Saturday, November 17 Green group
Chip Woods, '04 TJ, member
Dwayne and Cathy Squires w/ their 2 youts, 2012 JKU Rubicon, members
Will and Carrie Glasgow w/their 3 youts, 2012 JKU, non-members guests of the Squires
John and Terri Crowe, YJ, members
Shawn and Jill, non-members, guests of John and Terri
Josh Sprinkle and Wes Lunsford, '08 JKU, members
Melissa Burn, newly lifted Isuzu Vehicross on 32's, member
Peter Converse, big yellow CJ, member
After the drivers meeting at camp two, the group lined up next to the small lake for another brief drivers meeting since Will and Carrie and Shawn and Jill had never been off-road before. We briefly went over the basics like keeping the rigs in front of and behind you in sight, honk if you need help and don't have a CB, and keep your seatbelt on and hands and feet inside the vehicle.
My plan was to head to the 101 area so the newer drivers could play around a bit and take some pictures, then head through Camp 8, down Snake, and then Loop 10, Dynamite, etc., then maybe have lunch and decide where to go from there.
After a circuitous route to get to the 101 area (I missed a turn), we all did what you do there, splash around in the mud and water and pose on the one big rock. All was well until Josh came out of the deep water hole with a cut sidewall, and as he was pulling up somewhere level and dry so he could change the tire, we noticed he was leaking a lot of oil. So he shut the engine off, changed the tire, and we put a strap on him and did the push me-pull you thing back to camp so he and Wes could figure out where the leak was. Turned out somehow a stick in the deep puddle made it's way to his oil filter and punctured it.
By now it was pushing noon, so I changed up the plan and headed towards Moose since I know that area a little better and I wanted to be sure to get off of the trails well before dark. After a stop for lunch at the entrance to Pennsyltukian and one of the Wahoo bailouts, we made the right hand turn and headed up Moose. Mostly uneventful, we paused once so Peter could take a listen to Melissa's front end, it was making a new noise she didn't like, and Dwayne, Will, and I (mostly Dwayne and Will) used Peter's pocket chainsaw to get a small log out of our way.
The fun always comes at the very end of Moose, it's a great trail for newer drivers, but the last 100 feet or so of hill can be kind of hairy. I made it up, followed by Dwayne and Cathy, then Will and Carrie followed. John gave it a few tries and wasn't making it, so we backed Will up, put a strap on John and Terri and Will pulled them up the last 20 feet or so. Shawn and Jill were next, and after a few tries Shawn opted for help as well. We used a winch and snatch block this time to allow for a straighter pull up the hill since using a strap on John and Terri got them a little tippy and kind of close to a tree. Melissa went next and made it on her first try, followed by Peter who walked right up without even spinning a tire.
We motored along upper road until the top of Corum, where we stopped a bit to chat with Charles and his group and to watch them for a bit, then kept going to find the least difficult way down. After a couple of "wait here, let me make sure before you follow", I found U-Turn Hard and we headed down. On a side note, the topic of signing up the trails came up more than once over the weekend. We all made it down without incident; Will and Carrie needed a little spotting and a little tug after getting high centered, but their rig made it through un-scathed, or at least as Carrie said once or twice, "as long as I can't see the scratches" We ran into Scott's group at the bottom, minus Scott, who were
patiently waiting for us so they could turn and head up the trail.
It was after 3:00 by this point, so we headed back towards camp so Melissa could think about packing up and so Peter could head into town to get a heater buddy. The rest of us stopped at the field by the big lake so some of the group could get some poser shot on the RTI ramp, and decide if we had time to stay out for a little while longer. I thought having the kids in the group it would be nice to head up to the overlook to get some pictures and to let them play on the rocks a bit. So after a nice little drive up and a some nice scenery, we made our way back to camp for the third and final time, where the Squires and Glasgows said their goodbyes and went on their merry way, and the rest of us settled in and did what you do at the end of a day of wheeling.
Sunday, November 18 everyone but Scott and Ryan group
Chip Woods '04 TJ, member
Jeff Huff '94 D90,
member
John and Terri Crowe YJ, members
Josh Sprinkle and Wes Lunsford '08 JKU, members
Jason Lavender and his son Ethan '94 D90, non-members
Preston Crum with Jeff Jurgrau riding passenger, big blue YJ, both members
Peter Converse big yellow CJ, member
Charles Galpin '94 D90, member
We got an earlier start this morning, with the intent of getting back to camp a little earlier so we could pack up and hit the road before it got dark. We started by going through Camp 6 into the woods by the mud pits and headed towards Loop 10. So after making our way up and down the hills and either through or around the mud pits we made it to Loop 10 where some of the group played a bit.
