GPS co-ordinates of the 'encounter' are: 44 55 33.92 N 77 22 39.66 W/

/Peter

"Snow" <snowbal@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:cQVVe.2721$1G4.401038@news20.bellglobal.com.. .
>
> > We had an enjoyable but all too brief off-road excursion as Mike
mentioned
> > that was curtailed by Snowboardripper's cool head when confronted with a
> > group of drunk yabbos on ATVs. Aggressive drunks with guns were of
great
> > concern to all involved as we had two small frightened children in our
> > group. We apparently were getting too close to their
> > poaching/drug/moonshine making operation for their liking. After a
brief
> > talk and promise to withdraw from the area the situation was diffused.
> >
> > Perhaps a call or letter to the authorities with the GPS location of the
> > assault would be warranted as I imagine a whole host of regulations were
> > being violated.
>
>
> If anyone "tagged" the GPS co-ordinates on their gps, they could still
send
> them into the RCMP or the OPP..
>
> Sounds like they were drunk frenchmen out for a weekend of fun, I should
see
> if the wife's relatives were in that area..lol.
>
>

 

GPS co-ordinates of the 'encounter' are: 44 55 33.92 N 77 22 39.66 W.

/Peter

"Snow" <snowbal@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:cQVVe.2721$1G4.401038@news20.bellglobal.com.. .
>
> > We had an enjoyable but all too brief off-road excursion as Mike
mentioned
> > that was curtailed by Snowboardripper's cool head when confronted with a
> > group of drunk yabbos on ATVs. Aggressive drunks with guns were of
great
> > concern to all involved as we had two small frightened children in our
> > group. We apparently were getting too close to their
> > poaching/drug/moonshine making operation for their liking. After a
brief
> > talk and promise to withdraw from the area the situation was diffused.
> >
> > Perhaps a call or letter to the authorities with the GPS location of the
> > assault would be warranted as I imagine a whole host of regulations were
> > being violated.
>
>
> If anyone "tagged" the GPS co-ordinates on their gps, they could still
send
> them into the RCMP or the OPP..
>
> Sounds like they were drunk frenchmen out for a weekend of fun, I should
see
> if the wife's relatives were in that area..lol.
>
>

 

GPS co-ordinates of the 'encounter' are: 44 55 33.92 N 77 22 39.66 W.

/Peter

"Snow" <snowbal@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:cQVVe.2721$1G4.401038@news20.bellglobal.com.. .
>
> > We had an enjoyable but all too brief off-road excursion as Mike
mentioned
> > that was curtailed by Snowboardripper's cool head when confronted with a
> > group of drunk yabbos on ATVs. Aggressive drunks with guns were of
great
> > concern to all involved as we had two small frightened children in our
> > group. We apparently were getting too close to their
> > poaching/drug/moonshine making operation for their liking. After a
brief
> > talk and promise to withdraw from the area the situation was diffused.
> >
> > Perhaps a call or letter to the authorities with the GPS location of the
> > assault would be warranted as I imagine a whole host of regulations were
> > being violated.
>
>
> If anyone "tagged" the GPS co-ordinates on their gps, they could still
send
> them into the RCMP or the OPP..
>
> Sounds like they were drunk frenchmen out for a weekend of fun, I should
see
> if the wife's relatives were in that area..lol.
>
>

 

GPS co-ordinates of the 'encounter' are: 44 55 33.92 N 77 22 39.66 W.

/Peter

"Snow" <snowbal@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:cQVVe.2721$1G4.401038@news20.bellglobal.com.. .
>
> > We had an enjoyable but all too brief off-road excursion as Mike
mentioned
> > that was curtailed by Snowboardripper's cool head when confronted with a
> > group of drunk yabbos on ATVs. Aggressive drunks with guns were of
great
> > concern to all involved as we had two small frightened children in our
> > group. We apparently were getting too close to their
> > poaching/drug/moonshine making operation for their liking. After a
brief
> > talk and promise to withdraw from the area the situation was diffused.
> >
> > Perhaps a call or letter to the authorities with the GPS location of the
> > assault would be warranted as I imagine a whole host of regulations were
> > being violated.
>
>
> If anyone "tagged" the GPS co-ordinates on their gps, they could still
send
> them into the RCMP or the OPP..
>
> Sounds like they were drunk frenchmen out for a weekend of fun, I should
see
> if the wife's relatives were in that area..lol.
>
>

 

I have included three trip reports here Mike's, Billy Ray's and
Steve's.......

The photos are over on alt.binaries.pictures.autos.4x4 as well as posted
at Sony's Imagetation here:

http://www.imagestation.com/album/in...?id=2120343242


Mine (Mike) first...........

Well, my wife and I had a really nice vacation, thanks to all that came
out!

We ended up with 10 people including a couple of 'young Jeepers'.

I went in early to try and get the quietest lake's main campsite and
there was a warning about the creek I had to cross's bridge being under
construction for the whole 2 weeks and the road being 'impassable'.
Ouch I figure, I might have to do a 75 mile detour and stop to let
someone on my email list know to come in the other way....

So I figure no way that marsh is 'impassable' for my CJ7 with my
33x9.5's backed up by my Warn 9000 even if I am running solo so I go for
it. Ok, no construction so I stop and walk where I thought I could ford
the marsh and still figure no problems, if they take the sucker out, 'I'
can get through.

I made it into the campsite and set up then went and out-thunk myself...
I am figuring Steve and Jo wanted to camp at the noisy beach anyway and
it is 'about' a half hour 'drive' in my CJ7 closer to the bridge, let
alone walk so if anyone couldn't get across and walked the rest of the
way it would be better to be closer so I moved over the next morning and
hung my pie plate on that trail head.

Found Brian who used to have a Jeep, but still came with his Toyota 4x4,
there looking at the view and set up camp.

He informs me the bridge 'is' out on the river, but it is on a different
road downstream, not the one we need to cross anyway, so that's cool.
Turns out Peter came that way later just before the long weekend and was
lucky enough to just have to wait for a couple nails to be put in before
he could be the 'first' across it.

That night we heard a siren go off and I think of Steve, who I though
had one. I get on the CB and nope, no answer so figure a cop or warden
is giving some drunk ATV'er a hard time. (there were 'LOTS' of them,
drunk ATV'ers that is, they were trouble) Billy Ray showed up the next
day and found me at the 'wrong' lake and then some ATV'ers came by
talking about the crazy fools in a red Jeep who got a 'Boler' trailer
into the next lake over! LOL! That can only be Steve and Mad Jo for
sure.

So Brian is having a nap and Billy Ray and I go over to have a look and
sure enough, there they are. They forgot to put the CB on when he hit
the siren, figures, and they came the other way in case the bridge was
out so they missed my plate sign, and I did say I was going to be over
there, soo....

Steve and Billy Ray came along and we knocked my camp down in about 10
minutes with 3 of us and the 3 Jeeps to toss stuff into. Brian was
still napping, I called to him when we got there and by the time he woke
up, the camp was gone. He came out shaking his head, hunh, what???
LOL!

We moved over to where Steve and Jo were and settled in. I had to go
out on Sunday to pick up my wife at the nearest bus station because she
had to work up until Saturday night and got supplies.

Saw a ton of ruffed grouse and a few quail on the trails. Could of had
fresh road kill if I had of punched the go pedal a couple times, but
Billy Ray said that was too much hillbilly and he was only a red neck,
so I said aww ok... ;-)

Steve had a fold up Coleman oven which worked great so our menu
increased in possibilities. He did a roast in it one day and I did a
full sized chicken with homemade stuffing, baked buttercup squash and
mashed potatoes. Mmm, they all turned out perfectly cooked. I did up
some cinnamon rolls one evening, they seemed to be a winner too. I am
going to get myself one of those ovens, the full chicken dinner used way
less than one tank of coleman fuel. We ate pretty good as usual, I spit
roasted a duck one day. Tried to get a couple so everyone could have
some, but the town only had one duck left. We had fresh blueberries and
maple syrup for pancakes, mmmm. Did some pork tenderloin 'cordon blu',
stuffed with ham and swiss and covered in a cream of mushroom sauce one
day, Steve had tons of venison and Billy Ray was the hot dog and sausage
king. You 'mericans have a funny idea of canned chili on them dogs....

So we basically relaxed and visited for the week, Peter and son as well
as Snowboardripper showed up for the long weekend.

The armed drunk ATV'ers going around shooting up the roads at all hours
of the day and night were a bit disconcerting. One was shooting a whole
pile too close to us one day there, so I had Steve give three hit on his
'big' barmp! horn to let the fool know there were others around, another
gun went off single shot close to us in another direction too letting
the fool know there were hunters in the woods besides us campers too.

The boys went on a run there on the weekend to try and finish the one I
snapped my frame on last year and they got almost to the lake they were
aiming for when these same drunk ATV'ers barred the trail and forced
them to turn around. Too bad no one thought to take photos of those
jerks, the RCMP (cops) don't take kindly to that kind of BS happening.
This is all crown or public land and is open to all. Drunks, ATV's and
guns just don't mix....

I wasn't on that run, I have some badly messed up neck vertebra so took
it real easy, so those that were can chime in here with a trip report if
wanted.

The fishing was good, we kept enough for a feed and yes Billy Ray, I do
like sardines, I just prefer canned ones to the 'fresh' one in your
photo. ;-) Although I was contemplating using him for bait for that
monster laker I know is hiding in there somewhere because I got his
photo on another trip....

It wasn't really good swimming weather, sunny mostly with was a cool
wind blowing, and blowing and blowing... My bug/rain tent decided to go
airborne one day. We had everyone trying to hold it down while I tied
and staked some more. That thing really wanted to go!

Got rained on good, but it only lasted a day.

We had a nice sized wolf show up at the camp the day Steve is grilling
some venison chops and I am roasting chicken. He came directly up wind
at us with is nose just twitching. Man what a time not to have a
camera. Steve got a shot of his eyes, but the auto focus bit the big
one and focused on a close tree, not the wolf. Did anyone else get any
photos of him?

