| © Copyright 2004 - 2008 Maryland Rock Raiders 4x4 Club The Maryland Rock Raiders 4x4 club is not affiliated with Chrysler and no such association is implied. Jeep®, its model nameplates, and its corporate logos and emblems are registered trademarks of Chrysler. |
| Fund raiser off road event to benefit the American Diabetes Association 9-16-2006 Written by Tico leading the Green Trails… Well our day couldn’t have started any better, Shortly after we started I had received a call from Lynn indicating that joining me as a right seat was Chris Matt’s brother, Crazy Jimmy with his son Tim, Chantelle and husband Chris, Susan and her daughter Grace, Patty and friend Veronica, Frank Endler, and Pat Bethke and her husband. As we began are travel we roamed through trail A (the road nearest to the camp site), we worked our way to the coal pile where Crazy Jimmy put on a show for the new comers, by trying to fly like an Eagle, he actually got some air between the tire and the ground. We headed to the infamous winch hill, where we I was giving instructions on how to navigate a decent as steep as that, everyone there was capable and as I finished my instructions, I headed to the other side waiting for them to see how to get out of the pit. Pictures were taken and questions as well as concerns surfaced. Just about then I got the call from Lynn that Dylan and his little sister Emma had arrived and I excused myself from the group, letting Jimmy take the charge. I arrived at the park entrance and met with Dylan 4 and Emma 2 in her pink little motorized Jeep, spoke to their mother Lindsay and friend Christine. We staged for photos as I gave the kids a commemorative T-shirt each. Then Christine’s boyfriend and another friend followed me for a short test run of the park. The kids were happy and little Emma drove her Jeep around the stage area. Arriving back to meet the crew Crazy Jimmy had the team on 1a where they ran into another group doing the black section as we cleared the trail and came into the pole area. Ahhh…the mud hole was irresistible to Crazy Jimmy, another show ensured as he enjoyed a little mud bath. But wait, Tim had to get a go at it, and with him were Chantelle and Patty. Having made a run back into the mud hole they all got a serious mud bath, head to toe. You can see their picture for a good look how they looked. We took a few moments for the ladies to clean themselves and we proceeded to the Jeep 101 course. We did half the course to make it back to the pole line for lunch and getting to know everyone. Shortly their after Clarke and Heidi showed and headed straight to the mud hole where he broke an axle. Following him was Mark Donnellon who had endured a starter problem and later cracked the housing on the transfer transmission, then Time rice with his Grizzly Jeep. Earlier, Tim had broken the link for his front wheel drive system and fell out of the group for repairs, when he got it fixed he, Clarke and Mark return to find their group. Clarke having broken his Jeep decided to return to the truck to retrieve another axle to repair his. Once lunch was over, we headed towards trail C and as we navigated into the clearing Chris and Chantelle found a tree jumped at them from no where. We sat there trying to figure out how this could have happened in a green trail, but then I remember, nasty things can happen on the green trails too. Just as Matt Moore. We headed to the west property down the power line trail. The trail had been badly eroded by the rain and made for some difficulty to drive for the stock jeeps in particular the Liberty. We got to the bottom and took a drive through a cut on the trail that leads us into the junction of H and J trails we left on H as the time near the 3:30 hour. We made it back to the staging area and set up for the raffle. What a day, sunny, clear dry and with many new friends. Dave McShea, the Baltimore Chapter director of fund raiser met us there and became enthusiastically charged with our camaraderie. We held the raffle and gave away all that we had received from our sponsors. All being said and done we had a successful fund raiser and turn out. Bill Gilbert led the Black Trails as he writes... Let's see black trial group for the ADA ride. We had just 4 vehicles and all were fairly capable. Joining me where; Nester and his friend Eric, Paul and his wife, Randy Wood from Adventurous 4x4 and Aaron 12 my son and Wendy the trail dog. We tested the terrain to help decide which trials to take. First we headed up past the new camp 3 and took a new hill climb trail. The rocky hillside was still very wet with loose sediment making it a bit difficult to negotiate. There was a nice rock near the bottom of the trail we had to climb onto but someone else had been through and built a little staircase to soften the edge. Since the ground was still very wet we tried a few blue trials on the way to the more difficult terrain. We headed over to L3 past drain plug and squeezed in front of Bobbi's group to get to 6d. This trail proved to be no problem for the vehicles and we were through in no time. Then we headed to trail 4 from C and trail 2 past frog hole. Then we headed over to crawler ridge from the mud pit end to run it backwards. We ran into Von and Kathy coming the other way (my timing was off a little) but were able to pull over quite easily to let them pass. At the rock face at crawler ridge we all took the bypass since it was still early and very wet. We still had time before the lunch meeting so we headed over to the South property to check out Tombstone (black). The center area was full of insane lines and strictly red trail. There was a loop around the edge of Tombstone that looked interesting so I headed down going counterclockwise to leave the climb for the end. The loop was fairly easy black until the last turn to go up the rocky hill. There were a lot of mossy rocks there that were still wet making the climb a challenge. After a bit of tire spinning and working the wheel I was able to make it up. Next was randy but before I could hop out of the jeep he was already up the obstacle. That bronco is insane! Next we headed to the mud pit for lunch and pictures. Next we headed to the west property. Randy Wood said Stout Trail was one of his favorites so we headed there. The first part of the trail from H was a climb up which wasn't too bad until about 1/2 way up. Then we found some large boulders, some roots and wet terrain that required me to try several different lines to negotiate. Finally after a bit more throttle and another gear I was able to climb into a nice boulder garden. The old CJ had difficulty on this trail and took a bypass, nester opted out as well. Randy followed me up and made the loop to come back down. It was there that the terrain almost claimed my jeep body. I dropped off a rock to the right while going down hill and found myself on two wheels on the passenger side. I thought "I'm gone" and braced myself but somehow it came back down on all four. Randy was leaning