We then made our way towards Snake, with some help from Preston to make sure we were going the right way, and headed on up the trail. About half of the group took the left hand side of the trail, which is the easier way up, and the other half
took the right side, which goes up a ditch, and is the harder way. As people made it up the hill to a good flat spot and parked, some of us walked back down to watch while others hung out and chatted. As Charles was making his way up with a little guidance from Jeff, he blew a bead. No biggie; he used his newly installed winch to secure his rig to a tree, got the tire off of the ground with a Hi-Lift, and went to work. He had tight quarters to work in due to how narrow the ditch was, but with Jeff lending a second set of hands they made short work of it. We did have to play Power Tank shuffle down the long, steep hill, with John and Josh first meeting me halfway with mine, then when it ran out of air, Peter meeting John halfway with his.
After Charles got moving again, we continued up Snake, turned left at the top of the hill, and headed into Camp 8. In Camp 8, we made a left thinking there was an easier way down
to the Log Bridge and Trickle area, but the trail we turned on was I believe to be Squealer, and which according to the map Charles had was blue-black, and it would have been more than Josh would have been able to handle in a stock vehicle. So we turned around and reversed the order, with Charles taking up the lead and me being tailgunner.
We decided to go through the 101 area, with a reminder to Josh to stay out of the water (see trail report above), and make a left onto what we thought was called Mish-Mash and continued with the plan to head towards Log Bridge and Trickle. Things were moving along nicely, we were on a pretty flat narrow trail with a steep drop off on our right, until it started heading downhill again. I'm not sure of the name, I think it was a lower portion of Squealer, but Charles was mentioning over the radio that it was kinda ugly in spots, then it was getting worse, and then whoops, this is pretty bad. At this point I
started to try to get Josh to stop his descent, since he didn't have a CB and missed Charles's commentary on the trail, but he was two rigs in front of me and by the time I got out of my rig to catch up to him he was too far ahead. By the time I did catch up to him, he had found out on his own that it would have made for a long day if he continued any further, so he decided he'd rather turn around. We waited for Charles to finish spotting Jeff down , then he walked up the hill and we came up with a plan to turn Peter around as well, and get him up the hill in front of Josh so there would be a winch available should we need it. That didn't work out quite the way we planned, but Josh did get turned around and with Charles riding with him, he made it up just fine under his own power.
From here, Charles walked back down the hill to go with Preston, Jason, and Jeff to make their way back to camp from the bottom of the hill, and I went John and Terri, Josh and Wes, and Peter the way we came. We all arrived back within about fifteen minutes of each other, and we started breaking down camp and called it a day.
Chip Woods
2012 OCC President
Chip Woods, '04 TJ, member
Dwayne and Cathy Squires w/ their 2 youts, 2012 JKU Rubicon, members
Will and Carrie Glasgow w/their 3 youts, 2012 JKU, non-members guests of the Squires
John and Terri Crowe, YJ, members
Shawn and Jill, non-members, guests of John and Terri
Josh Sprinkle and Wes Lunsford, '08 JKU, members
Melissa Burn, newly lifted Isuzu Vehicross on 32's, member
Peter Converse, big yellow CJ, member
After the drivers meeting at camp two, the group lined up next to the small lake for another brief drivers meeting since Will and Carrie and Shawn and Jill had never been off-road before. We briefly went over the basics like keeping the rigs in front of and behind you in sight, honk if you need help and don't have a CB, and keep your seatbelt on and hands and feet inside the vehicle.
My plan was to head to the 101 area so the newer drivers could play around a bit and take some pictures, then head through Camp 8, down Snake, and then Loop 10, Dynamite, etc., then maybe have lunch and decide where to go from there.
After a circuitous route to get to the 101 area (I missed a turn), we all did what you do there, splash around in the mud and water and pose on the one big rock. All was well until Josh came out of the deep water hole with a cut sidewall, and as he was pulling up somewhere level and dry so he could change the tire, we noticed he was leaking a lot of oil. So he shut the engine off, changed the tire, and we put a strap on him and did the push me-pull you thing back to camp so he and Wes could figure out where the leak was. Turned out somehow a stick in the deep puddle made it's way to his oil filter and punctured it.
By now it was pushing noon, so I changed up the plan and headed towards Moose since I know that area a little better and I wanted to be sure to get off of the trails well before dark. After a stop for lunch at the entrance to Pennsyltukian and one of the Wahoo bailouts, we made the right hand turn and headed up Moose. Mostly uneventful, we paused once so Peter could take a listen to Melissa's front end, it was making a new noise she didn't like, and Dwayne, Will, and I (mostly Dwayne and Will) used Peter's pocket chainsaw to get a small log out of our way.
The fun always comes at the very end of Moose, it's a great trail for newer drivers, but the last 100 feet or so of hill can be kind of hairy. I made it up, followed by Dwayne and Cathy, then Will and Carrie followed. John gave it a few tries and wasn't making it, so we backed Will up, put a strap on John and Terri and Will pulled them up the last 20 feet or so. Shawn and Jill were next, and after a few tries Shawn opted for help as well. We used a winch and snatch block this time to allow for a straighter pull up the hill since using a strap on John and Terri got them a little tippy and kind of close to a tree. Melissa went next and made it on her first try, followed by Peter who walked right up without even spinning a tire.
