Brent in his '79 Bronco
Brent leading the
way taking the hard
side of the entrance
Here's where he
slipped and got stuck
on the rock
He decided to winch
since the front end had
made an ugly sound
Overview
Went on a half-day wheeling trip today with Rick W. and fellow CAOS members Brent & Jonica Williams in their '79 and Matt & Jen in their YJ.
We set out from the Wal-Mart parking lot around 8:30. After airing down and locking in at the trailhead we watched Brent climb the class C side of the entrance. I followed on the easy side but made a poor line choice and bashed (for about the zillionth time) the left rear corner of my bumper. Rick came behind me and we found he needed to air down more. Matt brought up the tail gunner position.
We headed on to the stair steps and I struggled a bit rather than making it look easy like I did back in June. Rick and Matt followed both giving up a bit of tread life to the rocks.
We headed on and only Matt opted for Red Rock Hill. He's new to the sport and his skills got quite a workout on this (almost) class C climb. He made it with help in the form of rock stacking and pushing from Brent, Rick and myself.
|
Brent in his '79 Bronco |
Brent leading the way taking the hard side of the entrance |
Here's where he slipped and got stuck on the rock |
|
He decided to winch since the front end had made an ugly sound |
We then drove on to the playground. It was about 10am and the Southern heart was starting to come up. We still played around a bit and eventually Brent showed us a line up the ledges that's great for posing. You can get your vehicle to do a tail stand and get several feet of air under the right front tire. The other guys made me look bad by climbing up but I decide to back down because I was WAY too vertical for my taste. We then watched Brent help Matt hone his skills in off-camber situations.
We then returned to the pavement and took another (tight) trail that eventually leads to a washed-out clay hill called Gobbler's Knob. Brent discovered a tree across the trail halfway up and we all helped winch it out of the way. I'm not sure how but I managed to slip down into one of the washes and earn my second Murphy point for the day by destroying the left rear RS5000.
 Here's Rick W. on the easy side of the entrance. |
 Rick had forgotten to air down so Brent & Matt helped him out. |
 Rick W. at the stairsteps |
 Matt in his YJ at the stair steps. |
 Get you on three wheels without the risk of rollover |
 I should have gone ahead and climbed it |
After getting myself out of that situation with liberal use of the stupid pedal (causing Brent to try and hang the nickname 'Iron man' (in honor of Ivan Stewart)) on me 4.56 gearing has taken a step up the priority list. Ever since going to 33's my crawl ratio isn't where it needs to be. I just don't seem to have any oomph below 1000 RPM. I'm going to check my timing thinking I may be too advanced.
We continued up the Knob topping out on a big power line at an obstacle called Mr. Rock or just "The Rock". This is the location off-road unlimited holds an event called Spring Fling each year.
After taking in the view and the class C+ routes up Mr. Rock we headed down a simpler (seemed so at the time) Class B trail. Again this was a clay wash with BIG ditches washed in it. I had just watched Brent & Rick straddle the correct line and was headed down that way myself but somehow managed to slip down into the gully. This was bad. Brent spotted and guided me back up onto the embankment. When my tire crested the berm he said "whoa" and I hit the brakes. I guess I whoaed too much because the Bronco's weight shifted forward and down the right front came into about a 5' deep hole causing a BIG TIME pucker factor nose stand. This also bent the nerf bar on the passenger side.
I hung there for awhile trying not so shift my weight too much (I was afraid it might go on over) while the other guys rigged up Matt's winch. They winched me backward (and thankfully down) but we bent (more (it already was some) my driver's nerf and the ^)(&&) LR bumper corner again. Once I had all 4 wheels back on terra firma I eased on down while still tethered by Matt's winch. I see that even with plenty of wheeling after buying the Bronco in '98 I still have lots to learn.
Matt's ride down was decidedly less eventful and we then headed back to town. After airing up and unlocking we socialized for awhile and Brent, Matt and Rick all headed for home. Stephanie and I decided to have lunch across the street at Guthrie's and wait for Jonathan Mitchell to meet us. He brought my 2 Big Sticker and I regaled him with tales of the day's adventure.
Scott Johnson - johnssd@mindspring.com
1990 Eddie Bauer Edition