quite a bit too and after peeling his fingers out of his roll bar we continued down the trial without incident. The second half of the trail was not as bad and the boulders were much smaller. We still had a lot of time so we took a right out of Stout Trail onto 10 and headed down past the mud pits. It was there that we moved to the side to allow Von and Kathy's group pass. But wait....where's Kathy? We waited but she did not pass so we decided to head down to where she would most likely be. Sure enough there she was in the mud pit on 10 with the rock in the middle. She was stalled and jammed on top of the rock with a blown bead on the front drivers tire and a smile on her face. We stopped to observe and help as needed and got to watch some creative double snatch block winching. After she was out and the tire changed we headed out to continue up trail 10 to big rocks. When we reached the big rocks we found Bobbi's group, with one jeep plugged in the center of Big Rocks. It looked bad as the front was high centered on the downhill boulder, the rear drivers tire was against a vertical boulder and there was a tree behind him preventing him from backing up. Wish I had a picture of that one. The recovery actually went quite well after moving the tree saver up about 15' into the tree to get a better angle. With the front higher than the back and pinned on the rocks a low winch point on the tree would compress the suspension or whatever metal the jeep was resting on. As he winched forward the rear tire slid around the rock and he was out. It was about 3:30 by then so we headed back to the east property to head out of the park. We stayed on the pole line trail for the two harder sections near trail 5. It was there that Paul had some trouble. He took the left line which wasn't too bad but with his gear setup it proved to be a challenge. At some point during the climb the jeep lurched and caused the TBI system to shut down. Not a good spot either as he was facing up hill and had a rock jammed under the front axle and the rear diff holding the rear wheels off the ground. After disconnecting the battery for a minute the fuel pump started working again. We were able to kick the rock from under the front axle (causing the vehicle to drop about an inch and then jam some rocks under the rear tires to set him free. From there we headed out to the staging area without incident. I would have loved to hit more black trails than what we did but with the terrain being so wet it just wasn't a good thing to try. Only carnage was my driver’s side rear coil over shock. I have a habit of doing a once over on the vehicle to check for loose suspension bolts and broken parts. The Rear coil over looked like I backed into a rock causing the 5/8 shaft to bend with about an inch of deflection. |
| The Paragon Story 3-13-2005 By Tico Carreras As we set out to take on our day of fun, we began our journey at 6:15AM on Sunday morning, meeting up with the bulk of the crew at stage #2(Rt. 439 and I- 83) 11 members and their guests. As the hour approached we hoped in our rigs and off into the morning drive headed to the Paragon. Our ride was silent and quick, in fact we made great time heading to stage #3(Exit 100 on I- 83). We arrived to stage #3 by 7:30 AM, leading me to believe that perhaps we could duck in and duck out for breakfast (contrary to my schedule and instructions). While there, we met with John and Nester and their friends. I asked the restaurant folks if they could handle our order of 20 breakfast settings in 20 minutes, they said they could, I made the decision and we waited. Unfortunately, the cook couldn’t work so fast or so hard, it took 40 minutes for the service and the time to eat it. While at the Gooseberry Restaurant, Rich, Pat K and Pat W had just finished eating their meal and where heading out to the Paragon. As our meal arrived we eat in a fast pace, reminded me of the Marine Boot Camp “duck in and duck out”. We quickly headed to the check out and out to the Paragon ourselves. We had lost valuable time about an hour that now needed to be made up on the road. O.K., I goofed up in changing my decision, I’ll accept the heat! The road to the Paragon began to look frozen, understandably so given the fact we where at much higher elevation. But we managed and arrived about 9:AM and began to air down and check in. The check in took a little more time than expected, but we understood because there where a lot of people there too. As we set our Rigs, who show up? Stand the man, the buggy competitor that I took pictures of at the NEUROC competition in 2004. I had a chance to speak with him and he turns out to be a very nice guy, always ready to offer advice to the new comers in our sport. He was waiting for some friends to go out and play himself. As we completed our check in and airing down, we headed to the safety check area, (by the way, the safety check guy told me “man your group is very well prepared”. His attempt in giving us kudos! So, thank you for following the instruction before our arrival. Our day began with a per-departure briefing at stage area #2 at the Paragon Park, then off we went into the woods!.. Trail 11 took us to most of the sites we had plan to spend time at. Unlike our last visit, no one had a mishap up the mountain after crossing the creek. It’s amassing how things flow so well when instruction are followed. With everyone co-operating, helping and staying on target the day went pretty well. That is until a call came across the CB from Rich “TICO I broke another Rubicon”, well if you haven’t notice, Rich loves to proclaim the breakage of Rubicon Jeeps on the trails. Turns out that John Myers had a tire that broke the seal. That is until Greg Knoll’s recent purchase, you guess it, a Rubicon broke down at the rattler area and with the same pride Rich make the 2nd call “TICO I broke another Rubicon-Greg’s recent purchase a Blue Rubicon”. Oh no, that’s Greg Knoll’s 2004 Jeep Rubicon. Anyway, just before that Rich and I had broken down to 2 smaller groups, he took the group with the capable gear to climb and I took mostly the stocks and the ones that would not be able to make the trail ahead. I took my group through a challenging but capable trail, we had some hairy spots but managed well, because once again, everyone followed directions, “a trail guide is going t be as good and effective as the group that he leads”. Well we traveled through the woods down the hill up the hill and slide here, slide there. But the highlight was near the beginning, where Pat Washington took his CJ through a ravine deep enough to discourage most people. But since this was pat Washington’s last ride in the CJ shell, he was out to give the CJ body a farewell it deserved. Pictures will soon be available to show the focus of this story so be in the look out for that. As we broke for lunch we did a little bonding with our membership, talked about the rigs and how they are equipped or will be equipped. Mean while Rich still at the rattler site was