Carnage in Centralia February 2004
When many of the people from www.Generation-Edge.com got together in Centralia, PA for a weekend of offroading, exploring, and general getting to know each other, we got all of that... And a little more. Read on to hear the story of my trip to Centralia.
It started on Friday February 27, 2004 when Christina and I set out to get an early start on the Centralia meet. You see, last time I was in that area with the Ranger, there was a particular rock that I had climbed several times before in an older vehicle and thought that the Ranger would climb it easily. That didn't turn out to be the case and I decided to try the rock again early on Friday now that I have better tires, the winch, and my new rock sliders. That didn't work out all that well because the state had closed the area off to motor vehicles. Being a law abiding citizen, we headed out for the hotel instead.
We checked in at the hotel at 2:30pm and got our room settled before heading to Centralia to find the "Big Dump" geocache and to do some offroading. We found the cemetery and explored where the mine fire started and several other things and generally had a great time. Early in the evening, we headed back to the hotel to find another Ranger had arrived. Not knowing who or where they were, I decided to leave a card in the window with my name and room number. We were lying on the bed watching TV when the phone rang. I had no idea who it was but he introduced himself a Jeff. Turns out to be RayJay from Generation-Edge. Upstairs we go and the fun begins...
Saturday, the group, which now consisted of about 12 trucks, had breakfast in the lobby and went outside in the parking lot to look at all the trucks. During this time another 10 or so trucks arrived. In all for the weekend, there were 27 trucks and over 30 people. What an awesome turnout!! The morning was spent mostly checking out all of the trucks and telling stories until it was time to head to Centralia for the tour. We started at the Cemetery, and John gave an excellent tour. It ended when he had to leave to take his daughter somewhere and the group decided to split up into two groups. One group was going offroading and the other was going to explore what's left of the town. We stayed behind for a few minutes and talked to a really nice guy who was walking around with a video camera. It turns out that he used to live in Centralia 27 years ago and we spent about 20 minutes talking to him about the history of the town and the future of the mine fire burning beneath it. John's tour was good, but this guy had some good stories to tell.
We obviously decided to go offroading but by the time we were finished talking all of the Rangers had left. When we finally caught up to the group (thanks to the CB) I had offered to tow two of the 2wd trucks up the hill so they could play with the rest of us. Once they were up the hill it would have been fairly easy from there. They declined and I headed up the hill to join the group just as the last truck (before me) climbed a pretty decent hill. I waited at the bottom for the last truck to go and then hammered it much to everyone's surprise and popped up on top of the hill with the rest of the group. We followed Carl around for a while until we crossed a ditch and the guys started climbing a snow-covered hill. While they were doing that however, I drove up the ditch to the top of the hill and waited with the 3 trucks that had already made it to the top. Two other trucks went the same way I did because they were behind Dave who got stuck. Once everyone else was up top, Adam hooked up the strap and tugged Dave up the hill. After that, we decided it was time to meet with the rest of the group so we left.
We regrouped at the Cemetery and headed back to the hotel to make plans for dinner. After dinner, several of us headed back into Centralia to continue offroading. It was relatively slow going but we eventually made it up a pretty decent hill and were headed out towards the cemetery again. I was in my favorite position at the back of the pack when word came of over the CB that the 2 lead trucks were stuck. One stuck is okay, two stuck is bad news so I reversed up the trail and looped around to find that the lead truck was stuck about 200' from the road. To everyone's surprise, I drove right up to the stuck vehicle and then went back and forth making ruts to make the recovery easier. Since there is no place to hook a strap to the front of my truck, I decided to winch him out. The winching operation was a success except for a kink in my winch cable and it proved that my electrical system and mount are up to the challenge of heavy winching. After all, a 4000lb vehicle stuck in 18-24" of snow can really put a beating on the recovering vehicle.
The title of this page says something about carnage and so far, all we've got is a kinked winch cable right?? Well, once I winched Carl out of the snow that was holding him back, he started driving down the hill when he heard a snap or bang and lost his brakes. Once at the bottom, we realized that he had snapped his axle. How's that for carnage?? Well, it gets better.
I prefer to be in the rear of the group for several reasons. The primary reason is that the tail position of the group is the one less likely to get into trouble and the one in the best position to help those who do get into trouble. Another reason is because I will never leave a man (or woman, or truck, or dog) behind. If I'm last, I know that everyone else made it out.
Three trucks stayed with Carl's and waited for the tow truck. Once it arrived, they got it loaded and we were on our way back to the hotel. On the way, I got pulled over by an Ashland cop for turning on red. The tow truck and three trucks in front of me had all made the same maneuver however I was the last one to do it so I got stopped. The officer was really nice and didn't write me a ticket but simply informed me that there is no turn on red and let me go. Really nice guy.
I'm going to skip what happened that night and go right to Sunday morning. Carl and I headed to Harry's U-Pull it in Hazelton, PA and picked up 4 axles for $60 figuring that he'd have plenty of spares. When we got back to the hotel and pulled the wheels off, we we discovered that the rear brakes on both sides were also almost completely destroyed. To make a long story short, Carl and I spent all of Sunday and Monday installing the replacement axle, rebuilding the locker, and reconstructing the brakes from the parts we got in the salvage yard. In all, it turned out very well. That is, until....
Carl's test drive. We were sitting around wondering where he had gone when the phone rang and it was Carl telling us that the rear axle was coming out again. Fortunately, it was only that the 'C' clip had come off and we were able to get it back together and on the road in about 30 minutes. That's what the original repair would have taken had it not been for the brakes.
Adam and Jon were a huge help and Demetra (sp?) and Christina were the entertainment for the event and kept us laughing and spirits high the whole time. I'm sure that there were more people helping us but I wasn't able to see them while I was under the truck. To everyone that helped, I'd like to say Thank You!! I may not have mentioned your name, but I did not forget the help you provided.
In all, I think that it was a very successful event despite the carnage and the fact that Carl and I didn't get to go wheeling on Sunday. Thanks to this whole experience Christina and I have made some very good friends and we are already planning a wheeling and / or camping trip together. That's what I call a successful weekend.