Trail Report & Pics Anthracite November 20, 2016

This was the official DeJA trail ride for November 2016. We were at Anthracite Outdoor Adventure Area near Shamokin, PA, and we had quite a turnout, with a total of 12 Jeeps in attendance. We didn't take roll call, but it was something like this: Slowpoke, @WILLYN, @whatevah, @Stafford, @ForMud, @Imarammr, @Buster Stewart, @daddanelena, @Erock, @shadyluke, @astape, and @JKgray10, plus several hearty and distinguished shotgun riders, including Wendy (who took the excellent group photo) and Imarrammr's wife Karen.

The O'Neal's/Hampton Inn crowd showed up at 9:45 -- next time invite the rest of us to the big Waffle House breakfast, and you're treating! -- and you have to be off the trails by 3:30 at Anthracite in the winter, so it wasn't a real long day, but we got off to a good start, with all but big-tire boys Astape and JKGray10 running the access road out to 705 and Renee's Hill, which we call Randy's Hill from the time he broke a rear drive shaft and both front axles on it! Whateveh and Wendy braved it first in his JK Rubicon, starting out at a crawl. We said they'd never make it like that, but a couple of good bumps got them over the bigger rocks and up to the top. Then Daddanelena went up at a brisk pace, 'til we heard a loud pop when ripped a six-inch gash in his right rear tire, clear from the tread to the steel rim, and also dented the inside of the rim real good. Jerry winched him up the rest of the way and they changed the tire. The rest of us turned left and circled around to meet them near the top. We started back down Randy's Hill, only to find Astape and JKGray10 off to the side near the top with Matt's hood open. Aaron said he had it under control, and the first four of us bumped on down the hill, but Stafford and the others figured they better stop and help Matt repair his fuel injection. They got that fixed and we headed over to the Bat Caves where the good Jeep trails are (Anthracite has a huge amount of ATV and dirt bike trails). There are bypass trails on the right and left and a big rocky hill in the middle with several hard lines. I took the middle way up the creek, had to winch it a little half way up, then again at the top where a big tree root blocks the path. Meanwhile, Jerry and some of the others started up another hard line to the left. Jerry made it right up to the top with some rock stacking and, despite a determined effort, had to be winched the last few feet up to the top.

There are some good rock gardens back down at the bottom of the hill, but we decided to head uphill instead. We found ourselves back at the top of Randy's Hill, so instead of going down again we went straight and found another descent marked with two black diamonds. It was twisty and had a nasty drop-off part way down, but we thought it was doable, so I started down, pointed it to the right of the drop-off, and promptly slid three feet to the left on soft ground. Stafford thought I was going to roll and came running to help, but it didn't feel that close. I had a tree behind my left rear, so we had to winch it sideways with a snatch block, then straight back to keep it from going over the drop-off. We all decided to back out after that. It was going on 3:00 by then, so we started following the purple diamonds back to the parking lot, did a couple of side trails and wound up at the parking lot before 3:30.

All in all a good day at Anthracite and a nice change from Rausch Creek. The new folks did really well and said they had a good time. We're getting more used to the layout and the maps, with a little help from Maplets, but it's probably true that Anthracite has more easy greens and hard blacks and fewer intermediate blue trails to challenge a lot of our Jeeps. The only trail damage/breakage was Wayne's tire and rim and one of my new front shocks that fell off -- again! The only thing I would do different is that next time we get that big of a crowd we'll probably split into two groups of 4 to 6 Jeeps at the beginning.

We don't have an official club ride scheduled for December but will post up and see if we can get a group for Rausch before Christmas.

Thanks everyone!

Slowpoke (Jay McMillan)

Some pics from the trail ride.