negotiating the group out of the area and doing some environmental reconditioning. It turned out that the Blue Rubicon had a hole in the oil pan. Lot’s of efforts where made to contain it and clean it up. (Hence, a new list will be posted with recommendations for such incidents in the future). After guiding and towing Greg down the hill and into the clearing, I took Dean (his friend and what Greg hope the future owner of his Green Wrangler) with me to seek repair kits. However, by the time we air back up to drive on the pavement Greg and pat had caught up with us. So, Greg, Vanessa (Greg’s wife), their nephew Caleb, their friend Dean and I left with the Blue Rubicon in tow. We found a Tow service stop and Greg arranged to have his Jeep Rubicon towed to Rich’s house. We then called it a day for us and waited for the rest of the group to catch up to us as we waited at the Exxon gas station on Rt 924 ( the refueling and toilet break stop). About an hour or so later, everyone reorganized there and we headed back to Pine Grove where the Gooseberry restaurant is located. In review everyone had a god day, even Greg who had to leave his vehicle behind. We gathered at our favorite spot in the restaurant where we where welcomed as we entered the doors. Susie, the owner, was overjoyed to have us and has conceded to have a sign made with our club name to place over our tables in appreciation for our business. That’s a great thing! The usual chatter and review of the day’s event took place for about a hour or so. Then was time to depart and head home! Home, how sweet that sound, getting in the hot shower and passing out until the next morning after a hard day on the trails. So who was there: Crazy Jim and Tim and Liz Hinrichs, Rick and Tammy Ackermann, Lyle Tilton and Beckie, Jim Frederick, Jim and Mike Bowman, Bill Roeder (New member), Crystal, Harry and Taylor, Greg and Vanessa Knoll nephew Caleb and their friend Dean, John and Donald, Nester and Ryan, Rich and Jordynn, Pat K, Pat W and my son Max and I (Tico). Hours at play: 5 ½. Special thanks to Pat Washington for providing us with an awesome moments of 4 wheeling, Rich and Pat Kelly for guiding and our host Kyle from the Paragon and Susie the manager of the Gooseberry Restaurant. Until the next ride....Safe driving everyone. |
| The PAJeeps “All Breed Show” July 2006 By Tico Carreras Friday the 21st Attending to assist were; Vince McMahon and Guido his son, Paul Trautner and myself. Once we arrived we attempted to work on the rock garden but Ray who was in charge seam to have it under control, besides the truck were taking their time in bringing in the rocks and dirt. The PA Jeep guys and gals work well through the night, I think they ended their day around 8 PM, under the sun all day it was murderous on our energy. Rick and everyone involved with the PAJeep Show getting off the ground did a fine job. By night fall everyone was chilling to the warm breeze, sharing their stories and in general relaxing after a hard days work. Paul, Vince, Guido and I, after a light dinner and later a shower turned in. Paul went to enjoy his son’s home near by and a comfortable bed, as tiered as we were at the camp all we needed to do was shot our eyes and it was lights out. Saturday the 22nd The morning came early, by 6 am there were Jeeps arriving setting up on line to be among the first to get in. Only they don’t open the gate until 7 AM. Of course I didn’t wake until 6:25Am by then Vince and Guido had already been up. Paul arrived moments later and we all checked in at 7:15 AM. Paul went to his designated spot as did Vince, I continued to our tent area for the club. I must say our display looked pretty good in comparison. Other clubs where selling their hats, shirts and stuff, while we displayed our photos in action and played our movie promo. I do want to acknowledge a special thanks to Kathy Meneghini for helping me put together the presentation board and for making a very nice galosh board of our current members at play. Thanks Kathy! Good thing came through the day, additional comments from fellow off roaders who read the article on Low- Range Magazine whom themselves were there. There were Super lift suspension systems, Skyjackers, 4 Wheel Drive Hardware, Quadratech, Rusty's, Elias Off road, our own members and vendor Adventurous 4x4, and many more. There had to be some 2 to 3 thousand people there, it was packed, from the bleachers filled with spectators to walking around buying and learning about everything. Swap meet sellers provided cheap buys; Paul found some stuff he needed. I was mostly at the tent with an occasional relive by Paul, Guido or Matt and Chris who showed later in the morning. Without much time away from the tent it made it hard for me to take as many pictures this time. But I took what I could with the time I had. Next time I will work a schedule so that those available have an equal time to man the booth and have a good time too. I did my usual chatted with everyone that passed by the tent or showed interest in our club, it was a good opportunity to pass many fliers (about 250 fliers were passed out near the tent and as well as from some of the affiliates, like Adams Jeeps tent, the main PAJeep tent and the MID-Atlantic FWDA). Mike the current president of the PAJeep show was kind enough to announce our ADA benefit off road event several times through out the day. Since we had a lot of major vendor there, I took the opportunity to give them my solicitation letter about our event to see if they could equally help us on this fund raiser. In general the fund raiser looks like is a go and is being well received by those I spoke to. There were a lot of people from Maryland and not associated with any clubs. I look forward to welcoming them in to ours. Many of whom also came from Hagerstown and Gaithersburg area. The obstacle course was a huge success and man that line was long. They had an equally large attendance of competitors in which one of our own won 1st place in the unlimited category; Vince McMahon in his “X” Black Wrangler, you have to see it to appreciate it. Not only is it the biggest we got, it’s equipped to the gills, Congratulations! Kathy M has given me a break to get a drink and take some pictures. Thereafter, I got into the line for the obstacle course that took an hour or so to reach and I got as close as 3 rigs to the rocks when they called it closed due to a rig that got stuck and damaged requiring major help to be removed. Kathy by this time had been with me and looking forward to ridding through the rock course in my Jeep, but when it stopped everyone, we left disappointed. But the day was almost over and rest was certainly required. The skies where overcast but not extremely hot as on Friday. I had a MAFWDA meeting to follow at 5:30 and learn quite a lot in a short period. In summation of Saturdays attendance were; Danny Connors and his father, Kathy Meneghini and Dave, Paul Trautner, Matt Moore and his brother Chris and friend AJ showed