| You know, it's funny. When you're sitting in the driver's seat, reality is distorted. I did an initial text-only version of this report for the Jeep-List, and after I got my pictures back I realized that I remembered incorrectly (a cute way of saying "exaggerated") some of the angles and what-not. Oh well, live & learn... Next time I'll wait until I get my pictures back. |
On December 7th, my wife's brother Dan came in to town, and my wife suggested that I go and spend a day with him on the following day (Sunday, Dec. 8th). He had never been four-wheeling before, and thought it would be a cool thing to try. So, we packed up the cooler, and headed off south on highway 101 early Sunday morning. This was a solo trip, since I didn't have enough time to get anyone else together.
We got to the park, paid the entrance fee, and proceeded up to the obstacle course. We spent a few minutes airing down to about 12 psi, and then started playing. We did the usual (the frame twister, stair step, etc), and then headed off down the trails to find some interesting places.
Below are a couple of pictures from the sand pit, which was dried out on the high-end (last time it was completely full of water). I'm not stuck in these pictures, just popping out over the top of a really steep mound of sand (and catching some serious air under the front tire at the same time).
The ground was somewhat dryer than three weeks ago, although there was still a fair amount of mud and water around. We went up and down some pretty steep hills, and Dan was quite blown away by what the Jeep could do. "What, you're going up there? No way!" ...... "Oh wow! That was cool!!" It was a lot of fun.
We got stuck in a very serious way only once, and I was almost sure I was going to have to walk out & find someone to haul us out. The trail we turned onto had a slight up-grade, as well as being a little off-camber, sloping down to the right. There was a drainage ditch on the right, and I tried to take the high line on the left. But, of course, the Jeep had other ideas, and we slid into the ditch. The Jeep was pitched over at about 35 degrees, with the right side plastered up against the wall of the ditch. Getting out of the Jeep was an exercise in gymnastics.
I looked the situation over, and decided to see if we could get out under our own power (yeah, right). I got in, and reversed using the starter motor, hugging the wall, and turing into the ditch on the main trail that we turned off of. The Jeep was now sitting at about 20 degrees, and I could actually start it. I could power forward (love that locker!), but the right rear tire was dropping in a little hole, and the front left would reach for the sky (with about two feet of air under it!).
Eventually, Dan got the idea to hook a tow strap onto the front left corner, and have
him try & pull and hold the Jeep down while I tried to power out. I was dubious at first,
but decided what the heck, can't hurt to try. It's not like I had a lot of options here...
So, I pulled out my little tow strap, and hooked it to the front corner, got in, and, with
Dan holding down, it actually made the difference, and the Jeep climbed right up out of
the ditch. :-)
Moral of the story: Don't wheel alone. If you do, have a winch. if you don't have a winch, at least have good clearance, a locker, and good mud tires. And be careful...
So, after we cleaned the mud off our feet, we got back under way, our spirits considerably higher. We did some pretty radical stuff, including some heart-stopping off-cambers, and some *really* steep hills and mounds. We did five fingers a half a dozen times, as well as the other big hill-climb near there (truck hill?). Near the base of five fingers, there was a big mound of dirt, about eight feet high. It was very steep on one side (about 40 degrees), and the other side was about 60 degrees. As in it looked almost vertical from the top. I went up the less-steep side first, and eased down the other side. I literally felt like I could have stood on the back of the Jeep as it was going down off the mound, that's how steep it was. Of course, I had to try it in the other direction :-) I was quite amazed that my Jeep clawed its way up to the top, with no problems.
We messed around in gully trails, crossing ditches, and generally trying the hardest things we could find. Just before we left for the day, we headed over to the obstacle course for one last run. I did the frame twister, and choose a line well to the right of normal, so the left tires were way down in the hole, and I checked my level gauge. Yep. Thirty degrees. Can you say "butt-pucker"?
Finally, I had to try and climb one of the 6x6 posts with one
front tire (see Joe's jeep picture from my last trip report). I
pushed up against one that looked interesting, and climbed up
and over and right down the other side. