of like
at this point, I'm like, I don't want to give you one now. I'm kind of like, I think you guys have
all wasted your photos. I know, right? So I'm kind of worried a little bit about the discord
just because I feel like there's so many things that we can talk about that it could,
it's just going to turn into like a forum in a way. That's kind of what happens with
discords. If they, if they kind of take off and become popular. Yeah. It's just going to be this
big, big thing, you know, it's, and I feel like there's just going to be a ton of information
in a lot of places. And I kind of wanted, I don't know if I wanted to keep it small and simple,
but it's quickly growing to something pretty, pretty large. We're going to have to hire some
moderators. I know. I was thinking about that hired Nick and see what he moderates. I don't know
about that. I could see Nick doing some fun moderations. Anyway, so discord is banging. It's
a lot of fun. There's a lot of activity going on way more than we thought that was going to be.
So it's really cool to see that grow and see you guys make use of it. But you can also get signed
up for the monthly giveaway over there. There's a section in your navigation pane called support
the podcast or the podcast, something like that. And your options for supporting podcasts are there.
So sign up by the end of the month. And then we also have a group buy going on with Wolfbox
for the G 900 tri pros. And we are over the 30 minimum for the top tier of the group buy.
Yeah. And what's cool about that is we are pretty much guaranteed $40 off your purchase
for a G 900 tri pro, but they're also doing 20% off. I think almost the entire website,
I think so. And so they told us that you guys will be able to stack those two discounts, the 20%
off that's going on the website, as well as the $40 off the G 900 tri pros. So that comes to,
I want to say it was like 110, 115 dollars off of the G 900 tri pros. And there were normally 350.
So that brings down to like 240, 240 bucks, 30% off over. So pretty good deal, pretty screaming
thing that Wolfbox is doing for the show here. As soon as we get to July 31st in the evening time,
we'll shoot an email over to Wolfbox and make sure we get that discount code so we can get it over
to all of you guys August 1st. So you can start making all your purchases because we're not sure
when that 20% on the website is going to go away. So you guys will all want to make sure you get
your purchases in as quickly as possible just to make sure that you get to be able to stack those.
So agreed. Let's see, what else do we got going on? Well, in regards to the group buy,
if you want to get in on the group buy, there's still time you have until the end of the month.
So you could either message us on the discord, you can DM us on Instagram or send us an email
or whatever is really convenient for you. As long as you can get a hold of one Tyler or I,
and then we can just keep all we need from you is how many you're interested in
and your email address so that once we get the discount code, then we can get it back to you.
So it's super easy. And yeah, so if you're interested in one, just get a hold of us one way
or another. Cool. I like it. We'll get your name down and we'll get those discount codes out.
Let's see, what else for the month of July? We do have some reviews to go over.
What are we doing on reviews? We're doing pretty good. Okay.
Not very many spots still available for the 800 review. So let's see, which one we get to 800
reviews. We are giving away an on ex elite membership plus some swag packs from snail
trail four by floor more flight and some other friends of the podcast. So where are we sitting?
We are currently at 790.
Yeah, 796 of seven spots till we get to 800. Okay.
So once you get to 800, that's the last four spots we have. If you sign up or leave a review,
I guess at 801, you do not get included in the giveaway here for the on ex elite membership
and swag pack. So make sure there's only four spots left. You guys are going and doing that.
And remember you can submit multiple reviews. If you can get access to somebody else's phone
and their Apple account, you just have to remember or if you have multiple emails,
you can make multiple Apple accounts. That's fair too. Yep. So it's really cool,
fun little program that we started. That's been a big hit and then every so often we get to do
some grand prizes. Yes, like we've done a winch. We've given away a winch. I think that was at
500 reviews. Yep. We did another. What did we do? Some tires, a full set of Yokohama tires,
pretty much your choice at what was it? 750 reviews. I believe so. Yep. And so at 900
reviews is the next grand prize now and that was going to be with more flight. You're going to get
at least $900 at the 900 reviews. So some really cool stuff coming out. And I think we're going to
have two products launching by the end of August, I hope. Okay. I hope. If not August and maybe
early September, but somewhere right around there. So that'll be coming up and those items
will get included in your big Marflate price package at 900 reviews. So sweet. Today though,
we're going to go back and read some reviews. Okay. And we're going to start here with a J long.
A J long. Okay. That says good four by four dirt podcast,
always informative and a fun lesson. Thank you. We're not a dirt podcast. Get out here. No,
or a rock podcast, rock, rock podcast granite. Granite is what we like. Sam Stone's fun too though.
Thank you for writing in a J long. So is it J A Y or just the letter J J A Y
like a blue J like a long blue J. Okay. I don't know why, but that's what I'm referencing.
Next one up is Tacoma 7, 9, 8, 9 says camp talk, camp talk. It's just like being at camp after
day of wheeling. Yeah. Yeah. That's what we were aiming for. So we're going for and I can, I can
attest to that after hanging out at Barrett Lake with Mr. Lloyd and husband and Dana.
We just goofed around and talked about cars and random stuff. Nice. So fun. So jealous.
Next one. Ben. Okay. So the username earmuffs is V to the Jaina.
And it's the review says Ben from Dover borrowed a phone. This podcast should have more ranger
talk and should also let someone with a ranger wind tires. Just saying nice. Thanks, Ben. Thanks,
Ben. I think Ben is put in like the most reviews, 12 reviews. I'm like, I don't know. I don't know
what he's at. Next up is J Turner. Oh one says solid show. I've been listening for about a year
now and it's just it's a good show. I like the variety of topics discussed in general structure.
Good. Listen while working on the toys. Yay. Yeah. I like it. That's good. Good stuff. It's
good to work on the toys. Yeah. And the listen. Yep. Next up is a rise honk. A rise honk honk.
Great podcast. I love this podcast. Listen to it on the way to work almost every day. Wow.
You probably caught up by now then. Maybe. I don't know. It depends when he started.
This was from June 26, 2023. So probably caught up.
Next one is from July 2nd, 23. It's from Cole trickle 813.
Cole trickle. Didn't we read something from him already or something? I feel like that we know
that name. Well, it came up because it's a days of thunder thing. Oh, so maybe we and that's how
that all started. So maybe we were listening to another like Cole trickle 84 or whatever.
Maybe. Okay. I got made fun of this weekend because I haven't seen days of thunder again. Yes.
All right. We're going to, we're going to need to figure out how to do this on discard.
So I love these guys. New listener. Absolutely great podcast. Love the Christmas idea episode.
What was the Christmas idea? The only thing the gift ideas I guess I think is the only one I can.
Yeah. Gotcha. Hopefully that helped you Cole get some good gifts from your significant others
and family. We know it helps Tyler. Yeah. Yeah. I got to pay more attention to what I say now on
that episode. And I think last one we'll do for today is a DJ D 524 says great off-roading podcast.
This is a great podcast for off-roaders. I enjoy the diversity of topics from stories
and trip reports to technical discussions and interviews with people and manufacturers
to learn more about their products. I also appreciate the frequent updates,
which means there's almost always something new to listen to three episodes a week says
there's always something new to listen to. Yes. So three too many maybe two and a half,
too many. I'm okay with one and a half episode a week, but that other, that other one and a
half episodes is killing me right now. All you need to do is listen to the last hour of Monday's
episode, everything else. Exactly. So that's a real cut it today. Let's see. I need to make
note of this ad lib, Jimmy ad lib. So let's see if you leave us, we've already talked about reviews,
but we are giving away $900 of more flight gear once we get to 900 reviews. So go leave us a review,
get in to win the on ex elite memberships once we get to 800 and 850. And then like I said,
once we get to that 900 review mark, you're getting a bunch of really cool stuff from more flight.
So in regards to, in addition to reviews, you know, we also have the discord going on,
which is a lot of fun, which we kind of talked about for the group buy. But there's also a
lot of fun things happening there. One of the things that we are working on is the tokens.
And we are hiding tokens always. Did you hide any this weekend? No, because I hit a couple last
time I was up on the trail. So I was like, I don't want to put like five on Barrett Lake all at one
time. I regret not taking a token out with me this weekend. There was a really cool spot that
you could only access by boat. Gotcha. For the most part, maybe, maybe you could hike there.
But the way we got there was by boat and I was like, dude, that would have been a sweet spot
tied to cool. I did find a new location at Barrett Lake that I've never been to before. So I really
want to hide a token there, but I was like, I don't want to put a bunch in one spot in one area here.
Next, once that one is found on Barrett, then, or maybe a year goes by,
something I'll hide some more up in that new spot I found. Yeah, definitely.
So we enjoy hiding tokens. We enjoy going out and exploring, going to new places. We usually
drop a token there to entice you guys to go out and explore and have some fun adventuring around
this wonderful world. If you're interested in hiding tokens for us and you're outside of California,
especially you guys, I'm talking to you, reach out to me. I've got a few sets of tokens sitting
aside right now, just ready to either for us to hide or to send out to people to hide tokens.
So if you've got a trip coming up or you've got some fun weekend plans and you're going out in
your local area and you're willing to hide some tokens and do a little bit of work while you're
out there, get in contact with us and we'll get some tokens out to you guys. Sweet. I like it.
The tokens are a lot of fun. I've been enjoying hiding them. Hopefully you guys are enjoying
finding them. So let's see. Any other kind of housekeeping pre-show stuff? I don't think so.
Trevor Clark did find another token. Was it a repeat or was it a repeat? It was a repeat.
It was an S, but it was the one by the boiling mud pots up in Lassen right by the road. Oh,
cool. Okay. So he found that one. Good. So he's catching up or he's getting up there.
But I don't want that to deter anyone. That was really quick. That was a really cool token.
A, the mud pots are right there. But B, I went off of the road and then kind of under the bridge
a little bit and kind of hit it on the edge of a cliff overlooking this kind of river canyon
under the bridge. So it had this awesome view. Well, as you kind of got off of the road and kind
of hiked down a little bit, so I think the one at the campsite was probably my favorite spot
on the Lassen trip. That other one at the mud pots was a pretty cool little site.
Yeah. And I'm pretty sure there's still two tokens hidden out in Lassen.
Yeah. I want to say I hid one every day and we were there for four or five days in that area.
One of the ones that I hid is still out there. Oh, okay. Nice. Cool.