I am getting together a photo album so if any of you have interesting
shots, please email them to me or send me a link. I got Billy Ray's and
am wading through Steve's monster photos so I will post a link soon to
them. Sorry for the delay, but physiotherapy introduced me to some
muscles I didn't know I had last week and am now still barely able to
sit...

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Billy Ray's....................

A good time was had by all at the Labor (Labour) Day campout and shindig
with the exception of the rain.

I have lived through hurricanes in Florida Keys where you are literally
12
inches above sea level and slept through mid-western tornados with their
oft
accompanying thunderstorms but I never would have believed that my dome
tent
could hold that much water. It was just like in the movies where you
unzip
the fly and water comes gushing out...... and all this happened at
about 3
AM.

The only things I owned that wasn't soaked was a plastic bag of dirty
clothes. Luckily (?) I was able to spend the rest of the night curled
up in
the back of my WJ.

When Snowboardripper came in with his new ex-Canadian Military ******
trailer he had the right idea, he uses a camp bed and will be warm and
cozy
as long as the water isn't over 8-9 inches deep.

Before and after the rain the weather was beautiful and the lake scenery
was
breathtaking.
http://www.imagestation.com/album/in...?id=2121096722

I'm still not convinced you can call 'Cincinnati Chili' a real chili.
I
grew up eating Grandma Bock's Palo Pinto County Texas Chili recipe where
the
chili is so thick a spoon will stand up on it own and it so hot that you
have to scrape it off quickly before it dissolves the stainless steel.
It
amazes many friends when I tell them I did not have Cincinnati-style
chili
until I was in high-school.

I later built a tolerance to it as my (now ex-) wife had cravings for it
and
we ate it every time we dined out for her nine months of pregnancy and
for
another year following the birth of my first child.
http://www.answers.com/topic/cincinnati-chili

I did appreciate that Mike had the nerve to take a taste of the chili
and
the brown sugar-honey barbecue sauce my daughters prefer even though no
one
at the shindig was brave enough to actually eat any. But I understand
the
reluctance because Mike offered me snails, frog's legs and other forms
of
bait marinated in a Thai cocktail sauce.

Mike and Steve are accomplished camp cooks and presented us with
venison,
chicken and duckling spit-grilled for dinner, fresh blueberry pancakes
in
the morning and delicious fresh baked cinnamon rolls as an evening
treat. I
wasn't able to interest them in popcorn though, I think after seeing
what I
was eating they were afraid to see what Germans did to popcorn. Later
on
the trip Peter and Oliver did get them to try campfire popcorn and
Snowboardripper delighted us all with corn-on-the-cob and peppers
grilled
over glowing coals.

I did offer to make some fish eyeball soup with Mike's catch-of-the day
(http://www.imagestation.com/album/pi...1096722&idx=10)
but
it was declined as Hillbilly Vittles. I had to educate Mike in the
differenced between Hillbillies (the Clampetts, 'Lil Abner, ignorant
hicks)
and Rednecks (patriotic, God-fearing, believing in being
self-sufficient,
educated small town folk) and explained it was a Thai recipe and he
loves
Thai food (just 'cause I'm a redneck doesn't mean I don't get around)

We had an enjoyable but all too brief off-road excursion as Mike
mentioned
that was curtailed by Snowboardripper's cool head when confronted with a
group of drunk yabbos on ATVs. Aggressive drunks with guns were of
great
concern to all involved as we had two small frightened children in our
group. We apparently were getting too close to their
poaching/drug/moonshine making operation for their liking. After a
brief
talk and promise to withdraw from the area the situation was diffused.

Perhaps a call or letter to the authorities with the GPS location of the
assault would be warranted as I imagine a whole host of regulations were
being violated.

Mike held a repair clinic one morning with the diagnosis of a pending
trackbar failure missed by dealership technicians multiple times,
untightened suspension bolts by those same technicians, a rear tire
carrier
about to fail, suspension wear to be watched but not a problem at this
time,
and ways to make a travel-trailer more off-roadable. Only Peter's TJ
came
through the clinic unscathed.

Overall it was a great vacation and fun was had by all.

--
..
Billy_Ray@SPAM.fuse.net (remove SPAM)
2002 Jeep WJ 4 Liter Automatic
Brilliant Black Crystal Pearl Coat
Sharing is why we are all here....... or should be.

And Steve's.....................

Well, for my 2 cents

Day one was a bit confusing. Dragging a small Boler behind me, I had
reservations about dragging this stock fiberglas bubble over the
potentially
missing dam, so Jo and I skirted around the long way and entered our
favourite trail on the east side - Bon Echo way. After about 8 hours on
the
road, and a 1.5 hour trip in from the main highway, my tranny started to
act
up. Few clicks and some smoke out of the engine area...we finally made
it.

I blew my siren off to let Mike know we were on our way....only to find
he
was not where he was supposed to be...Where could he be. We saw Mike
sightings in the camp and heard his voice in the quite of the night...

Then the next day...he found us. Well, Mike filled you in on the rest of
that.

The Boler was great to stay in the first night and made a great kitchen
area
and anti-coon food storage area.

The Coleman Coffee maker and the Coleman Oven we bought on the way were
a
blessing. Jo has to have her coffee for sure.

As mentioned the weather was mostly fine, bit of wind, few bugs and a
day of
rain...was enjoyable for sure.

I missed out on last years trip, and was great to be back in company
with
Mike and Mel, as well as Nick. Peter, Oliver and Jon made for a great
stay
as well.

Alika our daugher had a wonderful time. Having a 8 year old in for 10
days
sometimes makes for some creative activities, but she did very well.

I wish I had of zoomed the digital camera before I took the pic of the
wolf. The damn flash scared him off before I got another shot off.

Trail damage on this trip was summed up with a passenger side mirror
being
smucked off a tree, and only minor damage to the back end of the
Boler..(Big
Rocks). Other than that, I was quite impressed on how the Boler did. The
Boler has a ground clearance of a Volkswagen and was quite surprised it
got
in okay.

The trip out was fun. Because I heated up the tranny really well, I
tractored the trailer out in 4Lo (2 hours for 17 kms). Trailer and Jeep
were
fine.

Thanks to Mike for again for teaching the fine art og cooking. I learn
something new everytime. He taught me how to do ribs a few months ago
and
went over very well with Jo this trip.

Trip was a great success...

 

I have included three trip reports here Mike's, Billy Ray's and
Steve's.......

The photos are over on alt.binaries.pictures.autos.4x4 as well as posted
at Sony's Imagetation here:

http://www.imagestation.com/album/in...?id=2120343242


Mine (Mike) first...........

Well, my wife and I had a really nice vacation, thanks to all that came
out!

We ended up with 10 people including a couple of 'young Jeepers'.

I went in early to try and get the quietest lake's main campsite and
there was a warning about the creek I had to cross's bridge being under
construction for the whole 2 weeks and the road being 'impassable'.
Ouch I figure, I might have to do a 75 mile detour and stop to let
someone on my email list know to come in the other way....

So I figure no way that marsh is 'impassable' for my CJ7 with my
33x9.5's backed up by my Warn 9000 even if I am running solo so I go for
it. Ok, no construction so I stop and walk where I thought I could ford
the marsh and still figure no problems, if they take the sucker out, 'I'
can get through.

I made it into the campsite and set up then went and out-thunk myself...
I am figuring Steve and Jo wanted to camp at the noisy beach anyway and
it is 'about' a half hour 'drive' in my CJ7 closer to the bridge, let
alone walk so if anyone couldn't get across and walked the rest of the
way it would be better to be closer so I moved over the next morning and
hung my pie plate on that trail head.

Found Brian who used to have a Jeep, but still came with his Toyota 4x4,
there looking at the view and set up camp.

He informs me the bridge 'is' out on the river, but it is on a different
road downstream, not the one we need to cross anyway, so that's cool.
Turns out Peter came that way later just before the long weekend and was
lucky enough to just have to wait for a couple nails to be put in before
he could be the 'first' across it.

That night we heard a siren go off and I think of Steve, who I though
had one. I get on the CB and nope, no answer so figure a cop or warden
is giving some drunk ATV'er a hard time. (there were 'LOTS' of them,
drunk ATV'ers that is, they were trouble) Billy Ray showed up the next
day and found me at the 'wrong' lake and then some ATV'ers came by
talking about the crazy fools in a red Jeep who got a 'Boler' trailer
into the next lake over! LOL! That can only be Steve and Mad Jo for
sure.

So Brian is having a nap and Billy Ray and I go over to have a look and
sure enough, there they are. They forgot to put the CB on when he hit
the siren, figures, and they came the other way in case the bridge was
out so they missed my plate sign, and I did say I was going to be over
there, soo....

Steve and Billy Ray came along and we knocked my camp down in about 10
minutes with 3 of us and the 3 Jeeps to toss stuff into. Brian was
still napping, I called to him when we got there and by the time he woke
up, the camp was gone. He came out shaking his head, hunh, what???
LOL!

We moved over to where Steve and Jo were and settled in. I had to go
out on Sunday to pick up my wife at the nearest bus station because she
had to work up until Saturday night and got supplies.

Saw a ton of ruffed grouse and a few quail on the trails. Could of had
fresh road kill if I had of punched the go pedal a couple times, but
Billy Ray said that was too much hillbilly and he was only a red neck,
so I said aww ok... ;-)

Steve had a fold up Coleman oven which worked great so our menu
increased in possibilities. He did a roast in it one day and I did a
full sized chicken with homemade stuffing, baked buttercup squash and
mashed potatoes. Mmm, they all turned out perfectly cooked. I did up
some cinnamon rolls one evening, they seemed to be a winner too. I am
going to get myself one of those ovens, the full chicken dinner used way
less than one tank of coleman fuel. We ate pretty good as usual, I spit
roasted a duck one day. Tried to get a couple so everyone could have
some, but the town only had one duck left. We had fresh blueberries and
maple syrup for pancakes, mmmm. Did some pork tenderloin 'cordon blu',
stuffed with ham and swiss and covered in a cream of mushroom sauce one
day, Steve had tons of venison and Billy Ray was the hot dog and sausage
king. You 'mericans have a funny idea of canned chili on them dogs....

