Upper Peninsula Overland Adventure Weekend August 23rd-24th

Rattler said:
Got a couple videos up. Here is a link to one. Just click on the "More from Rattles02" for a couple more. You might get a laugh out of the bear at Oswalds I caught on video that I put up. I am new to the video thing some please excuse the crappy production.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5FrzwFWt9E

Damn...You just missed me going through the water. You can just see me (25-29 seconds) in the background getting lined up.
 

Rattler

Thornton Melon's Kid
TJDIV said:
We have a "winter" ride baby!!!

can't seem to load the pic right now though...hmmm...

1986 AMC Eagle Wagon.

A kid I work with is an AMC nut. His daily driver is a '74 Matador. He has a few other Matadors too. He has a couple Pacers also. I think he only has one 4x4 Eagle. Suprisingly, no Gremlins yet.
 

Pad

Adventurer
Great recap thread going here!!!

I finally got our photos up, first time user so the order is all wacky, cant seem to re-sort (any advise?) and I'll go in later and add comments.
One photo to look for, on the mountainside rocks, you can see the 'spirit of the mountain reveal itself', ya way cool!!!

I also plugged the drain on our bathtub! ops, guess I wore more U P dirt home than I thought.

Here's the photos
http://s388.photobucket.com/albums/oo327/Pad-n-Beth/UP adventure weekend/?albumview=slideshow
Not of the bathtub silly!

Pad & Beth
 

TJDIV

Adventurer
Pad said:
Great recap thread going here!!!


One photo to look for, on the mountainside rocks, you can see the 'spirit of the mountain reveal itself', ya way cool!!!

Pad & Beth


#50?
 

Pad

Adventurer
Yep! #50
Is this a 'known' face in the hill side?
Or was I just at the right angle?
The U.P. has made its way into my top 3 fav. places!
Cant wait to get back!
There has been interest from some members of my local club,
so we may have a larger Rover population next time,
dont worry they're all easy goin adventurer types.
Oh and I'm interested in GPS track logs too, if anyone has them.

Pad
 

Rattler

Thornton Melon's Kid
Pad said:
Yep! #50
Oh and I'm interested in GPS track logs too, if anyone has them.

I am going to be downloading my tracks from the GPS later today. What type of GPS files do you use? .gpx, .kmz? Or just GPS brand will do. I used a Garmin Etrex Legend for this trip.
 

Rattler

Thornton Melon's Kid
Northern Explorer said:
Great job on all of the pictures. Just one minor flaw in the labeling. Pinnacle Falls is off of the triple A and we didn't have time to see them on this trip. My mind has gone blank right now as to what the name of the falls were that we did see off of 510.

Thanks for the info. I wasn't sure of the name after I labeled it.
 

Until2004

New member
I finally got some videos onto the computer. Somehow I forgot to reload the software when I reformatted the laptop, then I of course lost the disk. So here is the first video. Please pardon some of the commentary and if you can't follow the link, go to youtube and search until2004.

Gay beach with NE's water crossing
 

4wdds

New member
The "Rest" of the Story ,

So I'm sure most of the group saw the smoke billowing out of the green 80 as my son Stu was driving back from playing on the dunes at Gay Beach. If not, then you must have heard my intial rant about neglect and responsibility. Which probably wouldn't have been so serious had there not been previous history of the same earlier this summer. I'll explain more as the story unfolds....

Smoke billowing .....coolant leaking.....20 minutes before departure......the last stop , on the last day of an eight day vacation.
Initially , we thought that it was just a hot engine from running in that thick , black sand in high range. After a short cooling off period (the truck as well as myself) I poured a little water on top of the radiator to see just how hot it was....to my suprise it evaporated very slowly. Uncapped and added water which came right out the bottom of the rad along the lower tank.
What the ? . Next thought was that some thing hit and damaged it .
But , No branches or sticks on the beach . ?? Maybe increased temp and pressures oncovered a weak area and blew the rad before the cap released ??
Either way , It needed repair or replacement and the beach was not a good place for that.