So you hide it down in a lava tube so no one can use their GPS to find it.
No, no, I hid it. That would be funny. That was the one by the
boiling sulfur pits and mud pots that was snowed in last time Trevor went there.
And you guys had maybe Reed, so you didn't do the hike out that way. Gotcha.
But yeah, that was the, I forgot what the guy's name was that.
It's like Hell's Kitchen or... Oh, it's something else. Okay.
It was named after somebody that fell into the mud twice.
And eventually he had to get his leg amputated. But yeah, so the tokens are out there.
We have a fun time hiding them. Hopefully you guys are having a fun time finding them.
But I did want to say, so once the first person that spells out snail trail four by four,
you have to find all 13 tokens that spell out snail trail four by four.
That person's winning a gear wrench mechanics tool set.
I think what did we say? It was like $1,300 value and like 600 pieces?
It was like, I just want to say it was two of the new one that's currently on sales,
2,000 that had some extra things in it from the version that we have.
So it's around 1,500 to 2,000 bucks. Yeah, 600 pieces, 6 to 50, something like that.
It's a big old set.
Yeah. But I don't want to deter you just because Trevor is close,
because if you already have tokens, you can continue to find more tokens
and spell out snail trail four by four. And once we get rid of the master mechanics tool set,
we're lining another thing up right after that to do another giveaway for,
and we're going to just continue that ball rolling. So eventually you're going to be
able to spell out snail trail four by four at some point and you're going to win something.
So keep going, keep searching, keep having fun and keep exploring.
Yeah, I like it.
All right then. Let's take a quick break. And we'll be right on back with kind of what Jimmy
and I have been up to over the past week. And where we get to, this is the part of the podcast
where Jimmy and I actually get to check in with each other weekly and see what's been going on
in our lives. Yeah, we've said it before, but we pretty much don't talk during the entire week.
So that when we talk on the microphones, it's brand new, fresh information for both of us.
Yep. So grab some popcorn, grab some chips and salsa. As we all know, Jimmy likes,
especially with his shrimp sauce, chips and shrimp sauce. And we'll be right on back with what we've
been up to. Onyx off road is the mapping software that Tyler and I have been joined for years.
But one of the key features that I really like are the layers. It brings all kinds of data
quickly to your fingertips. And you can click and choose the layer that you want to see. They have
so many different types of layers from weather to cell phone coverages to dispersed camping,
wildfires, or even avalanche dangers. Their layers can be populated on top of each other,
or you can view them one at a time. It's just a great feature to get some quick information
so you can figure out where you want to go camping or where you can stay in contact with
your loved ones. So check out Onyx off road from any app store.
Welcome back ladies and gentle ladies to the what, what in the butt episode? What is this?
727? Yeah, man. Stuff that Jimmy and I have been up to. We've been doing this for over seven years
now. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. This is crazy. Crazy stuff. Stupid. Yep. Stupid is a good word for it.
How many years of a napkin stack is that over there?
How many years have we been here? That's three. That's about 22 and a half, three.
Two to three years of napkins over there. We need to, today we should just take that stack back
to them. Hilarious. Just walk in. Here you guys go. For those that don't know,
after usually we record, we try to record our podcast in order. Yeah. Right. So we sit down,
we record Thursday's episode, then usually we go to lunch. Yeah. Then we record snail mail,
and then we record a Monday's episode. We record all those on Tuesday. And then we do the editing
and release for that during the week. So when we record Thursday's, then we go to lunch. And we
typically always go to this Mexican restaurant because we both like Mexican food and their food
is good. They have the best nachos in town I've found so far. Probably. It's really good. But
whenever we order food for them, we always get it to go. We always come back here to the warehouse
and we sit down and we eat and we talk about Thursday or Monday's episode and other things
that we have to do or what's in regards to the podcast, what needs to happen. So we have like
a little check-in and a little meeting, but they always give us napkins. A huge stack of napkins.
Always in the to-go food, they give us napkins, which is really nice. It's a nice thing to do.
You receive some napkins with your to-go food. I have some over here at the end of the stack.
But after years and of doing this, we haven't really thrown the napkins away
because we've always been like... A lot if we need them. We might need them. Now we have
literally, you could probably fill two, if not three, of those containers that you would put on
the table. Napkin dispensers. We have that many napkins. And I've taken some in the past too.
I have too. So we have a lot of napkins. We're hoarders here at the podcast. So
we also hoard license plates apparently. One day, those will get out.
Yeah. Before we get into what we've been up to, because we're going to talk a little bit about
this, but we're just going to kind of touch on the subject. We've had people... There was a
conversation on Discord about the videos that came out on Instagram with the people in the
drag races through Little Sleuths on the Rubicon Trail. And why is that a big deal?
And so we're going to get into that a little bit today, because that's part of what I did this
weekend. But also I want to let you guys know that there's been a big thing going on. If you
guys have not noticed it happening, I highly recommend you look into it. But Bear's Ears
National Monument and Grand Escalante National Monument just severely got reduced in size.
And where are those? In Utah. I want to say both of them are right around Moab and Arches.
So we are planning on covering that. We are planning on kind of updating you guys on what's
going on with that. There's a lot of... I don't want to say false information. I think of it as
false truths, false law. I don't know what the right term would be. I don't know what the right
We're going to be going over a lot of that. We just need to be, I don't want to say careful,
we need to be precise about the information and data that we put out there for you guys. We want
to make sure that it is correct, that it's valuable information and we're not making a
bunch of mistakes and misguiding you guys and deceiving you guys accidentally. So that is coming,
that episode is coming. And we have had people asking about it. So let's see. So that brings
us into what we've been up to. I'll take the lead here because I didn't do really any off-roading
and you did a ton. I did a lot. You So I think I'll start with Bobcat though. So
as of last week, I was pretty much done building the axle and I cut out the bottom. I removed
the drain plug. I put in a thicker plate, welded it back into place. So then I didn't get a ton of
time the last week to work on it because we were leaving for camping on Thursday. And so I had a
short week. Plus I had all my day job stuff to do and everything happening and my laser broke.
Oh no. What happened to your laser?
So what I found, I didn't know. This all happened on Wednesday. But the laser emergency stop button
short-circuited pretty much. It burnt out.
Okay. So it was always on, essentially the stop button was on.
It was off the opposite. Well, the stop, the emergency stop was on. So it would not cause,
for me, it would not cause my control board to turn on. But it allowed the laser to power up
because there's two, for those that don't have a laser don't know, there's two different power
supplies. One that actually controls the laser beam function and one that controls the control
board that tells the laser what to do. So my laser was powered up and ready to go,
but the control board wasn't turning on, allowing me to do any functions. And so I diagnosed it
to pretty much the emergency stop. And then once I ripped the emergency stop button out
and I looked at it, I'm like, yeah, it's melted here. I was like, okay.
Just jump right, you don't need an emergency stop.
Yeah, pretty much. And that's kind of what I did. So I ended at long story long,
I ended up buying another emergency stop, but the emergency stop that it looks damn near identical
has a different button on the top, right? But this one will, it'll power on the laser
when the emergency stop is at the top. But if I press down the emergency stop,
it turns off the laser, but we'll turn on the circuit board. So it's, it's an either or situation,
not a dual situation. So I was like, damn it. And I was like, but then I was like, well,
I can run, I'll just run two emergency stops kind of at the moment because one side of one works
and the other side of the other one works. So I was able to work Monday and get stuff done
because I was running these two emergency stops. But I'm going to be doing research and trying to
find the one that I need. Gotcha. That or I'm going to rip it out of yours. Anyway, so I was
working on Bobcat, working on panels, working on, you know, everything going on with just general
life, trying to get out of here Thursday morning ish to go camping. So I didn't have a ton of
time to work on Bobcat. But what I did do was I ended up putting the axle underneath the rig.
I put my, I took the leaf springs apart and I removed a spacer block that was under there.
And I temporarily just placed the leaf spring purchase onto the axle so then I can start
rotating the axle to find the appropriate degree and angle that I need for the drive shaft because
I'm going away from my two piece drive shaft and I'm going, sorry, I'm going away from the one
piece drive shaft going to going back to the original kind of two piece drive shaft that's in
there. In regards to that, I took apart the two piece drive shaft I have and I put the part that
goes from the T case to the carrier bearing. I attached it to the T case and zip tied it to
like sort of the carrier area, trying to get an idea of how things are going to start laying out.
Yeah. At that point, I messaged husband, this was on, at Tuesday night, I messaged husband
saying, hey, you want to come over and we can just talk about things and, you know, I can,
I think I'm in a good spot to like start doing some measuring and figuring some things out.
And so he came over after work on Wednesday, he had a short period of time just swung by for a
few minutes and we talked about it. And a lot of it was kind of like, how do I figure out my
compression? Because I'm on leaf springs, right? So I need to figure out how long this drive shaft,
how much slip the drive shaft is going to have, right? Because at full droop, it's going to have
the most and at full compression, it's going to have the least. And then at ride height is where
I need to kind of find that the average length of them, sort of. And so I was like, how do I find
compression? I'm on leaf springs. And so we, what we kind of came up with was like maybe
just ratchet straps or something to like, I have to compress the suspension a little bit.
And so that's pretty much where I'm at. I haven't done anything with Bobcat since.
So I need to build, what I still needs to happen is I need to build a mount for the carrier bearing,
because I apparently I cut mine off when I went from the two piece to the one piece.
And then I need to put the third member in the axle, figure out the angle. I need to take the
drive shaft to the drive shaft shop to get it cut down. I need to weld on the perches, weld on spring,
or shock mounts. So there's still a lot of work to do. But I think I have a backup plan,
so I can still go onto the Rubicon with the slow counted Grawler guys. And that pretty much is,
I'm just going to weld up the old axle and put it back into place. Because I don't think I'm too
far down, I'm too close to our departure time to get the drive shaft made. And so I thought, well,
I could still put the axle in, still have it at this funky angle and run it with a U-joint,
not perfectly right, because I'm not going to be going fast. And so I'll have to just tow it to
the trailhead. And I was like, it's really not that much more work to weld up. The axle is
completely apart right now. I could weld up the axle fairly easy and just put it back in.