So we basically relaxed and visited for the week, Peter and son as well
as Snowboardripper showed up for the long weekend.

The armed drunk ATV'ers going around shooting up the roads at all hours
of the day and night were a bit disconcerting. One was shooting a whole
pile too close to us one day there, so I had Steve give three hit on his
'big' barmp! horn to let the fool know there were others around, another
gun went off single shot close to us in another direction too letting
the fool know there were hunters in the woods besides us campers too.

The boys went on a run there on the weekend to try and finish the one I
snapped my frame on last year and they got almost to the lake they were
aiming for when these same drunk ATV'ers barred the trail and forced
them to turn around. Too bad no one thought to take photos of those
jerks, the RCMP (cops) don't take kindly to that kind of BS happening.
This is all crown or public land and is open to all. Drunks, ATV's and
guns just don't mix....

I wasn't on that run, I have some badly messed up neck vertebra so took
it real easy, so those that were can chime in here with a trip report if
wanted.

The fishing was good, we kept enough for a feed and yes Billy Ray, I do
like sardines, I just prefer canned ones to the 'fresh' one in your
photo. ;-) Although I was contemplating using him for bait for that
monster laker I know is hiding in there somewhere because I got his
photo on another trip....

It wasn't really good swimming weather, sunny mostly with was a cool
wind blowing, and blowing and blowing... My bug/rain tent decided to go
airborne one day. We had everyone trying to hold it down while I tied
and staked some more. That thing really wanted to go!

Got rained on good, but it only lasted a day.

We had a nice sized wolf show up at the camp the day Steve is grilling
some venison chops and I am roasting chicken. He came directly up wind
at us with is nose just twitching. Man what a time not to have a
camera. Steve got a shot of his eyes, but the auto focus bit the big
one and focused on a close tree, not the wolf. Did anyone else get any
photos of him?

I am getting together a photo album so if any of you have interesting
shots, please email them to me or send me a link. I got Billy Ray's and
am wading through Steve's monster photos so I will post a link soon to
them. Sorry for the delay, but physiotherapy introduced me to some
muscles I didn't know I had last week and am now still barely able to
sit...

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Billy Ray's....................

A good time was had by all at the Labor (Labour) Day campout and shindig
with the exception of the rain.

I have lived through hurricanes in Florida Keys where you are literally
12
inches above sea level and slept through mid-western tornados with their
oft
accompanying thunderstorms but I never would have believed that my dome
tent
could hold that much water. It was just like in the movies where you
unzip
the fly and water comes gushing out...... and all this happened at
about 3
AM.

The only things I owned that wasn't soaked was a plastic bag of dirty
clothes. Luckily (?) I was able to spend the rest of the night curled
up in
the back of my WJ.

When Snowboardripper came in with his new ex-Canadian Military ******
trailer he had the right idea, he uses a camp bed and will be warm and
cozy
as long as the water isn't over 8-9 inches deep.

Before and after the rain the weather was beautiful and the lake scenery
was
breathtaking.
http://www.imagestation.com/album/in...?id=2121096722

I'm still not convinced you can call 'Cincinnati Chili' a real chili.
I
grew up eating Grandma Bock's Palo Pinto County Texas Chili recipe where
the
chili is so thick a spoon will stand up on it own and it so hot that you
have to scrape it off quickly before it dissolves the stainless steel.
It
amazes many friends when I tell them I did not have Cincinnati-style
chili
until I was in high-school.

I later built a tolerance to it as my (now ex-) wife had cravings for it
and
we ate it every time we dined out for her nine months of pregnancy and
for
another year following the birth of my first child.
http://www.answers.com/topic/cincinnati-chili

I did appreciate that Mike had the nerve to take a taste of the chili
and
the brown sugar-honey barbecue sauce my daughters prefer even though no
one
at the shindig was brave enough to actually eat any. But I understand
the
reluctance because Mike offered me snails, frog's legs and other forms
of
bait marinated in a Thai cocktail sauce.

Mike and Steve are accomplished camp cooks and presented us with
venison,
chicken and duckling spit-grilled for dinner, fresh blueberry pancakes
in
the morning and delicious fresh baked cinnamon rolls as an evening
treat. I
wasn't able to interest them in popcorn though, I think after seeing
what I
was eating they were afraid to see what Germans did to popcorn. Later
on
the trip Peter and Oliver did get them to try campfire popcorn and
Snowboardripper delighted us all with corn-on-the-cob and peppers
grilled
over glowing coals.

I did offer to make some fish eyeball soup with Mike's catch-of-the day
(http://www.imagestation.com/album/pi...1096722&idx=10)
but
it was declined as Hillbilly Vittles. I had to educate Mike in the
differenced between Hillbillies (the Clampetts, 'Lil Abner, ignorant
hicks)
and Rednecks (patriotic, God-fearing, believing in being
self-sufficient,
educated small town folk) and explained it was a Thai recipe and he
loves
Thai food (just 'cause I'm a redneck doesn't mean I don't get around)

We had an enjoyable but all too brief off-road excursion as Mike
mentioned
that was curtailed by Snowboardripper's cool head when confronted with a
group of drunk yabbos on ATVs. Aggressive drunks with guns were of
great
concern to all involved as we had two small frightened children in our
group. We apparently were getting too close to their
poaching/drug/moonshine making operation for their liking. After a
brief
talk and promise to withdraw from the area the situation was diffused.

Perhaps a call or letter to the authorities with the GPS location of the
assault would be warranted as I imagine a whole host of regulations were
being violated.

Mike held a repair clinic one morning with the diagnosis of a pending
trackbar failure missed by dealership technicians multiple times,
untightened suspension bolts by those same technicians, a rear tire
carrier
about to fail, suspension wear to be watched but not a problem at this
time,
and ways to make a travel-trailer more off-roadable. Only Peter's TJ
came
through the clinic unscathed.

Overall it was a great vacation and fun was had by all.

--
..
Billy_Ray@SPAM.fuse.net (remove SPAM)
2002 Jeep WJ 4 Liter Automatic
Brilliant Black Crystal Pearl Coat
Sharing is why we are all here....... or should be.

And Steve's.....................

Well, for my 2 cents

Day one was a bit confusing. Dragging a small Boler behind me, I had
reservations about dragging this stock fiberglas bubble over the
potentially
missing dam, so Jo and I skirted around the long way and entered our
favourite trail on the east side - Bon Echo way. After about 8 hours on
the
road, and a 1.5 hour trip in from the main highway, my tranny started to
act
up. Few clicks and some smoke out of the engine area...we finally made
it.

I blew my siren off to let Mike know we were on our way....only to find
he
was not where he was supposed to be...Where could he be. We saw Mike
sightings in the camp and heard his voice in the quite of the night...

Then the next day...he found us. Well, Mike filled you in on the rest of
that.

The Boler was great to stay in the first night and made a great kitchen
area
and anti-coon food storage area.

The Coleman Coffee maker and the Coleman Oven we bought on the way were
a
blessing. Jo has to have her coffee for sure.

As mentioned the weather was mostly fine, bit of wind, few bugs and a
day of
rain...was enjoyable for sure.

I missed out on last years trip, and was great to be back in company
with
Mike and Mel, as well as Nick. Peter, Oliver and Jon made for a great
stay
as well.

Alika our daugher had a wonderful time. Having a 8 year old in for 10
days
sometimes makes for some creative activities, but she did very well.

I wish I had of zoomed the digital camera before I took the pic of the
wolf. The damn flash scared him off before I got another shot off.

Trail damage on this trip was summed up with a passenger side mirror
being
smucked off a tree, and only minor damage to the back end of the
Boler..(Big
Rocks). Other than that, I was quite impressed on how the Boler did. The
Boler has a ground clearance of a Volkswagen and was quite surprised it
got
in okay.

The trip out was fun. Because I heated up the tranny really well, I
tractored the trailer out in 4Lo (2 hours for 17 kms). Trailer and Jeep
were
fine.

Thanks to Mike for again for teaching the fine art og cooking. I learn
something new everytime. He taught me how to do ribs a few months ago
and
went over very well with Jo this trip.

Trip was a great success...

 

I have included three trip reports here Mike's, Billy Ray's and
Steve's.......

The photos are over on alt.binaries.pictures.autos.4x4 as well as posted
at Sony's Imagetation here:

http://www.imagestation.com/album/in...?id=2120343242


Mine (Mike) first...........

Well, my wife and I had a really nice vacation, thanks to all that came
out!

We ended up with 10 people including a couple of 'young Jeepers'.

I went in early to try and get the quietest lake's main campsite and
there was a warning about the creek I had to cross's bridge being under
construction for the whole 2 weeks and the road being 'impassable'.
Ouch I figure, I might have to do a 75 mile detour and stop to let
someone on my email list know to come in the other way....

So I figure no way that marsh is 'impassable' for my CJ7 with my
33x9.5's backed up by my Warn 9000 even if I am running solo so I go for
it. Ok, no construction so I stop and walk where I thought I could ford
the marsh and still figure no problems, if they take the sucker out, 'I'
can get through.

I made it into the campsite and set up then went and out-thunk myself...
I am figuring Steve and Jo wanted to camp at the noisy beach anyway and
it is 'about' a half hour 'drive' in my CJ7 closer to the bridge, let
alone walk so if anyone couldn't get across and walked the rest of the
way it would be better to be closer so I moved over the next morning and
hung my pie plate on that trail head.

Found Brian who used to have a Jeep, but still came with his Toyota 4x4,
there looking at the view and set up camp.

He informs me the bridge 'is' out on the river, but it is on a different
road downstream, not the one we need to cross anyway, so that's cool.
Turns out Peter came that way later just before the long weekend and was
lucky enough to just have to wait for a couple nails to be put in before
he could be the 'first' across it.