Enter "The Gay Beach Chain Gang" . This seems to be well documented (even tho I haven't watched the video yet) I won't relive that part of the story except to thank those guys again and apologize for all of the fuel you guys burned during the recovery . Quite a pull and definately the longest 600 or so yards of my life. The winching by Ron Fetter to get me back up to the road got alittle touchy when we almost brought down a 50 ft. Jack Pine
with a snatch block and his T-Max. No Problem.

OK..... I'm up on the road again....now what ? Well , The Gay Bar ......of course. A quick tow over there....a long pause at the door.....and in I go.
I think the juke box stopped playing , I know all the conversations ceased when I crossed that threashold . After a short staredown of the obvious non-local , the woman behind the bar asked "can I help you ?" . I explained that I had a breakdown and needed a nearby campground to make a repair.
After turning around to inform the rest of the matriarchs of my situation , the entire bar was giving me directions at the same time. Drunken and certainly not in unison came the directions.........basically , across the river on the right about a mile or so up the road . From what I could make out of the multiple people speaking at the same time with an ever increasing competitive volume , was that a guy named Bobby was in the process of developing a campground and docks right on Lake Superior . It was still being built but he allowed people to stay there despite the construction . We pulled in , came to a coasting stop in front of the first campsite and unhooked the strap from Rons truck. A few quick good byes and there we sat......damaged ......alone ........
The vacation was over.
The adventure was over.
Reality sets in .
Quiet ,
Beautiful .
More reality.................Less than 2 hrs of sunlight
Time for a family meeting .

"I'm hungry"
"I'm dirty"
"I have to go to the bathroom"
" Can I call Megan ? When do you think we'll be home ?"

You can probably guess who said what .
We decided to : winch the 80 into a better spot for teardown
set up camp
collect firewood and
I would start draining the coolant while Amy and the boys went back to the Bar to grab a pizza and try to get cleaned up a bit before dark.
As they drove out I headed down toward the construction to look for a drain pan . A really cool place . Right on the shore with about 10-12 campsites ,
a half a dozen or so boat docks behind a nice stone breakwater. Bobby was nowhere to be found , nor was anyone else . Some one had been working on the building earlier . The smell of fresh sawdust and recently poured concrete still lingered . You could tell it was an on going project with a huge amount of potential . I passed a couple of 5 gallon buckets to find a perfect short plastic pan . I actually ran back up the hill to get this thing draining asap . As I laid under the truck and turned the stopcock (invariably the first splash lands on your arm as you scramble to adjust the pan ) it comes back to me that these radiator bolts are not that easy to get to. I laid my head down in the grass , the coolant was draining , the waves were lapping the boulder stone seawall , and my rear axel is cropping my view of a beautiful sunset . Yep , great place Bobby has here.......... When ARE we going to be home ?
My brain quickly turned over the possibilities . Do I have all the tools I need ? Did I bring that 6" swivel extension ? Is this radiator even servicable ? New one ? Toyota Dealer ? Stock Part ? Order time ?
I wiggled out from under the truck with almost no sense of urgency now .......
We might be here awhile . Yeah......real nice place Bobby has here......might be here awhile .
Better get wrenchin' .

View attachment 22189

Once I got the engine out of the way , the radiator was easily accessable.







Sorry , That was my feeble attempt at a Joke.......
That pic was on the same photo chip as our vacation .
It was a 4-Runner engine swap that I was working on the Sat. before we left.
It is significant to the story though. I was swapping the engine out of a 4-Runner that Stu totalled earlier this summer into one that had a blown cylinder.
He was screwing around going through a mud puddle on a dirt road , lost control and hit a tree.
The recipient truck just happens to be the same green as the 80. I'll post a real pic (If this one loaded....not sure on the resizing thing yet)

Amy will post "The Gay Bar " part of the story next. I'll be back with Chapter 3 .
 