We motored along upper road until the top of Corum, where we stopped a bit to chat with Charles and his group and to watch them for a bit, then kept going to find the least difficult way down. After a couple of "wait here, let me make sure before you follow", I found U-Turn Hard and we headed down. On a side note, the topic of signing up the trails came up more than once over the weekend. We all made it down without incident; Will and Carrie needed a little spotting and a little tug after getting high centered, but their rig made it through un-scathed, or at least as Carrie said once or twice, "as long as I can't see the scratches" We ran into Scott's group at the bottom, minus Scott, who were
patiently waiting for us so they could turn and head up the trail.
It was after 3:00 by this point, so we headed back towards camp so Melissa could think about packing up and so Peter could head into town to get a heater buddy. The rest of us stopped at the field by the big lake so some of the group could get some poser shot on the RTI ramp, and decide if we had time to stay out for a little while longer. I thought having the kids in the group it would be nice to head up to the overlook to get some pictures and to let them play on the rocks a bit. So after a nice little drive up and a some nice scenery, we made our way back to camp for the third and final time, where the Squires and Glasgows said their goodbyes and went on their merry way, and the rest of us settled in and did what you do at the end of a day of wheeling.
Sunday, November 18 everyone but Scott and Ryan group
Chip Woods '04 TJ, member
Jeff Huff '94 D90,
member
John and Terri Crowe YJ, members
Josh Sprinkle and Wes Lunsford '08 JKU, members
Jason Lavender and his son Ethan '94 D90, non-members
Preston Crum with Jeff Jurgrau riding passenger, big blue YJ, both members
Peter Converse big yellow CJ, member
Charles Galpin '94 D90, member
We got an earlier start this morning, with the intent of getting back to camp a little earlier so we could pack up and hit the road before it got dark. We started by going through Camp 6 into the woods by the mud pits and headed towards Loop 10. So after making our way up and down the hills and either through or around the mud pits we made it to Loop 10 where some of the group played a bit.
We then made our way towards Snake, with some help from Preston to make sure we were going the right way, and headed on up the trail. About half of the group took the left hand side of the trail, which is the easier way up, and the other half
took the right side, which goes up a ditch, and is the harder way. As people made it up the hill to a good flat spot and parked, some of us walked back down to watch while others hung out and chatted. As Charles was making his way up with a little guidance from Jeff, he blew a bead. No biggie; he used his newly installed winch to secure his rig to a tree, got the tire off of the ground with a Hi-Lift, and went to work. He had tight quarters to work in due to how narrow the ditch was, but with Jeff lending a second set of hands they made short work of it. We did have to play Power Tank shuffle down the long, steep hill, with John and Josh first meeting me halfway with mine, then when it ran out of air, Peter meeting John halfway with his.
After Charles got moving again, we continued up Snake, turned left at the top of the hill, and headed into Camp 8. In Camp 8, we made a left thinking there was an easier way down
to the Log Bridge and Trickle area, but the trail we turned on was I believe to be Squealer, and which according to the map Charles had was blue-black, and it would have been more than Josh would have been able to handle in a stock vehicle. So we turned around and reversed the order, with Charles taking up the lead and me being tailgunner.
We decided to go through the 101 area, with a reminder to Josh to stay out of the water (see trail report above), and make a left onto what we thought was called Mish-Mash and continued with the plan to head towards Log Bridge and Trickle. Things were moving along nicely, we were on a pretty flat narrow trail with a steep drop off on our right, until it started heading downhill again. I'm not sure of the name, I think it was a lower portion of Squealer, but Charles was mentioning over the radio that it was kinda ugly in spots, then it was getting worse, and then whoops, this is pretty bad. At this point I
started to try to get Josh to stop his descent, since he didn't have a CB and missed Charles's commentary on the trail, but he was two rigs in front of me and by the time I got out of my rig to catch up to him he was too far ahead. By the time I did catch up to him, he had found out on his own that it would have made for a long day if he continued any further, so he decided he'd rather turn around. We waited for Charles to finish spotting Jeff down , then he walked up the hill and we came up with a plan to turn Peter around as well, and get him up the hill in front of Josh so there would be a winch available should we need it. That didn't work out quite the way we planned, but Josh did get turned around and with Charles riding with him, he made it up just fine under his own power.
From here, Charles walked back down the hill to go with Preston, Jason, and Jeff to make their way back to camp from the bottom of the hill, and I went John and Terri, Josh and Wes, and Peter the way we came. We all arrived back within about fifteen minutes of each other, and we started breaking down camp and called it a day.
Chip Woods
2012 OCC President