That night we heard a siren go off and I think of Steve, who I though
had one. I get on the CB and nope, no answer so figure a cop or warden
is giving some drunk ATV'er a hard time. (there were 'LOTS' of them,
drunk ATV'ers that is, they were trouble) Billy Ray showed up the next
day and found me at the 'wrong' lake and then some ATV'ers came by
talking about the crazy fools in a red Jeep who got a 'Boler' trailer
into the next lake over! LOL! That can only be Steve and Mad Jo for
sure.

So Brian is having a nap and Billy Ray and I go over to have a look and
sure enough, there they are. They forgot to put the CB on when he hit
the siren, figures, and they came the other way in case the bridge was
out so they missed my plate sign, and I did say I was going to be over
there, soo....

Steve and Billy Ray came along and we knocked my camp down in about 10
minutes with 3 of us and the 3 Jeeps to toss stuff into. Brian was
still napping, I called to him when we got there and by the time he woke
up, the camp was gone. He came out shaking his head, hunh, what???
LOL!

We moved over to where Steve and Jo were and settled in. I had to go
out on Sunday to pick up my wife at the nearest bus station because she
had to work up until Saturday night and got supplies.

Saw a ton of ruffed grouse and a few quail on the trails. Could of had
fresh road kill if I had of punched the go pedal a couple times, but
Billy Ray said that was too much hillbilly and he was only a red neck,
so I said aww ok... ;-)

Steve had a fold up Coleman oven which worked great so our menu
increased in possibilities. He did a roast in it one day and I did a
full sized chicken with homemade stuffing, baked buttercup squash and
mashed potatoes. Mmm, they all turned out perfectly cooked. I did up
some cinnamon rolls one evening, they seemed to be a winner too. I am
going to get myself one of those ovens, the full chicken dinner used way
less than one tank of coleman fuel. We ate pretty good as usual, I spit
roasted a duck one day. Tried to get a couple so everyone could have
some, but the town only had one duck left. We had fresh blueberries and
maple syrup for pancakes, mmmm. Did some pork tenderloin 'cordon blu',
stuffed with ham and swiss and covered in a cream of mushroom sauce one
day, Steve had tons of venison and Billy Ray was the hot dog and sausage
king. You 'mericans have a funny idea of canned chili on them dogs....

So we basically relaxed and visited for the week, Peter and son as well
as Snowboardripper showed up for the long weekend.

The armed drunk ATV'ers going around shooting up the roads at all hours
of the day and night were a bit disconcerting. One was shooting a whole
pile too close to us one day there, so I had Steve give three hit on his
'big' barmp! horn to let the fool know there were others around, another
gun went off single shot close to us in another direction too letting
the fool know there were hunters in the woods besides us campers too.

The boys went on a run there on the weekend to try and finish the one I
snapped my frame on last year and they got almost to the lake they were
aiming for when these same drunk ATV'ers barred the trail and forced
them to turn around. Too bad no one thought to take photos of those
jerks, the RCMP (cops) don't take kindly to that kind of BS happening.
This is all crown or public land and is open to all. Drunks, ATV's and
guns just don't mix....

I wasn't on that run, I have some badly messed up neck vertebra so took
it real easy, so those that were can chime in here with a trip report if
wanted.

The fishing was good, we kept enough for a feed and yes Billy Ray, I do
like sardines, I just prefer canned ones to the 'fresh' one in your
photo. ;-) Although I was contemplating using him for bait for that
monster laker I know is hiding in there somewhere because I got his
photo on another trip....

It wasn't really good swimming weather, sunny mostly with was a cool
wind blowing, and blowing and blowing... My bug/rain tent decided to go
airborne one day. We had everyone trying to hold it down while I tied
and staked some more. That thing really wanted to go!

Got rained on good, but it only lasted a day.

We had a nice sized wolf show up at the camp the day Steve is grilling
some venison chops and I am roasting chicken. He came directly up wind
at us with is nose just twitching. Man what a time not to have a
camera. Steve got a shot of his eyes, but the auto focus bit the big
one and focused on a close tree, not the wolf. Did anyone else get any
photos of him?

I am getting together a photo album so if any of you have interesting
shots, please email them to me or send me a link. I got Billy Ray's and
am wading through Steve's monster photos so I will post a link soon to
them. Sorry for the delay, but physiotherapy introduced me to some
muscles I didn't know I had last week and am now still barely able to
sit...

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Billy Ray's....................

A good time was had by all at the Labor (Labour) Day campout and shindig
with the exception of the rain.

I have lived through hurricanes in Florida Keys where you are literally
12
inches above sea level and slept through mid-western tornados with their
oft
accompanying thunderstorms but I never would have believed that my dome
tent
could hold that much water. It was just like in the movies where you
unzip
the fly and water comes gushing out...... and all this happened at
about 3
AM.

The only things I owned that wasn't soaked was a plastic bag of dirty
clothes. Luckily (?) I was able to spend the rest of the night curled
up in
the back of my WJ.

When Snowboardripper came in with his new ex-Canadian Military ******
trailer he had the right idea, he uses a camp bed and will be warm and
cozy
as long as the water isn't over 8-9 inches deep.

Before and after the rain the weather was beautiful and the lake scenery
was
breathtaking.
http://www.imagestation.com/album/in...?id=2121096722

I'm still not convinced you can call 'Cincinnati Chili' a real chili.
I
grew up eating Grandma Bock's Palo Pinto County Texas Chili recipe where
the
chili is so thick a spoon will stand up on it own and it so hot that you
have to scrape it off quickly before it dissolves the stainless steel.
It
amazes many friends when I tell them I did not have Cincinnati-style
chili
until I was in high-school.

I later built a tolerance to it as my (now ex-) wife had cravings for it
and
we ate it every time we dined out for her nine months of pregnancy and
for
another year following the birth of my first child.
http://www.answers.com/topic/cincinnati-chili

I did appreciate that Mike had the nerve to take a taste of the chili
and
the brown sugar-honey barbecue sauce my daughters prefer even though no
one
at the shindig was brave enough to actually eat any. But I understand
the
reluctance because Mike offered me snails, frog's legs and other forms
of
bait marinated in a Thai cocktail sauce.

Mike and Steve are accomplished camp cooks and presented us with
venison,
chicken and duckling spit-grilled for dinner, fresh blueberry pancakes
in
the morning and delicious fresh baked cinnamon rolls as an evening
treat. I
wasn't able to interest them in popcorn though, I think after seeing
what I
was eating they were afraid to see what Germans did to popcorn. Later
on
the trip Peter and Oliver did get them to try campfire popcorn and
Snowboardripper delighted us all with corn-on-the-cob and peppers
grilled
over glowing coals.

I did offer to make some fish eyeball soup with Mike's catch-of-the day
(http://www.imagestation.com/album/pi...1096722&idx=10)
but
it was declined as Hillbilly Vittles. I had to educate Mike in the
differenced between Hillbillies (the Clampetts, 'Lil Abner, ignorant
hicks)
and Rednecks (patriotic, God-fearing, believing in being
self-sufficient,
educated small town folk) and explained it was a Thai recipe and he
loves
Thai food (just 'cause I'm a redneck doesn't mean I don't get around)

We had an enjoyable but all too brief off-road excursion as Mike
mentioned
that was curtailed by Snowboardripper's cool head when confronted with a
group of drunk yabbos on ATVs. Aggressive drunks with guns were of
great
concern to all involved as we had two small frightened children in our
group. We apparently were getting too close to their
poaching/drug/moonshine making operation for their liking. After a
brief
talk and promise to withdraw from the area the situation was diffused.

Perhaps a call or letter to the authorities with the GPS location of the
assault would be warranted as I imagine a whole host of regulations were
being violated.

Mike held a repair clinic one morning with the diagnosis of a pending
trackbar failure missed by dealership technicians multiple times,
untightened suspension bolts by those same technicians, a rear tire
carrier
about to fail, suspension wear to be watched but not a problem at this
time,
and ways to make a travel-trailer more off-roadable. Only Peter's TJ
came
through the clinic unscathed.

Overall it was a great vacation and fun was had by all.

--
..
Billy_Ray@SPAM.fuse.net (remove SPAM)
2002 Jeep WJ 4 Liter Automatic
Brilliant Black Crystal Pearl Coat
Sharing is why we are all here....... or should be.

And Steve's.....................

Well, for my 2 cents

Day one was a bit confusing. Dragging a small Boler behind me, I had
reservations about dragging this stock fiberglas bubble over the
potentially
missing dam, so Jo and I skirted around the long way and entered our
favourite trail on the east side - Bon Echo way. After about 8 hours on
the
road, and a 1.5 hour trip in from the main highway, my tranny started to
act
up. Few clicks and some smoke out of the engine area...we finally made
it.

I blew my siren off to let Mike know we were on our way....only to find
he
was not where he was supposed to be...Where could he be. We saw Mike
sightings in the camp and heard his voice in the quite of the night...

Then the next day...he found us. Well, Mike filled you in on the rest of
that.

The Boler was great to stay in the first night and made a great kitchen
area
and anti-coon food storage area.

The Coleman Coffee maker and the Coleman Oven we bought on the way were
a
blessing. Jo has to have her coffee for sure.

As mentioned the weather was mostly fine, bit of wind, few bugs and a
day of
rain...was enjoyable for sure.

I missed out on last years trip, and was great to be back in company
with
Mike and Mel, as well as Nick. Peter, Oliver and Jon made for a great
stay
as well.

Alika our daugher had a wonderful time. Having a 8 year old in for 10
days
sometimes makes for some creative activities, but she did very well.

I wish I had of zoomed the digital camera before I took the pic of the
wolf. The damn flash scared him off before I got another shot off.

Trail damage on this trip was summed up with a passenger side mirror
being
smucked off a tree, and only minor damage to the back end of the
Boler..(Big
Rocks). Other than that, I was quite impressed on how the Boler did. The
Boler has a ground clearance of a Volkswagen and was quite surprised it
got
in okay.

The trip out was fun. Because I heated up the tranny really well, I
tractored the trailer out in 4Lo (2 hours for 17 kms). Trailer and Jeep
were
fine.