Because I still have the drive, the solid one piece drive shaft still will work. I can just
reattach all the brakes and everything that I took off. The bummer part is, I'm going to
go through a bunch of gear oil for the rear diff and bleeding the brakes multiple times.
That's really the biggest hassle that's going to happen. So I think that's my backup plan. So I'm
going to continue to work on Bobcat and try to get it as close as I possibly can to getting ready
for the two piece drive shaft or the one, yeah, going back to the two piece drive shaft. Then
I'm going to rip the stuff out. And hopefully by that time, I'll have things tacked and ready
to go in place for, so I can weld it up once I take it out. Gotcha. Okay. And then I can,
and then at that point I'll put in the old stuff and I'll go out on the Rubicon with the old stuff.
Fixed, more or less. Temporarily fixed. Well, it'll be pretty damn permanently fixed, but
yeah, it'll just be a temporary job for me because I want to go back to the two piece.
Yeah, cool. So that's the Bobcat stuff. Nice. So there was a little bit of work there. I'm not
quite sure what's going to happen this week because my family is going to Oregon and I think
I'm just going to say bye-bye to them. Okay. And I'm going to stay behind and just continue to work
on work and the podcast and Bobcat and hopefully maybe Samantha at that point. So we'll see,
but fingers, it sounds so bad. Fingers crossed, I get to stay home.
But we'll see what ends up happening. Now that I have this backup plan, I don't feel
like the pressure is there. So I feel like I can still go to Oregon. I'm also low and almost
sold out on some panels. So I'm not in like the biggest, like there's not a high demand to get
panels out because I'm sold out. And so yeah, so I might end up going up to Oregon anyway.
And I know the family wants me to go to be with them. So we'll see. I will have a little sit down
and see how things go. But I'm indifferent both ways, but I do want to work on my projects.
So I'm kind of, I really am leaning towards staying home and getting that stuff done.
But and besides that, this last weekend, we did our annual Shasta camping trip with the
assistance family, her dad's side of the family. And it's a great trip. We always end up going
up to one of the fingers on Lake Shasta. We stayed at this campground for the last few years. We
stayed at this campground called Hertz Bay. It has a boat launch there, which works out well
because one of the, one of my stepbrothers, I think, I don't know how that works. It's my,
let's see, let's see if I can explain this without getting too crazy. So my wife's dad
remarried. So my wife has a stepmom. And then it's one of her sons.
Yeah. So it'd be a step in law. Yeah. Something like that. He's got a boat.
He has some Yamaha, something really nice boat. And we're at the lake and all the kids want to
be on the boat all the time and go tubing and none of them like ski or wakeboard. Some of them will
knee board and sort of bodyboard, but they all want to go on the tube. They like the tube a lot.
And so we drove up there on Thursday. We sort of had, we went down to the lake. We had a
very lazy day. We like just claimed our territory and then hung out at camp for the rest of the
night. Friday we spent, it was an entire lake day. We spent the time down at the, like I spent the
time on shore the entire day, just from going from underneath the canopy to like waiting,
to doing a little paddle boarding, to nothing, you know, just hanging out playing some Stardew
Valley on my phone. And then Saturday we went on the boat and we went like all the way from
Hertz Bay to underneath the bridge to get some, we got, what did we end up? We got some ice and we
got some ice cream and then we continued down the lake towards the dam, which is about an hour on
the boat from where we were from our camp. And we went to this place that was a natural waterslide.
And so you boated up one of these fingers and there was, we had to do this little hike because
the river was, or the lake was a little low. What interesting thing, it seemed like the lake was
losing about one foot of water a day. Wow. Yeah. Okay. It was dumping out of that thing.
It was crazy because we, I was pointing at the first day I was like, dude, I think the lake
dropped like two to three feet and we went down there and I was like, yeah, okay, it's not two to
three feet, but it definitely dropped. And then the following day I was like, it dropped again.
Like you can just see the high water lines and like the shore is wet at one point and like a
foot or so up and it's more than a wave, you know? And yeah, so that was interesting. So anyway,
so the lake is down a little ways. So we had a little bit of a hike up to where the water line is
and then from the water line, the high water line, it was, I don't know, 100 to 200 yards
up a canyon in the creek. You kind of weave in your way through this creek,
few decent sized pools, but like when you waited in a maybe chest height through it and then you
ended up at this pool with this little slide that's like the water comes down and hits a rock and then
gets turned at like 90 degrees and it just shoots down this little chute and somebody
like put a rope up there and so you climb a rope up this like face and then you just sit down at
the top and the water pushes you down this chute. And it was maybe eight, 10 feet long.
Little bumpy, if you went, if you were out of control, you could hit your elbow on the wall,
dropped you into like six foot deep little hole and maybe, I don't know, a very small,
a very large hot tub or a very small pool, yeah, in ground personal pool situation.
We were, when we got there, there was like a family of five and they did it a few times
and then they started leaving and then we had the whole thing to ourselves for like,
I don't know, 10 minutes and then probably like 20 high schoolers showed up and we're like,
okay, time to go. And so when we left, we got about halfway down and then the high schoolers
got to catch it up to us again. So, but it was fun. I mean, that was a really cool spot and
that's the spot I would have left a token at. On the way back, two kids were kicking it on the
tube and then cousin Marcus did this little weaving thing and the kids jumped off for fun.
And then me and the mini assistant got on the tube and you pushed her off?
Once, yeah. But then cousin or step brother, Marcus, he went harder. He definitely was trying
to get us to fall off and succeeded once or twice, two times, I think, maybe three.
And then on one of those sessions, I was talking to the mini assistant. I'm like,
lean my way, lean your way. And when he's flinging you, man, you gotta lean and you're
leaning one way. And then he purposely like straightens the boat out so that he goes through the
wake, his, his previous wake and then you get launched. And then we get launched. And yeah.
So he, he knows what he's doing. One of those times, man, like I was still hanging on and we
were flinging one direction and the buoy just, or the tube just flipped over and I was still
hanging on, but the mini assistant like fell on me and then left and I'm still on. I'm like
dragging upside down on this buoy and I'm like, well, she's already off. So we're slowing down
to turn to go get her. I was like, I might as well let go. So I let go. But yeah. So I got,
I got banged up not only from flying off a tube, but having the mini assistant fall on me.
So it was a good time though. That was the only time I went out on the boat. The, then the following
day, so that was Saturday, Sunday was drive home day, but we hung out at the lake until
about two o'clock just relaxed jumped in the water to cool off. We went on a paddle boarding
little session, the assistant and I. And then yeah, we drove home. I had, I turned my phone off
completely because I didn't, I was missing the world cup game. And so I was like, I don't want
anybody to message me. I don't want like, because I went to go look at the highlights for the England
and France game. And as soon as I logged on on my phone, it was like, Oh, the score was four to six.
I'm like, damn it. Like I didn't want you to tell me the score. I wanted to just see the
highlights and see how the game went. Crazy game though. It was, I think England scored six goals
and France, no, France, France scored six and England scored four. Like what? That's like a
super high scoring game. So yeah, that was interesting. So Mbappe became the golden boot.
So he scored the most goals out of the tournament. He also beat Messi for the most goals ever
scurled in the world cup. And so he beat Messi on both of those things. Yeah, which is, I, I
don't like Messi. I'll just say it. I think he's overrated. I think he's, he has an ego and he
gets away with his ego on the field by doing fouls that should be fouls, but people kind of let it
go. And so anyways, I'm glad he got, lost in the tournament and I'm glad he got beat
out by the, for the golden boot. Cool. So yeah, there's my messy rant. That was a messy rant.
Yeah, exactly. So yeah, I had my phone completely turned off, drove home. I had to get the podcast
out and then I went downstairs and I watched the final game of the world cup, which was Spain
versus Argentina. And yeah, spoiler alert, Spain won. So that was pretty, and I was rooting for
Spain just because Messi was on the other team. Okay. Yeah. So, um, yeah. And that was my weekend.
It was a, it was a great weekend. It was good to hang out with family. Um, it was good with like,
the kids are getting older and they want to stay up later, but the adults still want some adult time
and we want to play where they end up, they play this card game, which I don't know what the name
of it is. It's an interesting game, but it's sort of like hearts and rook combined. I've never heard
of rook. No, yes, I have. I've heard of it. Why do I know what work is? I don't, I don't even know
how to explain it, but more or less you're like, and they have a press specific cards for this game.
Oh, okay. Um, and I think they're rook cards because one of them has a bird on it. Okay. And
so they play that with, they play whatever this game is and you end up, you're trying to guess
how many hands you're going to win. And so like if you're dealt six cards and, um, in this case,
the aces are highest, but their cards have a one. Um, so the ACE is highest. And so you, and then
you're kind of playing by suits and you're thinking like, okay, if the clubs are put out of an ACE,
that means I have the strongest card. So I'm probably going to win that one. So you end up
betting at the very beginning of the round, like how many rounds do I think I'm going to win?
And then there's a score that goes along with it. Um, it's fun. I suck at the game.
Like I tried to, um, I try the first night I tried to play it well and I did okay.
I think I got in the middle of the range. The second night I just goofed off the entire time.
I was like, I was doing max. Like if there's six cards out there, I was doing, I'm, I'm going
all in. I'm taking all six and I was like dead last. The next day, uh, the last night that we
were there, I tried to play, win. Like I was trying to do really well. And what I found
is pretty much don't bet. Like you just, you bet zero, um, unless you have a sure fire win.
So out of, I think we played, so we went from six to one and then one like cards. So we went
did a round of six, around a five, around a four, around a 3211234
56 So 12 rounds. I lost four and I was third to last. I'm like, what? So, um, I just,
I'm not very good at that game. So I don't know. I don't, we know that we play it once a year.
We play it three times a year. The three nights that we're out there camping with them. So it's
not like I practice all year, any other time, but, but it's fun to hang out with the step cousins,
step uncles, whatever brother in law, whatever it is, step in law family, family.
You know, it's more or less the one time of year that we get to see that side of the family. We
get to hang out with them, all great people. Um, they're all ones, a doctor, one's a nurse and
the other ones a nurse. They're all like in the medical field. So it was funny because I was
like, what if somebody gets hurt? I'm like, well, no problem. No problem. I got two nurses and a
doctor here. Exactly. We're good to be. All right. Um, yeah. So it was a good time. A lot of fun.
