madhatters4×4.com Blog

On Wednesday morning Wild Bill II, Trail Boss Dave and Steve “AKA: Scout” headed up to the Black Rock Desert with the intention of doing a bit of coyote hunting and especially trying to locate the elusive Black Rock Lurble & Merble’s. 

Snaring a good camp site for the rest of the Madhatters was also high on our list.  When we arrived our primary camp was taken by Deer Hunters but, we adjusted our plan and found a nice flat spot for our base camp.  The weather was cool, windy and clear.

Prior to heading to the Black Rock, Trail Boss Dave had been checking the forecast.  The final verdict of those that are supposed to know was clear, highs in the mid 60’s and low in the mid 30’s with partly cloudy skies on Saturday. ( Little did we know how very wrong this forecast was )

Thursday afternoon Dennis and his partner, Kevin and Drew, and Rich and Greg arrived.  Little did we know at this time that Tom and Gloria were already ‘lost’ on the Black Rock.

We had a lot of firewood and Thursday evening was spent sitting around a big fire in preparation for hitting the trail at 7:30 the next morning.

About 9 pm Scout was fixing the group a refill of our adult beverage when he shouted out that it was snowing.  Everything went down hill from there. 

Tom and Gloria couldn’t be reached on the Ham or CB radio and everyone was getting seriously worried.  We stayed up until about 2 am waiting and then hit the sack.  It was windy, cold and snowing heavily.

During the night there were all types of strange noises.  When we un-zipped the doors to our tents we were greeted by about 6 - 8 inches of snow that fell inside.  The sky was dark and it was snowing steadily.  After a couple of cups of coffee, ” it took 45 minutes to perk a pot ” Trail Boss Dave made a command decision that we’d have to wait out the storm before driving the 90 + mile loop through High Rock Canyon.

For the most part we went into a survival mode.  The low temp was 17 and the high was 33.  The wind cut through us like a sharp knife.  The weather changed and we went from steady snow with blowing winds to waves of weather coming through our camp about every 45 minutes.  We all sat around the fire and could see the storms coming at us on the open desert.  It was kind of funny when I think back on it because after a couple of these storms everyone automatically got up and hid either inside of their tent or in their rigs with the engines running.  ( not the much heat came out of the heaters)  Kevin blew two freeze plugs on his Jeep.  This was probably for the better because he had no top , doors and the heater didn’t work.

About 2 pm Scout heard a crackle over his ham radio and said it sounded like Air Tom………. After a lot of confusion we figured out that it was Tom.  He was asking for directions to our camp but we couldn’t figure out where he and Gloria were.  To make a long story short, Tom took the 200 Road to Soldiers Meadows on Wednesday and as the storm and darkness approached decided to pitch camp outside of a large cave full of Black Rock Desert Bats.

OK, now everyone felt better that Tom and Gloria were safe so we have to decide what the best way would be to harass them for not being able to follow directions. 

They eventually found us and it was pretty interesting watching them attempt to pitch camp as the high winds and snow storms continued rolling through !

Bottom line is they made it safely.  Everyone was in bed by 9 pm and between you, me, and the bed post I have to say I had a tuff night inside the tent.  It was cold, windy and really really dark.  I can vividly recall thinking to myself on more than one occassion that ” THIS SUCKS !”

Saturday morning Rich and Gregg packed it up and headed home because of work commitments.  ( YEAH SURE !!)  The rest of us, ( Kevin rode with Scout and Drew rode with me) hit the trail about 8 towards High Rock Canyon.  Yeah it was really really cold but it had stopped snowing.  We stopped at the entrance to the Little High Rock Canyon and fooled around. Wild Bill II said he saw a big herd of Merbles, but we couldn’t wait around for another sighting and headed to the entrance of High Rock. ( He said he thinks he got a couple pictures of them )

The scenery was spectacular and yeah it was really really COLD. 

Come to find out, Tom and Gloria had camped in front of Post Office Rock and didn’t even realize it because of the darkness and weather.  When we arrived at the Gunther camp everyone got out, explored the cave and admired the writing’s from 1852 in the rocks.

