New Years 2008 (Couger Buttes)

This year we spent another year at Cougar Buttes with our Friends and Family doing what we all love most off roading, partying, and just enjoying time away from it all. We had some of our So Cal Bronco buddies join us this year which made the weekend all the more fun. We didn't get much off roading in this year, but we all manage to have a good time. Here are just a few pictures of what four wheeling we got in.

John and Norma on the left

Danny on the right

John Blaser with Me on the left

Matt Sharp with my boys:

Dylan and Austin on the Right

Brians broken down scout
on the left

Our Bronco on the right

Left: Matt and Chris Desert racing

Right: Danny, Bill, John, and Chris playing around with thier rigs

2007

Here is a run down of 2007...
January 2007
We brought the New Year in at Johnson Valley (Cougar Buttes). Had a good weekend with an hour of fireworks that lit the sky up. I have to say the year started out good, we all had a great time and only a few little things happened. Kyle decided to turn is Dodge into a rock crawler that weekend, so he decided that damage was ok.



Kyle’s bumper was messed
up so off it came.
So began his new project

THE DODGE BUILD-UP




Febuary 2007

Bill and I joined the So Cal Broncos group and many others in the Calico Clean up Days. Calico was founded in 1881; it is a historic silver mining town 10 miles north of Barstow, California. Many four-wheel drive trails surround the area and are open for public use. The main objective of this event is to assist the Bureau of Land Management and Discovery Trails in an effort to keep this area open for recreational use by volunteering our time, energy, and vehicles for the day.

In the back of this Bronco is just a little of what was cleaned up and taken off the beautiful mountains. There was trash, old cars, and trucks too. It is sad to see how little people care about what they do with there trash. It's nice to have a group of people that are willing to give a weekend up to help clean up.






This is how the BEAUTIFUL MOUNTAINS of CALICO should look:

March 2007

The first weekend of March, we always go to T.D.S. (Tierra Del Sol) for a Big off road event. The TDS Desert Safari has been held at Truck Haven, CA near Salton Sea for many years. In 2007 land issues arose, and the TDS club had to find another place that could accommodate over 15,000 people with off-road rigs, which put this event in danger of not happening, but a few weeks before the event, the permit was granted to hold the 45th Annual Tierra Del Sol Desert Safari at Ocotillo Wells OHVM Park. This is just a few miles away from the original spot, so it was still in the general vicinity. Hard Luck Crawlers decided to still camp at TDS. Hard Luck Crawlers had nine families from our group going to this event.

TDS 2007 stated out fine, It was The Frye Family that was able to get the time off and make it there first. Chris and Jill started the weekend off on Thursday. Made it to TDS, they found a good spot and waited for everyone else. The rest of us pulled in at different time’s throughout the day on Friday. Jenn and Hoss where the last ones to show that night because they were having transmission problems with his Dodge which was pulling their jeep. When they finally made it we were ready to have some fun. So as the night approached we decided it was time to show those that haven’t been there before the sites. It started out great, we went to the notches to check out the action, but got kind of crazy out there so we decided to go ahead and do a night run of our own. Well by this time it was Bill, Molly, Chloe, and I in our Bronco, Brian in is Scout, Chris, Jenny, and Jason in their jeep, Jenn and Hoss in their jeep, and Kyle, Amy, and Jill in Kyle’s newly built Dodge truck. We start out on some little trails just playing around, talking and enjoying ourselves, when we here on the C.B. that Brian rolled. We thought it was a joke he was just right behind us, well not so. Brian had rolled and in fact, his scout was on its side

This is how we found Brain........

As you, can all tell Brain was just fine. He was even nice enough to smile for the picture, even though we he was bummed out about rolling his Scout, as would any of us.


Well we fixed the scout as good as we could and got her back to camp. Told those at camp what happened and decided to kick it by the fire. Mean while Chris, Jill, Jenny, Jason, Kyle, Amy, Jenn, and Hoss continued. They got back to camp sometime late that night to report to us that about 30 minutes after they left us Chris Rolled his jeep. We have no pictures of the jeep rolled over only the after math the next morning. Some things had already been fixed and taken off.