So, um, but no real off-roading. Uh, we did take Taylor, the trailer out. Um, the Tacoma
pulled it fine. Charlotte pulled Taylor. No problem. Um, and none of them had seen the trailer.
This was the first time we took it out there. So they were all like, oh, this is cute. Like,
give us a tour. Um, and yeah, we're really happy with that little teardrop. I think it
works well for the family. The mini assistant doesn't want to be sleeping around us anyway.
So should we either bring out this like single, like little dome tent, like, you know, well,
one or two people for her, but rated for four, right? Um, or the, in this case, she wanted the
big tent. Okay. And so that's like a six person tent with a porch for two, for her and her cousin
that's like half her size. Um, but I was like, if you guys can set it up and take it down,
I'm fine with it. So they more or less did it. They needed a little bit of help. Just
didn't know how it went together. Um, and then they needed help packing up. They couldn't figure
that out. So, uh, just more rolling it up to get it in the size for the bag. And, um, but
yeah, so it was kind of, you know, the, the assistant and I sleep in the trailer. It's a
queen size bed and the mini assistant slept with her cousin and the, the tent away from us. And
yeah, it just works out. Seems to work out well for us. Okay. Yeah. Nice. The fun setup. Yeah.
It was a good weekend. Yeah. All in all. So now, uh, time to get back to reality for a few days
and then see what I'm going to do. Okay. Cool. Yeah. I get caught up with things. Um, I got to go
and do some off-roading. Yeah, you did. You did a lot of off-roading this week. I did quite a bit.
So let's see the, this story kind of starts with, uh, last week's Barrett Lake run, right?
Okay. With the family. Yes. I took the wife and the kid out to Barrett Lake. We had the whole place
to ourselves. It was a great midweek trip. A lot of fun. Ran into AA Ron out there. Yeah. A listener.
So, um, after, so going into the trail, I filled up, uh, Fiona with fuel, um,
before that trip and the roto pack. So I had six gallons plus, I think the tank is 22 gallons in
Fiona. Um, went in the trail to the lake, parked it for the week or the three days we were there
and then drove it out. Right. Um, and then I never refilled it. Oh, because I only,
it only used like an eighth of a tank of gas. Like it was like halfway at the,
of the three quarter and full mark, right? Sure. So I was like, okay. So it used about
eighth of a tank. Cool. Um, and then I ran a couple errands in town, um, here over the,
the 56 days I was back and then, uh, so I was at a three quarters of a tank
going into this trip. Okay. And I was like three quarters of a tank and I've got the two
three gallon roto pack. So six gallons of fuel and a six gallons is about a quarter of a tank.
Right. I was going to say, yeah. So I was like, I pretty much have a full tank of gas.
Cool. Yeah. We'll get back to that later. Yeah. Yeah. Again, I have a sense about where this is
going. So, um, this weekend was, uh, the Mad Hatter summer picnic. Right. So every year,
the Mad Hatter is offered club that I'm a vice president of, which I think is kind of funny
because I go on, I think two runs a year with the Mad Hatters. One is the adopt a trail that I'm
in charge of for the Rubicon. Um, and then the picnic. What about the Halloween run?
I don't hit that one every year. Okay. I've been, I try to, that's my other. I really,
that might be my favorite Mad Hatter trip of the year is the Halloween, the Rocktoberfest run.
Um, but I don't always get to that one. Um, and so I'm the vice president of this club,
but I go on two trips a year. Sorry guys. Um, but, uh, it was the summer picnic. So it's a pot
luck and we do it at ice house resort now. Um, we've done at ice house resort the past couple
years. We did it at gold lakes before, uh, for a long time. Um, and now we do it at ice house
resort, a little bit more easier to get to more of a central location, um, and a lot of different
activities that we can go and do during the day, um, around crystal basin. Right. So, um,
as we're leading up to the weekend and get ready to go, um, there was a bunch of videos that came
out on Instagram of people doing drag races through little sluice on the Rubicon. Yes.
Um, the optics of it were definitely not good. No. Um, it was, it was, um,
well, why, let's explain why was this not good? Cause I, I saw a lot of people going like,
Oh, this is awesome. Reminds me of the good old days. This, you guys are having fun out there.
You know, that, um, Oh, finally, some people really trying to have fun on in little sluice
and not like baby towing it through or whatever. So what, what was negative about it or what was
not good about it? That whole sentiment of, it reminds us of the good old days when little
sluice box was fun quote unquote. Right. So those of us that are, are familiar with the Rubicon,
the terrain of the Rubicon, um, the vehicles out on the Rubicon, the, the, the, the personalities
and people out on the Rubicon. Um, we understand that stuff like this, I don't want to say drag
racing per se, but like people like to hang out and try obstacles and have a good time
jeering at each other. Um, and just hanging out. Right. So like that happens all the time at
people. Sure. Is another very popular place that people just congregate and watch vehicles
try and get up soup bowl, right? Um, our soup kitchen, et cetera. Um, and then little sluice
is another one of those popular areas. Um, and then, uh, uh, Buck Island, right? So, uh, Revellumet
Hill is another one of those spots at Buck Island, um, as well as, um, a tree line at Buck Island.
And now the, the hill, I want to say right underneath the bathroom. Yeah.
I don't know. I don't think that has an actual name. I don't know if it has a name either,
but a slick, smooth, straight up rock seems like almost straight up. But yeah. So there's a couple
like play areas on the Rubicon that just people end up congregating and playing and having a good
time. And we know that pretty much at all those play areas with exception of tree line, well,
not anymore. Um, it's just all granite. You can't really hurt the rocks, right? You can't, you can't
destroy the terrain because it's really the rock and blue granite is one of the harder
substances in the world, right? So if you're beaten on a car on blue granite, chances are
you're probably going to break the car before you break any of the rocks. Right? Yeah. Um,
and rock isn't alive. And it's that there's very little, uh, natural resource value
out of blue granite. Um, typically wherever you have a ton of blue granite, you don't have a
lot of vegetation. You don't have a lot of natural resource part of it. Right? So anyways,
watching these guys drag race through little slews, really the damage that they're doing,
they're not doing any damage to little slews. Not really. They're really damaging all their own
shit. Right? Yes. Um, and there's a testament to that. Uh, John Allen, uh, past president of
the mad hatters, um, he ended up being out at spider lake while all this was going on at little
slews. Oh no. Okay. So he could hear the engines. He could hear kind of the partying going on. He
was like, Oh no, here we go. And he said that a drone came up near him at spider lake and went
over and he goes, Oh, there's the sheriff drone going over. Oh yeah. So sheriff drone and sure
enough, the drone came back 10 minutes later. The sheriff Jeep goes on out. Um, but anyways,
on the, on the way out, he got stuck kind of behind a bunch of those guys. Um, and this is the iron
kids group. Okay. I've never heard of the iron kids before. It's apparently a group of mid 20
kids, uh, kids quote unquote mid twenties adults, uh, with buggies. And apparently they do this
like a time trial drag race run every year. They've just always done it over on Ford ice.
Oh, I've never heard of it before. I never had a heart of it happening before. Yeah.
And they're a group of 20, some odd adult, 20 year old adults with buggies, um, out of Georgetown.
Oh, mainly so they're local. They're local. Okay. Um, and so John got stuck behind them
going through gatekeeper on his way out of the trail last weekend. Um, and he said every car,
like it was weird to him because there were broken cars trying to tow broken cars off the trail.
And John goes kind of chatting with them a little bit and goes, why don't you guys use
like good cars to tow the bad cars off the job might go a little easier for you guys.
And they said, we don't have any good cars left. Oh geez. They broke them all. So anyways,
testament to they're, they're mainly just messing up all their own stuff, right? Yeah.
So the main worry of all this is if you've seen the videos, it's a big party, right? Yeah. And
that's how the video videos are kind of shaped. That's how they're kind of glorified is there's
a bunch of people standing around cheering and jeering on the cars, trying to get through
little sleuths in this high speed fashion. And I think that the comments, a lot of the comments
that are on the videos, which is exactly what you said, it's awesome to see little sleuths
back to its former glory. Right. It's fun to see people out actually enjoying little sleuths again,
enjoying the trail. And what they're referencing by those comments is back from the mid 1990s
through early 2000s, when the little sleuths box turned into the little sleuths box, right?
Before the mid nineties, I think the first, I mean, we talked with Merlin. We've on some of
our Rubicon history episodes. Merlin said that the first rock got pulled down into little sleuths,
the first big boulder around 1990, 1991 summer around there. Yeah. And before that, you could drive
almost a two wheel drive vehicle through there. It was just kind of a little stretch of gravel
almost slightly bigger than gravel, but it was no stone road cobblestone road is how Merlin
described it. Yeah. And then in 1990, 1991, the first rocks got pulled off of the cliff face
down into the sleuths box, which started creating the obstacle little sleuths as we have kind of
now know it today. Correct. And so what happened was in the mid nineties to early 2000s, it was a
massive party scene. Yes. And there was a lot of, there was an event that happened on the Rubicon
called Rubicon. What was that called? Rubicon Fest? No, it wasn't Rubicon Fest. I feel it was
called, but it would attract like anywhere from one to 3000 people. Wow. It's a little sleuths
over a weekend during the parts of the Rubicon's initiation ceremonies. And so Boon, Booth,
Mike Bo, Bo Fest. I don't remember what it was called now. And there's going to be people that
are listening to the podcast right now screaming the name of your, but there's, I found old flyers
for it. Yeah. When I was doing the Rubicon information group, trying to get all the vested
interests of the trail to work together. I found a flyers for it and people on social media going,
Oh yeah, that was a great time. There's 3000 people out there. And yeah, that's not good.
So last time when those parties were going on and little sleuths was quote unquote in its
former glory in its heyday, it was, it was a giant party scene and there was a big major,
major issue with trash and human feces everywhere. Yes. And automotive vehicle spills, right? Oil
spills, power steering fluid, fluid spills in general, right? And so the state water board
after one of those parties, it was something of Palooza. I don't anyway. It's like I'm going to
come back and I'm going to shout it out in the middle of the episode. Anyways, after one of
these big parties that was like 3000 people out at little sleuths, there was literally
white flowers and human feces everywhere. Yeah. And it rained a couple of days after that event.
And there was just literally rivers and streams of human shit running down all the granite slabs
at little sleuths. They did water testing at Buck Island and Spider Lake and Loon Lake and found
human fecal matter in the water samples that they did from the lakes. And so, and they found
a literal creaks of shit running down the slabs. And so the state water board shut down the trail.
Right. It was one of the first times that the Rubicon Trail had ever been shut down by a government
entity. Yeah. And that was, I want to say 2002 when that happened, 2002 or 2003.
Okay. I thought it was, yeah. It's right around 2000 to 2003. Yeah. And then Friends of the Rubicon
and Del Albright went out and picked up human shit off of the rocks and cleaned it all up.
And then Friends of the Rubicon was formed in 2004 because of that whole event. Right.
So when people say, and because Friends of the Rubicon did that and got the area cleaned up
and they closed off the private property at Spider Lake, that's when the Spider Lake property got
closed off too from people being able to use it and camp at it. And that's also what caused
a little sleuths to get blown up as well and blasted was to keep the party scene from happening and
risking another closure of the trail. Right. So when people start commenting on all these
social media videos of how awesome it is to see little sleuths becoming quote unquote little sleuths
again, that makes the government agencies start to freak out. Yes. And the Rubicon Trail is under
very, very close tight watch by government agencies. Oh yeah. There are, by multiple of them,
seven government agencies that have a vested interest and say on what happens on the trail,
something like that from law enforcement to land managers to the state water board to a number
of things. There's California State Parks. There's the county. There's the Forest Service. There's
Alderado Sheriff. There's the OHM VR commission. There's state water board. And there was one more.
I didn't have to go back and look at my list. So anyway, and that's just government agencies.
That's not right. Private entities as well and adopted trail clubs and everybody who's put on
a ton of work and time into this trail. So all in all, I want to say when I was running the
Rubicon Information Group and trying to get all these vested interests to work together again,
we had Placer County was the other one and Tahoe National Forest on the North side. So we got,
that's eight entities right there. I think my list of contacts that were supposed to be
coming to this meeting to discuss what's going on the trail. It was 30 to 40 entities involved
with stuff going on on the trail. So anyways, when, when this stuff gets going out and it's
obviously a glorifying the party side of being out at little sleuths, the optics are really,
really bad. Yes. It's all in the optics man, especially nowadays because
we had an incident with it in Mojave where 2200 miles were closed in Mojave. It's called the
Wemo incident. We've covered a little bit about it on the show here. That happened because the
Center for Biodiversity and Sierra Club got together and said this little, there's a couple
of things that were not happening correctly in Wemo and in the Mojave area with those 2200 miles.
And it appears as though OHV motorized use is the main reason for the damage and destruction
happening in this area. And then they got a federal judge in San Francisco who has really
nothing to do with Mojave right nowhere near Mojave. I don't know if they even checked in
or did studies with the, the, the governing land manager in Mojave. I don't know who it is, but
I'm off the top of my head, but all they did was the federal judge was like, oh, you're right. If
all this is actually happening, then yeah, we need to address it. And instead of giving a work
list of things that need to get done, they just issued an abatement order and closed 2200 miles
overnight. Right. From a federal judge that's nowhere near the area. Correct. So what that
means is that precedence was set and this has happened before. It's not a new precedence.
It's a precedence that kind of got reaffirmed on a rule called minimization criteria, a law.
That is a Nixon Reagan era law that was put on the books in the late seventies, reaffirmed and
widened. The language is widened in the early eighties. Minimization criteria states that if
there's any damage that appears to be happening to the land, the land managers have an obligation
to minimize that damage. And usually that always gets attributed to motorized recreation. Yeah,
unfortunately, unfortunately. And so if somebody can take a couple of videos online,
that makes it appear as though there's a ton of damage and issues happening at a location as
that's been trying to get shut down by CBD and Sierra club for how many years now.
If they can get a federal judge that's nowhere near the area to see these videos and claim that
okay, yeah, there is damage getting done based on what it looks like in the videos,
then that gives precedence to minimization criteria laws being enforced. Sure. Okay,
luckily for us, blue ribbon coalition has been working their ass off to eliminate
the minimization criteria laws and they just within the past like two to three months
got them overturned with our current administration, the Trump administration.
So in theory, we don't have minimization criteria right now, but I know that there's a CBD,
Sierra club, Suwa, they're all working to reestablish minimization criteria
and they're challenging the elimination of minimization criteria laws in courts right now.
So it's very, very possible that those can come back
and so we just don't need that optics of parties and bringing little sluice back to its former
glory quote unquote out in the public scrutiny. As soon as that starts happening,
you're going to freak out land managers and they're going to blast a little sluice more
so it's can't be a party scene. Yeah, right. So anyways, that's kind of the big issue
with those videos and what happened there. So I called up the land manager, I called the county
and I was like, hey guys, I'm sure you've seen the videos going around social media, right?
And they're like, yes. Like you guys kind of upset about it and they're like, yes.
Okay. Well, I just want to let you guys know and make sure you know that the local community
almost all, I don't want to say almost all there. A large majority of the local community is not
happy about those videos, right? But because all of the public comments on the videos are very
positive, it seems like the local community is kind of being hush hush about their disappointment
of those videos. And so I told him, I was like, from talking to a few people, I was like the
local community is not proud of that. And so I was like, is there any, do you guys know if there
was any permanent damage done to the trail? And he goes, I don't know. I haven't been out there yet
to check on it. We haven't been able to go out and get eyes on the area yet and see what happened
and how the iron kids left the area. Right. And I was like, well, I'm going to be out there Saturday.
I wasn't planning on going into little sleuths, but if you want, I'd totally be down to go into
little sleuths, take a look at the area and get pictures, if need be videos, whatever we need. And
you know, I just want to let make sure you guys know that the community is here
to help this situation and do damage control if we need to. So and that we don't really approve
of what happened and what has been put online. So they said, thank you. They appreciated the
sentiment and asked me to go out and take a look at little sleuths on Saturday. Okay. So
the other big issue that we've noticed is that there's been a shelf
ledge line in little Seuss that has opened up over the past about a year. Yeah. It's on the
left hand side. It's on. If you're going in little Seuss and up little Seuss from the bottom
for bathrooms up to the top end where Merlin's table is. There's a bailout line on the right,
right? Yes. And the whole left side of that is just a big cliff. Correct. There's been a line
that has opened up on the cliff side, on the left side. And it's like a 78 foot ledge
that's a 90 degree just drop. And people have been going up and down it in buggies and burning it in.
And it's an illegal line. It should not be there. And one of the big reasons why it shouldn't be
there is because there is vegetation up at the top. And there's a, there's the last of the
juniper tree, the little sleuths juniper tree that came down X amount of years ago. There's a
little part of it that's still left up there and people are driving over it. So for the historical
value of this juniper tree and quote unquote, the former glory that little sleuths used to be
people were just driving right over it and killing it further.
Shunk still alive or is it just like a dead? It's still alive. Wow. I don't know if it's
going to be alive any longer. It's roots are completely thrashed right now. So anyways,
people are going up this shelf line. They're driving through. There's a little bit of vegetation
on the backside that per side of the shelf. People are kind of driving through it. Now
there's a trail burned through that. They're driving right over the tree of the root system
of it, which is going to kill it, which is what we saw the tree in big sleuths from driving over
that root system X amount of years that finally the tree came down, lost enough of its support.
So I went and took a look at it and there is an oil waterfall coming down that ledge. Oh my gosh.
And I'm guessing, you know, people in buggies that have their engines properly caged and,
you know, a whole subframe to every protecting everything under the vehicle, right?
Are just kind of coming down to that and sliding down as their front tires come down
the legend before they hit the bottom, right? Sure. But full body vehicles or buggies that
don't have their oil pans very well protected. I'm guessing tried to come down that and immediately
ruptured their entire oil pans. Maybe tore out their plug for their transmission or tea cases
or something. Any number of things, right? And so unfortunately, you can tell that there's at
least three different spots where people have completely ruptured and dumped their entire
oils or whatever oil was in their system. And so I got pictures of that and I sent it to the county
and I was like, yeah, it's pretty bad. I mean, it's it needs to get closed off
because people aren't being responsible and cleaning up after their spills.
And it's going to take probably five to 10 gallons of bio cleanse to clean off this whole ledge
here, this cliff side. So county was like, okay. And they gave me permission to close off the shelf
if I could. So I took me and John Allen went up there and to look and see what we could do
with closing it off and keeping people from using that line anymore. And ultimately, we decided
there wasn't anything substantial in that area. There's a bunch of dead standing trees down by
the bathrooms, but none of them are really big enough to be a substantial barrier. We figured
anything we put up there is going to get pulled down before the end of the weekend. And then
we're just creating a bigger mess inside the box, right? Right. So we just left it open,
took a bunch of pictures, sent them to county and made some recommendations on things county can do
that would be cheap and immediate. That would stop 80, 90% of people from trying to use that line
with some more permanent solutions. That would be actual barriers and keep 100% of the people
from using that line. So we'll see what they end up deciding, what they end up doing, but
they're going to their priority is to start working on that this week. Wow. So
that was the little sluice trip. Yeah. We went in, we left an ice house resort at
536, so 5 a.m. 5 a.m. and then got to little sluice about 8 a.m. Yeah. That's pretty good.
Pretty decent pace. I think from loon to little sluice, it took us an hour and 10. Yeah,
hour and 15. So right around there. But it was me, John and Renee, and then James and Rhonda.
Oh, cool. And they're buggy. So they came in and hung out with us for a little bit. And then
they continued to buck and hung out at buck with a bunch of people while John and I turned around
and went back to ice house resort. So it was very busy on the way out. We got caught in a huge
traffic jam where everything converged right at Suple on the way out. So there was a congregation
of people playing around, having a good time at Suple. So 30, 40 cars just around the Suple area.