too. (That’s who I remember anyway). I must also acknowledge the new membership of George Preissler who’s wanted to join for a while and finally got the chance. Vince McMahon finally got time to drop of his application and his son Guido who camped out with me over the weekend. Sunday the 22nd Last day of the event was an early day at 6:30AM again. Much the same start, we went to our designated spots and made a good day of it. I did see more of our team members participate today; there was Danny Connors who returned to get his father a gift from the swap meet and got a great deal on a lift kit suspension system. Butch and his family the kids had a great time, Rich Althouse made a showing, there was Nester and his girlfriend, Clarke a friend, and my wife Sonia and son Max. The day was overcast, but there was a nice cool breeze that made it more tolerable. More Jeep folks kept showing it was an endless flow of enthusiasts and the curious. They came looking for a good time and to meet others with the same interests. What an opportunity to educate and talk our game. I even got to play on the rocks, got a little hairy at certain spots, enough to get a serious whoa out of me. I didn’t buy much of anything, with the exception of an on board air system. Randy was also there as a vendor and did very well, he sold all his winches and almost all his air tanks too. Before you knew it the day was almost gone, it was about 3 and they had the parade of winners, many Jeeps of all sorts of styles, CJ’s, Scramblers, Wagoner’s, YJ’s and TJ’s. Handing the trophies this year was Rick Bears the Chairman and organizer of the event, as Mike the President of the PAJeep Org has worked very hard to make this event the best Jeep thing in the area and their organization has done just that. I did spend a small fortune in raffle tickets and didn’t win anything after the parade of winners. In fact, what made it harder for me was when I stopped at a restaurant to have dinner with my family and found another streamer of tickets that I forgot I had, and my son Max was kind enough to remind me that three numbers that they called out where on it. How dome could I have been? Bo humbug! How I could have missed that! Oh well, life goes on. Never been a winner on raffles or stuff like that, but I am lucky to have great friends…. If you had something else going, I hope you had great fun too. Thanks to all the members that made a presence and equally enjoyed their time. Special thanks to the PAJeep staff and membership for their efforts in a successful event. The Club participation award went to the Blue Mountain Jeep Alliance and the furthest distance award went to someone from Alaska? Now that’s far out…. End. |
| Sunday January 15th, 2005 – Day 2 of 2 Rausch Creek Trail Ride by Tico Carreras Attending: Tim Rice and Debbie, Washiem, Kevin and son Garrett, Von and his brother Jon Bierman and yours truly Tico. 7AM came very quickly for me and Tim had already been up and ready to get some grub. We met at the lobby and had some coffee to get a jump start on our day then headed to the Gooseberry for a real breakfast. After arriving at the Rauch we began to prepare for the trails and Washiem and Kevin arrived to join us. Now we had a team of 5 vehicles and that made for a better day of wheeling. The upper 3 provided a challenge since it had snowed and the winds where unforgiving. I took the lead and the Jeeps navigated with not much trouble to the to the table top. However, the LandRover-Discovery got wedged against a tree and we had to rock him out of it. Washiem not needing to damage his prime vehicle decided to exit the spot via the K trail near the big water bowl. Mean while Tim, Von and I decided to decent the table top on the left side and we did it with out much difficulty. We ended up playing mostly in the East side of the property, there where enough obstacles and challenges to fill the day. We rode through the lower 3 with the usual bumps and thumps and caught up with Washiem and Kevin by the coal mountain off of Trail access road A. Thereafter, we headed toward trail B and the pole line. Maneuvering through the trees and the rocks we hooked up with trail 2 Blue and headed to Crawler ridge area. While there we decided to help a friend who had left his Jeep wedge between two huge nasty rocks, it looked like trying to push a toothpick through a tight set of teeth. Can you picture that! Well, we arranged for Tim to use his winch to pull the front end of the Jeep via the use of a tree saver the highest point of the tree. Kevin and Washiem handled the high-lift jack for leverage and I was winching the Jeep from behind to pull him to the clearing. Those of you who have been with us and had the benefit of our team work in resolving problems would have been proud of our accomplishment that moment. With coordinated effort we got the Jeep out and off the rocks. But because we did not have the keys we had to leave it there until the owner return later that day to retrieve it. We congratulated ourselves and continued to play. We drove down trail E and headed to trail 8 Black, both of the Land Rovers decided to wait it out while the Jeeps did their thing. Lot’s of Bumps, Dings, and a few scrapes where about the sounds you heard among others I wouldn’t mention here. I nearly knocked my hard top off at the same place where Paul had on our last visit to Rausch, but managed to save the moment. Tim most have hit a big rock or bolder with his shackle because he buckled the leave spring at both ends and now was looking like a low rider with an over inflated tire. We had spend so much time in the first have on trail 2 and 8 that half our day had gone before we knew it. LUNCH! We broke for a lunch brake and cough up with our first half activities. As we began to continue the trails my friend called that he was on his way and meet him at the check in shack. I send the group through the rest of trail 2 and they played up and down the hill by the foggy hole. Mean while I headed over to the staging area to pick up the owner of the Jeep. As I arrived at crawler ridge, it was a sight of relive that the Jeep was found without having been tampered with and still in one piece. We drove it down the hill and out toward the pole line where we met up with the rest of the group. Grateful for having the Jeep out of the wedge predicament it was in, we began to straighten up the drive rods that got all bend out of shape. Not to loose much of our trailing day, the damaged Jeep drove back to the staging area and we continued to trail. I made a bad choice to head to the West property to wheel on some mud, when we arrived we began to tackle the big rock on trail 10, then realizing that with the freezing temperature it wouldn’t be wise to travel through frozen mud water we decided to return to the East property. We drove to trail 14 and ended up near the big bowl, the spot that had claimed 3 lockers and a few axles. Nearing the end of our day we decided to head out and call it a day. But not before