The Annual Cinders Event 2011 Picture Thread

If you were there then you already know that Offroad Passport Cinders 2011 was a complete blast! Here are a few pictures to get this thread started - please post your Cinders photos here!

 



 

 

Thanks everyone! What a great weekend! I'm going to do a little write up as time allows this week, so stay tuned!

 

Diane

It was a great time, thanks to everyone.

hope Dennis's jeep issue isn't too serious

G & D

George and Dianne

A controled fire near camp

looking N/E toward the reservation

wish i could have made it

next year!

Here are mine;

http://s482.photobucket.com/albums/rr183/maddogjeepers/Cinders%202011/

Ah the Annual Cinders Trip! What a great way to celebrate the end of summer and kick off of a new 4-wheeling season! The Cinders 2011 Event was that and more. Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time; plenty of good food, tasty beverages, and hearty laughter. This was also the beginning of Offroad Passport’s 3rd year of operations!

People began to gather Friday afternoon and continued to arrive into the night. Like last year, I-17 was closed for a good part of the day due to a traffic accident. Still, everyone made it to camp with enough time to get set up, eat and have a few drinks before bed.

Saturday morning we were just about ready to go out to the Cinders OHV when theksmith noticed a squeeking sound from his Jeep’s front suspension when he moved the steering wheel. Scott discovered that a Johnny Joint on his track bar was dry, so we rounded up a grease gun and lubed it.

In the line-up were me & G in Number 7, Wayne & Gwen (stockjeep), John (Desert4x4), Steve & Karen (sestrain), ScottL, Dennis & Randy (Maddogjeeper) and theksmith (Kris, Aimee & Brady) brought up the rear. We left camp around 9:00 AM and went east on FS 545 to access the OHV instead of going out to Highway 89 to get there.

From FS 545 we took FS 244 around the eastern edge of the Cinders. I had never been out there before, and I must say the views are impressive. Some of the time we could see far out to the east toward the Painted Desert, and on this partly cloudy day it was beautiful.

We went southeast on FS 244 quite a ways before turning west into the southern end of the Cinders. Kris was leading then, and took us on a trail that climbed a hill south of Competition Hill and the Double Crater. The trail was fairly steep and loose in a few places, but everybody climbed it no problems.

Steve and Karen’s Jeep got a little hot and lost some fluid on the climb, so we decided to break for lunch, let it cool down, and see if it needed a repair. We had a container of Stop-Leak ready to throw in, but after it cooled off and Steve took off the radiator cap, we saw that it really hadn’t lost much fluid. George thought it was a bad idea to add stop leak in that case, so we decided to leave it alone and monitor the temperature for the rest of the day. It must have been some fluke because the Jeep was fine throughout.

After lunch we back-tracked a little way down the hill and then cut over to the main trail, FS 777, which we took east through the Little Cinder Basin, and then left the main trail to go up to the Double Crater.

The vista toward the northeast as we drove along the eastern edge of the Double Crater was just incredible. I finally figured out which one is Stewart Crater, and looking out that way made me want to go there. Maybe next time we’ll do some exploring beyond the Cinders!

Some of us drove down into the big bowl, some of us hung out on top. Part of the group took off on a trail alongside the big crater, and we could see them way up on the side of the bowl. After going down and coming back up the side road, Wayne & Gwen (stockjeep) wondered what it would be like to go up the way they went down. It’s crazy steep, and at one point it almost looked like they wouldn’t make it, but just as the Jeep came almost to a stop, it got bite and kept moving. Naturally, George wanted to try it after seeing Wayne do it, so we took off for the bottom in Number 7.

I’ll tell you what, looking up from the bottom of the big bowl makes you feel extremely small in the world. As we started going up the side, all we could see was sky. A little past the half-way mark, there is a kind of lip where the angle is the steepest. That’s where Number 7 finally lost footing and we began to dig in. I filmed the passenger front tire until just before we stopped.

I said, “I don’t want to back down from here”, and George said, “Me neither”. He let the Jeep roll back a little and then he got it to go forward a little, and he repeated doing that several times, trying to fill in the place where the tires had dug in. And then incredibly, he got the Jeep to climb forward out of the ruts and on to the top. Good ol’ Number 7, our little baby Jeep that could.

Next Maddog decided he had to give it a go up the steep side from the bottom. He got up to the same place where Number 7 had dug ruts before his tires began to spin. A few more tries made it clear his Jeep was going to have none of it, and he did have to back-up all the way down to the bottom. Looking back I think Number 7 had a lighter weight advantage, and both stockjeep and Number 7 are running manual transmissions. Regardless, Maddog made it safely back to the bottom and up the side road to the top.

By now it was lightly sprinkling and we re-grouped at the top of the 1st hill climb we did on the way out. We went back down to Little Crater Basin and played for a while at The Racetrack, where I took a bunch of pictures of everybody testing their flex.

Then we went back out FS 777 to FS 776 and out to the pavement. We got back to camp at about 3:00 PM and everybody started getting ready for the Salsa Contest, Membership Drawing and Raffle!

The Salsa contest was easy to judge this time because there were only 4 entries. Karen Strain brought a killer queso-chorizo dip; Jannene Lackey made a non-tomato entry loved by everyone, while Mike Lackey and Miss January renewed their rivalry battle for Hottest Salsa. They all won custom ORP Salsa Contest Tee-Shirts, and then Mike decided that Desert4x4 John deserved one for eating so much hot salsa, and relinquished his.

Next up was the Member Appreciation Month Drawing with Gearhead winning the ORP Windshield Banner, Ladybug taking the ORP Tee Shirt, and GOTMTNS scoring the grand prize of a 2nd Generation Trail Welder!

We were on a roll so we went straight into the ORP Raffle. There were lots of great prizes this year, especially after the addition of 2 special gift packs of adult beverage and 2 “Inline Six’ decals from Wayne and Gwen (stockjeep). I can’t remember who all won what, but I know there were plenty of laughs and some heavy trading deals going on after.

Although there was some marshmallow roasting here and there, The Screaming Monkey, AKA Fuzzy Bunny Contest was cancelled due to overly full tummies and no paramedics in attendance. Even without the giggles that always accompany the game, there was a lot of laughter and silliness around the fire pit Saturday night. But, what happens at the Cinders stays at the Cinders, so if you weren’t there you’ll just have to go next year.

After packing and cleaning Sunday people straggled out of camp a few at a time. George and I waited for theksmith to get a head start so that if he had any trouble with his Jeep cooling, we’d see him on the side of the road. We weren’t even to the highway we got text messages that Dennis’ (Maddog) had broken down. He said he was passing a semi when the transmission made a weird noise and the tachometer went crazy. George thought out loud that maybe something had broken as Dennis tried to climb the steep side hill at the big Cinder bowl. So we put Dennis’ Jeep on our trailer and George took him home and theksmith took Dennis’ trailer home.

Thank you everyone who came out to make this year’s event the blast that it was. We really enjoyed the company, conversation, camaraderie and comedy.

Until next time!

Diane

Check out my Spot Adventure.

Diane

Cool pics! I dont think my long truck could make it up that hill haha!

I forgot to include this link: dzjeepchic's Cinders 2011 Pictures

Diane