Day 2 arrived and we had a group of 4 ready to go out and hit some of the tougher trails.  We headed to the waterfall first and you have to do Rocker Knocker first.  Last time there, I found that I could drive right over the huge boulder that causes so much damage.  We weren't trail lead today so I watched the built crawler of my co-worker go left, which is an off camber line.  Next up was the heavily modified CJ and he had trouble on that line but finally managed to get through.  I was next and I went right, driving right over the top of the boulder, which kind of surprised everyone because that is not the typical line.  The 4th Jeep tried going to the left and couldn't make it so I convinced him he could take my line.  He made it but hung up on his rear shock mount.  He's on 37's and hasn;t relocated his shock mounts.  It took a few times of backing up and trying not to hang on the mount but he made it.

100 yeards ahead was the waterfall and when we got there, we discovered a disabled JKU at the top of it.  The steering knuckle had completely blown out of it.  It had been there since 5pm the day before as they could not locate a spare knuckle anywhere.  Their friends didn;t want to lose a day of wheeling so they kind of left them on their own. Well, we couldn;t leave them there so the recovery effort began.  The first task was to get a log or two under it to use as a skid.  That was relatively easy enough but the next challenge was to get it turned and positioned to go up a rocky ledge and then up a trail to get it to the main road where a trailer could get to it.  It looked like we had a bout a half mile challenge ahead of us.  It tooks osme serious winching skills to get it to where it needed to be.  Luckily, my co-worker is a rigging expert since he is the trainer at the plant for our skilled trades.  We used snatch blocks multiple time to lift the Jeep over rocky ledges and then the winch to drag it forward to get it lined up behind our three Jeeps we strapped together which would be the team to get it up the trail. 

Once in position, we started the climb.  Our Jeeps worked in tandem quite well and we only had to stop once to get him around a tree on a tight turn.  The logs that were under it did the job for the most part and we wound up getting it on a trailer after a three hour recovery effort.  The owners were from middle Nebraska, both in law enforcement and had to be at work the next day.  Thanks to us, they made it.  They told us that if they ever pull us over to remind them we helped them!  All kidding aside, they were very grateful for our help and it made for a great story to tell.

After this rescue, we decided to head over to another location where we heard a JKU had rolled after losing its brakes going down a trail.  When we arrived on the trail, it was in the process of being brought up by members of their group.  The bags were blown, a lot of glass shattered, and some significant damage was apparent but fortunately, the airbags did their job and the occupants escaped relatively unharmed.  

We didn't get in a whole lot of wheeling in on Day 2 but we did get to do a few trails we had never done before that were extremely fun.

We hung out with the club at dinner and wound up siting by the campfire, listening to music and socializing until almost 1am.  I actually drank a six pack and shared a bottle of Cactus Juice with our group.  It was a fun evening and we headed back to the hotel to sleep in a bit before heading home later in the day.

Looking forward to another run to SMORR this Fall.