New Tires and Old Tumbleweeds: Feb. 23, 2020 trail report
Everybody loves new tire day!
The day started a little cold — but an expected cold — for a late February day. As the day went on, bright blue skies and a big orange sun made the day feel even warmer than the 55 degrees it warmed up to. My son, Brock, and I slept in a little and met Howard and Gabe at Dan’s Ferry Service at 10:00 am and headed to the Meatgrinder trailhead and trailer parking, which was rutted from side by side’s spinning donuts where they shouldn’t. We were excited to be out with three rigs on some of our local Idaho rock trails.
Brock and I buckled into the Fire Jeep and as soon I started it, it was instantly obvious the problem I thought maybe I had was a real problem. My jeep had been running like crap and it had suddenly gotten worse backing off the trailer. I popped the hood and Gabe had the problem diagnosed in about 12 seconds: something had come loose on the last snow run and I had melted plug wires on my exhaust and now they were shorting out against themselves and the manifold. After five minutes of cutting some extra fuel line lengthwise, insulating the plug wires, and tying everything up with the four zip ties I had found on the ground, we were back in business. I should have known this would come back to haunt me, but I was too excited to get going.
