Hi my name is Scotty and I am a Roveraholic.
I just drove my 1962 Series Land Rover 5 1/5 hours to
Gilmer Texas @ 55mph. No power steering, no power
brakes, no A/C/ no radio( Like I could hear it) with
a nice little exhaust leak that got me all choked up.
Enough of that drivel.
I left on Friday around 11:00 AM and without incident
arrived at Barnwell at 4:30 and registered. I drove around for awhile
until I had somnbody point out where the HLRC bunch was. Everyone was
on the trail except for Clay and his pack of dogs. At that point they rang
the dinner bell and I drove
up to eat. Nothing too exciting I know. After dinner I went back to camp
where I noticed
the gay dog. I unpacked and went to sleep.
The next morning I woke up ate breakfast that Emma offered and Clay offered.
I tried to get some
eggs from the guys next to me but they did not know me and told me to get
lost. So far all I have done is eat and sleep.
We leave to go line up for the trail ride and I get in the intermediate line
to ride withe sam and the two brothers in their
69 IIA 88" Series ( Ed andmax from San Antonio) The trail leader gets out (I do not remember his name) gets out and
looks at my truck and says " I think you are in the wrong line" I look at
him and say ' no I am signed up for the intermediate group" and he replies " do you think your truck can make it?" I gave
him a confused look and said " i think so"
So off we go . I make ove most thing easily till we get to the first long
steep hill. At this time I am running low on petrol
but not an issue, yet. I make my first run at the hill and get half way up
and my rear tire will not drop down enough
to make contact in a rough so I stop. i then roll down backwards at a high
rate of spped and try again. this happens 3
time. Finally Ed gives me a line so I do not hit the deep rut. I go flying
up across over the rut heading straight for a large tree.
With the wheels cut hard to the left they grab and I miss the tree by 1 inch
and make it to the top. ( Sam correct me if I
missed something).
The other trails went fine then we went to eat lunch.
After lunch we lined up to go out again. we lined up then the crazies went
one way and the not so crazies went the other way
and me with them. I do notl remember the trail names so forgive me. We
dropped straight down on the first trail. The D1 made it no problem,
the RR classic made it no problem then I went. The first turn I hit a tree
with the left fender and sldi down 30 yards to the bottom of the run
Good so far. Then we go up some small hils and come to the steep hill where
all of the trouble begins. I give a little gas, 1st gear low
keeping up the revs. I am crawling up no probem then about 10 feet from the
top the motor sputters and dies.I am low on fuel and the pick up tube
cannot reach the gas. I stomp down on the brakes
and start to slide back wards down the trail about 25 feet into a tree. I
crumpled the roof at the back . Now the recovery begins. A disco goes up the
trail to the left( I am on the bypass) and comes back down to face me to
winch me up. He hoos me up and pulls me upabout 15 feet. Then
he turns around and tries to pull me up and out with a tow strap but cannot
move the Series up at all. Finally he gives up and they radio for somebody
else.
Next shows chris von c. He drives his defender down and the try to winch me
up with one snatch block. The winch does not move the series again.
Now the put another snatch block on my truck and attach the winch cable back
on a d-ring on the defender. Finally I move up the hill around 10 more feet.
They readjust the cable and start to winch pulling me sideways into a tree.
I yell stop so they stop and now they have to rethink the whole recovery.
Finally the pull a cable from up on top of the trail down to me. It is a
straight pull and I am now almost on level ground on the trail.
Doug starts running the recovery and there is confusion about what to do. So
he tells them to get the hell out of the way so he can show
how to do a proper recovery! Actually I was in my truck and did not hear
what was said but it looked like that. Any way Doug backs his defender in
and is going to yank me up the trail. First the used a tow strap and a
bungee recovery rope hooked together but that did not work. So they tried a
strap by itself and lo and
behold Doug pulled me up to level ground and the Series started right up and
I drove the 25 yards to the top o the trail where I promptly left to fill up
with gas.
Scotty
5090 Richmond Ave. #313 
