Thursday dawned early for those of us planning to pre-run the trails! It was overcast and scattered showers were anticipated throughout the day. Drew Peroni and his dad, Don, wasted no time in setting up a blue canopy so that Drew could continue his work on the new SEFI he had just installed. His friends, Allen Fahey and Lou Levy, assisted, but there were still problems when Drew left for home on Sunday morning.    :-(

Drew&Don 5/31/01 6:47 AM

DrewSEFI 5/31/01 6:50 AM

Drewride1 5/31/01 6:50 AM

Drewatwork 5/31/01 6:53 AM

Preparations began for pre-running the trails at Tellico ORV, even as others continued to roll in. Jim Pasa and his friend, Dave Matthews, drove all night from Florida to be at the event early, as did many others.

BLewis74 5/31/01 6:46 AM	LouLevy1 5/31/01 6:53 AM	trailleaders 5/31/01 6:54 AM	JimPasa 5/31/01 6:57 AM
EarlyArrivals 5/31/01 7:46 AM	twinstick 5/31/01 7:52 AM	BMcNeilly 5/31/01 8:13 AM	SDugan 5/31/01 8:15 AM
JDombrowski 5/31/01 8:16 AM	ASoutterguages 5/31/01 8:37 AM	ASoutterJonM 5/31/01 8:38 AM	beadlocks 5/31/01 8:40 AM
remotewinch 5/31/01 8:49 AM	DSmith 5/31/01 8:57 AM	BRainwater 5/31/01 8:57 AM	DSmith2 5/31/01 8:59 AM

We left the campground and headed toward Murphy. Even though the literature had indicated that we were a short distance from the trailhead, little did I realize how long the winding roads would take to navigate. The back seat of Brian Keeler's EB had ample space and the seatbelts worked great! One of the first things to do upon arriving at the trailhead was to pay the $5 ORV fee. Then, all the rigs aired down their tires -- it was really something to see 39" tires being aired down to 10-12 lbs. of air. I figured that the tires would surely come off the rims at that low a pressure, but in actuality the low pressure allowed the sidewalls to bit and claw up the mud walls and over rocks made slippery by the continued showers and the trail rigs in front of us!
        Jim Howell had some difficulties with his newly designed rear suspension as we headed up Trail 5 that necessitated a fairly long delay. The scenery was beautiful on the mountain side and made for a nice location for lunch.

rollcageseats 5/31/01 8:59 AM	trailprep1 5/31/01 9:59 AM	airingdown1 5/31/01 9:59 AM	airingdown2 5/31/01 10:01 AM
airingdown3 5/31/01 10:12 AM	KMesser2 5/31/01 10:14 AM	trailprerun 5/31/01 10:25 AM	Howellrepair1 5/31/01 11:36 AM
trailprep2 5/31/01 11:37 AM	JonMesser 5/31/01 11:38 AM	trailaction1 5/31/01 1:41 PM	trail5action1 5/31/01 1:48 PM

Quickly, the journey continued on to Trail 12. The rain and previous traffic had made all of the trails more difficult, but little did we realize how difficult until Mark Shainman rolled his rattle-can rig! He landed with his passenger rocker panel on top of Alan Soutter's spare tire and his passenger rear tire rested gently on Alan's passenger side rear corner. Due to an excellent full roll-cage, Mark and his passenger escaped injury. Alan's truck was also undamaged! Mark was quickly righted and the ride went on to the next obstacle -- GuardRail! At the top of GuardRail it was decided to winch the rigs down, but as winching preparations were being made for Mark to go down, he determined that one of the front spring retainers had dislodged during the roll and repairs were accomplished before the traverse. Wow!, what a feat of engineering -- a tree-saver placed in a tree above his Bronco, with the winch cable run through a pulley, allowed the "mechanics" to raise the load off of the spring so that it could be realigned and secured. Everyone cautiously winched down GuardRail and on to Murphy.

trail12action1 5/31/01 1:52 PM	trail12action2 5/31/01 1:59 PM	Markrolls1 5/31/01 3:15 PM	Markatrest1 5/31/01 3:16 PM
Markrocker 5/31/01 3:16 PM	Alanspared 5/31/01 3:18 PM	Markatrest2 5/31/01 3:20 PM	Markatrest3 5/31/01 3:20 PM
Markrescued 5/31/01 3:22 PM	Markuprighted 5/31/01 3:24 PM	guardrail 5/31/01 4:04 PM	springretainer 5/31/01 4:21 PM
winchdown1 5/31/01 5:12 PM	Alandown1 5/31/01 5:20 PM	Soutterdown2 5/31/01 5:20 PM	back to camp!

We finally arrived at camp, although quite late, in fact very late as far as the stated times for registration. Brian, Mark, Alan, and Ron quickly set up tables and displays and after a quick snack, registration for the East Coast Bronco Registry's 3rd Annual Spring Roundup began.

registration1 5/31/01 7:53 PM

registration2 5/31/01 7:54 PM

registration3 5/31/01 8:06 PM

 

Wednesday's events and pictures.

Friday's events and pictures.

Saturday's events and pictures.