I got a call from a good friend of mine who asked if I could help with some trail cleanup. As we all know, some folks seem to leave evidence of their trip for others to clean up or pick up. I’ve yet to figure out why….perhaps they were born in a barn (I was always cleaning up after the cows when I did chores after school) or perhaps they left their hired help back at the mansion (the butler and maid cleans up their messes back there). What ever the reason, it seemed like something worth doing and summer had lost its grip and a Saturday in the mountains was just too good to pass up, regardless of the reason.
Here is an example of what we were after…..oily spots left behind by someone who probably peeled a diff cover on an earlier rock. I use diff guards to help prevent this from happening and I wish others would do so too.
Scott brought along some biodegradable citrus based cleaner (non-petroleum) that he swore left clean spots on his driveway every time he used it. So, we grabbed a couple of scrub brushes and some water spray bottles to rinse the surface with once we were done scrubbing.
So….(pay attention now….a test will follow)….you spray a few squirts on the oil spot and hit it with a the scrub brush. We found that a few squirts of water (we were using this stuff full strength) helped because the rocks caused the cleaner to begin drying a bit too fast. We spent no more than about 15 seconds scrubbing any spot.
There you go….the proof is in the very clean rock! Once we had rinsed the cleaner from the rock and the sun dried things up, it looked pretty darn good, in my opinion. We worked our way down the trail, cleaning spots from the rocks as we went along.
Now, as they say, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy! So, we had to run the rest of the trail just to make sure we could get to all of the spots that needed some citrus cleaner. Here is Les (another one of the cleaning crew) in his TJ. Les recently got married and has been absent from a number of recent trail runs (he often runs in our group). Now that the wedding is done, etc…..well, he has some time to hit the trails again! I helped him put his Currie Anti-Rock bar on earlier this year. I don’t think it is working because he still managed to run right into that rock by the passenger tire!
Not to be outdone, Joey brought his YJ up to the same spot and gave it a try! Now Joey doesn’t have an anti-rock bar on his YJ and he too managed to find that rock just like Les did. Go figure….I think Les could sell his and use the money for something that just might work!
Ah hah! Now we see why everyone was running up on that rock. Scott is spotting (his TJ is in the middle of a AW-4 tranny swap) Les and Joey. Well, don’t I feel pretty bad about bad mouthing Les’ anti-rock bar now. Sorry Les…..I’m sure it will work once we get Scott out of there!
We finished up with the cleaning and the end of the trail at about the same time (go figure….pretty cool the way we got done with both of them together). We stowed our cleanup gear and headed back to air up our tires and then catch a bite to eat on the way home (it seems two of the four of us neglected to bring any lunch!) Les, maybe you could buy some groceries when you sell that anti-rock thing!
Remember…..TREADLightly!