And then there was us and we were kind of in this group of in total 10 to 15 vehicles
on the way out. And then we came head on at that like rock pile and that campsite right
before Suple. Yeah, we came head on right there at that rock pile with another group of about
30 vehicles. Oh man. So there's just cars everywhere. You can't really pull off and park
anywhere because of all the cars that are playing at Suple, taking up all the parking,
which is fine. It just takes some took some finangling to get everybody around each other
at that spot where everything converged. But I will say I was very impressed with everybody's
attitudes because when a traffic jam of that size and proportion happens, it's very easy for people
to start losing their shit and lose their patience and just start going all over the place to do
whatever they can to get around cars. Right? And there wasn't really any of that happening
and everybody was really good spirits, having a good time and just enjoying being out on the
trail, which I thought was really, really cool seeing how well the etiquette was working at
that moment in time when it was a really shitty situation for a lot of people. Yeah. So that was
really neat. The rest of the weekend with the Mad Hatters was good. We went back to
Ice House Resort, had our potluck. It was fun hanging out with everybody and seeing everybody.
So that worked out really well. And then Sunday, I kept the truck and camper at the Ice House Resort
and drove over to Barrett Lake with Fiona. Yeah. So I took Fiona with my quote unquote full tank
of gas, right? From Ice House Resort all the way up to Lune into Little Sleuths. You had a full
tank of gas when you got up to Ice House Resort, but then you wheeled to Little Sleuths and back,
right? That's what I was just saying. Okay. Yeah. And then you wheeled from there, you wheeled to
drove over to Barrett to Barrett. Okay. Got it. So by the time I started Barrett Lake,
and I took the six gallons of fuel and dumped it into Fiona's tank at the Barrett Lake gate.
Got it. Okay. So I was just, I was about halfway between half a tank and three quarters of a tank.
Full? Uh-huh. Okay. So I'm like, I should be pretty good. I only used an eighth of a tank on Barrett
last weekend. Should be plenty of fuel to get into the trail, out of the trail, and then back to
Ice House Resort. That second half of the fuel tank in Fiona goes like three times quicker than
the first half. Dang. I didn't realize it was that eschewed on how quickly it gets used. Okay.
So my guess is, is that by the time it's down to like three quarters of a tank,
that's really like half of the tank. Yeah. Okay. That would be my, my guess and assumption.
Um, so when your gauge says you're three quarters full, you're really about halfway full.
I think that's what it would be. Yeah. Um, based on what I found out this weekend.
So by the time we got to the rock garden, um, and the S turn, just so just past the
rock garden S turn section, I was at like just barely over a quarter tank. Wow. So it used over
a quarter tank quote unquote, according to the gauge from the gate to two thirds of the way
through the trail. Yeah. Whereas last week and I used a quote unquote eighth of a tank on there
and back. Right. So I was like, holy shit. This is going really fast guys. And then it got to the
point where like on downhill descents. So that like that canyon section, you have to come down
right before the meadow. Oh yeah. Um, I, it was like dipping into E and my light would come on
going downhill descending. And then when I would come back and level out, it'd be like
just under quarter tank. And I'm like, oh, this is, I think I have enough to like get out.
Yeah. But I don't know if I have enough to get back to ice house resort.
Yeah. From there. It's a 30 minute drive from the trailhead back to ice house resort.
Well, you could go just a little farther to get up back to fresh, fresh bond.
Oh, but you wouldn't, you could cut off. Never mind. No, you took the back route.
Yeah. I took the back route that side of road from my rice house road to rights, Lake road.
Yeah. Got it. That makes more sense. I was like, man, you drove all the way down and all the way
around. Yeah. That's an hour drive. So, but maybe you should have done it. Maybe I could have stopped
by fresh bond. Yeah. Um, so anyways, uh, at the, once we got to Barrett Lake, um, at the,
at the camp site, um, there was one other car there and, um, they, uh, on our way in,
uh, we ran into quite a few people we knew actually, or I knew. Yeah. Um, there was, uh,
some guys from the Pacific mountain cruisers from Rubathon. Yeah. Okay. Um, who PMC was
notoriously not at Rubathon this year. Yep. And so I got to talk with them and be like,
do you guys mind telling me your side of the story of what happened? Why did you guys not
show up? And it's a very interesting story. Um, I'll tell you off air while we're, while we're
eating our nachos. Yeah. Um, so anyways, uh, talk to PMC and we ran into them going through the
rock garden in the estern. So they were coming out as we were going through it and we're like,
uh, all right, we'll just make this work. Yeah. So, um, chatted with them for a while,
really cool guys. Um, super nice. And then continued on. We ran into, uh, two other people
and one guy was in a Toyota, one was in a Jeep and the Jeep had, uh, his hydro assist
clamp on the tie rod was the kind that kind of clamps to your tie rod and then it has one bolt
going in through the Heim on the, the Ram. Okay. So it's a single shear, right? Um, with quite a
bit of leverage though, with that one bolt set up and he had ripped the bolt out. Yeah. And there
was no more threads for the bolt to go and hold into. So he had it kind of zip tied and duct
taped the ram and the bolt down into the clamp, um, so that it would somewhat hold. Um, and
I was like, Oh, what do we got? What do we got here? I usually keep like 120 pounds zip ties
in the rig to kind of hold stuff together like this. Right. Um, I, apparently all those are in
Kermit. That's why apparently I need to get more for Fiona now. Um, oh, also there was, uh,
somebody on the Rubicon that needed ATF. I was like, I should have some ATF opened up my
fluids rifle box. No ATF in there. I was like, Oh, okay. I need to add that in here. Yep. So I
need to add 120 pounds zip ties and ATF to Fiona's setup. Um, but I did have that build a hose clamp.
Oh yeah. So after the more fleet run last year and Brian breaking his leaf springs and use us
kind of cobbling together hose clamps, I was looking for a set of hose clamps on Amazon and
found this build a hose clamp thing. Um, and it's a roll of 15, 20 feet of stainless steel
banding and like 12 or 15 of the worm gear drips dry things. So you just take as much of the
banding off, cut it off and then add a worm gear on it and you create a hose clamp of any size you
need. Yeah, that's cool. Um, and so I was like, Oh, I have this. Let's see if this will work and it
worked great. Perfect. So it held the tie rod down at least. So the bolt would semi stay in
the clamp. Um, he said it did come off. Uh, he reached out on Instagram after the trip and said
it came off two or three times on the way out, but it was still able to get him off the trail.
Sweet. I was like, cool. That worked. I'm happy. So, uh, I gave him the whole kit and I was like,
I don't know if you're going to need to use more of this. So take the whole thing. It's like 10
bucks on Amazon. I'll go get another one. So, um, I was happy to see that that worked
really well for its intended use of what I got it for. Sweet. Um,
anyways, by the time we got to Barrett Lake, the campsite, I was at like
half of a quarter of a tank. So one eighth of a tank in Fiora. Dang. So yeah, uh, it was,
I was, man, that went through fuel quick. So husband on his buggy, both Dave and husband
were smart and re topped off their fuel tanks before coming on the trip, right? Yeah. Um,
and so, uh, husband has an A and fitting on the bottom of his fuel tank in the buggy
so that if he ever needs to drain his gas tank, it's super easy to drain his gas tank,
which also means it's super easy to bring that fuel out of his gas tank to be able to give to
people. And he said he's done it three times before I needed to use it. Yeah. Um,
but he also has a little hand transfer pump that he used recently to suck all the gasoline out of
his engine. Oh yeah. When his engine flooded, um, and he goes, that worked great. Let's see
if we can just use that third in the top of the tank and the fuel cell and a pump. So three gallons
of fuel out. So, uh, we did that, uh, before leaving on Sunday, um, and through the fuel in
Fiona by with that three gallons in there was back over just, uh, over a quarter tank. Um,
and it didn't seem to move from that. It was just barely under a quarter tank.
Weird. By the time we made it out to the gate and I was like,
that math doesn't add up at all based on what was going on on the way in versus the way out. So
I don't know. I made it back to ice house resort with an eighth of a tank on the gauge,
but I definitely would have run out of fuel if I didn't get that three gallons from husband.
Yeah. Wow. So good to know driving from ice house resort to little sluice back to ice house
resort that over to Barrett and running the trail and then back to the gate and then back to ice
house resort that uses a full tank of gas and fuel and a 22 gallons. I'm pretty sure. Yeah. So
um, wow, I got that to know. Um, Sunday. So he stayed overnight on a Sunday night at Barrett
Lake. The car that was there and we got there, they took off five minutes after we got there.
So we got the really nice campsite. I'm right on the lake edge. Um, and we made, uh, let's see
Saturday. Sorry, Sunday. Uh, we decided to go hiking. Okay. And, um, the Rubathon guys,
Pacific mountain cruisers said that they had spent the day before hiking up to Lawrence Lake
and apparently on the far side of Lawrence Lake is a really bitching jump rock. Oh,
and so I have never been to Lawrence Lake before. Is that, which direction
is that from Barrett north? Okay. So towards the plane rack. Yeah. So you know how you're going
up towards a plane wreck? There's a sign on the tree that says no paragliding. Okay.
Okay. There's a sign on a tree that says no paragliding in this area, which I find hilarious,
but it's there as an official notice. Um, part of me is like, what's the story that
Forest Service had to put a sign right here on this. Um, so apparently right at that tree,
the trail splits and goes off to the right. So you stay left to go up to the plane crash
and you go right off to Lawrence Lake. Oh, and it's another lake that is about the same size
as Barrett, but much deeper. So it's nice to go swimming in a little higher elevation,
a little bit higher. It's about 500 feet up further than Barrett, um, and elevation. So
but there's a trail kind of sort of a trail that you can hike all the way around the lake.
There's a really bitching waterfall on the east side of the lake and a really bitching jump rock
on the north side of the lake. Nice. So you show up, you kind of come and arrive at the lake on
the west side. Yeah. So, uh, we arrived at the west side, hiked around to the jump rock. Um,
I played around and jumped off the jump rock a bit. Uh, Dave and husband and Dana did not.
They just kind of sat there and I enjoyed the view twinkled their toes in the water toes.
No, it's a weird jump rocks, 78 feet off the water. Okay. So, um,
and then we continued to hike around to check out the waterfall on the west side,
which right now is not really impressive at all, but I can imagine early in the season
that would be really cool to see it really cool, very cool and cool to see. Yeah.
Here's snow runoff. Yep. And then from there, we just, we made it back to the little creek
that feeds down into the campsite at Barrett where the waterfall is the end of Barrett Lake
campground. Um, we just hiked down those granite slabs and popped out in that campsite. Cool.
