BushHackers Trip 19,  Detroit Lake area
Saturday, July 20, 1996

Hackers:

Gil Meach - 93 Jeep Wrangler  (Trail Boss)
Rick Anderson - 77 Chevy Blazer
Rock Muroaka - 95 Jeep Wrangler
Guy Hammer - 79 Ford Bronco
Bill Lewey - 77 Jeep CJ5
Steve Caldwell - 79 Scout II
Pete Castro - 86 Toyota PU
Jordan Nackos - 94 Toyota PU


We met at the usual 8:30AM at the Swiss Village Restuarant (Highway 22, just 
past Mehama turn off).  I was a little bit late so everyone else was already 
there looking the maps over.  The weather was a little bit overcast, but a 
fine day for rototilling some trails.

Gil had been down the main trail we were planning on heading up and knew it
would be fun, but the rest of the trip was mostly going to be scouting new
trails.  Anyway, everyone jumped in their rigs and we all played follow the
leader with Gil out in front.  It wasn't long before we were off the pavement 
and everyone stopped to air down.  A few minutes later and we were at the 
trail, if you want to call it a trail.  I now know where the name "BushHacker" 
came from.  

The steep, narrow trail headed straight off of the main dirt road.  Everyone 
waited in line until each person before them had made it up the first steep 
part.  As far as I know, no one had any problems with the first part of the 
hill.  I was pulling up the rear, so I couldn't see all of the action.  As you 
headed up the jungle path, this trail was really overgrown, it was hard to see 
anyone more than 20ft. in front of you.

When I finally made it to the bottom of the next climb, Gil was near the top 
trying to get some traction.  It took Gil a little while, but he finally made 
it to the top.  This hill was very steep with a lot of loose dirt and a few 
large rocks in the middle of the trail near the top.  It was a pretty straight 
shot 3/4 of the way up the hill and then made a sharp right where most people 
had their trouble.  Gil kindly knocked most of the large rocks out of the way 
with his tires and diffs so it was a little bit easier for the rest of us.  
What are skid plates for, right?!

Rick went next, made it up to the sharp right and the big block made some 
really cool roaring sounds, but to no avail.  Rick has really surprised me 
with some of the hills he has made it up with his traction challenged tires 
(must be politically correct).  However, the horsepower couldn't overcome the 
lack of grip and he had to back down a bit  and turn around.  I'm afraid to 
have Rick be Trail boss after he gets some new tread under his truck.  

Bill headed up next and after a couple of tries he made it.  Rock had to show 
everyone how to do it right and cruised up without stopping.  Steve decided 
to turn on the air lockers and show us how he could idle up the hill.  He got 
close, but even with the air lockers it was a little too loose so he had to 
back up a little and give it some more gas.  He easily made it.  Pete made a 
valiant effort in his Toyota, but just lacked the power with the 4-banger to 
quite make it.  Steve headed back down with 2 tow straps tied together and 
yanked him up.  I was next, luckily I had been listening to the CB and 
everyone told me to keep my speed up and stay to the right.  I lucked out and 
make it up without stopping.  Guy was the last one up the hill.  He almost 
made it but lost traction on the big rock I dodged, a couple more tries and he 
was up.

We headed up to a beautiful meadow and had lunch.  After lunch Gil decided to 
head back down to the main road and try some new areas.  At this point Rick 
needed to leave and headed back.

The rest of the trip was mostly spent looking for new trails.  One road had a 
major wash out so we turned around and found another promising road.  We had 
to do some log crossings, which had a couple of exciting moments when a few 
trucks slid sideways on one log.  I have some good pictures that I will post 
when they are developed.  Unfortunately we got a little bit further and found 
that there were a LOT of downed trees over the road.  We didn't have a chain 
saw and while sawing trees with a bow saw is good exercise, nobody wanted to 
take the time.

Unfortunately we didn't find any more real challenging trails.  Gil did give 
us some free pin striping as we followed him down a few more jungle trails.  
After that we decided to pretty much call it a day and headed up a paved road 
that was supposed to go over a peak and head down to the main road.  As luck 
would have it the road had been wiped out near the top years before.  We all 
stopped and everyone who had extra air decided to air up.  This is where Guy 
tried to drive around Rock and nearly rolled the Bronco down a small hill into 
some trees.  Guy tried to drive around Rock to head back down but was deceived 
by the tall grass growing on the side of the road.  He ended up with both 
diffs sitting on the asphalt keeping his Bronco from going rubber side up.  We 
quickly decided to try and pull him back.  Rock hooked up his Jeep to the 
front to keep it from dropping off.  Steve and I were the only ones behind him 
so I hooked onto his hitch at an angle and Steve hooked straight on.  After 2 
tugs and some smoking tires from Steve's Scout, we had Guy back on all 4 tires.
Whew!!!  Everyone had their fill of excitement by then, so we all headed home.

Jordan Nackos
JordanX_Nackos@ccm.jf.intel.com