Morning all! Got back late last night. It was a great trip!

MMSA was there!
Brent (Mitsubishi Motors guy) and his brother really enjoyed the trip and we had a good chance to discuss what's going on at Mitsubishi these days. Good news is Mitsu Motors USA had a great year and are profitable.

Unfortunately, there's no word yet on the possibility of bringing back the Montero, Sport, or even the L200 & Delica. They did bring the L200 here to do some photo shoots for overseas advertising and several MMSA employees asked why we didn't have it here... so perhaps in the not too distant future, we'll have some new 4x4's here. Not this year or even the next but beyond that (assuming they stay profitable) you never know what might happen. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

As for more trip details....

GPS worked only too well
Getting there friday night was made interesting since my GPS told me to take trails to get to the campsight when I could have remained on the road instead. No big deal though. Probably cost a few minutes of time.

After arriving, we quickly set up camp and got to bed (it was very late).

The following morning, we awoke, had breakfast, then drove to the closest gas station met up with Brent from mitsu & his brother and finally got on the trail by mid/late morning... (probably 10:30?)

The trail run was pretty fun. No Rubicon but I wasn't after that kind of a trail run since my upgrades aren't done yet and I'm open both front and rear so traction could be a problem.

"Technical Difficulty" pt.1
Interesting thing is on this trip we actually had 2 flat tires. Joanna had a flat first. Sidewall puncture. Replaced with spare and kept on going. Justice had the 2nd one. Plugged it with using a repair kit and got going.

"Technical Difficulty" pt.2
I found I need to rod my radiator as I had overheating issues. Fortunately, everyone had plenty of water (bottled water at that from Kris & Joanna) and we also wired up the AC fan to keep her cool. After wiring up the AC fan my rid didn't have overheating issues however we did this near the end of the run so I can't be absolutely sure that it will work for a long term fix so I'm gonna swap in my good radiator and have this one rodded.

On my side...
Also, on one part of the trail, I decided to take a more "challenging line" (Lloyd, Carlos, etc. can tell you about me taking the more challenging line for more fun so long as it looks doable). We actually got pretty tippy and I landed on my side. Well fortunately it was the passenger side rock skid & not the body (goooo 4crawler rock skidz!!). If those weren't there... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/zombie.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cyclops.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/evil.gif" alt="" />

Interesting thing was Brent had just been discussing if anyone had ever rolled a rig, etc and we discussed how things like this can happen. After we came to a rest, he enquired "Was there enough pucker factor on that one?" <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

After seeing what happened, Kris raced up from Joanna's rig and simply climbed on the driver side of my front bumper as I backed up and got back on 4 wheels. Yes... I took a different (aka easier) line to get through the obstacle.

Jeep Jamboree that weekend in Big Bear
As Justice mentioned, we encountered a Jeep Jamboree that none of us realized was wheeling Big Bear. There were over 100 rigs but fortunately only 18 of them were on our trail. We met them just as the trail started to get interesting. Unfortunately it was already pretty late (Brent had to get going) in the day so we decided to drive back to camp instead of going further up the trail.

mmmm Spaghetti w/ meat balls for dinner
After dropping of Brent, Vanni and I drove back to camp where she made spaghetti w/ meatballs which was super tasty and I simply devoured it. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cyclops.gif" alt="" />. After dinner I was quickly overcome by a food coma and definitely slept soundly until the morning

So unfortunately I really didn't take too many pics this time out because everyone else had camera's and Brent had his video cam. I'm sure everyone will post up pic's & video's.

So after this trip, I know I need to finish up my armor and get my locker installed but other than that, I can't wait for the sierras this August!! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> Vanni even said she'd be there with us so we can't wait.