Deja's October trail ride to Paragon had a decent turnout despite the interesting weather. Luckily the day wasn't a waste as the rain cleared up mid-morning and didn't show again until we were leaving, at which point it was more sleet than rain. In attendance was: clendaniel, coronaextra007, daddanelena, Way of the Jeep, J-Man, shorebird, nitroRubi, and Claymont Hillbilly (along with various passengers). After a rainy trip up to the park and unloading/airing down we headed out into the park as a mixed group with a couple of newbies to the trails. As far as the rigs, though, the 'least' capable would've been a stock Rubi so that put us into pretty good shape.
We started the day on the Bunny Loop just to give the couple new guys a taste of what it was about. After a slight delay after I was called back to the office to pick up J-man who was running late we headed to Turtle via one of the hillclimbs in the play area...I gave everyone the option of trying the climb or I'd lead part of the group around, much to my surprise everyone took the climb.
After an uneventful trip down Turtle we headed towards the Spare Tires. I hadn't been in that section of the park for awhile...a fair amount of trails and access roads are closed in that area making it a bit difficult to navigate. We headed out Haul Rd. past the Mine Shaft and on to Outer Spare Tire where I headed across the water crossing and was a bit hesitant due to the _very_ high water from all the rain. But our group was pretty fearless and everyone made it across without incident. I made it through the mudhole but was the only one and we had to snatch out J-man and Matt. Since Inner Spare tire was closed we hit boyscout and then headed to what's left of the Spring for lunch.
Matt was having a bit of overheating after his trip in the mud so we checked it out while at lunch...nothing was really apparent except for a possible weak fan clutch and some radiator blockage. Once done lunch we decided to kick it up a bit on Rocky Meadow...it's a blue rated trail and the opening obstacle makes it look difficult but it settles down afterwards. We then headed up an unmarked hillclimb section that left us on Logging Rd and Matt with a non-functioning fan clutch. After rigging up his fan with a few zipties we headed up Logging Road and into Rock Swamp which was pretty fun due to the excess water. Since it was getting towards the end of the day and we were on the far side of the park I pointed us in the direction of the exit figuring we'd hit a couple smaller trails to close out the day.
We cut across Lucky on the way to Valley Road where we had to stop for a bit so that Brad could troubleshoot a squealing from his frontend which turned out to be a rock caught in the brakes. The group made it to Coal road shortly after 4pm and knowing that we'd need to be out of the park by 5pm I figured we'd close the day with the two lower loops of Chicken Run. Surprisingly we completed both in record time and were back to the parking lot at 4:30 where we checked out, aired up, and headed for the Exxon.
Thanks to everybody that attended...I was a little concerned due to the mixture of the group but it turned out pretty well and everyone seemed to have a good time. See you next time...
--Ian
