The more I wheel the more I realize it’s actually the people you wheel with that make or break a run. And I have to say that the Jefferson State guys and gals are some of the greatest people to wheel with.
I went down to the McGrew trail (it starts just outside Obrien, OR) last year and even though it was hotter than blazes for this boy from the Northwest, the family and I had a great time. This year was no different with the exception of much cooler weather. Which I was very greatful for. After a peaceful night behind the store it was time to once again get the rig inspected for “cedar root rot fungus”! Funny how the Forest 
Service inspects rigs in a group but not individuals…. And you would think they would save some samples just to test them but no I guess the budget doesn’t go that far.
Last year Carlos gave us some excitement while going around a rock and this year he did it again. His face was priceless… And this was just a stop for an early break while the crazier of the bunch went over one of the optional rock piles.
But soon we were rolling again, bouncing over the endless rocks that make up this trail. The wheeling is not very difficult, even stock rigs do just fine but the scenery is worth the time.
But even the mild trail took its toll on one of the wagons. The right rear spring was a bit tired on Chris’ 62 and snapped just in front of the spring perch. Luckily we had plenty of straps, a d-ring shackle and a spring shackle to hold it together, along with a 
winch cable to hold things in place and he was able to limp to the lunch spot and meet up with the fire road to go back to Obrien. Sadly the rig was too broken to 
continue on.
Whats kind of interesting about the McGrew trail is that even though you may be on a run with a lot of rigs, for the most part you only see the one in front and the one in the back of you. Occasionally though we had to collect the group so no one got left…
Eventually we made it up to the Sluice and lucky for me there wasn’t a tire change in the heat! Well at least not for me but there was one on a 55 that managed to tear off a valve stem, pretty much the same thing that happened on Sue’s 80 last year. But there was a bit of a memorable moment. Unbeknowst to Sooz (my spouse) and I, our middle son Jeremiah had been driving all the way from before the lunch stop… Ty let Jeremiah behind the wheel of his 80 and this continued all the way to camp, including letting him drive through the Sluice! This really made Jeremiah’s trip worthwhile, thank you Ty. You are a braver man than I.
The rest of the drive into camp at the river went off without incident. Still pretty weird to see rigs off in the distance putting up a dust cloud on the road knowing you are about a half hour behind… This is a one lane trail so a large group like we had is going to get spread out for sure.
Due to the lack of rain the Smith river was down a bit over last year but surprisingly it felt colder this year. Last year in the heat there was a lot more lingering in the river but it still felt good after a long day on the trail.
Once again the Saturday night pot luck was outstanding with lots of food you would never expect to find in the middle of nowhere, including ice cream… The raffle that followed was entertaining as well, the Jefferson folks do not disappoint. And after that we had one heck of a bonfire! There wasn’t room to spare around the fire so my boys and Travis took it upon 
themselves to increase the volume of flames and thereby increasing the space around the fire as everyone backed away from the heat! And you always know a good fire from when people start to back up…
The late conversation around the fire was good as several of us talked about what we can do to make our clubs better and listen to what other clubs are doing and how they run things. Also trying to get info from the new folks as to what they want out of a club and why they come on runs like the McGrew trail. Interesting to have the presidents (both current and past) of 3 clubs all in one spot, Jefferson, Cascade and Raincountry.
Sunday was pack up and drive out day. And it was not without its highlights… Because the drive out is about 2 hrs most of us tend to travel with another rig, always better than being alone. Well I wasn’t done helping fix rigs just yet. The oil line to the gauge on Sean’s 40 decided that it had enough and broke off. We tried sealing it off with a chunk of plastic inside the fitting but the pressure just blew that out, so we stopped again and used the fitting off the gauge itself with the copper line crimped off to stop the flow and this did the trick and Sean made it back to Medford without further incident.
The rest of the trip out was a lot of fun as Mark Hawley (and his boys) of Metaltech in their new Four Runner as well, had caught up with us during the repair so they drove out with us. Yaking on the CB with him made the trip out go too fast.
So another successful trip down to the Oregon/California border in a pretty part of the state that not too many people get to see. Thanks Jefferson State on a run well done. See ya next year.