Von’s Jeep decided to drop his rear drive shaft and shifting the whole drive train. By now we where heading down the lower 3 trail and we where near the water hole bowl. The wind was blowing fearlessly and a broken tree leaning on another rest right over Von’s Jeep. Having disconnected the rest of the rear drive shaft we were now clear to continue. I headed down the same area where I almost tipped my Grand Cherokee months before, then everyone followed and made it out safely. Those that drove in drove out and those that trailer their Jeeps did the same going home. Once again following a long standing tradition, we ate our dinner and reviewed some of the pictures we took. Not many pictures got taken this trip, but we do have some new blood to show off. Many thanks to all that showed up for this trail ride. I would like to make a special mention that both Jim Bowman and Donna Geisel made the trip to Rausch strictly to volunteer their time to help clean up some new trails being created for the use of stock vehicles this spring. Thanks for that guys, your unselfish act is noted! I am sure that Lynn appreciates it too. Well that about raps it up. Next month is the Paragon trip; this will be a weekend event too. I will post hotel availability in the area, for those who like camping the Paragon now has a camp ground on site for a nominal fee of $5. Call or e- mail them for details. |
| September 2 and 3rd, 2006 By Bill Gilbert Saturday was a mess! There was very heavy rain the entire day which meant it would be slick on the rocks and the mud holes would be deep. Saturday the only person to show for MRR was Treefrog. He promptly informed me he was not interested in breaking anything as he needs to drive it back home. I completely understood and he decided to join another group. I rode with B4W as they were doing all blue and black trials. We covered a lot of ground without any breakage the entire day. Everyone had 35" tires and lockers so the park was ours. We headed out first to trail 4 and yellow jacked ridge and then took the trail 8 loop. Then circled back around to 4 again from C trail and went through to B trail. From there we took trail 2 blue past frog hole and onto tower road. We headed to the west property and took a shortcut on trail 12B to trail 20 black. No problems on 20 and continued onto trail 13A past rock creek and then 13 B over to trail 16. It was still pouring down rain but we were determined to hit trail 16. It was a bit tricky in the rain with a bit of a climb and very large boulders. It took longer on 16 then all of the other trails we had done so far but we still made it though without breakage. By then it was about 1:30 and had lots of time left. We headed towards the black loop off 11 at the most western portion of the west property but found the loose wet soil was too much to overcome. We turned around and hit 11 to trail 18A and too the optional black section without incident. Then we headed for the east property again and hit 6D to 6 c and 6b. By then it was 3:30 so we headed towards the black and red trails behind the office and played around a little. Had a great time, no winches, no breakage but soaked to the core with the cold rain. We wrapped things up around 4: 30 or so and went back to the comfort inn for some swimming. Mel says HI, and she looks forward to taking a right seat at the ADA ride. Sunday Von was there with Kat and Dan showed with his newly lifted jeep. The Rubicon Express 4.5 super flex kit looked right for the jeep. We had three and decided to run with that. I have a new favorite climb behind the office so we headed up that way. I made the climb with some effort and slipped a lot from the still wet soil. At the top I bumped over the rock but slid against a tree and was jammed between the tree and rock, had to winch out. Next was Danny. He started coming up the hill but wasn't making much progress. He made it half way up when I realized his rear locker wasn't working. I went down to him just as he was getting sideways on the hill. He came to a quick stop next to me with that deer in the headlights look. The look was all I needed; I said “you want to back down right?" He just shook his head yes with the pale look on his face. After we got him down I realized with some discussion that he was open/open. Big mistake on my part as I though for sure he had a rear locker. Sorry Danny. I will not make that mistake again. Von headed up next with the aggressiveness we have all grown to know and love. Came up around the top and instead of doing the bump to the left he went up and over the large boulder at the top. He was just about over when he stopped and it was way off camber. He seemed to be okay with it but it looked nasty and he still had some more to go so we backed it down a little and took a little different angle. He was up and over with no problem. I walked down the hill to ride with Danny around the hill climbs to take another way up and after some effort we circled around. The ground was still very wet and very loose sediment on that hill making momentum essential. Next we headed to C trail and took trail 4 blue over to b trail. This seemed to be a great trail to test Danny’s new lift which performed flawlessly. That jeep can really flex now. We then took trail 2 to the Frog hole and after a lot of thinking and stick prodding decided to go around. The water was flush with the trial and higher than I've ever seen it. It took great restraint by Von to keep from going through and I applaud him for the decision. There was plenty of mud out there to be had without having to risk taking in water. We finished trail 2 and headed out to the pole line and the 5' deep mud pit. Von and Kat pulled up to the pit and without hesitation took the plunge. My boys Casey 8 and Aaron 12 loved it. He was throwing mud everywhere! Kat was leaning in from the window with a towel wrapped over her right shoulder to keep some of the stinky mud off. He made it through with what seemed like very little effort. Those boggers were displacing a lot of mud and made for quite a show. Next we headed towards the west property and took J trail down to trail 15 blue which was not much of a challenge at all but was interesting due to the washouts and the stream running down the left side of the trail. We took a shortcut onto 12B which isn't on the map but joins at the loop of 12-B. We followed 12B around to 12A and found a couple of mud puddles but nothing we couldn't handle. We followed 12A out to trail 10 as Von wanted to try "milkshake". We stopped and had lunch near the Big Rocks before getting dirty. After a couple good sandwiches we headed down trail 10 and hit the mud pits near big rocks. They proved to be a lot of fun but not much of a challenge. I will say though we were the first ones through the pit near big rocks as there was 1' of clear water on top of the pit. Next we headed down to milkshake. Having tried and failed before I moved out of the way so Von could show me how it's done. And that’s just what