So it was a fun little hike. Uh, awesome. I've never been to Lawrence Lake before. I didn't
realize there was a lake up there at that spot. Um, and it's a pretty cool little spot. Apparently
it's a very popular spot for backpackers to come hiking through Barrett Lake and they'll
continue on and go to Lawrence Lake. Okay. So the off-roaders typically stop at Barrett and
backpackers continue onto Lawrence. Got it. Nice. Um, so that was really cool. I would definitely
leave tokens around Lawrence Lake at a couple spots. Yeah. So I could see that being a good spot.
Yeah. Um, came back, um, and, uh, went swimming again in Barrett. Um, that's where Dave brought
his, uh, stand a paddle board, got it inflated and he went for a jaunt around the lake on it.
Yeah. Um, five minutes. Yep. And then, uh, it's not a big lake. It's not very big lake. Um,
and so he wanted to go swimming. So he took the paddle board out to the middle of the lake
so he could jump in and go swimming. Um, and then, uh, the rest of us kind of just
waited down in the water and hung out and chatted for a little bit, um, and kind of
bathed off from the hike. Yeah, sure. Um, and then made dinner, had a good night chatting,
and then, um, Sunday morning, we were packed up and left to the Monday morning, Monday morning.
Thank you. Uh, packed up and left the campsite about nine AM and made it to the trailhead by
about 11, 11, 10. Wow. So we boogied and the difference was I was leading on the way in
and I was not leading on the way out. So husband led on the way out and him and Dave,
they can just scoot through the trail, right? They motor, they motor. Um, Fiona is just so
much of a bigger vehicle. It's there's a lot of tight squeezes that I'm have to be really
careful with now. I did hit the passenger side of Fiona on a rock in the rock garden.
Um, and then I hit the front driver headlight and it didn't crack it luckily. Yeah. But on
those, it's really tight turn, um, in the trail at some point. Um, and I hit the tree on the far
side of the turn, just barely grazed it. And I thought it was on the bumper and I was like,
cool, that worked out good. And then at the, uh, when we got down to air up, I was like,
Oh, I got the headlight. Yeah. The alpha X, right? Yep. Expensive headlights. Expensive. So
now there's a big old sap mark across the headlight. Luckily I didn't break it. Um, so, um,
otherwise it's pretty uneventful wheeling. Uh, we didn't really have any issues. I had to
retighten my ball joint 400 times four or five times throughout the, just the Barrett Lake
trip. Wow. And I think I did another three to four times on the Rubicon over there. Um,
but it was really fun. It was, it was nice. It was really neat to a hang out with Dave and
husband again, but like it's been two years. I think since I've wheeled with Dave. Yeah.
It's probably been that for me too. I will say Dave likes chips and salsa just as much as you
do. I think it's a thing between husband Dave and I. We all love it. Oh yeah. Yeah. That's what
husband, husband always brings chips and salsa and Dave and I always eat it all. Gotcha. Yeah.
That's funny. Yeah. I'm a little jealous, man. You got to go wheeling with like my high school
friends. I'm like, there was a lot of talks of, uh, aw, Jim's not here. So yeah, it just didn't
work out for me, uh, you know, cause I was camping already plans this weekend. And, and we tried,
man. We, we were all four of us were racking our brains around the calendar, trying to find a time
to all wheel together. And it just, what didn't, the stars did not align. Nothing worked out. So
we were looking at dates, like almost into October. We couldn't get dates to align.
Yeah. It was pretty wild. So I'm glad you guys still got out. I'm just glad you guys still
were able to go wheeling together. That's really cool. I'm happy for you guys. We're just bummed.
I missed it. It was it. It would have been a really better time with you there. So it's always,
I know, right? Your life in the party, Jimmy. Of course. But it was fun. I didn't bring a tent
and I brought a pretty minimal setup. So I just slept on a cot under the stars and it rained.
Oh no. Luckily it just kind of sprinkled. Yeah. It didn't rain. It didn't rain enough to warrant
me like having to get up and move underneath Fiona or something. But like I was laying there
and I could hear, I just woke up hearing the rain coming through the trees and I just went,
Oh no. And then I hear husband get out of the tent and start putting the tarp over the buggy.
And he goes, Hey buddy, I was like, how's it going? He goes, do you need anything?
I was like, not yet. It's still pretty light and pretty minimal. We'll see if it gets any heavier
than this, either fatter drops or more drops. I'll need to do something. Yeah. I'll get in
between you and your girlfriend because I was coming to cuddle with you guys.
But I think I'm good right now and it subsided for a little bit and then came back
and was just about the same thing. It was really weird because I could hear the rain drops hitting
Dave's tent and husband's tent and the tarp on the buggy. Yeah, but none were hitting you.
I couldn't really, I never felt one hit me at all and my sleeping bag wasn't wet at all.
Interesting. I was like, I'm not, I'm kind of under a tree, but not really. Yeah. So it just
wasn't enough rain to really have an impact on me sleeping unprotected. But did Dave's dad make it?
No, he didn't. Yeah. I really wanted me, I've never met him before. Yeah, he's a good dude.
Yeah. But it was really fun hanging out with them as always. Awesome. I'm glad you had a good time.
Yeah. So, I don't know, upgrades to Fiona, not really much. I did find the air conditioning was
not working great and hasn't been working great since I got it. I had to have the new line put in
and the dryer put in. Turns out the evap, the evaporator, there's a sensor in the evaporator
that when it's tripped, the AC compressor will not turn on the clutch on it won't engage.
And so it turns out that sensor is bad on the evaporator. They tested it electrically and
it's not sending the right resistance signals to the clutch and the AC system. So the AC system
turns off before it really gets cold. It gets mildly cool, but doesn't get cold.
So I have to have the whole evaporator replaced because that sensor is built into the evaporator.
So the only way to get a new sensor is to get a whole new evaporator. So
I'm waiting on that part to show up. But once that part shows up, the AC system should work great
past 90 degree temperatures outside. Let's say I need to, the next step for Fiona is the rear diff
and the ball joint eliminators will redo and the ball joint eliminators with some welden
eliminators and get the whole rear diff done with E locker. The ARB was being very temperamental on
this trip. And I was just like, sometimes it would leak and it wouldn't hold air. And then
other times it would be just fine. And it seemed to be like I had to wait until the diff warmed up
like with cold oil in the morning. It didn't want to hold air at all. Interesting.
And lock up and stay locked, right? Yeah. And then once the diff, it seemed like once I was
got going for about half an hour, then it started sealing and holding. But then once I got over
like 10, 12 miles an hour, it would start leaking again. Like that's the only things I could get to
be a consistent pattern. But either way, I'm just kind of like, I just, I'm done trying to deal with
ARBs and the ARB lockers. So the E locker in the front did awesome. Okay. So yeah, Jeff Morgan is
going to call in now. He's going to call in and yep, everybody can call and tell me how dumb I am.
Yep. That's fine. So sounds like a fun trip. It was a little, little sad. I couldn't make it,
but I'm, you know, I was had family obligations. So want, want, want to me. And yeah, there's a
few trips I'm missing this year that I'm kind of bummed about the morpholite run I'm going to
miss as well. Oh, you're going to miss that one? Yep. So that's a, I've had some
long-standing plans to go to Monterey that weekend. So that was it. So yeah, bummer for that. I do
have a question though. So I did see that Jake Burkey and what is busted knuckle was up on the
Rubicon and Ford ice as well. Thank you for bringing that back up. Okay. Are they a part of
the iron kids? Were they with the iron kids? Is that, were they on a separate entire group?
Separate group altogether. They were on the trail at the same time as the iron kids,
but they have no association with the iron kids and they were not traveling with the iron kids
or anything. Interesting. Yeah. So it's just that happened to be two groups of buggies on the trail at
the same time. And one group of buggies posting things about fun times on the Rubicon and all
this while I was going for the Jake Burkey, having a good time, clean up trash doing, you know,
leading by example. And then we had the other group that was doing kind of the complete opposite.
And, but since they were both buggy groups, people were putting them together as the same
same person. The OPTIQ again, optics are everything.
What is the perception is reality, right? So the optics were that Burkey and busted
knuckle was traveling with the iron kids or vice versa, whatever, which is not true.
And if you go look at Burkey's content that he was putting out on bus knuckle and everything,
it all was very responsible, very slow paced rock crawling. Granted, they were all in rock
bouncers, but they were putting out really good optics of responsible trail use. I was very impressed.
The optics that the iron kids were putting out was the exact opposite of that, right? Rowdy,
chaotic party scene out on the trail. Now granted, here's the other part. I forgot to
mention, I'm really glad you brought this back up. People started calling out the iron kids on
some of the videos. Iron kids said, no, we had a big cleanup after the area did not get trashed.
We cleaned up everything and we treated everything responsibly before I left before we all left
the area. And I'm like, did you really? Are you just now saying that to cover your ass? Because
the content you're putting out does not say that at all. Okay. And so I took a wide hike around a
little sluice and trying to find trash and white flowers. And I started thinking about
if I needed to take a poop out here and I didn't want to go hike down to the restrooms to do it,
where would I go? If there were some rocks to hide cans, beer cans behind or whatever cans behind,
what rocks would I try and hide to find those? So I hiked around for about 45 minutes.
I didn't find anything. I was gonna say I didn't find shit, but that would have been pun intended.
Yeah. I didn't find anything. I was very, very impressed with how they cleaned up. There was
no broken car parts in the box at all that I could find. I was fully expecting to find broken
car parts like buried in the sand in between the rocks in there, nothing. I found the one
Coors light can that was pretty faded. It was definitely more than a week old. I found
a pretty trashed old can of some kind. And then I found, I found one thing that looked like it
could have been new trash, but like hiking around there for 45 minutes, I only found five pieces
of trash. Interesting. Okay. I was very impressed and I will give 100% and give credit to the iron
kids that I truly do believe that they actually cleaned everything up and did a big cleanup.
They just, that's not the optics they want to have for their group. So it's not the part
that they showed on social media. So I don't know if any of the iron kids listen to the podcast.
