Next morning, we headed out to the trailhead. Fred, Joe and D-4 were there when we arrived. Fred said "It was just low on hydraulic fluid. Imagine that!". I could imagine many things, including a gross lack of maintenance by the yard personnel that would leave us stranded again. Putting those thought out of my mind, we lumbered off to the east, past the slab and toward the wrecker and Blazer.

We arrived in an hour or so and set up to negotiate our exit from the bottom of Agua Caliente Canyon. Once the D-4 was in position, we cabled up the front of the wrecker and set out at a crawl down the canyon bottom. Soon, the triad of vehicles encountered the first upgrade. Fred placed the D-4 in the low range, Bob placed the wrecker in low range and the started up the chute. Slide 16 As the chute got steeper, I could hear the D-4's engine start to labor. Likewise the old Chevy engine was laboring under the dead weight load of the Blazer attached to its rear. The Chevy did not have enough traction with only the rear axle operable to negotiate the chute, so the balance was made up by the D-4. For the first time during the experience, all I had to was to sit and watch. As the chute got steeper, I heard a small snapping noise that was immediately followed by a loud grinding noise. A noise like sticking a pencil in a fan with metal blades. A noise like the wrecker's radiator falling into the fan.

The steam came from under the hood in billows. Bob honked the horn to get Fred to stop pulling and immediately shut down the engine. We cracked the hood and when the steam cleared, we could see the radiator had broken its high quality bailing wire connection and fallen into the fan. The fan had dutifully cut a deep circle into the soft aluminum radiator core. Coolant was gushing onto the ground. It was clear we would go no further until the fan was replaced.

By this point I didn't know whether to laugh or cry as this comedy of errors played itself out. Poor Bob's truck was getting ripped an new ass. Two broken axles, now this.

Bob's only comment was "Well, radiators are easy to fix. I have a spare back at the yard". Back at the yard?? Another trip out and in?? Fred said "Can't leave the dozer here overnight. Insurance, you know." The though of yet another trip out and back behind that disgustingly slow dozer didn't sit well, but what could I do? Nothing, that's what. Again, I elected to walk. Back at the yard, I got my now familiar orders "0800. Sharp".