** DEJA Trail Ride at RC - Nov 24 2012 **

Ok here are the ones I took, enjoy! (of course I think photobucket loads them in reverse order sorry)

http://s1224.beta.photobucket.…hill1/library/Rausch11-12

It was difficult being in the front and trying to get pics of everybody going over stuff, but I tried to run back and forth. Trust me Randy, I love driving "our" jeep... set it and forget it! She loves me too. Anyway, by the time I grabbed the camera RECON was the last one to go through Fire Pit. I missed pics of Joel trying to get his JK sucked into a sinkhole right before he went through it, oh and almost flopping on that "technical" line behind the old registration building but at least it made for an interesting and exciting end to the day! Well that and the apple cobbler birthday cake thing from O'Neal's Good times with good friends, new and old. It was cold and windy but worth it! Trail damage was minor with a steering-something hanging off of Spedly's and some coolant leakage from Nandos. But a great first trip for a few in our group, always a good time!

Here are some pictures that my right-seater Bill took.

[img width=1200 height=800]http://www.delawareja.com/gall…nloadItem&g2_itemId=40766[/img]

[img width=1200 height=800]http://www.delawareja.com/gall…nloadItem&g2_itemId=40770[/img]

[img width=1200 height=800]http://www.delawareja.com/gall…nloadItem&g2_itemId=40773[/img]

[img width=1200 height=800]http://www.delawareja.com/gall…nloadItem&g2_itemId=40776[/img]

[img width=1200 height=800]http://www.delawareja.com/gall…nloadItem&g2_itemId=40785[/img]

[img width=1200 height=799]http://www.delawareja.com/gall…nloadItem&g2_itemId=40782[/img]

[img width=1200 height=800]http://www.delawareja.com/gall…nloadItem&g2_itemId=40779[/img]

Nice pics, thanks Chris.

Quote from shorebird

Since most of the report is here anyway, I'll continue. We broke up to 3 groups, Red, Blue /Black, and Green/Blue.

... and I'll continue further. I led the Red group, which started the day as a group of just two - myself and Aaron (astape). We covered a lot of ground, partially because there was a lot of backtracking. Usually in my trail reports, I'll omit listing the incidental green trails that we use to access the Reds/Blacks/Blues. But in this case, I'll detail the trails, if only for my own amusement and that of those in my group. I say amusement, because to me, the repeated traversing of a few of the trails bordered on comical.

I decided to run the West property because I wanted to run some of the Red trails there. We took B > Pole Line > down J > 15 and started off on Crawl Daddy (Red). Crawl Daddy was loads of fun, and uneventful for the most part. Early into the trail, I heard a playing-card-in-the-bicycle-spokes sound, which turned out to be a cracked mechanical fan shroud. I simply snapped off the broken part that the fan was hitting. A few minutes later, more of the same sound, prompting me to just remove the remainder of the shroud. No biggie. Aaron spotted me through a few of the tougher sections.

to be continued...

... continued...

Crawl Daddy is one way up, and terminates halfway back up Trail J. So 11 to get us to Trail 20 (Black). I wanted to run 20 up, which terminates on 12B (Blue), which subsequently terminates back near the top of Trail J (one-way down). Aaron got a call that Dee (RedOliver) and Chris (Quadna) wanted to wheel with us, so back down J > up H to meet them at the nexus of H, J, E, Tower Road ,etc....

The group wanted to run 13A (blue/black), so back down J > 11 > 13A. Near the terminus of 13A, I took a quick poll to determine if the group wanted to try Otter's (Red) or preferred to continue on to 13B (also blue/black). Otter's was the unanimous vote. That is where the fun with Quadna's tires occurred (see pic above).

to be continued...

... continued...

I feel it necessary here to point out that before entering Otter's, Aaron jokingly mentioned that his only concern with our group on Otter's was Quadna's lovely alloy wheels. I don't know if Aaron's comment was a coincidence, an eerie case of prescience, or a jinx, but a while into Otter's, Chris slid sideways off a rock and BOOM! popped the rear driver-side tire off its rim. The wheel itself was tight against a huge rock, making it impossible to either swap on a spare or reset the bead, so we had to move the Jeep a few feet, dragging the wheel violently against said rock. Not lovely. Once we moved the Jeep to a spot with some room to work, Chris was able to reset the bead with his handy-dandy CO2 tank.

Not much further ahead, Otter's ends with a sharp turn onto Trail 16. By the time Aaron and I had turned onto 16, I overheard that Chris had popped another tire off its rim. I thought someone was kidding. No one was kidding. Although it was somewhat amusing in a WTF kinda way. Fortunately enough, the handy-dandy CO2 tank had plenty of reserve to reset yet another bead! It went rather quickly this time. We are all now experts in trail bead-setting. And Chris' lovely alloy rims are now battle scarred.

We ran Trail 16 (Black) up to 11 - yes, Trail 11 again, and this is not even close to the last time I'd be on Trail 11 this day. We were considering heading out, but Aaron said he probably had enough fuel to run one more trail. The key word here being 'probably'. You might be able to see where this is going....

to be continued...

It's my fault he ran out of gas. I fixed his motor with a new set of spark plugs, and it is impossible for him to have _no_ problems for a weekend...

