Tundy, house and beetle build thread...and exploring.

Morrison Continued


All was going well until I went into the corner that I later learned had a feature that was called ‘slider rock’. It is a tight switchback with a vertical rock face on the upper side of the trail. In the apex, there is a large rock that is not moving. I started around the corner, and after making a three or four point turn I got on the uphill side of the boulder. I was inching past, watching the rock pass by the driver side sheet metal of the rear door within a half an inch. Unfortunately I was not watching the front (still being turned slightly passenger) which was on soft dirt. I gained too much height and the truck slid downhill leaving the slider kickout resting against the rock. What I did next was the wrong answer, keeping it turned passenger, I was attempting to drive where the tires were pointed. Instead it put more weight on the slider and as soon as it fell off the slider, it made a nice chorus of sheet metal being adjusted. Not much option at that point other than not being able to back up. It hit the rear door, but at this point, it still appeared to be a functional door. If I backed up, the door may not seal correctly, so forward it was. There are ZERO anchor points, not much of a chance in maneuvering a vehicle to act as one, so we stacked some rocks and I pushed forward. At that point my biggest fear was removing the tire from the rim, since… my spare was not useful. In hindsight, while the rock was still on the slider, I should’ve turned completely into it and hoped to swing the rear out, and may have been able to gain the distance I needed.


Switchbacks







CARNAGE!








Gotta pay to play! The bed is touching the cab, so I’ll probably bend that out, trim the fender and fasten it on (probably with gorilla tape that matches so well). The door seals fine so no worries. It’ll just be an accent panel.


After that, we continued up without incident. With the nonstop sun, 80-90 degree heat and cloudless day, we and the vehicles were burning up. We thought we were out of the tough stuff when we got to the top of the switchbacks, but the trail is pretty unrelentless until you reach the parking lot which is a mere 15 more miles. There were not many places to stop for a bite to eat, we made it to a prairie just over 10k feet. I shut off my truck, put out my foxwing awning… exhausted. While I was on the drivers side, the first breeze of the day came from the east...which I hadnt seen once in the past two days (always from the west). It picked up the awning, snapped two of the pivot points, and folded it over the truck. Fantastic! I went to start the truck to turn it around to put it away since we couldn’t fight the wind and the truck wouldnt start. We let the truck sit and it started up without an issue after 30 or so minutes. We continued on our journey to the end. At the trailhead, we accomplished a 4 tire rotation on the third gen since his alignment was off. Our setup may not have been OSHA approved, but, lacking a floor jack, we made it work.


A few muddy sections at the top







In the end, it was a great trail that we were glad to be able to accomplish. With these legendary trails being closed due to misuse, or damaged beyond repair, you never know if you’ll get another chance to run them. We were able to run the switchback section in just over two hours including my 30 minutes or so hung up on the rock. If you plan on running the trail, I saw no dedicated or existing campsites/fire rings along the whole 22 miles. No pull offs, no parking areas, but there is camping information on the sign at the Beartooth Highway Trailhead so apparently you can. We were on the trail for between seven and eight hours from pavement to pavement not including the hour and a half that we stopped for.





The Beartooth Highway scenery does not dissapoint! There is lingering smoke from fires further west, but still one heck of a view.





If you ever wondered how they plowed the passes when there are snow drifts that are two stories high… here's one of those animals.

 

Oh yeah, this is the rock that claimed two tires... I'm sure we weren't the first. You can see the white mark at the top corner. Thats where my rim met rock through tire.

The trail curves left around it... didn't swing far enough out in the downpour.

 

Bastard rock. The one that punctured my Duracrap back in the day actually stuck in the sidewall. So that bastard is in the backyard now.

 

Not as bad as Monte made it out to be. That's just some added character!

And you were complaining about the little branch that broke tab on the other rear fender.

 

Haha i know. Things escalated quickly.

It's not a huge area of damage, but if i were to fix it, it would be damn expensive. But that's why it's staying as is.

 

Insurance?

 

Ain't got no time fo dat... I fucked it up, I'll deal with it. Even if I wanted to, I'm not about to leave it at a body shop for a month right now. Door works, so it's all cosmetic.

 

I have one last band aid decal in my possession if you want it when you get back......

















It will cost you a "Gramps" tagging.

 

Haha i just figure i can cut it out for long travel and 37s.

 

Ha I didn't know you had started a thread for your adventure (I'm a little slow). Looking like a good time. Nice pictures. Did you end up going to goose lake area?

 

Sure did. It was beautiful, drove all the way up as far as is open, hiked to the glacier. Got pictures and video that'll be in the next weekly update.

 

Great stuff man! Subbarino

 

Looks fun! Sad I missed it

 

That trip looked like a good time. Except for the flat tires. I'll have to tag along sometime. This weekend wasn't a good time cuz I'm still living out of a hotel till I close on my house.

 

That would've been a perfect time for a trip!

I finally saw some bears! Three little guys.

It was dark, had the shutter speed too high while rolling hence the crappy quality.

 

I90 driving though the fires.

 

Bought this the other day... Was waiting on it to get shipped to the store. Would've been nice to have the other day.

Under $40 on home depot's site, you have to buy it online. It's a little big, but will be nice to have. The jack stand part has three adjustability heights, so it would work well even if you had to live from the frame i would think. 11-21" lift height.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Powerbuilt-3-Ton-All-In-One-Bottle-Jack-Jack-Stand-640912/203116783?cm_mmc=Shopping|THD|G|0|G-BASE-PLA-D25T-Garage-Automotive|&gclid=CjwKCAjwzYDMBRA1EiwAwCv6Jrhbe1p1KFKwSye643catkYYzaiuECs5A_OUFrww9oPS8j9xuhwb-BoC4IAQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CPCavJTZttUCFUmtaQod7ikNOw

 

ooo schnazzy. looks like it'll hunker right up onto a slider

 

So, bear people...

From what I'm reading online, was that a black bear? I know they can be a ton of colors, but i thought there was also a brown bear.

I've found that grizzlies and Kodiak are brown bear sub species but nothing about whether there's just a plain old brown bear. This clearly isn't a griz.