We loaded up and traveled through the canyon, all the time being overwhelmed by the spectacular views and yes it was really really COLD.

We made a couple stops and had lunch at an old cinder block homestead from 1849.  Trail Boss Dave was searching for Stevens Camp and when he spied it sitting atop a bluff. Everyone turned right and wheeled to the camp.  A group of deer hunters were camped here and gave Dave directions for the easiest and shortest way back to our base camp.

High Rock Gas Station

After about ten minutes of wheeling we started running into snow again.  It continued to get deeper and deeper and we could see more storms approaching from the distant mountain……………. At this stage of the game we were tired of playing and wanted this day to end.  We wheeled about 40 more miles through slushy, slippery snow and eventually reached base camp about 3pm.

It was pretty much like a packing frenzy as everyone decided we’d go into beautiful downtown Gerlach, get a couple of rooms and warm up after a good meal at Bruno’s Country Club and Casino.  Everyone helped Dennis get his diesel truck started ( it was really really COLD) and I went ahead to Gerlack to secure rooms for us.

black-rock-merble.JPG

Upon arriving at Bruno’s I immediately noticed that the place was absolutely packed with Deer Hunters that has the same plan as the Madhatters. All the rooms in the Motel were full.

Using my many years of negotiating tactics I secured two mobile homes in a ” really really nice and classy” Mobile Home park.  The Madhatters started straggleing into Gerlach just about dark and we settled into our new accomodations……..  It was like heaven on the desert.  Hot showers,  shelter and good food.

There was no celebration late into the night by the Madhatters of the Desert.  We woke up bright and early Sunday morning and had breakfast at Bruno’s fine eating establishment…….. ( Actually it’s really good food.)

We loaded up and hit the long road home…….

The bottom line for me is simply that one can never be over prepared when they head out into the mountains, high desert or even the low desert. We used our heads, stayed as dry as possible and lived to tell our High Rock Canyon story.

Click link to view photo show:

“http://www.photoshow.net/publish/zZ3EU8Dk.swf?w=466” /><embed 

Vinton Leroy “ Hutch ” Hutchings, 71, passed away June 17, 2008, at his mountain top home in Calpine, California. He was born June 21, 1936 in Salt Lake City. Hutch was a loving husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather, and a loyal friend. He is deeply missed by all who knew and loved him. Hutch married Sandra Latturner, his wife of 51 years on October 2, 1956. Together they have four children, Kayleen Hutchings-Cook, Steven Shane Hutchings, Christopher Troy Hutchings, and Alison Cardona.  They have 10 grandchildren, 4 great grandchildren and 3 more great grandchildren on the way in 2008. His grandchildren and great grandchildren will miss his influence in their lives.Hutch graduated from Granite High School in Salt Lake City, Utah. He worked as a sausage maker, a meat inspector, and worked his way up to head of compliance for USDA meat and poultry inspection for the Western 11 states, Alaska and Hawaii. He retired in 1982.Retirement didn’t slow Hutch down a bit, Living life to the fullest, he succeeded at a number of other pursuits.  He was a rodeo bull dogger,  In off road racing, he participated as mechanic, pit crew, driver, and co-driver in SCORE and VORRA.  Hutch managed his own auto repair business - Tumbleweed Enterprises. He also did construction work in the Reno / Tahoe area.  Hutch proudly served his community as Chief of the Calpine Volunteer Fire Department. He was a long time member of California Association of 4WD’s. Hutch was passionate about many things, chiefly his family and friends. He loved building jeeps, jeeping, camping, hunting, fishing, shooting, car shows, maps, history, ghost towns, western movies, the dessert, and computers. He was an advocate of maintaining our freedoms to use public lands, and to keep and bear arms. Hutch was an honorary, lifetime member of the Madhatters 4WD Club of Northern California.  On July 12, 2008 the Madhatters held a raffle at Deer Creek camp to honor our fallen hero and friend.  It is our honor to present a check for $2,000.00 to the Blue Ribbon Coalition trail defense fund in Hutch’s name.  Hutch was a true environmentalist.