I had a great time on this trip. It was nice to see everyone again and meet some other people too. The accommodations at the Hampton Inn were nice, and Oneals was fun too. Apparently I went there with the early crowd, and when they ditched me they all met back down there later and closed the place down. We had talked about breakfast at seven, but a later vote of a different majority decided for 7:30. I was outvoted, oh well, I wasn't going to start a riot or anything.
My hat is off to Jay for leading us into danger. The waffles are on me next time at the breakfast, we can just sneak you in the back door, the waffle machine is self serve, and they have plenty of syrup. The trails were fun for sure, I took the "go-around" on some of the crazy stuff Jay wanted to do, but only to save the group time. I couldn't believe some of the stuff he was going on, But he said he'd done it before so it was no problem. There was more winching involved yesterday than I've seen before, and Jay was giving his a workout. Jerry was just as wild heading up around Jay while he was winching himself onto the other trail. That jeep was clawing ridiculously in some huge boulders, smoking all four tires! When Jay passed Aaron and Matt we all stopped and ran over to see if he had fallen off. I came over the hill and saw how the big boys wheel. Matt was about 90 degrees straight down in a nook, and Aaron was waterskiing behind him with a tow rope looking all serious. That's about when Luke pulled down to yank Matt back out, and he found his fuel rail spewing gas onto the manifold and exhaust. They got Matt out and fixed the fuel leak and went about their business.
It's really fun wheeling with a group like this. To me it doesn't really matter how far we go or how long it takes, getting there is all the fun! I hope to see all of you back out there again next time.

Thanks for leading the pack yesterday!

A few minor updates, we used Wayne's winch to pull him up over the hill. He probably could have gotten by without it, but would have torn the tire off the wheel and been a bigger mess.

I underestimated the rocky section, I thought I was picking an easier route than Jay did, but he made it up while I was only half-way through. After many many rocks were stacked and re-stacked (thanks guys!), my bumper was at the edge of the trail, but needed the winch to finish it. Certainly a high-black rating per the Rausch Creek standards. If you guys could have seen the facial expressions @Erock was making while spotting, you might have had doubts about me ever making it through the trail. @Buster Stewart was following behind me, but wisely found an easier route up and beat me to the top.

The downhill section Jay mentioned was tricky, ERock and I were walking back up after scouting the trail and were iffy about finishing the trail before the 3:30 cutoff, but when we saw Jay start sliding, we knew we had to back out. Ended up giving us a nice demonstration on winching, provided by Buster Stewart's winch and snatchblock.

I managed to snap a swaybar link front, but otherwise everything looks normal underneath.

It was a good day, and I think AOAA has a lot of potential once we get more familiar with the trail system. Thanks Jay for leading the way, and thanks for posting the pictures Ed.
No trail damage for the day. I just need to figure out how to get around the traffic in Shamokin and Minersville, it was slow moving on my way out. See you all next time.

Sorry about the late arrival, I did the math on breakfast and figured we'd be there by 8:30-45 but it ended up taking us longer to eat/get moving than I anticipated and I didn't realize the pete took so long to warm up before it could be driven. I also didn't realize AOAA wants everyone back in the parking lot by 3:30. That's pretty crappy. We might have to make AOAA a summer only trip if they calculate closing time based on X hours before sunset.

I have more fun on this trip than the one other time I went to AOAA, maplets definitely helped. Knowing the trails is going to be key, as Jerry said a few of us started on a hill climb that didn't seem to bad at first but definitely had some difficult spots. Would be nice if they had specific maps for the Jeep trails.

@whatevah @quadna @Slimer @KnoxRents if anyone can move the posts from after the run in the other trail thread please move them here. Thx.

hey dont blame it on the pete its really just me being slow in the morning. The 40"ers and luke had a good day. For some reason my tcase seized the low range rear output gear to the output shaft so i was stuck in low range all day. Its the second time this has happened... Might be time for an upgrade.

Quote from Stafford

@whatevah @quadna @Slimer @KnoxRents if anyone can move the posts from after the run in the other trail thread please move them here. Thx.

Done.

AOAA will be a lot better once we figure out the maps. A lot of potential, for sure.

A few photos from my mom's ( KiddoRN) phone.

And a view video clips from her phone, as well.

Last but not least... a grand entrance by @astape

I want to say thank you to everyone. Being this was our first trail ride ever, we had a hell of a time. From eating dinner with Andy, (which afterwards he decided to go back to the hotel... Don't know if it was past his bed time or if it was due to the extra service he thought they offered) to exiting to the parking lot at the end of the day. And everything in between, including smelling something burning while behind Andy, I think it had something to do with his carpet, and being told that one should not wheel without hooks being somewhere on the jeep. Everyone made it an informative and enjoyable first journey. Can't wait to do it again, it was a blast!