he did! He blasted through halfway to where I was stuck previously and came to a stop. He wasn't done with that pit yet so he backed up a little and powered forward again making good progress inch by inch. Then he backed up again, selected another gear and blasted through the wall of mud with a great show. He made it through on the third effort and came flying out the end of the pit. Then we looked at the video and found it stopped after his second effort and missed the show at the end. We couldn't have that so Von went through the other way and turned around to try it again. This time we got the whole thing on video. He plunged it and at the middle of the pit the jeep dropped about a foot allowing him to hit good traction and he blasted out the end again. This time all caught on tape. What a show! The boys were going crazy over that mud run and finally little Casey talked me into going through. I wasn't as concerned now as Von blasted quite a bit of mud out of the pit and brought the water level down about a foot. I plunged in and made it most of the way through but had to back up for a second effort. I picked 4wd low transfer 1st gear and it wasn't enough. I bogged down and wasn't getting enough wheel speed. So I switched to low transfer 3rd gear and was able to push it out the other side. Again Casey talked me into going back through so I went back through the other way and came through again without too much effort. I found that once Von had moved the wall of mud there was actually very good traction at the bottom of the pit. Thanks Von! You helped me look good in front of my kids. Was Danny going to go through? 4.5" lift and aggressive tires but open/open? You betcha he was going to try it. He dropped into the pit and made it about half way through but came to a quick stop. It seems the 33" tires just couldn't reach the bottom from Von's tracks and he was high centered on the belly pan. After a bit of effort and "shaking it" (had to be there) we hooked up a strap and pulled him through. That pit was a blast! We continued down 10 to the next mud pit and lined up. This is the one with the rock on the right, or was it left? It looked to me to be right smack dab in the middle. I couldn't get by on the left so I tried the right but it kept pushing me back onto the rock. Finally I took the far right and climbed the passenger tire on the wall of the pit to get by on the fourth effort. Then Von came through with very little effort along the same path. Kat was still holding the towel over her right shoulder. We came out of the pits of trail 10 and headed up to H trail. As we were heading up the hill to go to the south property we realized the engines were getting hot. You guessed it, our radiators were all clogged up with mud. We pulled over to water the radiators and allow the overflow on all three jeeps to take a leak and finally headed up the hill to the mud pit. There we used Dannys shovel and Wendy's ( the dog) water bowl to blast some of the mud out of the radiator. It proved to be quite successful using the water bowl and revving the engine to about 2k to draw the water through. My temperature dropped to about 190 and Dannys dropped to normal, Von's dropped to almost normal. I know I've been giving Kat a hard time about the towel but at the mud pit she took off her shoes and got in the mud with the shovel to scoop water into the radiator of Von's jeep! Good show Kat! Since the jeeps were all running about normal temperature we took D trial from the east side to head to the south side of the property. As we neared the E trail my jeep started running rough. It felt like it was running out of gas! That wasn't possible though as I usually only use 10 gallons over 2 days of wheeling. As I pulled off D trail onto E trail it stumbled and shut off. It would not restart, almost like it did run out of gas. I thought maybe 1. There was water in the fuel tank, 2. I actually ran out of gas and perhaps have a leak or 3. I screwed something up in the water. Von had a fuel tank so I put about 3 gallons in the tank but it still wouldn't start. Then I went to the engine compartment and pulled the distributer cap. It was soaked over the entire top of the cap. Kat gave me a tissue and to dry my distributer tears and then it started right up. Strange how we went through all those muddy pits without getting water in the distributer but when rinsing the radiator I got water in there. Hmmm. It was the middle of the afternoon and Von's jeep was starting to overheat again so we decided it was probably best not to push our luck. We headed back to staging area without further incident. After loading the jeeps we all headed to the Gooseberry for a meal and talk about the days events. We all had a great time and really didn't have any breakage. Danny's jeep performed really well, Von's jeep is just sick! That thang can really flex, you will have to see the poser shot in the parking lot. We did get some video and a few pictures that will be posted later. |
| May 22nd 2005 at Rausch Creek Off Road Park By Tico Carreras What a day. First we had a very disappointing showing, 4 members showed. Jim Frederick with Lyle Tilton a friend and club member as a passenger, Rich Althouse got towed in by Pat Kelly in the Bronco and his buddy Mike, Brian and his friend Jason from Havre De Grace a new member, my son Max and I. Jim and I had made great time we arrived to the restaurant by 7:15AM. As we entered the Gooseberry restaurant we noticed a little difference, they removed the area where we would seat at and installed a buffet style serving unit. On the down side we lost our seating arraignments, in the up side we gain faster service for breakfast and dinner. I mean, we where in and out in 30-40 minutes. Sadly that smoking If you been there and orders meals in the past it used to take about 30 minutes just to get the meal. Well, now you can come and go easily. After our traditional breakfast, we headed out to the Rausch, checking in and setting up, there were several clubs there too, from Maryland and Delaware to include members of the Xtreme Jeeps. We met up with Brian King from Havre De Grace a new club member and his friend Jason. Once the air down was complete, Rich installed his front drive shaft and after the pleasantries we began our journey for the day. We took on the day with upper blue and black L3 behind the check in office and did the stair step and the Jotters way. We began having issues right from the start. Well, we did say we are doing hard blues and blacks, an so we did just that. You can guarantee damage is sure to occur and so, it did. Jim Frederick, took on the first damage, broke a brake line, dented his gas tank skit plate about 1 to 2 inches depth.After repairs we continued to trail C onto the pole line. While there we ran into the Xtreme Jeeps, Jeff in his Comanche Pick up, Mike in the green TJ and Dan our store parts man in his 5.9L Grand Cherokee. They where complaining that Dan got stuck on this little rock, but he was ready