Thanks to Mike for again for teaching the fine art og cooking. I learn
something new everytime. He taught me how to do ribs a few months ago
and
went over very well with Jo this trip.

Trip was a great success...

 

Hi Mike,
Thanks muches. I really appreciate you sharing your trips.
I took the liberty of adding a link to your albums at:
http://----------.com/mikeRomain/
God Bless America, Bill O|||||||O
mailto:-------------------- http://www.----------.com/

Mike Romain wrote:
>
> I have included three trip reports here Mike's, Billy Ray's and
> Steve's.......
>
> The photos are over on alt.binaries.pictures.autos.4x4 as well as posted
> at Sony's Imagetation here:
>
> http://www.imagestation.com/album/in...?id=2120343242
>
> Mine (Mike) first...........
>
> Well, my wife and I had a really nice vacation, thanks to all that came
> out!
>
> We ended up with 10 people including a couple of 'young Jeepers'.
>
> I went in early to try and get the quietest lake's main campsite and
> there was a warning about the creek I had to cross's bridge being under
> construction for the whole 2 weeks and the road being 'impassable'.
> Ouch I figure, I might have to do a 75 mile detour and stop to let
> someone on my email list know to come in the other way....
>
> So I figure no way that marsh is 'impassable' for my CJ7 with my
> 33x9.5's backed up by my Warn 9000 even if I am running solo so I go for
> it. Ok, no construction so I stop and walk where I thought I could ford
> the marsh and still figure no problems, if they take the sucker out, 'I'
> can get through.
>
> I made it into the campsite and set up then went and out-thunk myself...
> I am figuring Steve and Jo wanted to camp at the noisy beach anyway and
> it is 'about' a half hour 'drive' in my CJ7 closer to the bridge, let
> alone walk so if anyone couldn't get across and walked the rest of the
> way it would be better to be closer so I moved over the next morning and
> hung my pie plate on that trail head.
>
> Found Brian who used to have a Jeep, but still came with his Toyota 4x4,
> there looking at the view and set up camp.
>
> He informs me the bridge 'is' out on the river, but it is on a different
> road downstream, not the one we need to cross anyway, so that's cool.
> Turns out Peter came that way later just before the long weekend and was
> lucky enough to just have to wait for a couple nails to be put in before
> he could be the 'first' across it.
>
> That night we heard a siren go off and I think of Steve, who I though
> had one. I get on the CB and nope, no answer so figure a cop or warden
> is giving some drunk ATV'er a hard time. (there were 'LOTS' of them,
> drunk ATV'ers that is, they were trouble) Billy Ray showed up the next
> day and found me at the 'wrong' lake and then some ATV'ers came by
> talking about the crazy fools in a red Jeep who got a 'Boler' trailer
> into the next lake over! LOL! That can only be Steve and Mad Jo for
> sure.
>
> So Brian is having a nap and Billy Ray and I go over to have a look and
> sure enough, there they are. They forgot to put the CB on when he hit
> the siren, figures, and they came the other way in case the bridge was
> out so they missed my plate sign, and I did say I was going to be over
> there, soo....
>
> Steve and Billy Ray came along and we knocked my camp down in about 10
> minutes with 3 of us and the 3 Jeeps to toss stuff into. Brian was
> still napping, I called to him when we got there and by the time he woke
> up, the camp was gone. He came out shaking his head, hunh, what???
> LOL!
>
> We moved over to where Steve and Jo were and settled in. I had to go
> out on Sunday to pick up my wife at the nearest bus station because she
> had to work up until Saturday night and got supplies.
>
> Saw a ton of ruffed grouse and a few quail on the trails. Could of had
> fresh road kill if I had of punched the go pedal a couple times, but
> Billy Ray said that was too much hillbilly and he was only a red neck,
> so I said aww ok... ;-)
>
> Steve had a fold up Coleman oven which worked great so our menu
> increased in possibilities. He did a roast in it one day and I did a
> full sized chicken with homemade stuffing, baked buttercup squash and
> mashed potatoes. Mmm, they all turned out perfectly cooked. I did up
> some cinnamon rolls one evening, they seemed to be a winner too. I am
> going to get myself one of those ovens, the full chicken dinner used way
> less than one tank of coleman fuel. We ate pretty good as usual, I spit
> roasted a duck one day. Tried to get a couple so everyone could have
> some, but the town only had one duck left. We had fresh blueberries and
> maple syrup for pancakes, mmmm. Did some pork tenderloin 'cordon blu',
> stuffed with ham and swiss and covered in a cream of mushroom sauce one
> day, Steve had tons of venison and Billy Ray was the hot dog and sausage
> king. You 'mericans have a funny idea of canned chili on them dogs....
>
> So we basically relaxed and visited for the week, Peter and son as well
> as Snowboardripper showed up for the long weekend.
>
> The armed drunk ATV'ers going around shooting up the roads at all hours
> of the day and night were a bit disconcerting. One was shooting a whole
> pile too close to us one day there, so I had Steve give three hit on his
> 'big' barmp! horn to let the fool know there were others around, another
> gun went off single shot close to us in another direction too letting
> the fool know there were hunters in the woods besides us campers too.
>
> The boys went on a run there on the weekend to try and finish the one I
> snapped my frame on last year and they got almost to the lake they were
> aiming for when these same drunk ATV'ers barred the trail and forced
> them to turn around. Too bad no one thought to take photos of those
> jerks, the RCMP (cops) don't take kindly to that kind of BS happening.
> This is all crown or public land and is open to all. Drunks, ATV's and
> guns just don't mix....
>
> I wasn't on that run, I have some badly messed up neck vertebra so took
> it real easy, so those that were can chime in here with a trip report if
> wanted.
>
> The fishing was good, we kept enough for a feed and yes Billy Ray, I do
> like sardines, I just prefer canned ones to the 'fresh' one in your
> photo. ;-) Although I was contemplating using him for bait for that
> monster laker I know is hiding in there somewhere because I got his
> photo on another trip....
>
> It wasn't really good swimming weather, sunny mostly with was a cool
> wind blowing, and blowing and blowing... My bug/rain tent decided to go
> airborne one day. We had everyone trying to hold it down while I tied
> and staked some more. That thing really wanted to go!
>
> Got rained on good, but it only lasted a day.
>
> We had a nice sized wolf show up at the camp the day Steve is grilling
> some venison chops and I am roasting chicken. He came directly up wind
> at us with is nose just twitching. Man what a time not to have a
> camera. Steve got a shot of his eyes, but the auto focus bit the big
> one and focused on a close tree, not the wolf. Did anyone else get any
> photos of him?
>
> I am getting together a photo album so if any of you have interesting
> shots, please email them to me or send me a link. I got Billy Ray's and
> am wading through Steve's monster photos so I will post a link soon to
> them. Sorry for the delay, but physiotherapy introduced me to some
> muscles I didn't know I had last week and am now still barely able to
> sit...
>
> Mike
> 86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
> 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's
>
> Billy Ray's....................
>
> A good time was had by all at the Labor (Labour) Day campout and shindig
> with the exception of the rain.
>
> I have lived through hurricanes in Florida Keys where you are literally
> 12
> inches above sea level and slept through mid-western tornados with their
> oft
> accompanying thunderstorms but I never would have believed that my dome
> tent
> could hold that much water. It was just like in the movies where you
> unzip
> the fly and water comes gushing out...... and all this happened at
> about 3
> AM.
>
> The only things I owned that wasn't soaked was a plastic bag of dirty
> clothes. Luckily (?) I was able to spend the rest of the night curled
> up in
> the back of my WJ.
>
> When Snowboardripper came in with his new ex-Canadian Military ******
> trailer he had the right idea, he uses a camp bed and will be warm and
> cozy
> as long as the water isn't over 8-9 inches deep.
>
> Before and after the rain the weather was beautiful and the lake scenery
> was
> breathtaking.
> http://www.imagestation.com/album/in...?id=2121096722
>
> I'm still not convinced you can call 'Cincinnati Chili' a real chili.
> I
> grew up eating Grandma Bock's Palo Pinto County Texas Chili recipe where
> the
> chili is so thick a spoon will stand up on it own and it so hot that you
> have to scrape it off quickly before it dissolves the stainless steel.
> It
> amazes many friends when I tell them I did not have Cincinnati-style
> chili
> until I was in high-school.
>
> I later built a tolerance to it as my (now ex-) wife had cravings for it
> and
> we ate it every time we dined out for her nine months of pregnancy and
> for
> another year following the birth of my first child.
> http://www.answers.com/topic/cincinnati-chili
>
> I did appreciate that Mike had the nerve to take a taste of the chili
> and
> the brown sugar-honey barbecue sauce my daughters prefer even though no
> one
> at the shindig was brave enough to actually eat any. But I understand
> the
> reluctance because Mike offered me snails, frog's legs and other forms
> of
> bait marinated in a Thai cocktail sauce.
>
> Mike and Steve are accomplished camp cooks and presented us with
> venison,
> chicken and duckling spit-grilled for dinner, fresh blueberry pancakes
> in
> the morning and delicious fresh baked cinnamon rolls as an evening
> treat. I
> wasn't able to interest them in popcorn though, I think after seeing
> what I
> was eating they were afraid to see what Germans did to popcorn. Later
> on
> the trip Peter and Oliver did get them to try campfire popcorn and
> Snowboardripper delighted us all with corn-on-the-cob and peppers
> grilled
> over glowing coals.
>
> I did offer to make some fish eyeball soup with Mike's catch-of-the day
> (http://www.imagestation.com/album/pi...1096722&idx=10)
> but
> it was declined as Hillbilly Vittles. I had to educate Mike in the
> differenced between Hillbillies (the Clampetts, 'Lil Abner, ignorant
> hicks)
> and Rednecks (patriotic, God-fearing, believing in being
> self-sufficient,
> educated small town folk) and explained it was a Thai recipe and he
> loves
> Thai food (just 'cause I'm a redneck doesn't mean I don't get around)
>
> We had an enjoyable but all too brief off-road excursion as Mike
> mentioned
> that was curtailed by Snowboardripper's cool head when confronted with a
> group of drunk yabbos on ATVs. Aggressive drunks with guns were of
> great
> concern to all involved as we had two small frightened children in our
> group. We apparently were getting too close to their
> poaching/drug/moonshine making operation for their liking. After a
> brief
> talk and promise to withdraw from the area the situation was diffused.
>
> Perhaps a call or letter to the authorities with the GPS location of the
> assault would be warranted as I imagine a whole host of regulations were
> being violated.
>
> Mike held a repair clinic one morning with the diagnosis of a pending
> trackbar failure missed by dealership technicians multiple times,
> untightened suspension bolts by those same technicians, a rear tire
> carrier
> about to fail, suspension wear to be watched but not a problem at this
> time,
> and ways to make a travel-trailer more off-roadable. Only Peter's TJ
> came
> through the clinic unscathed.
>
> Overall it was a great vacation and fun was had by all.
>
> --
> .
> Billy_Ray@SPAM.fuse.net (remove SPAM)
> 2002 Jeep WJ 4 Liter Automatic
> Brilliant Black Crystal Pearl Coat
> Sharing is why we are all here....... or should be.
>
> And Steve's.....................
>
> Well, for my 2 cents
>
> Day one was a bit confusing. Dragging a small Boler behind me, I had
> reservations about dragging this stock fiberglas bubble over the
> potentially
> missing dam, so Jo and I skirted around the long way and entered our
> favourite trail on the east side - Bon Echo way. After about 8 hours on
> the
> road, and a 1.5 hour trip in from the main highway, my tranny started to
> act
> up. Few clicks and some smoke out of the engine area...we finally made
> it.
>
> I blew my siren off to let Mike know we were on our way....only to find
> he
> was not where he was supposed to be...Where could he be. We saw Mike
> sightings in the camp and heard his voice in the quite of the night...
>
> Then the next day...he found us. Well, Mike filled you in on the rest of
> that.
>
> The Boler was great to stay in the first night and made a great kitchen
> area
> and anti-coon food storage area.
>
> The Coleman Coffee maker and the Coleman Oven we bought on the way were
> a
> blessing. Jo has to have her coffee for sure.
>
> As mentioned the weather was mostly fine, bit of wind, few bugs and a
> day of
> rain...was enjoyable for sure.
>
> I missed out on last years trip, and was great to be back in company
> with
> Mike and Mel, as well as Nick. Peter, Oliver and Jon made for a great
> stay
> as well.
>
> Alika our daugher had a wonderful time. Having a 8 year old in for 10
> days
> sometimes makes for some creative activities, but she did very well.
>
> I wish I had of zoomed the digital camera before I took the pic of the
> wolf. The damn flash scared him off before I got another shot off.
>
> Trail damage on this trip was summed up with a passenger side mirror
> being
> smucked off a tree, and only minor damage to the back end of the
> Boler..(Big
> Rocks). Other than that, I was quite impressed on how the Boler did. The
> Boler has a ground clearance of a Volkswagen and was quite surprised it
> got
> in okay.
>
> The trip out was fun. Because I heated up the tranny really well, I
> tractored the trailer out in 4Lo (2 hours for 17 kms). Trailer and Jeep
> were
> fine.
>
> Thanks to Mike for again for teaching the fine art og cooking. I learn
> something new everytime. He taught me how to do ribs a few months ago
> and
> went over very well with Jo this trip.
>
> Trip was a great success...