4wdds

New member
You can probably guess from Ron's post which person I was when we reached the campground in Gay.....the one who had to go to the bathroom. The boys were having a riot saying things like....."this place is really GAY and I can't believe we have to camp in this GAY place"....but anyway. Initially when we entered The Gay Bar I was happy to at least be able to use the bathroom. But, as luck would have it.....and truly this turns out to be lucky...there was a sign on the door that said something to the effect of no use of the bathroom unless you were a customer. In a bar of that size I knew I couldn't just "sneak" past so I just went back outside - deflated. Once we were at the campground it sank in that yes, we were spending another night camping. Having camped for 5 nights, while I had had a blast, I was truly ready to sleep in my own bed and enjoy my BATHROOM. I told the boys to start setting up camp and I proceeded to get out the food. At this point Ron was busily working on getting the radiator loose. I opened the cooler to floating lunch meat and sighed as I really just wanted to use a bathroom so I decided why not get some "real food". I told Ron I was taking the boys to the Gay Bar..............and we relunctantly left him under the rig. We entered the bar to stares and sat at one of three tables. There was no bartender...for quite a looooong time. I started to think I heard dueling banjoes off in the distance and began to wonder if I should have brought my kids, let alone myself, into the Gay establishment (and yes, the boys did exclaim that the place was really "Gay" a few times). Finally I walked up to the bar and asked a women who had "been there awhile" if there was a bartender and if we could eat. She reaches behind the bar, pulls out a few menus and hands them to me, smiling. She then grabs my arm and says "Come here, I want to show you something" as she pulls me into the women's bathroom!!!! (I am in the Gay Bar...afterall). Still holding menus in my hand I look over my shoulder at the boys in wide eyed amazement keeping one foot in the door as she pulls me inside. She opens a stall and above the toilet there is a wooden sign that says - Peep hole to men's room - ...........She then lifts the sign up and an alarm sounds throughout the bar. I crack up as she tells me she just didn't want me to be "caught" in this little prank. I relax a bit and the bartender shows up. We order some food and one of the men at the bar says "I wonder if that guy ever found the campground"? I pipe up "OH yeah, that's us and thank you. My husband is under the truck right now". I tell the ENTIRE bar our story and as often happens on family vacations something amazing happens. People start calling all over for a radiator for us! They give me phone numbers of someone's ex with a few toyotas parted out, some guys uncle with some truck parts, a gas station that fixes radiator and an actual radiator repair shop located about 25 miles away. The bartender even is on the phone trying to find us a radiator, between fixing drinks AND food! BUT, I think one of the best parts of this story is when one of the two ladies at the bar comes over to my table and says "So did you find the bathroom at the campground?" "WHAT.............a bathroom", I say, much too excitedly. She tells me it is down in the half built house next to the docks for the campers and not just a pit toilet, but an actual flush toilet, running water and a SHOWER! It is amazing what brings one joy in times like these but I was kinda giddy. We thanked everyone in the place and returned to our hero, under the truck, with two cold pieces of pizza, a chicken strip and a crapload of phone numbers for our radiator repair. We found a great pile of firewood, enjoyed another night together, and the next day (following a very cold night in which I slept with my ENTIRE head in the sleeping bag) Ron had the radiator out of the truck. So armed with our phone numbers all we had to do was make a few calls - right??? Nah, that would be too easy. Our cell phone showed 3 bars of service, but each call failed. I decided to head back up to the only thing in town, the bar, and see if I could find a pay phone. The bar is not open yet. Well, as luck would have it, and I believe we were about overfull at this point, out of nowhere an old couple is wallking past the truck. I ask about a payphone. There is none. I show them my phone with 3 bars and they tell me.....and these people are about older than God.....that Alltel doesn't have a roaming contract in Gay. OK then....shows ya what I know. BUT, the old guy gives me directions to the radiator repair shop, which I take to be a sign from the 4-wheeling Gods and go tell Ron. He loads up the radiator and we drive to Ripley.........
At this point, if anyone is still awake, I'm turning the story back over to the "real Hero" of the weekend.

~Amy~
 

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