Memorial Day Rausch Creek Trip May 22nd -25th, 2015
By Ed Salas
Friday/Saturday
We all met up around 9am and by 9:45 we were ready to hit the trail. With everything going on for RC rocks the office was very busy and it took a little while to get everyone signed in. So no one would disrupt the competition the park requested that we drive around the comp area and not through it so we drove down past the old office we quickly crossed through the east property using mostly Green trails.
Once we arrived at the West Property we took J-1 down (Blue) to 17 (Black) everything was going well and we were moving at a good pace till a good size branch got wedged up under the front axle of Erik’s CJ. He was able to use his jeep to push the branch down the hill but when he got to the bottom we also realized that his front wheels were not turning. His manual locking hubs would not engage and with the loose soil we winching him to more solid ground. He continued the rest of 17 with occasional tugs to assist him over obstacles. Once we were at the end Rich escorted Erik back to camp.
The rest of the group continued on to Trail 20 (black) the rocks are big and tend to move as you drive on them so this proved to be one of the more technical trails of the day. Even though there were a few hang ups here and there for the most part everyone was able to adjust their line accordingly and not make the same mistakes as the person in front of them. We reached the end of 20 and Rich was able to catch back up to us. This is also where Peri realized he had broken his driver’s side rear limiting strap and dislocated the driver’s side rear spring. Surprisingly enough he did not damage his shock. We stopped and got his spring back in place and used Zip ties to retain the spring in position. This is also where we ate lunch.
After Lunch we drove through 13A (Blue) and crossed over Rock Creek. From here we were planning to hit the south property we all started heading in that direction the first trail hit was Cemetery (Black) Rich and Mike doubled back around and met us at the end of the trail. All of us made it through without any issues and after we were done Jeff and Peri were ready to call it a day since they had been up since 4am so they went back. We did not know it yet but due to the logging that is taking place getting around the south property proved to be a bit of a challenge. A few of the roads we normally use were blocked off after a few attempts we were able to make our way to the lake Christy and to the Quarry. After going down into the Quarry and driving out Ed Clark realized his E-locker wire had become disconnected and he quickly reconnected it. At this point we were all pretty tired so we headed back and called it a day.
Saturday Vehicles:
- Edward Salas, TJ on 37’s
- Mike Anderson, TJ on 35’s
- Jeff Jurgrau, TJ on 37’s
- Peri, TJ on 37’s
- Ed Clark, TJ on 35’s
- Erik Leuschner, CJ on 35’s
- Rich Martinez, JKUR on 35’s
- Edward Salas, TJ 37’s
- Rich Martinez, JKUR on 35’s
- Craig McVeay, JKUR on 35’s
Sunday:
Sunday we explored the North Property Rich can elaborate more on exactly what trails we hit . Since the area is still relatively new there is a large network of Green trails. I will say the stuff on that side that is not green is Steep Hills with very interesting rocks.
I want to send one last shout out to those who showed up to wheel. This trip was great and I had a great time wheeling with all of you.
Sunday Vehicles:
See you on the trail!