Ok, now that I got the photos to work, a little backstory. We left the parking lot at about 10:30am. We started out breaking up into two groups because we had a good turnout. One group was going to do blue/blacks, the other green/blues. They put that Ford Bronco in the green/blue group. The tan colored TJ Rubicon was his first time offroad, so he went in the green/blue group. I decided to go with the green/blue group because I hadn't done serious trails (i.e. anything other than Green Ridge) in almost 2 years. Initially the Bronco was right in front of me.
The first real obstacle we came to was the rocks in the second photo. Everyone was taking a line on the left going around most of the rocks. The first couple of Jeeps made it through without incident, but the Bronco got stuck hard. After giving the driver a hard time (Who let this Ford out here??) the tan Jeep tried to pull him forward but couldn't break him loose. I broke out my recovery strap that I bought almost 5 years ago and until yesterday had never used. I was able to dislodge him pulling him backwards. He backed up and went to go around a bypass further to the left.
Somehow, he got stuck worse on the bypass than he was on the obstacle. He was wedged in between a couple of rocks to where he ripped off a fender flareand creased the passenger side bodywork. I had to break out the hi lift to get him up and out of the rocks and finally after about 45 minutes we got him loose and he made it around the bypass.
So, finally I get back in my Jeep. The Bronco had dug a pretty good hole spinning tires at the beginning of the rocks. I tried the same line but couldn't get past the hole he dug. So I backed up and not wanting to take the bypass, the only option was to try and go to the right basically right over the rocks. That was when I passed off the camera and you got the next few photos including the nice flex shot .
They spotted me all the way across the rocks but when I dropped off the end in that last photo I got hung up on a small rock right on my rear diff and couldn't get loose and had to be pulled off of it.
After all this recovery it was almost time for a lunch break. After lunch we headed down past the power line play area into the west property. On the way the tan TJ Rubicon who at this point was directly in front of me got stuck in the mud hole where I have the picture of the white JK. The TJ had to winch himself out of the hole. I made it through without any trouble, but that white JK who was right behind me got stuck. He was able to work himself free though. We made it down to the west property where it was very wet and muddy.
We did a bunch of blue trails down there. There was one section that was very deeply rutted. I was trying to take a video and didn't have the Jeep in the right gear and consequently didn't have enough speed and I got stuck hard. I couldn't move an inch. They were able to pull me back only a foot or so but I couldn't get enough momentum to move forward. I need lockers! And 35's! Anyway, the white JK ended up having to move in front of me and he tried to pull me with the strap but neither one of us could budge. He ended up having to pull me with the strap while he winched himself from the front and once I started moving a bit I was OK and made it the rest of the way. We came out of the mud and worked our way back around to Winch Hill and did some awesome short (20-30') hill climbs in the area, including one with a big tree root at the top that launches you into a big wheelstand at the top that was so much fun. Lastly, we headed back and played on the competition rock crawling course for the last hour and did some fun climbs there. The first one we got to was 20' straight up and 20' straight back down the other side. The JK was locked and he struggled a bit and needed help (someone standing on the front bumper) to get up. The TJ rubicon needed help too (his front locker didn't work, btw), but I made it up in one pass with no problem despite being wide open front and rear. I was proud of myself.
Anyway, it was a fun day, more stucks than I've ever experienced but it was a good time. As far as I know right now the only damage was a busted U-bolt on one of my control arm skidplates (passenger side).
Oh, and that last picture was my passenger for the day. That picture was on the way home. She was exhausted!
. Plus, the mud pictures are real close to where I got stuck at.