This past week-end myself, Wrong Way Murray, Scott & Dillon Caster, Dave, Don and Danny Jones and a friend named Greg attended the WE-ROCK Championship competetion at Donner Ski Ranch.  I had never attended anything like this and I had mixed feelings about even going because this style of wheeling is contrary to my philosophy of how we should preserve and maintain our trails.

Being a hypocrit I must say that it was absolutely out of this world watching these men and woman crawl straight up or down shear rock walls.  I witnessed no less than 8 total roll-overs from a distance of no more than 50 ft.  It was like having a field pass to the Super Bowl.

Contrary to what I had expected, these Rock Crawlers were not these huge rigs with 44″ inch tires that rip up our trails.  They were small rock buggies with everything except a parachute and wings.

I had a lot of fun and totally enjoyed the event.  I think there is a time and a place for everything in this big world and my opinion still stands that this type of extreme rig has no place on our fragile trails…………..

Naturally I made a photo show for you to check out if you wish……….

http://www.photoshow.net/publish/PX4mQ2Vt.swf?w=466

Led Led by Trail Boss Dennis, 26 Madhatter rigs and 64 Madhatters met at Deer Creek and set up Madhatter City on Saturday, July 12, 2008.  Past Madhatter President Dave Jones bbq’d Rib Eye Steaks and the side dishes prepared by the membership were beyond description.

The ice chests containing our adult beverages emptied out rapidly so we adapted, over-came and improvised by switching over to the Daquri Whacker, etc, etc….

Apparently the word got out ahead of time to the local mosquito community as all of them were awaiting our arrival.  They had a good feast also !

Kathy Hutchings brought games for our Madhatter Kids to participate in and Sue Langdon took the kids on a nature hike.

Sue and Marie Murray headed up the sales of tickets for our Memorial raffle honoring Hutch Hutchings.  Air Tom ran the actual raffle which was the most successful raffle ever held for our club…. The  total was $1,605.00 and I received another $250.00 donation for the fund after the raffle.

All of these funds will be used to memorialize and honor our fallen friend Hutch.

After the raffle the Madhatters gave Princess Craig a 50th birthday roast….. Craig took it like a man and wore his Pink Princess Birthday hat.

We then proceeded to the Madhatter open air amphetheater where we watched slide shows of days past. 

 A very special thank you goes out to Wild Bill II ( Bubbles) Air Tom and Steve Pizl & David Ainsworth who worked as Ushers for the showing.

The slide shows were classic’s !!!!

Another very special thanks goes out to Vice President Navone, Steve Pizl, Kevin Newell, Shane Hutchings, Dave Jones and ( can I thank myself?) for hauling all of the equipment, supplies, food, booze, ice, tables, etc, etc into Deer Creek.

On Sunday morning Madhatter City was taken down almost as fast as it was built and 26 Madhatters wheeled out to lower Blue Lake. 

I can GUARANTEE the trail and camp were cleaner when we left then when we arrived !  Feel free to watch the photo show of our members………

http://www.photoshow.net/publish/Ec4RD8Un.swf?w=466embed

-HAPPY 30TH ANNIVERSARY TO ALL MADHATTERS-

HERE IS A LITTLE HISTORY REGARDING THE HANDLES USED BY OUR CLUB MEMBERS. 