Here are pictures Saturday morning of Chris with his jeep




Saturday, was spent getting the rigs going again. We were successful with Brain, but not with Chris. We didn't let that stop us. We went ahead and did a few small runs that were close by and ended the day with just a few minor problems

HMMM... How many rigs does it take to tow an old Bronco up the Hill?

That might be what it looks like happened. What really happened was that the stock Bronco couldn't make the hill, so Brian went to pull him up. The scout decided that that wasn't going to happen (all the fluids were still messed up from the roll over) so Bill decided to hook on to Brian and our bronco decided NO WAY (carburetor vapor locked) so dad in the good old Jimmy then hooked up to us. I of course had to take the pictures for the laughs later

You would think that after all that fun stuff our weekend would end, but we made the best of it and had a good rest of the day. Then came Sunday home time, know what could happen on the way home dear you ask? Remember day one Hoss and Jenn had tranny problems, well what they thought was fixed was not. Picture this we are leaving: Bill and kids in our motor home towing the bronco. Me driving my bronco, mom and dad in their motor home towing their jimmy, Brian and Dianne towing toy hauler with scout in it. Jenn and Hoss in dodge with camper towing the jeep. John and Norma with the Dodge and camper, towing their bronco. So Hoss's Dodge wont tow the jeep because tranny is gone, what do we do? WOW, well we simply unload John and Norma’s Bronco, load Hosses dodge on their trailer, which leaves two things needing to be drove home, well Hoss drives Johns Bronco and Jenn drives the jeep. We had to do all this on the side of the road FUN FUN FUN... Another Hard Luck moment for the weekend gee... What more can go wrong, hmmm Jenn and Hoss's jeep isn’t reg. could they get a tickets and it impounded? Got You, we made it home after a very long and slow drive LOL.

Loading Hoss Dodge onto Johns Dodge

On the way home.

April and May 2007

These months were spent fixing the rolled rigs and for Bill and I re-building our 1971 Bronco

June 2007

Bill, the Kids, and I went to the annual So Cal Big Bear Bronco Bash. This event is one of the most anticipated annual Early Bronco gatherings in Southern California. When its hot in the valleys we enjoy the cool temps, clean air and friendly hospitality of the Big Bear Lake area. The trails are scenic and some are challenging. We met up with a lot of the So Cal Bronco members and had a blast hanging out and doing some off roading. Our 71 bronco was still down being re-built so we where driving Franks Scout. Brian and Dianne came up for a few days to join in on the fun too. John, Norma, and Greg who are also members of both Hard Luck Crawlers and So Cal Broncos were also there for the fun.

This picture was taken one of the runs, there where many more runs that day with about this many rigs on each one. This can be fun if you like to wait in line. We actually left the group a short time after this with Brian and Dianne and did lower largo. We seen a few deer and enjoyed the outdoors. The next day we went to the Butler Peak lookout. (if you have never been before, this is a place for a spectacular view) Then we did the Holcomb Creek Trail. It was a beautiful day and with lots of water in the creek.



Above: We are enjoying the day and Brian getting a little three wheel action.

Below: A Beautiful water fall at Holcomb creek and Austin playing in the water.

July 2007

We didn't do anything in our rigs this month. Our Bronco was still being re-built. Bill and I did go out with Chris, Jill, and Denny for a Quad ride up Rattle snake Canyon.

Above: Denny, Chris, and Bill

Left: Bill, Mel, Denny, Chris, and Jill

Below: Mel and Jill

Above: Chris with his Quad

Right Picture: Bill with his Quad

Below: Jill on her Quad

Above: Me doing a Dozer Move

Right: Denny on his Quad

Also in July, Bill and I decided to get the group together for what will be an annual event. We did a get together BBQ/camping weekend. We invited all of the Hard Luck Crawlers and all of our family and friends to come out. It was a good turn out. We all ending up having a great weekend.

