David, that was excellent. Glad you guys had a great day on Sunday as well.
I have a "side story" about the trip to Blue Lake.
After we got off of the top and through the bobsled ride chute (I almost killed myself at the exit, but no pics/harm/foul), I pulled over so Roy could show the way to Blue Lake.
Well, the interesting thing about the "trail" to Blue Lake is that it isn't exactly easy to see or drive on. . .10' of snow and all. . .but we did a decent job right up until the spot that David alluded to earlier. After being repeatedly denied, I pulled over to ponder going back down the hill, but. . .well. . .that isn't really my style.
Ed, with his lighter weight, bigger tires, and lower gears was able to clear the spot but it just wouldn't let me in. . .so, I messed around helping some others get unstuck and hiking out into the trees looking for another solution. I found what I thought was the intersecting Green Dot trail and then pointed O in that direction. As it turns out, it was a viable solution, but I missed missing a tree well by about 1'. Sadly, the driver's rear made contact and unceremoniously left the rim. front and back beads and wedged against a tree.
I jumped out to assess the damage and made a very ominous realization. I was completely alone and in a spot that only a couple of the rigs in the group could reasonably drive to. . .and I had no idea where they were.
On the CB, Toby let me know that the rest of the group had gone down the hill but that Ed was still near me. . .but he wasn't as I had just caught a flash of Yellow through the trees headed down the hill. I asked Toby to come back for me if I wasn't in camp by dark.
Step 1: Find a suitable tree to winch O out of the hole and onto flattish snow. Harbor Freight 6k winch w/my brand spankin' new Masterpull 1/4" line to the rescue. Turns out that 100' was a good idea. I'll leave a little detail out here, but the equipment worked perfectly and O was now level-ish.
Step 2: I hate HiLift Jacks and refuse to carry one. I do, however, carry a few flat boards and a little bottle jack. After some shoveling, I was able to place the jack on the board and get the weight off of the tire. At about that moment, Danny and Marc came walking up the hill wondering WTF was going on. They were immediately put to work helping remove the tire. Shovel a path, etc. We used an old fashioned star lug wrench to remove the lugnuts and got the tire on the ground.
Step 3: Reseat the bead. For those that have never done this on the trail with both beads off, the most important part is the least obvious. Lean the tire against a stump, the back bumper, or a friend and kick the crap out of the rim until the inner bead is wedged in and touching at 360*. you won't be able to seat it but you should be able to get it started. Then, flip the tire over, lean it against the same object (Danny in this case) and use your handy high volume compressor to apply air while gently pushing the outside of the rim against the outer bead. Gently so you don't unseat the inner. When we did this, the tire began to seat almost instantly but refused to go the last "pop" for a while. Since it was holding some air, we knew it was just a matter of time and a few blows with a dead blow hammer. I have an automatic circuit breaker inline with my compressor to keep it alive so we had to let it cycle a few times but eventually the satisfying "pop" happened. Roy walked up at about that same time.
Step 4: I was still stuck. . .so, we finished winching me out of the hole, Marc pointed me in the right direction and like the fool I am. . .
I pointed O back up the hill and drove to Blue Lake for a couple of pics:
My point: Even if Danny and Marc hadn't come along, the story would have played out exactly the same. All of the tools I needed were on board. . .and I knew how to use them.
Safety is no joke. Preparation is everything. Part of that is experience. It isn't a bad idea to practice seating a bead in your driveway using only the tools on your Jeep. Jack, Board, Lug wrench, and compressor. No excuse for no compressor. 25% off and a high volume Harbor Freight unit is all you need to seat a bead.