Well....this trip proved to be as exciting, if not more, than other RC trips. In attendence we had Andrew (BlueJ), Ian (Clendaniel), Abbey and Paul (prm99v6), Greg (Jeepers), Dave (MellowYellow), Tom (Orange Crush), Nikki (NikkiYJ), Donnie (DCC), and myself with passenger Dave (DaveH).
Saturday we split into two groups with Andrew leading Tom in his "throw-away CJ" and Abbey and Paul in Abbey's '04 TJ. Everyone else ran in my group. We started out on Trail 4 which has two deep tank traps and a challenging Black bypass. I believe everyone made it through this without a hitch on one or both days. From there we headed to Trail 2 which was full of watery tank traps and steep inclines. Greg and Ian showed everyone how it was done when it came to the deep tank traps. Greg managed to claim the new "Greg's Mud Hole". It only seemed to be about 3' deep but the bottom was soft and mucky. The water was pretty much up to the shifter in his jeep. (See pictures). Once we recovered Greg's jeep we headed up to Crawler Ridge to meet up with Andrew and the group for some lunch. After lunch we headed over to the West Side to try out trail 10 as one group. The map said it was a blue for the deep muddy ruts. They weren't kidding. These ruts swallowed anything on 33s and below. We made it through 10A and onto 10B where I managed to cover the entire Jeep (inside and out) with mud and get really stuck. Andrew was just dieing to try out his winch so he yanked me out of the way and made his way up to yank the rest of the group. Dave was next and gave it about 5 tries before the mud got the best of him. Andrew proceeded to winch up the rest of the group. We hit 10C and headed back to camp.
Sunday started out with everyone but Greg and Dave who headed out Saturday evening and Sunday morning. We staying in one group and left Tom's CJ and Abbey's TJ at the camp and headed toward trail 5 (a challenging black). Andrew led the way and chose some difficult lines. We all made it through with a ton of spotting but no one got stuck or broke. We ran into two other groups of Jeeps half way through the trail along with 2 buggies. We watched them scale some vertical rock faces and made out way back over to the black obstacle on 4. Eveyone made it through this just fine. I was going good at the tail end when all of a sudden the brake pedal when to the floor. Not good on a downhill. I figured "great, two trips in a row I break my brakes" Ended up the banjo bolt on the passenger side loosened up. Quick fix. From there the general concenus was to call it a day as it began to rain (RC curse) and the campers still had to break down camp.
Amazing weekend with a great crew. And no breakages which is always a plus. My dad managed to take some great pictures (132 of them) so be sure to take a look.
http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=2780520093
-Chris
) but all in all it was great. Got to sleep out in the woods, and enjoy the campfire. Again to lynn, thanks for the wood.
Shocks don't make a very good limiting strap. Hopefully by the next RC trip I'll have OCII finished. May start building the 3 bay garage next month so to work on the jeep inside.