 

Hi Mike,
Thanks muches. I really appreciate you sharing your trips.
I took the liberty of adding a link to your albums at:
http://----------.com/mikeRomain/
God Bless America, Bill O|||||||O
mailto:-------------------- http://www.----------.com/

Mike Romain wrote:
>
> I have included three trip reports here Mike's, Billy Ray's and
> Steve's.......
>
> The photos are over on alt.binaries.pictures.autos.4x4 as well as posted
> at Sony's Imagetation here:
>
> http://www.imagestation.com/album/in...?id=2120343242
>
> Mine (Mike) first...........
>
> Well, my wife and I had a really nice vacation, thanks to all that came
> out!
>
> We ended up with 10 people including a couple of 'young Jeepers'.
>
> I went in early to try and get the quietest lake's main campsite and
> there was a warning about the creek I had to cross's bridge being under
> construction for the whole 2 weeks and the road being 'impassable'.
> Ouch I figure, I might have to do a 75 mile detour and stop to let
> someone on my email list know to come in the other way....
>
> So I figure no way that marsh is 'impassable' for my CJ7 with my
> 33x9.5's backed up by my Warn 9000 even if I am running solo so I go for
> it. Ok, no construction so I stop and walk where I thought I could ford
> the marsh and still figure no problems, if they take the sucker out, 'I'
> can get through.
>
> I made it into the campsite and set up then went and out-thunk myself...
> I am figuring Steve and Jo wanted to camp at the noisy beach anyway and
> it is 'about' a half hour 'drive' in my CJ7 closer to the bridge, let
> alone walk so if anyone couldn't get across and walked the rest of the
> way it would be better to be closer so I moved over the next morning and
> hung my pie plate on that trail head.
>
> Found Brian who used to have a Jeep, but still came with his Toyota 4x4,
> there looking at the view and set up camp.
>
> He informs me the bridge 'is' out on the river, but it is on a different
> road downstream, not the one we need to cross anyway, so that's cool.
> Turns out Peter came that way later just before the long weekend and was
> lucky enough to just have to wait for a couple nails to be put in before
> he could be the 'first' across it.
>
> That night we heard a siren go off and I think of Steve, who I though
> had one. I get on the CB and nope, no answer so figure a cop or warden
> is giving some drunk ATV'er a hard time. (there were 'LOTS' of them,
> drunk ATV'ers that is, they were trouble) Billy Ray showed up the next
> day and found me at the 'wrong' lake and then some ATV'ers came by
> talking about the crazy fools in a red Jeep who got a 'Boler' trailer
> into the next lake over! LOL! That can only be Steve and Mad Jo for
> sure.
>
> So Brian is having a nap and Billy Ray and I go over to have a look and
> sure enough, there they are. They forgot to put the CB on when he hit
> the siren, figures, and they came the other way in case the bridge was
> out so they missed my plate sign, and I did say I was going to be over
> there, soo....
>
> Steve and Billy Ray came along and we knocked my camp down in about 10
> minutes with 3 of us and the 3 Jeeps to toss stuff into. Brian was
> still napping, I called to him when we got there and by the time he woke
> up, the camp was gone. He came out shaking his head, hunh, what???
> LOL!
>
> We moved over to where Steve and Jo were and settled in. I had to go
> out on Sunday to pick up my wife at the nearest bus station because she
> had to work up until Saturday night and got supplies.
>
> Saw a ton of ruffed grouse and a few quail on the trails. Could of had
> fresh road kill if I had of punched the go pedal a couple times, but
> Billy Ray said that was too much hillbilly and he was only a red neck,
> so I said aww ok... ;-)
>
> Steve had a fold up Coleman oven which worked great so our menu
> increased in possibilities. He did a roast in it one day and I did a
> full sized chicken with homemade stuffing, baked buttercup squash and
> mashed potatoes. Mmm, they all turned out perfectly cooked. I did up
> some cinnamon rolls one evening, they seemed to be a winner too. I am
> going to get myself one of those ovens, the full chicken dinner used way
> less than one tank of coleman fuel. We ate pretty good as usual, I spit
> roasted a duck one day. Tried to get a couple so everyone could have
> some, but the town only had one duck left. We had fresh blueberries and
> maple syrup for pancakes, mmmm. Did some pork tenderloin 'cordon blu',
> stuffed with ham and swiss and covered in a cream of mushroom sauce one
> day, Steve had tons of venison and Billy Ray was the hot dog and sausage
> king. You 'mericans have a funny idea of canned chili on them dogs....
>
> So we basically relaxed and visited for the week, Peter and son as well
> as Snowboardripper showed up for the long weekend.
>
> The armed drunk ATV'ers going around shooting up the roads at all hours
> of the day and night were a bit disconcerting. One was shooting a whole
> pile too close to us one day there, so I had Steve give three hit on his
> 'big' barmp! horn to let the fool know there were others around, another
> gun went off single shot close to us in another direction too letting
> the fool know there were hunters in the woods besides us campers too.
>
> The boys went on a run there on the weekend to try and finish the one I
> snapped my frame on last year and they got almost to the lake they were
> aiming for when these same drunk ATV'ers barred the trail and forced
> them to turn around. Too bad no one thought to take photos of those
> jerks, the RCMP (cops) don't take kindly to that kind of BS happening.
> This is all crown or public land and is open to all. Drunks, ATV's and
> guns just don't mix....
>
> I wasn't on that run, I have some badly messed up neck vertebra so took
> it real easy, so those that were can chime in here with a trip report if
> wanted.
>
> The fishing was good, we kept enough for a feed and yes Billy Ray, I do
> like sardines, I just prefer canned ones to the 'fresh' one in your
> photo. ;-) Although I was contemplating using him for bait for that
> monster laker I know is hiding in there somewhere because I got his
> photo on another trip....
>
> It wasn't really good swimming weather, sunny mostly with was a cool
> wind blowing, and blowing and blowing... My bug/rain tent decided to go
> airborne one day. We had everyone trying to hold it down while I tied
> and staked some more. That thing really wanted to go!
>
> Got rained on good, but it only lasted a day.
>
> We had a nice sized wolf show up at the camp the day Steve is grilling
> some venison chops and I am roasting chicken. He came directly up wind
> at us with is nose just twitching. Man what a time not to have a
> camera. Steve got a shot of his eyes, but the auto focus bit the big
> one and focused on a close tree, not the wolf. Did anyone else get any
> photos of him?
>
> I am getting together a photo album so if any of you have interesting
> shots, please email them to me or send me a link. I got Billy Ray's and
> am wading through Steve's monster photos so I will post a link soon to
> them. Sorry for the delay, but physiotherapy introduced me to some
> muscles I didn't know I had last week and am now still barely able to