If you guys do just try and keep that in mind. Optics means a lot and there's been a lot of
work that happens on this trail and there's a lot of eyes that watch this trail like a hawk,
the Rubicon trail. So just remember that with what you guys did do. I do think that they were,
they were having a good time and that they, they had a good time, but I do think that they also
cleaned up responsibly in the end. Okay. Nice. So there's that. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I was kind of like
bitter to Jake Burkey and busted knuckle because I'm like, man, you came out here and now that
there's all these videos of these buggies doing all this stuff that's, you know, that a lot of
people see as a great time, but a lot of the other people, the other half, you know, see it as like
you're ruining the trail. Like we've been fighting for this trail to, you know, keep it clean, keep
it safe, keep it, um, you know, in control in a way. And now it's not. And I think a lot of people
were pointing fingers at him. He was, he was the celebrity out there, right? And it just totally
coincidental. He was the several celebrity on the trail at the time that it was happening,
but he wasn't associated. And yeah, he got, he got, I think he got some fingers pointed at him and
I don't know if it'd be worthwhile for him if he cares at all, or if he's like, he's going to put
out anything to be like, I was not with iron kids. We were on our own trip and yeah, we didn't have
anything to do with that. I think it'd be a benefit to him to do that based on how pissed
the county is at stuff. Um, but yeah, we'll see if he does or not. He's on the east coast. It
doesn't matter. Exactly. He's, he's, when's the next time he's coming out here? Yeah. Right.
It's like I have a speeding ticket in Croatia, but when is the next time I'm going back to Croatia?
Yeah. Right. Exactly. But yeah, cool. Okay. Well, that's good to know. Thanks for clarifying
that. And yeah, good job to the iron kids for cleaning up for sure. Thank you guys for following
through and actually doing that and being responsible in the back end. So yeah, yeah.
If you guys do want to get in contact with us, you can always do that over on Instagram,
snail trail four by four is what I look over. Tyler's over at four by four Toyota Tyler.
You can phone in 9163454744
That phone number is also in the show notes. So you don't have to worry about it. And you can
talk about your guys's adventures out on the Rubicon or trips that you've done
around your neck of the woods. Yeah. Like blowing an axle shot possibly on Axle Hill.
Yeah. Sounds like fun. Billy. So then let's see what's the other way that we always shout out
discord of course or emails, I guess is the other one, Jimmy and or Tyler at snail trail four by
four.com. Sounds good. I guess with that, Jimmy, any final words for everybody out there to wrap
the show up? No, I think, you know, I was just going to say party responsibly, you know, I guess,
you know, optics is a big thing nowadays with, you know, social media and everything being so
easy to display everything, but just think about what you're throwing out there to the world.
You know, I'm all four people partying. I'm all four people having a good time. Oh,
something I didn't talk about. There was a big party going on at the campground I was at. Right.
And we were up until like midnight ish that on Saturday night doing just playing our card game
being quiet. And this other campground was loud right as we were going to bed. So they were
setting fireworks off big mortar fireworks. What? Yeah, they sent three of them off. And I think
my guess is somebody went down there and complained to that group or whatever. I was about to go and
complain. And then when somebody in our group actually ended up calling the cops and was like,
Hey, somebody's setting fireworks off in the middle of the forest. Yeah. Right. Not good. Not good.
And, um, and if we don't know, the thing is when out there where we're at, there's a lot of fingers
in the lake. And so it could have been a houseboat like out on the lake, kind of on the lake. There's
a big group campground that it could have been them. And I don't think it was any of the smaller
campers around us, but it's just don't be an idiot. You know, it's one of those things, you
know, it's like lighting fire. There was literally two fires that went on while we were at up in
Shasta that were happening around the lake. And we could see smoke plumes coming up on different
sides of the lake. And then I'm like, these people are shooting fireworks off around the lake.
Don't be an idiot. So, um, I'm all, like I'm saying, I'm all for partying. I didn't give a
crap if you're up at one in the morning, having a good time, have it playing your music, whatever
that I'm fine with that. Maybe you're keeping me up, whatever. Don't be an idiot and shoot fireworks
off. Yeah. Right. I'm all for you having a great time out at little sleuths, partying,
having a fantastic time, clean up after yourself, do things responsibly. And, you know, so that
things can't come back to you. And it sounds like maybe these iron kids guys did.
I hope so. I just optics or everything, right? And with how much scrutiny is on,
motorized recreation right now because of bears ears and grand escalani national monuments.
That was a bad, bad time to be posting those videos of glorifying the partying at little sleuths.
So, um, yeah, be careful about what you guys put online, but still have a good time. Have fun.
Just make sure that the optics are one that shows the OHV community being responsible
users of the land and the trails. So maybe on the flip side, if dying kids happen to be listening,
show yourself cleaning up. Yeah. I think it would have been fine if they had showed
all the fun they were having and all the partying and the drag races, like
none of that was inherently bad. It's the other stuff that comes after the fact that
they'd never really addressed. I think if they had like put in at the end of those videos,
like a cleanup party and that they all were picking up, putting shit in trash bags, like
I think it would have been all just fine. Yeah. Like show the good times and then show
the responsible side of it. Yeah. I think it would have been fine.
Yeah. Perception is reality. So with that, my friends, don't forget, keep crawling.
Hey, Tyler. Hey, Jimmy. Did you hear about the pirate that walked into the bar with a steering
wheel in his pocket? Did not. What happened to him? Well, the bartender was like, what is that?
And the pirate said, I don't know, but it's driving me nuts.
About this episode
Wolfbox is front and center with July giveaway timing, discount stacking for the G 900 Tripro, and a next milestone tied to reviews. Between prize talk, the hosts read listener feedback and run a token scavenger hunt around Barrett Lake and Lassen, including a spot “only access[ed] by boat.” The conversation then shifts into Rubicon planning and trail stewardship: fuel math, driveline and AC repairs, locker reliability, and why “the optics” of OHV videos matter—plus Shasta camping, lake mishaps, and fireworks chaos.
Original notes
Jimmy and family went on their annual Shasta Lake camping trip with the Assistant’s family. They went on a hike to a natural water slide. Tyler went on his Mad Hatters summer campout trip to the Rubicon. Then drove straight from the Rubicon to Berrett Lake to go camping with Husmann and 1st Gen 4Runner Dave. They went on a fun hike to Laurance Lake and discovered some new swimming holes.
GROUP BUY: There is a new group buy happening, and this time it is with Wolfbox for their G900Tripro. If we get ten people signed up then we will get $20 off. If we can get 20 people signed up, we will get $30 off, and if we can get 30 people signed up, then it will be $40 off. If you’re interested in joining the group buy, then please email Jimmy or Tyler, or jump on to the Discord.
SnailTrail4x4 Discord: https://discord.gg/yFyFFkQbuy
Come hang out with us on the SnailTrail4x4 Discord — it’s the easiest way to connect with Tyler and Jimmy directly, chat with fellow offroad enthusiasts, and get first access to Group Buys and Treasure Hunt token drops.
MORRFlate Giveaway at 900 Reviews on Apple Podcast. But our next giveaway is when we reach 800 reviews; we are giving away an OnX Elite Membership. We will also give away an OnX Elite membership when we get to 850. However, when we reach 900 Reviews, we are teaming up with MORRFlate for a $1000 MF Product Giveaway. Go over to Apple Podcasts to leave your review now and become eligible to win. Congratulations to A13XMONT, who won a set of tires from Yokohama Tire!
Call us and leave us a VOICEMAIL!!!We want to hear from you even more!!! You can call and say whatever you like! Ask a question, leave feedback, correct some information about welding, say how much you hate your Jeep, and wish you had a Toyota! We will air them all, live, on the podcast! +01-916-345-4744. If you have any negative feedback, you can call our negative feedback hotline, 408-800-5169.
4Wheel Underground has all the suspension parts you need to take your off-road rig from leaf springs to a performance suspension system. We just ordered our kits for Kermit and Samantha and are looking forward to getting them. The ordering process was quite simple, and after answering the questionnaire, we ensured we got the correct and best-fitting kits for our vehicles. If you want to level up your suspension game, check out 4Wheel Underground.
SnailTrail4x4 Podcast is brought to you by all of our peeps over at irate4x4! Make sure to stop by and see all of the great perks you get for supporting SnailTrail4x4! Discount Codes, Monthly Give-Always, Gift Boxes, the SnailTrail4x4 Community, and the ST4x4 Treasure Hunt! Thank you to all of those who support us! We couldn’t do it without you guys (and gals!)!
SnailSquad Monthly GiveawayJuly’s Giveaway is with a company that Jimmy and Tyler have very good experience with, especially after TrailHeroX. This month’s giveaway is with Wolfbox. They are giving away one G900Tripro to a lucky winner. This is the same three-camera rearview mirror setup that they received during TrailHeroX. If you want a chance to win this system from Wolfbox make sure you sign up for the giveaway tier on either Irate4x4 or the SnailTrail4x4 Discord.
Massive Congratulations to Liz Sandstorm for winning the Iceco Freezers. We are excited to work with and share their exciting new releases. One lucky winner has a chance to an ALP20 Fridge. Big thanks to Iceco for sponsoring this month’s giveaway. If you want a chance to win, sign up for the Giveaway Tier on Irate4x4
Listener Discount Codes:SnailTrail4x4 –SnailTrail15 for 15% off SnailTrail4x4 Merch
MORRFlate – snailtraill4x4 to get 10% off MORRFlate Multi Tire Inflation Deflation™ Kits
4WheelUnderground – snailtrail 10% off
Iceco – SnailTrail 12% off
RUSOH Fire Extinguishers – RusohCrawlers discount code gets you 12% off
Devos Outdoor – snailtrail12 gets you 12% off sitewide
Ironman 4×4 – snailtrail20 to get 20% off all Ironman 4×4 branded equipment!
Sidetracked Offroad – snailtrail4x4 (lowercase) to get 15% off lights and recovery gear
Spartan Rope – snailtrail4x4 to get 10% off sitewide
Shock Surplus – SNAILTRAIL4x4 to get $25 off any order!
Mob Armor – SNAILTRAIL4X4 for 15% off
SummerShine Supply – ST4x4 for 10% off
Backpacker’s Pantry – Affiliate Link
Laminx Protective Films – Use the Link to get 20% off all products (Affiliate Link)
Show Music:
- Midroll Music – ComaStudio
- Outroll Music – Meizong Kumbang
Snail Trail 4x4 Offroad Podcast
Tyler and Jimmy: Off-Road Enthusiasts
0:00
103:12