to show his stuff, an so, he drove through the mud hole (yes, the 5' mud hole) surprisingly he did very well twice no less. We took some good shots of Dan and proceeded to our destination, the West property. We took the H trail down to trail 11 and did trail 14 green onto trail 13 blue, crossed over through the rock creek on a black and into trail 10 blue. While there Pat in the Bronco took some damage, nothing serious minor stuff. Brian in the Black Cherokee lost the right fender flair as we all broke for lunch there at the rock creek. Leaving we did the Stout trail ( black line) I think, not sure now, kind of lost track, after that I was having fun. Anyway, we headed back to the East property. This is where the fun begins. We played at the crawler Ridge and drove through the blue trail 2, then was trail 5. That’s where rich broke his front left axle ears. No problem, he drove like that for another 2 miles until we came to another black on trail 1. There he decided to take on the ridge and climb, but he met fate, he lost another axle this time the right front. I decided we have broken enough stuff for one day, we packed it in and began our way back out. Rich decided to play it safe and took trail A to the side street, as we began to head down the lower L3 rich called in a panic, “Guys I need you to come out and help, major *%$#X happen!” So we decided to assist, when we got there his YJ was kneeling from the front. No right wheel, it broke off the knuckle. Wow! His Jeep dropped slightly of to the right leaving his left tail end onto the street. We quickly rendered what ever help he needed. In short, the day ended and another chapter got written in our log. Pat had gone to buy some stuff and return just in time to dolly the white horse. We drove back to the restaurant and had supper, buffet style, quick and painless, in and out in 35 minutes. As we discus the day’s event we bid farewell to our friend in the Xtreme Jeeps and, oh wait a minute, there’s a leak under my diff. I looked around saw no damage, maybe a loose bolt or something. Put some gear oil in there and kept on going. Monday, at Adams Jeep in Aberdeen, I take my Jeep to the shop to have them check for that damaged diff. They page me back, Tico you need to come to the shop and see your Jeep. When I get there they discovered a missing tooth from the upper spider gear. No where to be found, got pulverized in the gears, made a good size pin dent on the dif cover. Need rear gears now, diff cover plate, both front axle u-joints as well as the front drive shaft u-joints. Dag gone it! I thought I made it out safely. You see I don’t brake on the trail, but I do brake on the pavement! Thanks to the members present for a great day in the sun and in the woods. Hope you all enjoyed the story. If correction are needed, please let me know and I can correct it later. I wrote all I can remember. See ya! P.S. Anyone with pictures, please post them here or get me a disc to down load onto the web photo page. |
| July 15 and 16th, 2006-Hardcore off road driving Bill set this run up and the club was there to make it happen but the heat of the day kept the members out of the camp site and into the hotel. This was to be a serious day for riding the trails, meaning black and red trails by the most part. The weather was nowhere near what had been predicted; we got rain and fog, rather than clear skies and comfortable. The rain added to the already complex climb, as our day begins with the attendance of; Bill, Bobbie, Dave L and his friend, Randy, Ryan and his brother and me. We headed toward the west property but not before trailing into trail 5 Black off the pole line. Then continuing our journey to the west property, we stopped at CV hill (kind of start where we had left off last trip). Everyone made it to the top, some had a hard time, and others already capable navigated the trail well. Dave L was the only person not to make it up CV Hill. He experienced a lot of hardship climbing with a broken lock-right. Winched himself out to the top and called it a day, I escorted him back as rain covered the skies. Once on his way I returned to meet with the group and came together at the pole line and back on course to the west property. We drove toward trail 18A, but Bill took a turn into trail 12. On the other side we ran into mud and the big rock, where we played for a while. Then we saw another section and a bigger rock that lead back to the trail 10A Blue, some mud trail. As we crossed into the rock creek, we took a lunch break. Randy wanted to drive over the glacier rocks and so he did without incident after lunch. We crossed over to 13B and spent a little time navigating out. Once back on trail 11 Randy was running hot and having problems with his transfer case linkage, so we headed back to the East property. On our return to the East property we entered trail 6d via trail A in the back side and headed towards trail K. This presented a new approach and made the trail more fun. Bill encounters a problem there, he got wedged between a rock and a tree (talk about a rock and a hard place) had his diff stuck in a rock and he couldn't move forward or in reverse. After a little brain storming we can up with a "double snatch block reverse tow". By attaching 2 snatch blocks and creating a triangular effect Bill was able to move forward and to the side at the same time. It was a beautiful thing to see, field creativity at its best. We crossed over to trail U-3 blue and descended down the red section that had earn Kathy the rough rider upgrade, and that’s where my carnage took place. By the time I got to the bottom both the inner and outer axle ears where gone! Bill couldn't’t wait to take the picture to record the moment, since I do the same when others brake. Ryan didn't just slide by on this trip we got him mixed right in, got some good pictures and movies too. But he didn't get to dirty. This moth he has done more wheeling than in the last several months. Bobbie learned more and did very well furthering her training to become a great trail guide at Camp Jeep this year. The mosquitoes where everywhere, biting too. Well with 2 members having to leave early due to breakage and me breaking apart it was time to bag the day in. Now it was the task of finding the parts I needed to make the repairs and get me back to running condition. Nester to the rescue, he had exactly what I needed and brought it up that evening. Not able to remove the nut of the outer axle, we called it a day. Bobbie and I headed to the hotel and Bill decided to camp it out. I got to tell you the hotel is getting easier to accept, with every stay at the comfort Inn. The a nice bed, cool air and pool just can’t be beat! After cleaning up we both met at the lobby and headed to the Goose and shared a dinner. With just the two of us we got to talk to great length and talk about our families, Jeep stuff and the club. Bobbie was tired and she retired to her room, I stay up a little longer and ended showing the desk clerk (Mel) a