Off Camber Crawlers 20th Anniversary trip
October 8th and 9th 2017
Bryan Folts, member, YJ - Saturday Trail Leader/Sunday Tail Gunner
DK & Natalie Stewart, JKUR
Alan Staiman and Teah the Wheeling Puppy, JKR - Sunday Trail Leader
Mike Anderson, TJ
Patrick Wilson and family, JKUR
John Harvin, TJR
The off-camber Crawlers 20th anniversary run started with plans to go to Uhwarrie.
About a week before we we discovered that Jeep Jamboree was that same weekend and it really would have been just a bit too crowded to do any wheeling. I looked for other ideas and places we had not yet been to. I remembered that Anthracite off-road Adventure area was the new park that only recently had opened up Trails for full-size vehicles. I decided this would be an excellent time to take a small group there and see what it was like. I made the arrangements and set up the trip.
I arrived up at the campground on Friday night to find Brian & Mike already set up with DK & Natalie setting up their camp. Patrick was set up over in the RV area (bigger campsites). John Harvin decided he was going to Hotel it and show up at the campground that Saturday morning. The campground itself is a bit rough having only been open this spring they haven't yet got water or electricity but they intend on getting some of that in the future.
Saturday AM John arrived and we al headed to the the check-in area where they have a very nice building with meeting rooms, and some swag for sale. The Park has large parking lots for trailers and a picnic area with a shelter. They have a very cool online check in system to do your reservations online. This guarantees all of your info is in their database. We all got checked in got our wristbands and our Maps (they have a pretty good map that you download with an app.
Brian took lead and we started with the east side. Teah & I had fun . until we were on SOB. Patrick & I were walking the trail to see how hard it was. I got stung, then as we came back Teah started crying and barking.. She was literlally covered head to tail with wasps! I grabbed her and began running. Al the while brushing the wasps off of her and off of me! I got stunk 6 or 7 times, she got stung a lot. We got back to the jeep and Patrick had benadryl so I gace her half a tablet and me half. She was fine... if a bit lumpy that night.
That evening we went to the Ale House downtown for dinner in Shamokin PA. The food wasn't bad, the beer was good the service not so good next time which was a better place.
On Sunday I was the trip leader and we decided to run the West Side. The West Side actually has active coal mines so it's limited only open on weekends and only between 9 a.m. and 2:30. The first thing we did was covering some ground to get to Unique rock formation called the Humpback. It really is an amazing bit of smooth rock that looks like the back of a whale about 80 feet high and several hundred feet long we stopped for some photos ahd to admire the view on this cool clear day. We then then kept on driving toward a large 'play area'. Most of the roads in this side of the park are just bumpy muddy Camp Road Style with some Trails running off them. We made it over to a sort of a four-by-four playground area and did some crossings of some little ravines, a bunch of mud pits and then I led us down to a trail called Rock Creek. Unlike the Rausch Creek version this is just a muddy twisty trail with some really deep mud holes and then the last mud hole is actually a rocky bottom pit. Going to the first Mud Hole.. I had forgotten to put the jeep into 4 wheel drive. Traction control kicked in..and I was stopped. Mike was behind me and I did not want to have to get out in the mud get a strap to him. I put it in 4 Low turned on the lockers, rocked abck & forth while sawing thwe wheel and was finally able to break myself free of the mud. The map showed most of these trails were green or low blue.
We saw a good looking all blue trail with some red off of it on the far side of the park. We passed 2 or 3 active mines (tunnel mines I'm told) on our way the area to the north side which was rated as a blue Trail we got off on the start of the Blue Trail and it seemed like a nice and rocky sort of path. Mike and John took a hard Loop up off it got stuck a few times and finally made it down. While we were waiting for them a bunch of motorcycles came up looked at the upper route said no and try to continue on forward. After we got back together we started to move forward and the trail became much more difficult. The motorcyclist turned around and we gave it one more go. After a lot fo bumps, grinds and other noises I decided that it was getting too difficult for my vehicle and we are starting to run towards the time we had to get out of there.
Some very very good spotting by everyone involved allowed all of us to get all the vehicles turned around and get everybody out mostly undamaged (or so we thought). We reached the main (green) trial and started on our way to the gate. It was already 2:00 so Brian called the office to tell them we would be late.
We started the long run down this Wooded Trail on the Ridgeline towaed the gate. Somewhere along the way we colleced a gaggel fo ATVs & quads also running to get to the gate. Finally we made it to the gate at 2:30 just as they were about to lock it. We all went back and checked in at the office. Patrick had already planned to head home so he aired up and went back to break down his camp. Mike and I went over and met the park manager and talked with him about how the park was going and how OCC could work with him to get some sponsorship for club events in exchange for us publicising the park. He was very interested in getting full sized vehicles (as most of their traffic is ATV & dirt bikes). We had a good talk and he gave us hsi business cards and asked us to email him. Originally we had planned to spend the night and then head home on Monday but with it incoming rains we all went back broke camp and headed towards home. On the way home as as previously reported Brian had a problem with his Jeep and his rear axle started leaking fluid. Mike came to the rescue and followed him him back toward . I stopped at the Dillsburg Car wash to get the mud off the Jeep. 10$ later.. it was mostly clean.
Overall the trip was a lot of fun. Its a really nice park with a lot of trails (mostly greens) but a good bunch of harder trails. A lot of it is really good for stock or lightly modified vehicles. So its not Rauch but it has a lot of potential for much harder trails.
Thanks to all who attended.
Alan J. Staiman
Professional Pyrotechnician
VA4WDA Board member 2004-2010
Off Camber Crawlers Founding Member
1986 Jeep CJ7
2014 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon X
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