While out geocaching on Sunday with Jim (Yzerman) and his wife Merridi, Jim found a rock.

We were out Table Mesa Road west all the way back to Pleasant Lake in search of caches. After crossing over a finger of the lake a few times and hitting a dead end, we turned around and managed to find a trail that headed off to the south in the direction of the location of the cache we were trying to locate. The trail looked a little challanging but nothing the X's couldn't handle. I went ahead to see if it could be the correct road that would get us to the area. Right after the start of the trail I came upon a spot that took me about 6 trys to pass. It was one of those places that you end up having the right front and left rear wheels off the ground while spinning and throwing dirt. After getting up it I called Jim on the radio and told them it looked like the right road and to come up. Jim made several attempts at the spot with no traction and no luck of getting up it. Stock worn out Grabbers suck at four wheeling, somethig I think most of us already knew. We strapped him up no problem and continued up the trail. Within 100 yards Jim managed to catch a large rock just on the side of the trail. He was watching the right side where another rock lay in the trail and got too close to the left side of the trail. His wheel pulled it out onto the trail and up and over went his left front tire. The X came down on the rock directly on the rocker panel, ouch! The rocker is bashed in a length of about 10 inches and will most likely have to be replaced. We decided not to continue as the trail was pretty rocky and we were afraid of cutting one of those suck ass stock tires. Jim was also a bit concerned with further damage so we turned around and headed back out.

The cost of repairs will most likely significantly exceed the price of sliders. Strange thing was that it wasn't even an obstacle or the like, just a rock on the side of a trail. I guess this shows that anything can happen on while out wheeling and it's best to protect your vehicle with available equipment when possible. I think it's time for Max to get a set of sliders just in case, I've been lucky (or careful, depending on how you look at it) so far.

Not 30 minutes before that happened we were talking about the X I saw on the freeway the other day with a bashed up steprail from going over something they shouldn't have been, ironic to say the least.

I know that a picture says a thousand words but unfortunately again, my camera didn't make it out of the case.

Anyway, just thought I'd share the story. Sorry about the damage Jim.