> sit...
>
> Mike
> 86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
> 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's
>
> Billy Ray's....................
>
> A good time was had by all at the Labor (Labour) Day campout and shindig
> with the exception of the rain.
>
> I have lived through hurricanes in Florida Keys where you are literally
> 12
> inches above sea level and slept through mid-western tornados with their
> oft
> accompanying thunderstorms but I never would have believed that my dome
> tent
> could hold that much water. It was just like in the movies where you
> unzip
> the fly and water comes gushing out...... and all this happened at
> about 3
> AM.
>
> The only things I owned that wasn't soaked was a plastic bag of dirty
> clothes. Luckily (?) I was able to spend the rest of the night curled
> up in
> the back of my WJ.
>
> When Snowboardripper came in with his new ex-Canadian Military ******
> trailer he had the right idea, he uses a camp bed and will be warm and
> cozy
> as long as the water isn't over 8-9 inches deep.
>
> Before and after the rain the weather was beautiful and the lake scenery
> was
> breathtaking.
> http://www.imagestation.com/album/in...?id=2121096722
>
> I'm still not convinced you can call 'Cincinnati Chili' a real chili.
> I
> grew up eating Grandma Bock's Palo Pinto County Texas Chili recipe where
> the
> chili is so thick a spoon will stand up on it own and it so hot that you
> have to scrape it off quickly before it dissolves the stainless steel.
> It
> amazes many friends when I tell them I did not have Cincinnati-style
> chili
> until I was in high-school.
>
> I later built a tolerance to it as my (now ex-) wife had cravings for it
> and
> we ate it every time we dined out for her nine months of pregnancy and
> for
> another year following the birth of my first child.
> http://www.answers.com/topic/cincinnati-chili
>
> I did appreciate that Mike had the nerve to take a taste of the chili
> and
> the brown sugar-honey barbecue sauce my daughters prefer even though no
> one
> at the shindig was brave enough to actually eat any. But I understand
> the
> reluctance because Mike offered me snails, frog's legs and other forms
> of
> bait marinated in a Thai cocktail sauce.
>
> Mike and Steve are accomplished camp cooks and presented us with
> venison,
> chicken and duckling spit-grilled for dinner, fresh blueberry pancakes
> in
> the morning and delicious fresh baked cinnamon rolls as an evening
> treat. I
> wasn't able to interest them in popcorn though, I think after seeing
> what I
> was eating they were afraid to see what Germans did to popcorn. Later
> on
> the trip Peter and Oliver did get them to try campfire popcorn and
> Snowboardripper delighted us all with corn-on-the-cob and peppers
> grilled
> over glowing coals.
>
> I did offer to make some fish eyeball soup with Mike's catch-of-the day
> (http://www.imagestation.com/album/pi...1096722&idx=10)
> but
> it was declined as Hillbilly Vittles. I had to educate Mike in the
> differenced between Hillbillies (the Clampetts, 'Lil Abner, ignorant
> hicks)
> and Rednecks (patriotic, God-fearing, believing in being
> self-sufficient,
> educated small town folk) and explained it was a Thai recipe and he
> loves
> Thai food (just 'cause I'm a redneck doesn't mean I don't get around)
>
> We had an enjoyable but all too brief off-road excursion as Mike
> mentioned
> that was curtailed by Snowboardripper's cool head when confronted with a
> group of drunk yabbos on ATVs. Aggressive drunks with guns were of
> great
> concern to all involved as we had two small frightened children in our
> group. We apparently were getting too close to their
> poaching/drug/moonshine making operation for their liking. After a
> brief
> talk and promise to withdraw from the area the situation was diffused.
>
> Perhaps a call or letter to the authorities with the GPS location of the
> assault would be warranted as I imagine a whole host of regulations were
> being violated.
>
> Mike held a repair clinic one morning with the diagnosis of a pending
> trackbar failure missed by dealership technicians multiple times,
> untightened suspension bolts by those same technicians, a rear tire
> carrier
> about to fail, suspension wear to be watched but not a problem at this
> time,
> and ways to make a travel-trailer more off-roadable. Only Peter's TJ
> came
> through the clinic unscathed.
>
> Overall it was a great vacation and fun was had by all.
>
> --
> .
> Billy_Ray@SPAM.fuse.net (remove SPAM)
> 2002 Jeep WJ 4 Liter Automatic
> Brilliant Black Crystal Pearl Coat
> Sharing is why we are all here....... or should be.
>
> And Steve's.....................
>
> Well, for my 2 cents
>
> Day one was a bit confusing. Dragging a small Boler behind me, I had
> reservations about dragging this stock fiberglas bubble over the
> potentially
> missing dam, so Jo and I skirted around the long way and entered our
> favourite trail on the east side - Bon Echo way. After about 8 hours on
> the
> road, and a 1.5 hour trip in from the main highway, my tranny started to
> act
> up. Few clicks and some smoke out of the engine area...we finally made
> it.
>
> I blew my siren off to let Mike know we were on our way....only to find
> he
> was not where he was supposed to be...Where could he be. We saw Mike
> sightings in the camp and heard his voice in the quite of the night...
>
> Then the next day...he found us. Well, Mike filled you in on the rest of
> that.
>
> The Boler was great to stay in the first night and made a great kitchen
> area
> and anti-coon food storage area.
>
> The Coleman Coffee maker and the Coleman Oven we bought on the way were
> a
> blessing. Jo has to have her coffee for sure.
>
> As mentioned the weather was mostly fine, bit of wind, few bugs and a
> day of
> rain...was enjoyable for sure.
>
> I missed out on last years trip, and was great to be back in company
> with
> Mike and Mel, as well as Nick. Peter, Oliver and Jon made for a great
> stay
> as well.
>
> Alika our daugher had a wonderful time. Having a 8 year old in for 10
> days
> sometimes makes for some creative activities, but she did very well.
>
> I wish I had of zoomed the digital camera before I took the pic of the
> wolf. The damn flash scared him off before I got another shot off.
>
> Trail damage on this trip was summed up with a passenger side mirror
> being
> smucked off a tree, and only minor damage to the back end of the
> Boler..(Big
> Rocks). Other than that, I was quite impressed on how the Boler did. The
> Boler has a ground clearance of a Volkswagen and was quite surprised it
> got
> in okay.
>
> The trip out was fun. Because I heated up the tranny really well, I
> tractored the trailer out in 4Lo (2 hours for 17 kms). Trailer and Jeep
> were
> fine.
>
> Thanks to Mike for again for teaching the fine art og cooking. I learn
> something new everytime. He taught me how to do ribs a few months ago
> and
> went over very well with Jo this trip.
>
> Trip was a great success...

 

Hi Mike,
Thanks muches. I really appreciate you sharing your trips.
I took the liberty of adding a link to your albums at:
http://----------.com/mikeRomain/
God Bless America, Bill O|||||||O
mailto:-------------------- http://www.----------.com/

