We headed out from Whatcom Road around 6:30 pm Friday evening with Devin Biln and John Parsons. Lost John right away in the torrential downpour, but he's a big boy and abler than most to find his own way. Devin and Greg and I waited for him at Prest Road for about 15 minutes, then gave up. We stopped for fuel in Hope and he must have passed us, because he was already at Copper Creek when we got there around 9:30.
Blue Weaver, the name for my Land Rover, now that Jim Skelton has sold his (was his moniker and I've now stolen it) passed the Technical Inspection with no problems at all. Only I noticed that the handbrake could have been a bit tighter... I suppose I should have gotten underneath and tightened it, but it was a tad wet out. Didn't make a major difference but a wee bit incinvenient at times trying to park on steep slopes. Experience tells us not to depend on the handbrake anyway.
At midnight Don and Jeff started sending off the trucks in pairs on their night run. We got out about 12:30 with Karl Nylund and Gino in Karl's 88 Inch pickup as our team mates.
Greg Sutfin, my copilot was excellent with the GPS and entered coordinates for the first several checkpoints immediately. The first checkpoint we were there with 3 other teams -- 6 trucks in a tiny area and it was a bit of a scramble to make it back up to the road with all the trucks jockeying for position. The second checkpoint spread us out a little, and the third one got most of the teams a little lost and put some much needed space between us.
We went up steep banks, over snowmobile trails, down an extremely steep hill through a meadow -- which scared us the next day when we saw how steep it was in the daylight. And finally arrived at a rocky bank on the final stretch to Placer Lake. Since I don't have a locker in the truck, it didn't take long to determine that we would be winching up this stretch. Greg handled the hookups and the winch handled the rest.
Another kilometer or so and we were at the camp. We found all the checkpoints successfully and had arrived as second team in from the tasks, making up one position -- although I don't think they were counting position for this event.
Next morning, after the drivers meeting and a late start, we headed out for what would be the final event Blue Weaver would participate in in this year's challenge. Bill Eastwood and Andrew Phillips had set up a time trial down a steep slope close to where the rocky grade was we had climbed the night before. About a half kilometer down on a curvey but decent road, followed by a steep ascent up a washed out trail. The first several trucks made it, then one got lost, then one lost all its load, then Devin in the other 88" similar to mine got stuck in a deep wash and then it was my turn. Going down was easy, although there were a few well place potholes to remind you to keep you speed in check. Turned up at the bottom and here's where the trouble started. Greg and I, seeing the problems that Devin had had, discussed in advance that when I got the truck to the point where I could get no further, he would jump out and attach the winch to a tree and pull us up to where we could go again. It seemed there was only one really bad spot so we were hopeful that, although we wouldn't have the fastest time, we would make it up.
When I hit the washout and pushed as far as I could go, I heard a bang as the truck stopped. I just figured we had bottomed out somewhere, and stood on the brakes and kept it idling high while Greg wheeled out cable and attached a strap to an accessible tree. I winched it up and we were beyond the bad spot. Then I tried to move ahead again and after several tries Greg noticed that the rear wheels weren't giving any help. Further checking and we were sure we had busted an axle. I radioed up to the top that we wouldn't be completing and rolled back through the washout to a flat spot off the course.
After pulling the shorter axle out, we were surprised that it wasn't broken. So we pulled the long one. It too was intact. It was a simple deduction from there that the rear diff had expired on us.
Removal of the driveshaft enabled us to drive back out to the highway on front wheel drive, and that ended the competition portion of the Northwest Challenge for me this year.
