- Details
- Written by Scott Scott LeLacheur
After lunch we split into three groups. Jeff took the highest level group, I took the middle group, and Charles took the lower group.
- Details
- Written by Scott Scott LeLacheur
Big Dogs Main Jambo September 9th-September 11th 2011
We had originally planned on leaving Thursday night, but due to Tropical Storm Lee and the massive amount of rain he gave us we decided to leave Friday...Route 1 was closed and we could not get to our trailer and Jeep.
We finally arrived at The Cove about 3:30 pm on Friday. Pete Soski met us at the Big Dogs sign in table and then we headed to Camp 2 to set up camp. We got a new "Family Tent", which we decided to try out. Chip Woods arrived about 5:30. He forgot his tent, so it was a good thing we bought a new tent, so we could lend him our other one. We decided to venture over to the mud pit around 8pm. Not much to talk about. Same spectacle, different year. We headed back to camp around 9pm. After many attempts to start a fire we gave up. Pete Soski even tried spraying brake cleaner on the logs and then lighting it, but that did not even work. The wood was to damp.
Saturday the drivers meeting started at 9am, the meeting was surprisingly short.
Read more: 2011 Big Dogs Main Jambo September 9th-September 11th
- Details
- Written by Alan
Inspiration for the trip to GW came from talking to a lifelong friend of mine,
Toshi Eto, and the need for his to get his nice new 2010 Toyota Tacoma TRD
Offroad lifted supercharged rig a little dirty. He purchased the truck a year
ago, and has modified it for his needs over that time, but hadn't been afforded
the opportunity to properly take it off road. We kicked the idea around and
decided on the weekend of the 29th.
Alan Staiman is also at the top of my invite list any time I plan to get off
pavement and initially it was just going to be the three of us heading down
towards Harrisonburg. Then Toshi invited his friend John from tacomaworld.com to
come with his new lifted Tacoma, and with the pending snow fall I thought others
may be pretty interested so posted to the OCC message list to offer the ride to
any other list members.
Our final tally for the trip was:
Alex Melnichak – '97 XJ – Guest
Alan Staiman – '86 CJ7 – Member/MAL
Toshi Eto +1 – '10 Tacoma – Guest
John Davis – '10 Tacoma – Guest
Chris Stewart +1 +dog – JK Rubicon - Member
DKStewart +'01 TJ full of girls – Member
Steven Ortiz +1 – '97 TJ – Guest
We all met at Sheetz in Harrisonburg around 10am, departed by 1030 and stopped
at the closed down Food Lion a few more miles down 33 for me to de-trailer and
Alan to de-flat tow. After that we headed out to Flagpole Knob via Clover Hill
Rd to Union Springs Road.
The weather couldn't have been better for us today. Temps were 36-45, sunny,
clear skies. Snow on the trail was anywhere from 2" to 24" depending on what
side of the mountain we were on at the time and how the wind moved the drifts
around. I'd say average depth we were driving through was probably 5-8" of hard
packing slick snow.
Once passed the end of state maintenance, we were quickly stopped at the first
switchback/gate with Alan's engine steaming over. It was realized that his
coolant/water level was simply too low and needed to be filled after throwing up
some mud colored water. Max the dog loaned Alan a half gallon of water and we
were off again.
Our next incident reared up during the first long steady uphill section prior to
the sharp left switchback. Toshi was stopped on the uphill climb and couldn't
find any traction to get moving again. All attempts came with more downhill
sliding towards John's rig and various trees. Once we reversed all rigs behind
his Tacoma, DK loaned his tire deflators to try to grab more traction before
attempting the hill again. At this time, everyone else in the group aired down
too for good measure. Except for me. I'm lazy. After positioning Toshi for a
better approach, he was able to make the rest of the climb without issue.
The only strap of the day appeared on the steep hill climb with small off camber
rocks. Steven couldn't get his well worn Baja Claws to grab hold of anything
after several attempts, so he was snatched up and over the obstacle.
Those Claws would soon become the biggest obstacle of the day, lending a hand in
teaching Steven how to pick the proper lines especially in the snow. Several
more of the hill climbs proved to be a challenge for those tires, but with much
finesse and skinny pedal all were conquered.
While the main group stopped at the Meadow to check out the clear views, DK hit
the road to get Shania back to town for theater tonight.
The rest of us continued on to Flagpole Knob for some photos, then down the
mountain to pavement. We decided to run up the winding narrow road to Reddish
Knob also for some gorgeous snow covered valley views before departing for the
day.
- Details
- Written by Charles Galpin
What a day!