Mike Romain wrote:
>
> I have included three trip reports here Mike's, Billy Ray's and
> Steve's.......
>
> The photos are over on alt.binaries.pictures.autos.4x4 as well as posted
> at Sony's Imagetation here:
>
> http://www.imagestation.com/album/in...?id=2120343242
>
> Mine (Mike) first...........
>
> Well, my wife and I had a really nice vacation, thanks to all that came
> out!
>
> We ended up with 10 people including a couple of 'young Jeepers'.
>
> I went in early to try and get the quietest lake's main campsite and
> there was a warning about the creek I had to cross's bridge being under
> construction for the whole 2 weeks and the road being 'impassable'.
> Ouch I figure, I might have to do a 75 mile detour and stop to let
> someone on my email list know to come in the other way....
>
> So I figure no way that marsh is 'impassable' for my CJ7 with my
> 33x9.5's backed up by my Warn 9000 even if I am running solo so I go for
> it. Ok, no construction so I stop and walk where I thought I could ford
> the marsh and still figure no problems, if they take the sucker out, 'I'
> can get through.
>
> I made it into the campsite and set up then went and out-thunk myself...
> I am figuring Steve and Jo wanted to camp at the noisy beach anyway and
> it is 'about' a half hour 'drive' in my CJ7 closer to the bridge, let
> alone walk so if anyone couldn't get across and walked the rest of the
> way it would be better to be closer so I moved over the next morning and
> hung my pie plate on that trail head.
>
> Found Brian who used to have a Jeep, but still came with his Toyota 4x4,
> there looking at the view and set up camp.
>
> He informs me the bridge 'is' out on the river, but it is on a different
> road downstream, not the one we need to cross anyway, so that's cool.
> Turns out Peter came that way later just before the long weekend and was
> lucky enough to just have to wait for a couple nails to be put in before
> he could be the 'first' across it.
>
> That night we heard a siren go off and I think of Steve, who I though
> had one. I get on the CB and nope, no answer so figure a cop or warden
> is giving some drunk ATV'er a hard time. (there were 'LOTS' of them,
> drunk ATV'ers that is, they were trouble) Billy Ray showed up the next
> day and found me at the 'wrong' lake and then some ATV'ers came by
> talking about the crazy fools in a red Jeep who got a 'Boler' trailer
> into the next lake over! LOL! That can only be Steve and Mad Jo for
> sure.
>
> So Brian is having a nap and Billy Ray and I go over to have a look and
> sure enough, there they are. They forgot to put the CB on when he hit
> the siren, figures, and they came the other way in case the bridge was
> out so they missed my plate sign, and I did say I was going to be over
> there, soo....
>
> Steve and Billy Ray came along and we knocked my camp down in about 10
> minutes with 3 of us and the 3 Jeeps to toss stuff into. Brian was
> still napping, I called to him when we got there and by the time he woke
> up, the camp was gone. He came out shaking his head, hunh, what???
> LOL!
>
> We moved over to where Steve and Jo were and settled in. I had to go
> out on Sunday to pick up my wife at the nearest bus station because she
> had to work up until Saturday night and got supplies.
>
> Saw a ton of ruffed grouse and a few quail on the trails. Could of had
> fresh road kill if I had of punched the go pedal a couple times, but
> Billy Ray said that was too much hillbilly and he was only a red neck,
> so I said aww ok... ;-)
>
> Steve had a fold up Coleman oven which worked great so our menu
> increased in possibilities. He did a roast in it one day and I did a
> full sized chicken with homemade stuffing, baked buttercup squash and
> mashed potatoes. Mmm, they all turned out perfectly cooked. I did up
> some cinnamon rolls one evening, they seemed to be a winner too. I am
> going to get myself one of those ovens, the full chicken dinner used way
> less than one tank of coleman fuel. We ate pretty good as usual, I spit
> roasted a duck one day. Tried to get a couple so everyone could have
> some, but the town only had one duck left. We had fresh blueberries and
> maple syrup for pancakes, mmmm. Did some pork tenderloin 'cordon blu',
> stuffed with ham and swiss and covered in a cream of mushroom sauce one
> day, Steve had tons of venison and Billy Ray was the hot dog and sausage
> king. You 'mericans have a funny idea of canned chili on them dogs....
>
> So we basically relaxed and visited for the week, Peter and son as well
> as Snowboardripper showed up for the long weekend.
>
> The armed drunk ATV'ers going around shooting up the roads at all hours
> of the day and night were a bit disconcerting. One was shooting a whole
> pile too close to us one day there, so I had Steve give three hit on his
> 'big' barmp! horn to let the fool know there were others around, another
> gun went off single shot close to us in another direction too letting
> the fool know there were hunters in the woods besides us campers too.
>
> The boys went on a run there on the weekend to try and finish the one I
> snapped my frame on last year and they got almost to the lake they were
> aiming for when these same drunk ATV'ers barred the trail and forced
> them to turn around. Too bad no one thought to take photos of those
> jerks, the RCMP (cops) don't take kindly to that kind of BS happening.
> This is all crown or public land and is open to all. Drunks, ATV's and
> guns just don't mix....
>
> I wasn't on that run, I have some badly messed up neck vertebra so took
> it real easy, so those that were can chime in here with a trip report if
> wanted.
>
> The fishing was good, we kept enough for a feed and yes Billy Ray, I do
> like sardines, I just prefer canned ones to the 'fresh' one in your
> photo. ;-) Although I was contemplating using him for bait for that
> monster laker I know is hiding in there somewhere because I got his
> photo on another trip....
>
> It wasn't really good swimming weather, sunny mostly with was a cool
> wind blowing, and blowing and blowing... My bug/rain tent decided to go
> airborne one day. We had everyone trying to hold it down while I tied
> and staked some more. That thing really wanted to go!
>
> Got rained on good, but it only lasted a day.
>
> We had a nice sized wolf show up at the camp the day Steve is grilling
> some venison chops and I am roasting chicken. He came directly up wind
> at us with is nose just twitching. Man what a time not to have a
> camera. Steve got a shot of his eyes, but the auto focus bit the big
> one and focused on a close tree, not the wolf. Did anyone else get any
> photos of him?
>
> I am getting together a photo album so if any of you have interesting
> shots, please email them to me or send me a link. I got Billy Ray's and
> am wading through Steve's monster photos so I will post a link soon to
> them. Sorry for the delay, but physiotherapy introduced me to some
> muscles I didn't know I had last week and am now still barely able to
> sit...
>
> Mike
> 86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
> 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's
>
> Billy Ray's....................
>
> A good time was had by all at the Labor (Labour) Day campout and shindig
> with the exception of the rain.
>
> I have lived through hurricanes in Florida Keys where you are literally
> 12
> inches above sea level and slept through mid-western tornados with their
> oft
> accompanying thunderstorms but I never would have believed that my dome
> tent
> could hold that much water. It was just like in the movies where you
> unzip
> the fly and water comes gushing out...... and all this happened at
> about 3
> AM.
>
> The only things I owned that wasn't soaked was a plastic bag of dirty
> clothes. Luckily (?) I was able to spend the rest of the night curled
> up in
> the back of my WJ.
>
> When Snowboardripper came in with his new ex-Canadian Military ******
> trailer he had the right idea, he uses a camp bed and will be warm and
> cozy
> as long as the water isn't over 8-9 inches deep.
>
> Before and after the rain the weather was beautiful and the lake scenery
> was
> breathtaking.
> http://www.imagestation.com/album/in...?id=2121096722
>
> I'm still not convinced you can call 'Cincinnati Chili' a real chili.
> I
> grew up eating Grandma Bock's Palo Pinto County Texas Chili recipe where
> the
> chili is so thick a spoon will stand up on it own and it so hot that you
> have to scrape it off quickly before it dissolves the stainless steel.
> It
> amazes many friends when I tell them I did not have Cincinnati-style
> chili
> until I was in high-school.
>
> I later built a tolerance to it as my (now ex-) wife had cravings for it
> and
> we ate it every time we dined out for her nine months of pregnancy and
> for
> another year following the birth of my first child.
> http://www.answers.com/topic/cincinnati-chili
>
> I did appreciate that Mike had the nerve to take a taste of the chili
> and
> the brown sugar-honey barbecue sauce my daughters prefer even though no
> one
> at the shindig was brave enough to actually eat any. But I understand
> the
> reluctance because Mike offered me snails, frog's legs and other forms
> of
> bait marinated in a Thai cocktail sauce.
>
> Mike and Steve are accomplished camp cooks and presented us with
> venison,
> chicken and duckling spit-grilled for dinner, fresh blueberry pancakes
> in
> the morning and delicious fresh baked cinnamon rolls as an evening
> treat. I
> wasn't able to interest them in popcorn though, I think after seeing
> what I
> was eating they were afraid to see what Germans did to popcorn. Later
> on
> the trip Peter and Oliver did get them to try campfire popcorn and
> Snowboardripper delighted us all with corn-on-the-cob and peppers
> grilled
> over glowing coals.
>
> I did offer to make some fish eyeball soup with Mike's catch-of-the day
> (http://www.imagestation.com/album/pi...1096722&idx=10)
> but
> it was declined as Hillbilly Vittles. I had to educate Mike in the
> differenced between Hillbillies (the Clampetts, 'Lil Abner, ignorant
> hicks)
> and Rednecks (patriotic, God-fearing, believing in being
> self-sufficient,
> educated small town folk) and explained it was a Thai recipe and he
> loves
> Thai food (just 'cause I'm a redneck doesn't mean I don't get around)
>
> We had an enjoyable but all too brief off-road excursion as Mike
> mentioned
> that was curtailed by Snowboardripper's cool head when confronted with a
> group of drunk yabbos on ATVs. Aggressive drunks with guns were of
> great
> concern to all involved as we had two small frightened children in our
> group. We apparently were getting too close to their
> poaching/drug/moonshine making operation for their liking. After a
> brief
> talk and promise to withdraw from the area the situation was diffused.
>
> Perhaps a call or letter to the authorities with the GPS location of the
> assault would be warranted as I imagine a whole host of regulations were
> being violated.
>
> Mike held a repair clinic one morning with the diagnosis of a pending
> trackbar failure missed by dealership technicians multiple times,
> untightened suspension bolts by those same technicians, a rear tire
> carrier
> about to fail, suspension wear to be watched but not a problem at this
> time,
> and ways to make a travel-trailer more off-roadable. Only Peter's TJ
> came
> through the clinic unscathed.
>
> Overall it was a great vacation and fun was had by all.
>
> --
> .
> Billy_Ray@SPAM.fuse.net (remove SPAM)
> 2002 Jeep WJ 4 Liter Automatic
> Brilliant Black Crystal Pearl Coat
> Sharing is why we are all here....... or should be.
>
> And Steve's.....................
>
> Well, for my 2 cents
>
> Day one was a bit confusing. Dragging a small Boler behind me, I had
> reservations about dragging this stock fiberglas bubble over the
> potentially
> missing dam, so Jo and I skirted around the long way and entered our
> favourite trail on the east side - Bon Echo way. After about 8 hours on
> the
> road, and a 1.5 hour trip in from the main highway, my tranny started to
> act
> up. Few clicks and some smoke out of the engine area...we finally made
> it.
>
> I blew my siren off to let Mike know we were on our way....only to find
> he
> was not where he was supposed to be...Where could he be. We saw Mike
> sightings in the camp and heard his voice in the quite of the night...
>
> Then the next day...he found us. Well, Mike filled you in on the rest of
> that.
>
> The Boler was great to stay in the first night and made a great kitchen
> area
> and anti-coon food storage area.
>
> The Coleman Coffee maker and the Coleman Oven we bought on the way were
> a
> blessing. Jo has to have her coffee for sure.
>
> As mentioned the weather was mostly fine, bit of wind, few bugs and a
> day of
> rain...was enjoyable for sure.
>
> I missed out on last years trip, and was great to be back in company
> with
> Mike and Mel, as well as Nick. Peter, Oliver and Jon made for a great
> stay
> as well.
>
> Alika our daugher had a wonderful time. Having a 8 year old in for 10
> days
> sometimes makes for some creative activities, but she did very well.
>
> I wish I had of zoomed the digital camera before I took the pic of the
> wolf. The damn flash scared him off before I got another shot off.
>
> Trail damage on this trip was summed up with a passenger side mirror
> being
> smucked off a tree, and only minor damage to the back end of the
> Boler..(Big
> Rocks). Other than that, I was quite impressed on how the Boler did. The
> Boler has a ground clearance of a Volkswagen and was quite surprised it
> got
> in okay.
>
> The trip out was fun. Because I heated up the tranny really well, I
> tractored the trailer out in 4Lo (2 hours for 17 kms). Trailer and Jeep
> were
> fine.
>
> Thanks to Mike for again for teaching the fine art og cooking. I learn
> something new everytime. He taught me how to do ribs a few months ago
> and
> went over very well with Jo this trip.
>
> Trip was a great success...