Pine Barrens trip August 9th

finally installed my front driveshaft, and speedo gear, then filled up with 3.59 gas next to my house. I'll refill tomorrow on the way home.

and here's the report... man was it dry!

I met up with Diablo, Chip, GhostDakota, hzryr61 and daddanelena (plus passengers and 4 legged friends), and after fixing my CB, we drove up to the forest and started exploring. I took a turnoff I hadnt tried before and predictably got stuck and my mud tires dug deep into the muddy sand. A quick pull from daddanelena and we went back to the main trail. A ways down, we came upon a washed out bridge... *sigh* u-turn...

We make our way over to the Atsion area, stop to check out an old house, then head deeper into the forest, past some old ruins and to the famed Quarter Mile area. Upon arrival (and the guys following me eating a few pounds of dust) we find that all of the Jeep-killing puddles are bone dry! We enjoyed running through the middle of ruts that would ordinarily stop us, then we dare daddanelena to try the stupidly deep holes. Predictably, he gets stuck on his diffs, and I yank him out. Scary thing is that if he was stuck there during the normal wet season, his hood would have been well under water.

After looping around the 1/4 mile, we headed for Mount Jamima, one of the few hills in south east Jersey. We all took a run at the hills climbs there, some showing off more than others. I was quite pleased how my new long arms handled the deep ruts on the hill, both climbing and descending. We met some guys from the Grassroots jeep club there, and headed out to get to Apple Pie Hill to check out the fire tower. A few horribly tight trails later, and we made it. Chatted a bit there, then split up to head home. Diablo and I checked out a huge sand pit area and ponds off Black Horse Pike on my way home.