And the jeep ran really well with those new plugs.........while it had gas.

[img width=883 height=883 alt=JEEP11-12014.jpg]http://i1224.photobucket.com/a…sch11-12/JEEP11-12014.jpg[/img]

Nice air Shawn!

Quote from altierior

I feel it necessary here to point out that before entering Otter's, Aaron jokingly mentioned that his only concern with our group on Otter's was Quadna's lovely alloy wheels. I don't know if Aaron's comment was a coincidence, an eerie case of prescience, or a jinx, but a while into Otter's, Chris slid sideways off a rock and BOOM! popped the rear driver-side tire off its rim. The wheel itself was tight against a huge rock, making it impossible to either swap on a spare or reset the bead, so we had to move the Jeep a few feet, dragging the wheel violently against said rock. Not lovely. Once we moved the Jeep to a spot with some room to work, Chris was able to reset the bead with his handy-dandy CO2 tank.

Not much further ahead, Otter's ends with a sharp turn onto Trail 16. By the time Aaron and I had turned onto 16, I overheard that Chris had popped another tire off its rim. I thought someone was kidding. No one was kidding. Although it was somewhat amusing in a WTF kinda way. Fortunately enough, the handy-dandy CO2 tank had plenty of reserve to reset yet another bead! It went rather quickly this time. We are all now experts in trail bead-setting. And Chris' lovely alloy rims are now battle scarred.

I just felt that if we had the ability to improve the time needed to reset a bead....then we had the obligation to do so! In my defense, I believe I had cleared at least a solid 25' further along the trail before popping the second bead... I've never been concerned with the look of the wheels as I just picked them up used from a fellow deja member

Okay, sorry - carry on with the summary!

Quote from quadna

I just felt that if we had the ability to improve the time needed to reset a bead....then we had the obligation to do so!

Mission accomplished! Thank you, kind sir, for the education. That was very thoughtful of you

Quote from quadna

In my defense, I believe I had cleared at least a solid 25' further along the trail before popping the second bead...

Had the second event not happened so soon, we would have risked me forgetting what I had learned with the first one. This way, I got the chance to immediately practice my new skill.

Quote from quadna

Okay, sorry - carry on with the summary!

If you insist.

Quote from altierior

We were considering heading out, but Aaron said he probably had enough fuel to run one more trail.

One more trail.... yeah, right...

I decided we'd head to Trail 19, as it has a Black section and a Red section - something for everyone! So 11 > 19. The Red section of 19 is a short loop with a steep rocky hillclimb, a very off-camber turn, then steep and rocky back down. Aaron headed up. Despite repeated and valiant attempts to follow, I couldn't get enough traction, so I bailed. By the time Dee was ready to head up, we realized that Aaron's rig was sitting at the top of the trail, all off-camber with its passenger tires high on a rock, and out of gas. He yelled to me that there was still fuel, but it had flowed to one end of his tank (foiled again by the laws of physics), and if we could get his rig level, he'd be able to fire up the engine and make it down the hill.

I figured we had two choices:
A.) Dee could head up and winch him off the rock; he'd finish the loop under his own power with the little fuel that remained; then I'd probably have to tow him back to the parking lot.
B.) Someone would have to make a fuel run.

to be continued...

Quote from Mskillen

Anybody else have any pictures to share from Randys group on Saturday?

Just wondering lol

I have a few from my iphone. Dang camera batteries died.

The first 2 are videos

Quote from altierior

I figured we had two choices:
A.) Dee could head up and winch him off the rock; he'd finish the loop under his own power with the little fuel that remained; then I'd probably have to tow him back to the parking lot.
B.) Someone would have to make a fuel run.

to be continued...

Display More

... continued...

We opted for Plan B. I don't know why. In retrospect, it would have been fun to tow Aaron back to the parking lot. Oh, the shame!

But instead I escorted Dee back to the parking lot. Back to Trail 11 > up H > Tower Road> Pole Line > G > B to the office. She borrowed a gas can from the office and had to make a run to the Exxon. My trail rig isn't tagged, so I just waited in the parking lot. Upon her return, we headed back to rescue Aaron via B (again) > Pole Line (again) > Tower Road (again) > down the Power Line, where I nearly flopped turning onto a shortcut to H > 11 (again) > 19. Aaron fueled up, and we headed back.

Yes, I'm gonna say it:
11 (yet again) > H up (yet again) > Tower Road (yet again) > Pole Line (yet again) > G (yet again) > B (yet again) > parking lot.

Well my group started out with Neil, Dee, Chris and Captian. We did all of the blue trails on the East property and started on the west when Dee and Chris decided to meet up with Arron instead. Neil broke a spring then we headed out to the lot and lunch. After lunch Captian and I headed to the south property were we ran 23, 15, 20, 9 and a few others. Tim JKRanger08 did great with his Jeep and his 1st time out. In the course of the day we manged to hit green, blue, purple and black trails. Thanks for a great day.

Here are some pics from the day
Tim on RTI Ramp
Chris on Trail 2
Dee on same thing
Chris stuck on some rocks!!!
And some Captain on the rocks

Here's shutterfly link to some of the photos we took while on the trail ride this past saturday. More photos to come... BEEP BEEP IN THE JEEP!
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0YcMWLlsxbPKg