1. WILD BILL II - WILD BILL I is Bill Seniff who is no longer active in the club.  Once Bill McDaid joined our club and we were able to see his antic’s after consuming adult beverages around the campfire is was a no brainer that he is now to be referred to as ” Wild Bill II .”
2. WINO - When Pres. Dave and Vice Pres. Navone first started running the Rubicon Trail ” All the way through,” V.P. Navone would bring 6 or 8 bottles of wine wrapped in bubble wrap with him on the runs. Shawn Hutchings and Pres. Dave started calling him Wino and hence the name has stuck.
3.  TW or TUMBLEWEED - I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard our Honorary Life-time member Hutch come over the CB radio and say… ” This is TW “
4. INDIANA - Kathy Hutchings started calling Pres Dave Indiana because of the Indiana Jones style hats he wears a lot while on the trail.
5.  R. LIZARD - Although it is common knowledge within the Madhatters that Scott Caster would much rather be driving a JEEP he does pretty well with his Bronco.  Where does the Lizard come from ?  Well Scott painted his bronco with some type of truck bed sand based protectant that causes skin rash, burns etc upon touching the body of his Bronco.  His Bronco looks like a  big green Lizard crawling over  those big rocks.
6. AIR TOM - There are lot’s of different story’s regarding Tom Gunther’s nick name of Air Tom.  The truth is that on Tom’s first run on the Rubicon Trail with our club he had quite a few ” FLAT TIRES.” Quite frankly I forget the number of flats.  Tom says it was only two, but I know it was at least 4.  We ran out of spare tires for him and Paul.  We spent so much time calling for air for Tom that he earned his nick name of Air Tom.  It has nothing to do with him driving with both front tires off the ground and up in the air.
7. GREMLIN - Shane Hutchings uses this name for his e-mail and as his CB handle.  Since Shane is a 4WD Gawd and Master of any trail we will call him anything he likes.
8. SCOUT - Steve Pizl has led us on many runs into uncharted territory.  Each and every time we usually ended up lost………… hence we call him Scout. Ask Steve about his G.P.S. and a six foot wall of snow.
9. DD ( Danger Dave) - Specifics regarding Dave’s handle are classified and known only to a very select group of Madhatters.  It all started at the Sierra Trek Bar, a great looking pair of very tight camo shorts and too many Blue Tahoes ……..
10. SAINT PAUL - Once again Paul earned this name on the Rubicon Trail.  I need to clarify what a Paul Rock is first of all.  Anytime there is a large rock in the middle of the trail it is classified as a Paul Rock.  This is because Paul will drive over it and get stuck on it.  On a Rubicon Trail run many years ago we had finally made it to the observation point at the top of Cadillac Hill.  While enjoying the view we heard an unknown group of wheelers down in the valley talking over the CB radio about all of the “Paul Rocks” ……… At this point and time we realized that Paul was famous world wide so we dubbed him “Saint Paul.”
11. ONE EYED SUE - Our First Lady Sue Langdon was camped at Sierra Trek with the club near the Meadow Lake Dam.  Dave and Sue had their Grand Kids with them and Sue and the Grand kids ended up with “Pink Eye.”  Sue’s eye was seriously swollen and she looked like something someone has shot at and missed and ” it wasn’t pretty.”  Anyway she had a white patch crudely taped over her eye.  It was dark and Scott and Pres. Dave were walking from the Madhatter camp to the main camp.  Suddenly some stupid teenager came flying down the road on a dirt bike with no head light.  We stopped him and told him he had to have a headlight to run at night.  We were promptly informed that his head light didn’t work.  We gave him our flashlight and told him to drive up to the camp with the red TJ and contact One Eyed Sue who would give him some duct tape so he could tape the flash light to his M/C…………… this kid was a bit confused but drove up to the camp ( which was Full of Madhatters) and ask to speak with ONE EYED Sue……… hence “One Eyed Sue.”
12. PRINCESS - This title has been be-stowed on Craig Lemon by past Madhatter President Rich Murray……. ask Rich for details. 
13. LOUIE THE LIP - ( AKA: Neutral Louie ) As everyone knows Louie has a gift of gab………..on one run his wife called him Louie the Lip.  Naturally we figured that if Laurie could call him Louie The Lip that we would also.  ******  While wheeling at Niagra Rim we had just driven down a VERY STEEP section of the trail with loose dirt………( We had a rig roll there about ten years ago )  At the bottom of this section Louie was bragging about how he came down this section with his Jeep in neautral………( He was dead serious)  To make a very long story short everyone was telling Louie he was out of his mind if he indeed wheeled down the trail while in neutral…. To this day Louie stands by his neutral theory of wheeling down steep grades…..
14. CRASH - Dale Franklin…….. aka: Crash… just ask anyone that wheeled with Dale on the Rubicon Trail in 2006.
15. BIG GREG - Greg Price is just a big guy.
16. LITTLE GREG - Greg Robison is just a little guy.
17. WRONG WAY MURRAY - While being winched out of a big hole on the Rubicon Trail Rich was going no where fast and the rig attempting to winch him out of the hole was rapidly being pulled into the hole with Rich……. The reason ?  Instead of having his Jeep in first or second gear to assist with this extraction Rich was driving at full speed in ” REVERSE.”  