August and September 2007

August and September where month that where once again spent doing build-ups, family time, and lot's of working.

October 2007

In October, we didn't do any real off roading. We did go out to Johnson Valley for the Mongo search and rescue event to visit our friends from West Coast Bronco. Steffie and I went for a ride in a well built up rock crawler. The next day our family went to the Off Road Expo, which we try to do every year. My kids met Ian from Xtreme 4x4. He is a nice, and talked to my kids for a little while. My boys were happy

Above left: Steffie and Mel riding in the well Built Rock Crawler
Above Right: Austin and Dylan with Ian from Xtreme 4x4


In October Paco and Brenda had a Big Halloween Party at their place. Only a few of us from Hard Luck Crawlers went, but hey, you get The Frye Family and The Camp Family together with Paco and Brenda we have enough fun for everyone.

Left: Paco and Brenda
Right: Chris and Jill

Below: Bill and Mel

November 2007

In November, we always go to Death Valley for Thanksgiving. We were all looking forward to the wonderful time we always have. We were excited to have some friends that had never been out with us before join us, but sad because some others where not going to make it. Thanksgiving day was a blast we went to a private locked mine area, Little Cory's Grand dad still mines out of there. It was neat to see the mine. We then headed back to camp and started our BIG Thanksgiving feast. We had two turkeys, a ham, potatoes, yams, corn, gravy, stuffing, rolls, etc, plus many yummy deserts to choose from. We all enjoyed playing Corn Hole, which we introduced for the first time that weekend. Greg and Dylan were the champions that weekend. Some of us came close to winning them a few times.

This is Corn Hole: It is a very fun game but can make you go crazy. You play it with beanbags and you get points depending on where the bean bag lands. We all had our turn at it.....

Day two of Thanksgiving started out fun and we were all enjoying each other. Well we should know better then that. After looking at the cabins and fixing a few problems to Paco's Four Runner we started up South Park, well that’s when the day went bad. Cory ending up rolling Franks scout on the corner and almost went off a 300+-foot drop. Some of the pictures are on the side for you all to see. We were lucky and thanks to Danny and his fast moving and being right behind Cory, they got the scout stable and we were able to get all four people out. They were all in shock, no broken bones, cuts, or series injuries. THANK GOD!!!

This rollover was the scariest thing ever in my life; we almost lost four important people that day. That would have change all our life’s, luckily everything turned out and our friends are still here today, although the three girls will never go off roading again. We were able to get the girls back down to the cabins, get them warm, food in tummy’s, and we headed back to camp, while Brian and Dianne in their scout, Cory in Franks scout, and Danny in his bronco finished the loop. There was no way any of them where going to turn around and go back down, the rest of us where able to do so and needed to take care of three important girls. Later, when we were back to camp, we all talked about what happened, and enjoy everyone’s company. The rest of the night was good.

Above: The three girls
about an hour after the rollover
back down in stone cabin.

Left: Ashley, Shawn, and Cory 1/2 before rollover.





Day 3 we all enjoyed a nice easy trip, promised the girls no cliffs. We decided to go to Manson Ranch, which is where Charlie Manson hid out. The Cabin was where he was apprehended. We enjoyed exploring around the cabin, sitting in Masons look out chair, hiding in the spot where he was found, and the warmth of the day.

Above left: Ashley sitting where Charles Manson was found (you can see where the caboard use to be)
Above Right: Ashley and Shawn sitting in an old bath tub. (these two where in the rollover)

Below: Bill, Me, Brenda, and Paco (Friends Forever)

Left and Right: Austin with Lexi

Below: Dylan and Austin

Above: Dylan and little Cory pushing a mining cart

Right: Dylan starting a fire

Thanksgiving weekend won’t be forgotten. We had a lot of Hard Luck moments happen. Cory's Rollover, Brain had steering problems, Paco had break problems, etc.

December 2007
Well December was pretty cold this year and with Christmas and work, we only got together at the end of December at Couger Buttes to bring in the New year once more.