clip of the movie I have been working on. Then tired myself I retired to my room. Carnage for to day: One inner and outer axle, one hub assembly, one U-joint and one rear lock-right locker. End of day one! Begin of Day 2-Rausch Creek Hardcore trail ride? Wow! What a day we had yesterday, thankful I had a great day but stressed because I broke down. Yes, my inner and outer axle where shot, worst yet, Bill nor I could get the nut off the outer axle to remove it and replace it, so we had to remove the entire hub. The bolt end got mangled up by the broken ears, but we managed to remove them. Nester saved the day, he brought with him a replacement hub he had for such occasion, thanks, Nester you’re efforts and assistance are well recognized! Since we already had the hub off it was a matter of installing the replacement and get back on the road again. While we worked on my Jeep, others began to arrive. Joining us for the Sunday ride where; Nester in his turquoise YJ, Kathy Geogarnas and her son Joey in the Black Rubicon, Jim and Beth in the Blue YJ, Jeremy and his friend in the Ford pick up, Bobbie in her Green Sahara, Bill in his turquoise YJ, me in the chili-pepper red TJ. Today we decided to begin at trail 6a (Extreme Black) steep, soft and narrow we climb meeting a slight problem about mid-section where the terrain was real soft and not many rocks to get a grip on anything. I had to winch myself up from, Kathy G made it up after several attempts without winching, followed by Bobbie who also used the winch to get to the top. However, right about that time and without knowing a crew of Jeeps was heading down the same trail. Talk about having traffic Jam you see what one looks like in the woods in a narrow trail! The other group was the guys that had solicit to ride with us earlier that morning; needless to say, no words had been exchanged for the duration of the jam. Once they had forced themselves into the woods to clear our path, we headed out behind the coal pile off trail A. We regrouped and continued to trail 5 (Extreme Black), Rich our former VP loved this section, and had been a long time since I had driven into it. The day was clear, hot but not as humid and the day before on Saturday we had rain, fog, marshy terrain and slick rocks. Big rocks and huge rocks, for myself, I became more daring since I now had a locker on the front, taking more challenging approaches and harder terrain. Those that followed stayed closed and followed my tracks. That could be good and bad depending on what happens to me! Trail 5 proved to give us a good challenge specially me, I found myself off camber leaning toward the driver side close enough to touch the ground under me, teeth chartering, stomach in knots, gravity pulling me and me praying for me not to roll, how embarrassing that would have been! I called to the back for a spotter and Brian, Nesters friend came to help, good chap he is. Know quite a bit about off road driving and is a mechanic himself. He got me into this tight spot not wrongfully, but he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a picture of it, he said it was titter tatter time. Hummm?. Once I cleared Kathy G was next, brave woman, her son Joey has been learning all he can and hope to be driving the Black Rubicon soon after he earns his license. But for now he observes, learns and directs his mother through the obstacles. I say by age 17, he would be among our youngest member with the ability to guide a group, that one year from now. Poor KathyG can help it being too short to see over the steering wheel when she is of camber, funny in a way, but I am sure unnerving to her when taking on the trails. But aside all that, she did very well and for her first time out, did us proudly. Next we have Bobbie, this woman, I got to tell you who ever ends up on her trail at Camp Jeep will be happy to know she got everything but the kitchen sink in her tool box. From a piece of sand paper to you name it. Anytime we ended up needing something to repair, winch, and adjust or what not, Bobbie had it in there. Amazing! A well prepared trail guide for sure. She maneuvered with some difficulty, but made it out of trail 5 OK. Nester the same, but he didn’t want the easy way, he looked for the harder approaches and found quite a few. Bill followed crawling at a snails pace. Jeremy was having some problems with his rig and Jim helped get him started, but these are thing that happen on the trail and you have to be ready for any unexpected thing. Once everyone fixed we parked in the clearing and broke for lunch, while at the same time, Jim demonstrating and testing his rig and climb the face of trail 5 at the extremist point, kind of our private shoe while we ate lunch. We sat and chatted about the Tellico run, the fundraiser event for September 16th, and other stuff, it was a peaceful environment, we just want to start a camp fire right there and then! I had broken the caliper in my driver rear side break drum, so Jeremy had to pinch it to stop the flow of fluid that was gushing itself out while I guided on. Jeremy if you are reading this, Thanks to you and Brain both for your help. We got on the way and headed to trail 4 without incident, turn into trail B and headed to the Frog hole, hehehehe, but now one dared to go in today. The hill just before the hole was a good spot for Kodak moments and everyone got a trill. Then we took trail 2 and there along the way Nester busted his axle, I don’t know how or at what point, but I will tell you this was a green trail. We pulled of to the side at the pole line and fortunately Nester had a replacement outer axle to replace the one he broke. Nester wanted to see how long it takes him to change it, but he took 20 minute longer than what it took bill to repair mine. But he was back on the road again and off we went. By this time our day had really gotten consumed and with about an hour or so left we decide to return closer to the main office. Taking trail K towards the Lower 3 and the drain plug, made KathyG a little happier to get some mud on her rig, the mud level came right up to the bottom of her door seal. There was a new cut on the trail so we took that in the decent to the staging area. About this time, Jim and Jeremy took another more interesting decent suitable to their liking. We all met back at the camp site and began to stow away our gear and get ready to head home, we were greeted by Paul, Bobbi’s husband who had come to rescue his bride and trailer her home. We arrived to the Goose for our customary dinner and headed home there after. A great weekend, with some great people and a fantastic time! Carnage for Sunday: 2 fenders, one outer axle driver side, one fog lamp, one break drum caliper and break line, one throttle line, one battery connection. Not bad considering we spend the day on black and hard blues (with the exceptional transitional green trails). Special thanks to the members of the Pennsyltruckians crawlers; Jim and Beth, Jeremy and (?). |
| Activate video |
