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[The Colonel]

Hello. Got tell you this trail repair story. Happened Easter Sunday after Don (GreatDivide) and his girl Lu came by to help me switch out some brake pads on the 91 RRC Hunter. That went smoothly and so we decided to head up to do some field touring and a little bit of trail riding. We got to the field and we bopped around a bit and then we went to the adjoining quarry where the trails through were muddy but firm. We decided to head up the trail that brought us to the top of this big pile of dirt. BUT NOOOO !!!! For Don, that wasnt high enough, he had to go higher and steeper, so he headed off the beaten trail and to make a long story short....he got to slippin' and slammed it into reverse, starts hearing a tick tick tick from the rear tire and when he gets out, finds the wheel pushed forward onto the body of his RRC. The rear trailing arm, moments ago straight, was twisted upward, like a friggin pretzel. AND WE'RE STILL ON THE UPCLIMB OF THE HILL. We take my hilift jack and jack it on the hill. takes the tire off and it just looks ugly. I started reciting the Hail Marys, and finally, Don, after going through a mental inventory of all gear and tools combined, decides he will use his stock bottle jack and wedge it between the frame and the bent piece of trail arm. It does the trick....puts the tire back on and hits reverse and ...WHAM....bends up again. We repeat the process but this time we decided to keep the bottle jack in place while I towed him off the mound. Using my shitty excuse of a spare tire, (smaller, won't rub) we got down to the level gravel road and did the final bend there using the HiLift Jack anchored to my Series. All in All, we did have a good day!!! But it's all fun and games till someone bends his rear trailing arm. But of course it could have been much worse, it could have been mine!!!!