So this is a little history of the Madhatter handles…….. hope I didn’t forget anyone but feel free to keep this list current.

The Madhatters had 16 rigs muster on Thursday night at Wentworth Springs…. The adult beverage and trail talk flowed around the campfire.  The trail into Wentworth was wet, but I’ve seen it much wetter.

Led by Bronco Craig and Bronco Scott we hit the trail and wheeled up the Devils Post Pile on Friday morning. Right off the get go Bronco Craig got lost and ended up at the top of some ridge where he turned around and wheeled up the b y-pass Pres. Dave found… once Bronco Craig got to the top of the by-pass he discovered he was in the same spot where he had turned around and taken the by-pass too.  The only difference was he now had a flat tire.  Fridays trail was wet and difficult but there were no major problems other than using a couple winch cables to extract our rigs. 

At the Little Sluice by-pass we hooked up with Deputy Scott who showed us the new by-pass.  Deputy Scott warned us that we’d need a spotter and that we needed to stay hard to our left……….. Fearless leader Bronco Craig spouted that he didn’t need any stinking spotters and headed towards the by-pass………….. I’d imagine it took about 30 seconds ( maybe 33)  before Mr. I Don’t Need Any Stinking Spotters, was stuck between a BIG Rock and a cliff…………. If it hadn’t been for Louie the Lip’s spotting ability, I truly believe Bronco Craig would still be stuck on that ledge……….. as always our Madhatter Love and shear experience, determination and  talent resolved this situation.

The section of the trail between Wentworth and Buck Island was as good as I’ve ever seen it.  Note:  “I didn’t say easy”

A few of our rookies had some trouble wheeling through and up Brady Sluice and Skid Plate rocks but the superior leadership of Assistant TB Bronco Scott saved not only the day, but everyones pride .

Just short of Buck Island Lake we set camp and spent the night………. The party animals were not so energetic at the campfire and most everyone hit the sack early on this evening………

On Saturday morning we slept in and hit the trail about 10 a.m………………….. Rest assured that just before the Dam at Buck Island Lake right up to the top of the Big Sluice the trail gave everyone some major PUCKER factor adjustment ! Vice President Navone made it across the Dam this year without driving into the lake. Everyone made it down Louie the Lip curve without incident as someone had down some nice work to improve the drop off corner.

We wheeled down the Big Sluice with no major problems and little vehicle carnage……….. the water at the bottom of the Big Sluice was only about 2 feet deep and we wheeled right into the Rubicon Springs and crossed that Green Bridge…. crossing the river was a bit sporty but we found a big old empty spot at the rear where we once again threw down our camping gear……..

I have to say that I was a bit dissappointed in everyone as I was the only member that went down to our swimming spot and dove into the ice cold river for refreshment……. ( It took my breath away, but felt pretty damned good ! “)  As I was polluting the river with my body, the rest of the members were having a class on how to re-build St. Pauls Jeep.  Grinder, welders and lot’s of varying opinion was the order of the afternoon…………….

Saturday evening we all sat around a big campfire and discussed the days carnage and pucker factors… there was a lot of good food passed around and T.B. Bronco Craig distributed the Rubicon Trail Dash plaques…..

Bright and early Sunday morning all 16 rigs crossed back over the Rubicon River and we headed up the infamous Cadillac Hill.  I’ve been up that mountain quite a few times, but this trip got my attention like no other.  My wife Sue actually said, ” STOP, I’m getting out and walking.”  The trail was wet and very slippery……… staying on your choosen line of approach just wasn’t in the cards on this day.

We ran into some snow after we reached Look-Out point and a lot of standing water……. As a group we pulled into the O.H.V. area about 1:30 where everyone aired up, gave lot’s of HIGH FIVES and then we went home………..

It was a good run and we did what we Madhatters always do………. we Tread Lightly, we Wheeled Hard and we helped our brother and sister Hatters out when needed.  Congradulations to all and especially to Trail Boss Craig and Assistant Trail Boss Scott……….. Following on this trail is easy………… Leading on this trail is not.

Please check out the slide show of this run prepared by Greg Robison :

 http://picasaweb.google.com/grobison62/RubiconTrailMadhattersStyle
 

Members Present on the run were:  Craig and guest Dave, Scott and Dillan, Dennis and guest Dave, Rich and his guest Chris, Louie and Laurie, Mike and his son Matt, Steve P, Greg R, Greg and Sherie, Saint Paul, Ed, Lucy and their son Josh, Wild Bill II, Janet and their son Gavin, Dave A, and his two daughters, Air Tom and Bo Dog, Jon, myself and Sue.

For those members that didn’t make the recent Hell Hole trail run I can only say that you missed one of the best runs I’ve been on in a while.

In attendance were Wild Bill II ( Trail Boss) David A, Mike Navone, Greg R, Louie and myself.  We had to wheel through huge snow drifts just to get to our “very empty camp” on the banks of French Meadows Resevoir.  During our entire trip the weather was perfect during the day and very cold once the sun went down.

Led by T.B Wild Bill II we departed camp Saturday morning about 9:30……… we had 11 miles to drive up the mountain to the trail head of Hell Hole O.H.V. trail.  To make a long story short I’ll say that we were on a mission.  We bucked heavy snow drifts, cleared the trail of trees as big as our Jeeps and put our winches to working overtime.  For several miles on our journey towards the trail head it was solid snow that was 3′ deep in most places.  There were several times when we’d throw our hands up in the air and figure that the end of our venture towards Hell Hole trail was at its end.  Fighting off his need for adult beverages Trail Boss Wild Bill II put the need for the Madhatters to run the Hell Hole trail at the top of his priorities and fought for every inch as he wheeled up the mountain towards that elusive trail head.

2:30 pm……….. There is was……… Hell Hole O.H.V. trail marker………. but being completely exhausted our fearless leader drove right past the spot he fought so valantly to reach……….. Blasting over the CB came DD shouting……… we are there………. looks at the electrical towers….. we did it !

We wheeled down into Hell Hole.  The trail was relatively dry.  We stopped at the waterfall which was flowing in full glory.  Wild Bill stripped to his underwear and jumped in the ice cold creek where he floated face down as everyone else stood watching and wondering if he had some type of a mental problem or what ! 

It was 4 p.m. so we decided it was past time to start back to camp.  The drive up out of Hell Hole was pretty uneventfull if you don’t count Navone having a flat tire, vehicle problems, Greg breaking some type of speed record for driving over big old wet rocks and Louie putting some trail carnage on his right rear quarter panel.

The camp fire was warm and inviting when we got back to camp and everyone was pretty tuckered out from the long day of wheeling.

It was a good, hard day of wheeling.

Check out some nice flicks Greg R put together at this site: http://picasaweb.google.com:80/grobison62/Madhatters4×4

Since I’m still working on getting a new computer on line and working for the Mudslinger I’ll list a few highlights of last nights March meeting:

• Louie talked himself into the boner award for the second month in a row…….. Wild Bill is still in possession of this blue and pink item and needs to make arrangements to hand it over to Louie.
• June will be a very busy month for the Madhatters……. the first Thurs - Sunday of June we will be hitting the Rubicon Trail……………. Craig will be Trail Boss.
• The next week-end ( June 14th ) we are participating in the Livermore Rodeo Parade………. lets make a good showing and have our rigs looking good.  Dennis has volunteered to open his home to members after the Parade for a BBQ………….. bet he’ll have some home brew there also.
• June 28th we are participating in Kids on The Rocks……. at the meeting everyone in attendance said they would participate.  This is a very worthy event.  Pres. Dave needs confirmations on participation so he can notify the appropriate people .

Lets see if everyone can figure out how to use this thing. This is a setup message to see if the site is working properly.