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WEDNESDAY,
April 8
Now those of you who've been following along, are probably asking what happened from here, right? Here's the story. After most of the group went up the wall, I ran back to my TJ to make it myself. Well, I got to the first big step and slid a little bit. I slammed down the rear end and POW!!! We rolled the Jeep a few feet and next thing we knew, the rear right wheel was sticking out a foot and a half! You got it...busted axle! Well, we jacked it up and thankfully had a cell phone. We located a used axle in town and figured out the plan. Rick and Matius would stay with the TJ and Steve, Kevin, Tim, and Lesbo would take me into town for parts and fluids and bring me back up the trail. It was almost a 2 hour trip to the bottom of the trail, but we made it and went to town. By the time we returned part way of Gold Bar Rim trail, it was dark. We eventually found our way back in the dark, to the broken Jeep. Without the use of our Garmin GPS 12XL we would have never found our way. Rick and Matius had sat through rain and snow while waiting for us. It was very dark and cold, but there was work to be done. We spent the next few hours removing the axle and opening up the ARB. Not an easy task...even in the daytime. We completed the job and buried the spilled oil. Golden Spike is a 4+ trail in the day time. I wonder what it is at night? We headed back out and not far was a broken Cherokee that someone from ARB had left at the bottom of Double Whammy. We weren't the only ones to break today. It was 3:30pm when we broke and 2:30am when we hit the street. I can't say enough about the guys who helped out. Rick, Steve, Kevin, Matius, Tim and Lesbo are Class A guys all the way. Nobody ever had second thoughts about leaving me there and everyone lent a hand in the axle swap. It was extremely cold on the trail, too. Guys...thanks so much! MORE PHOTOS JUST CAME IN (APRIL 13th)
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