Cruised up into the Inyos and did a quick tour of Papoose Flat, Badger Flat and Mazourka Peak with the wife. All told about 50 miles of dirt. The 8 miles stretch from Papoose to Badger is the crux. Lots of exposed sharp bedrock.
On the way down Mazourka Canyon Road my wife looks at me and said "Do you hear that?" I turned down the tunes and heard the hiss, nothing, hiss, nothing, hiss. That sound can only mean one thing. There's a rock in the tread. When sidewalls slash they just hiss and usually go down really fast. A rock in the tread does the hiss, nothing routine. Shit.
I'm still at least 8 miles from pavement at this point. I pulled over and took a look. Yep, it's a rock and it's huge. No patching that thing. Right at that time I realize I never put the spare lowering tool back in my rig after I finished the sound deadening. Double shit.
I break out the 1/2 socket wrench and sockets and get the lugs loose. I get the hi-lift down and chock to tires with some rocks. Then I look for something, anything, to lower that damn tire. The only thing I have is a pair of channel locks.
I grab the channel locks and jinga my arm into position between the tire and the hitch. Looking through the hole of the spare I manage to get the channies on the lowering unit. I get maybe 1/4 turn and they fall off. Repeat that for about 5 minutes and I've managed to lower the spare about 1/8". Triple shit.
Just then my wife spots a Jeep Cherokee coming down the trail. The driver pulls in behind me and offers to assist. I explain the spare situation and he grabs his tire jack handle. It's not flat like Toyota's but it fits in the hole. I push hard to make it bite and 30 seconds later my spare is on the ground. I thank him and his wife and he insists on staying with us until we hit pavement. Rad dude.
I put the hi-lift on the sliders and 9 cranks later the tire comes up in the air. Pull it and swap it for the spare. Tighten the lugs and reverse the hi-lift. Everything goes perfect. The couple follows us to pavement and I thank them and offer cash, beer, dinner. They politely refuse and his wife just says "Pay it forward." That's something I always do anyway so I tried to sneak him a 20. Nope. We shake hands and part ways.
For the last week my wife and I have been arguing about me spending money on tires. They weren't really needed she said. These tires are small and C rated I'd say. They still have tread she'd say. Finally I just gave up. On the way home she looks at me and asks why E rated tires would have possibly held up better in this situation. I explain that.
About ten minutes later she gives me the OK on the new tires. I've never been so happy to get a flat in my life. So the irony here is pretty obvious. Also look at the names of the places I visited today. I made parts of them bold to help the slower folks. lol
So enjoy some photo's and I'm off to the web to order some Ridge Grapplers.:guitar2:
