RENAMED!! The adventures of Chase and his 2006 Yukon XL Denali!! Follow along on my travels!

[adventurenali92]

It’s been a hectic week. Been trying to get my differentials cleaned up all week but every time I tired to handle stuff for myself something kept coming up. Well last night it absolutely had to get done since I’m setting off on what’s going to be a long stretch of road trips this week. More on that in a bit. Can’t remember time or mileage the last time I cleaned out the fluids in the diffs but I did it myself a couple years back and was surprised how it was somewhat straight forward with my limited mechanical skills. Not sure about if the previous owner had ever had them serviced but I did it myself like I said a couple years ago and then just hammered it out now. So twice in the nine years I’ve owned it. I know this time it was overdue but too far. However, when I cracked it open, the fluid was still somewhat clean, and there was little to no metal shavings in the bottom magnet on the diff cover, which I was pleased to see. The last time I opened up the cover, I bought a new cover gasket, thinking I was going to need it, and then, when I opened up the cover, I saw that the factory gasket was still perfectly in place, and in excellent condition, given its mileage. That was not the case this time around lol. as I pulled the diff cover off this time around the factory gasket started falling apart. Thankfully, I kept that Fel-Pro gasket that I picked up when I did the last service and all I had to do was unbury it in the garage as I thought last time around “ i’m going to hold on to this gasket as I may need it in the future and it couldn’t hurt since it was fairly inexpensive”. I’m so glad I did as that paid off last night and it was ready to roll to reassemble the diff with the new gasket. Lol. Originally for the trip starting today, I had planned to only work a half a day at the ski resort yesterday with a private request lesson with a longtime returning student that had booked with me, then head home and have the whole afternoon to handle truck stuff and pack for my trip. That didn’t go as planned. The diff servicing went well into the wee hours of the morning and I had planned to leave for Mammoth Lakes at 2 AM this morning to get up there and be able to snowboard all day at Mammoth today but I got the truck all buttoned up somewhere around 3 AM this morning and still hadn’t had time to pack or shower or tidy up my house before I left. I was quite furious last night however, thankfully I’m glad I got the servicing on the diffs done as now my mind is a little more ease as I’m heading out on the road trip.

 

[adventurenali92]

So this winter has been quite the challenge with the ski resort, and one of my biggest frustrations is that my head training manager is kind of over his job at this point, and I completely understand why, but that has resulted in him, not putting any effort at all into providing any sort of regular training at our resort for the next level up teaching certification that I’ve been working on for the last couple of years. Through 2019, 2020, and 2021. We always had weekly level three training available to us, as well as several two day training camps booked up in Mammoth along with several of the Mammoth, instructors and trainers, that were always available to us, and I always took advantage of it. Last year unfortunately, I just did not have time to make any of the mammoth training camps, and this year my trainer has only scheduled one of these training camps. There has been absolutely zero weekly upper level training for us and there is a large number of guys trying to get that training in to prep for the level three exam. I signed up for this training camp this week, only to find out late last night that my training boss is only facilitating half-day time periods of training for level three instructors. Taking a lot of expenses to drive to Mammoth booking a hotel room, and the time off of work to only get three hour training sessions is kind of a slap in the face at this point. it’s looking like this trip is turning out to be a huge waste of time, however, I committed to go, and I also committed to splitting a hotel room with one of the other guys that I’m close friends with who’s also trying to go for the exam and I felt bad about potentially bailing on him at the last minute sticking him with the hotel room bill. So we shall see how this ends up going. At any rate, I left Big Bear about 930 this morning and I’m heading up to Mammoth Lakes for the first stretch of the road trip. The plan is to head out then from Mammoth Lakes Wednesday after the morning session, and head out to Utah to see my close friends and go snowboarding with them for a couple of days, and then head back home to Big Bear. I am really looking forward to those couple days as I have not seen those friends since the 4tg of July trip for their party. it will be a good couple of days to just relax and snowboard and have fun and hang out with my friends.

Starting out mileage on the truck, trip computer reset to track all the miles I’m going to put on the truck just in this trip alone, and the route I’ll be taking up from Big Bear to Mammoth.

 

[Fosscore]

So this winter has been quite the challenge with the ski resort, and one of my biggest frustrations is that my head training manager is kind of over his job at this point, and I completely understand why, but that has resulted in him, not putting any effort at all into providing any sort of regular training at our resort for the next level up teaching certification that I’ve been working on for the last couple of years. Through 2019, 2020, and 2021. We always had weekly level three training available to us, as well as several two day training camps booked up in Mammoth along with several of the Mammoth, instructors and trainers, that were always available to us, and I always took advantage of it. Last year unfortunately, I just did not have time to make any of the mammoth training camps, and this year my trainer has only scheduled one of these training camps. There has been absolutely zero weekly upper level training for us and there is a large number of guys trying to get that training in to prep for the level three exam. I signed up for this training camp this week, only to find out late last night that my training boss is only facilitating half-day time periods of training for level three instructors. Taking a lot of expenses to drive to Mammoth booking a hotel room, and the time off of work to only get three hour training sessions is kind of a slap in the face at this point. it’s looking like this trip is turning out to be a huge waste of time, however, I committed to go, and I also committed to splitting a hotel room with one of the other guys that I’m close friends with who’s also trying to go for the exam and I felt bad about potentially bailing on him at the last minute sticking him with the hotel room bill. So we shall see how this ends up going. At any rate, I left Big Bear about 930 this morning and I’m heading up to Mammoth Lakes for the first stretch of the road trip. The plan is to head out then from Mammoth Lakes Wednesday after the morning session, and head out to Utah to see my close friends and go snowboarding with them for a couple of days, and then head back home to Big Bear. I am really looking forward to those couple days as I have not seen those friends since the 4tg of July trip for their party. it will be a good couple of days to just relax and snowboard and have fun and hang out with my friends.

Starting out mileage on the truck, trip computer reset to track all the miles I’m going to put on the truck just in this trip alone, and the route I’ll be taking up from Big Bear to Mammoth.

Nice work Chase! Go have fun and get what training you can. Watch them storms rolling in with that fresh 1-2 feet of powder. Getting close to 200k...

 

[adventurenali92]

Nice work Chase! Go have fun and get what training you can. Watch them storms rolling in with that fresh 1-2 feet of powder. Getting close to 200k...

Yup closing in on 200 K… Lol. One of the reasons I wanted to leave at 2 AM to have clear, dry skies and to get into Mammoth before the storms rolling in. However, as the weather forecast has updated, looking like the storm is going to be a little less severe less snow dumping in Mammoth but hopefully I’ll get some at least good powder even if it’s not a foot or two lol.

 

[adventurenali92]

First stop 85 miles into the drive at Kramer Junction. Which is the intersection of Highway 58 and Highway 395. Quick stop for a little top off of the fuel tank and a restroom break. Denali has been running smooth so far and the roads have been clear, like traffic, but nothing too bad and moving pretty steadily.

 

[willinnashville]

I thought gas was more expensive that that out there. Maybe it came down recently

For reference, I paid $2.89 here in Nashville proper a couple hours ago

 

[adventurenali92]

I thought gas was more expensive that that out there. Maybe it came down recently

For reference, I paid $2.89 here in Nashville proper a couple hours ago

It certainly is higher in a lot of other areas, Big Bear over the weekend was 5.09 a gallon 91 octane at the station I regularly use.

 

[adventurenali92]

This is what I love…..

 

[Tonyrodz]

This is what I love…..

Have clear coat issues on the hood?

 

[adventurenali92]

Have clear coat issues on the hood?

Yup….. and that hood was fully repainted in I think 2017…. Ugh….