I have a 1985 CJ-7, with a 4 cylinder, T4 transmission, Dana 300, Dana 30 on the front, AMC 20 on the rear, Summers Brothers solid rear axles, Detroit Locker on the rear, 3.54 gears, 2 1/2" lift, and 32" BFG Mud Terrain TA's. I also have Off-Your-Rockers rocker panels (which saved my bacon on Saturday, more on that later).
I drove from San Jose (where I live) to Hollister on Friday night, and set up my tent. I noticed a lot of people from the club there, but there didn't seem to be any other students there. I set up my tent, aired down my tires to 16 lbs, and sat around with the club members, talking about wheeling and telling nasty jokes.
The next morning, we got up nice & early. I had to pack everything up, since I wasn't staying another night. Once 8:00 a.m. rolled around, there were about 30 trucks lined up in a big parking lot, ready for the tech inspection. We split up into four groups, and headed on up the road to the "schoolhouse" for the slide-show.
The presentation was interesting, with lots of useful information about specific 4WD situations and safety. Tread Lightly! was emphasized. We broke to go outside and get a demonstration of winching, hi-lift jacks, tow straps, and other recovery gear & accessories.
After the second half of the classroom presentation, we again went outside, and my group (green) headed up to Sycamore Camp to air down, use the restroom, and get everyone ready.
We proceeded to drive to the hill-climb area, where we took turns driving half-way up a moderately steep hill, stopping, and then backing down. Some people had a hard time stopping on the hill without stalling. I managed to do it, but of course my carb was not set up properly, and the engine died about three seconds after I stopped. I found out my engine does not idle when at a 30 degree angle.
Anyway, I did (at the instructor's request) a rolling reverse start (using the starter motor and braking heavily), and backed down. Nice technique. More useful (or useable) by those who have fuel injection, though.
After that we went to the up-hill start/off-camber area, and I drove up that hill about ten feet, and of course two seconds after I put the clutch in, the engine died. Since we were supposed to do that anyway, it was okay. The idea behind this exercise was to start the engine going uphill, again using the starter motor to move you up hill in low gear until it catches. Alas, my battery was not up to the task (and my engine is hard enough to start on a hill with the clutch in!), so I ended up rolling back down the hill, and starting it on level ground. The off-camber situation was at the top of the hill, where we did a u-turn and came back down. According to my inclinometer, it was about 22 degrees, which is enough to give you the "gut-feeling" of about-to-roll, but not nearly enough to actually roll. Cool stuff.
We then proceeded to do some trail
driving, up and down some very steep hills,
and around hairpin corners. Of course, one
of the trucks in front of me had to stop for
five minutes while I was sitting on a really
steep up-hill section, and I knew I'd never
get it started again on that kind of hill. 
So
there I was, sitting on this hill in neutral,
with my left foot mashing the brake pedal,
and my right feathering the gas to keep
1500 RPM so it wouldn't stall. After they
finally got moving, I heel-and-toed the
clutch/brake (I have big feet, so I find this
easier than doing the brake/throttle
combo), and jerked back into motion again.
After the trail riding, we headed back to Sycamore camp to break for lunch. After lunch, we proceeded to the obstacle course :-) The *FUN* stuff...
First, we did the "frame-twister". That
was really cool. With my lift and big tires,
it was a breeze. The guy behind me, with a
stock (brand-new) 4-runner, had a much
harder time with his running boards and
much lower clearance. The frame-twister
is an exercise in using a spotter to guide
you through some nasty stuff, including logs, railroad ties, and rocks. Lots of
fun.
Next was the really fun part, the
stair-climb. They have a steep hill, about
40 or 50 feet long, paved, with an 8-12"
vertical step every three or four feet, and a
few rocks sticking up a foot to make it
interesting. We got to watch the group
before us do it, and it was very interesting.
Some people went up fast, bumping and spinning. The guys with good crawl
ratios creeped up the hill, having no problems. A locker was a definite asset.
When it came time for my turn, I was a little apprehensive, but it ended up
being simple. My Jeep really surprised me. There were two spotters on the
hill directing us up, and everyone eventually made it up, even the totally
stock vehicles.
After the course was over, I went back and did it again a couple times, without any spotters. It really was a piece of cake, just point up and go. The locker and the aired down tires make all the difference in the world.
Next came the obstacle course, which involved putting the driver and passenger tires onto rocks, driving and backing through cones (to represent trees), and stopping as close to a post as you could without touching it. I figured when I stopped I was a couple inches away, but was in fact about 14" from it! Go figure.
After the obstacle course, we did another
long trail ride, and then headed back to
the schoolhouse for our finishing
certificates (it was about 4:30 by this
time).
After we went back to camp, I got the itch
and headed off to play a bit. As mentioned,
I went back to the obstacle course, and
played around the stuff. I found a big
sand-hole, and amazed myself going up and
down the very steep sides. I even climbed a
three-foot vertical (and I mean vertical)
sand bank. Really cool stuff. During the day, my camera was working
strangely, and I accidentally got the triple exposure to the left, which turned
out pretty cool.
After supper, I was feeling adventurous, so I asked a few of the guys from the club if they would spot me going through the "Little Sluice", which is basically a 50-foot giant boulder path modeled somewhat after the area of the same name on the Rubicon trail. About fifteen people came along (oh great, an audience...), and we aired down to about 10 pounds. I had a look over the boulder-field, and said "yeah, right!". The first boulder was about three feet high, and it got nasty very quickly. I high-centered my transfer case once, and we had to jack it up, throw a couple rocks, and I was on my way again. I also managed to high-center on one of the rear spring/shock mounts, and we actually ended up jacking up the tire (using the hi-lift). Amazing what you can do. I came down very hard on a couple of very big boulders, and without the off-your-rockers rocker panels I would have had some *serious* body damage. I can imagine what a pair of nerf bars would have done... (squish).
All told, it took about an hour to go the fifty feet, but I made it, under my own power. Amazing feeling, getting through that.
After that, I headed back to camp, aired up, and headed home.
All in all, I found the course to be very informative, and very worthwhile for a newbie wheeler like myself. I got to have fun in an environment where there were a lot of experienced people to help out and watch out, and I learned a lot about the limits (or lack of them) of my new Jeep.
The instructors (and club members in general) were very friendly, helpful, and always willing to answer questions.
Definitely recommended.