We had excellent weather and an excellent turnout of 14 vehicles in a nice cross-brand mix spanning 47 years. The list included (sorry for not knowing all the passengers)
BobbyO in a TJ
Carroll Jenkins in a 92 XJ with 2 passengers (wife and daughter?)
Charles Galpin in a '63 Series IIA Land Rover
Chip Woods in an 04 TJ
Chris barker in a 01 f150
Dan Finnegan in a 1984 D90 300TDi with wife and dog
Dana Gramling in a '07 FJ and 2 daughters
David Short in a 1980 stage 1 defender with his daughter
Grant Miller in a 1998 Toyota 4 runner with his wife
Jonathan Short in a 94 Bronco and his son
Pedro Luina in a '96 Disco I
Rick Vergot in a 2003 Jeep Wrangler with his gf Carla
Scott Riney in a 2010 JK unlimited with his son and a friend
Stephen Gibbs in a 2003 TJ Rubicon with a nice pickup cab fitted
We met up at Wendy's but David Short called to say he was running late as he missed the exit. Pedro needed to gas up so he offered to wait for him and the rest of us got going. My truck doesn't go super fast so I knew they could catch up ok. It was an uneventful trip other than the rear section of my exhaust breaking off about 20 miles before Harrisonburg, but that in no way diminished the pumped feeling I had that I had passed 2 trucks on the way. I lost count of how many passed me :)
Carroll met us at Sheetz, and after we fueled up and I attempted to re-hang the rear section of my exhaust with a coat hanger from Bobby, we headed out to the trail. Once on the trail I decided I should just pull the rear section of exhaust and some of us aired down to have a smoother ride. The ride to the top was uneventful but pleasant. In just a week the leaves had changed colors quit a bit. We also saw far less trash than I did the week before, but we still picked up a fair amount.
At the top we had lunch and chit chatted for a bit, before heading to meadow knob for more chit chat and photos and then headed down the mountain (Jonathan Short peeled off at this point and took the fast/paved way down). There were 2 interesting spots on the way down where we paused and took photos, and made sure no-one had any trouble.
We headed back to Sheetz to fuel up and get a snack, take potty breaks etc before heading back. At this point David, Chip, Chris and I decided we wanted to run Peter's Mill on the way back, so we peeled off at Edinburg and got passes at the first gas station before heading to the trail. I missed the trail head turn so David jumped into the lead and led the trail. The trail had some nice loose rock sections and in general was great fun. We got off the trail around 7:15 and David stopped for dinner while the rest of us high-tailed it back to town.
I had a number of folks tell me how much fun they had, as well as how much their spouses enjoyed it, so very happy about that. It sounds like it's just the right level of trails for first timers.
charles
- Details
- Written by Alan
We met at Sheetz in Harrisonburg at 9 o'clock. We couldn't have asked for
better weather….not too cold and not raining. People who attended were:
- Alan & Melanie & Pugsley Staiman (member), F-350
- Chip Woods (member), TJ
- Dana Gramling & family, FJ
- Keith Robertson, Maureen, Garrett and Haden (member), JK
- Kofi Griffin and family (member), Pathfinder
- Rich Martinez (member), CJ
- Alex Melnichak, Ram pickup
- Eric Sosa (member) , TJ Unlimited
- KP Murphy (member), ??
- Garrett Wolthuis and Jason (member), JK
We headed up Union Springs Rd. into the GWNF. The roads were clear so it was
an easy ride. Once into the NF we began to encounter patches of snow/slush and
a little ice. On one minor uphill climb the black CJ-5 had all four wheels on
an ice patch and had to finally put it in 4-wheel drive to make it the few feet.
Some of the others noticed this little challenge as we continued up the road.
Eventually, the patches turned to near constant slush and ice; just enough to
keep the driver's attention.
mini-rock garden that a few in the group went up and down a couple of times. I
think this is where Maureen got behind the wheel. (did I get that right?)
The snow, slush and ice got a little deeper in places as we moved on towards
Flagpole Knob. Meandering on we came the next little rocky area that allowed
for some optional fun. A couple of folks in the group decided to have some fun
climbing up the little rock wall. Koffe and his famkily had a snowball fight.
Next stop was lunch at the big meadow. Luckily the weather held and the wind
was tolerable as we lined up for a group photo and the food was consumed. After
lunch we finished the Flagpole Knob section and took a little detour to the
lookout on Reddish Knob. The view was spectacular even with the gray skies.
From there was headed back to town and said our goodbyes.
Read more: 2011 New Years Day Run to Flagpole Knob, George Washington National Forrest
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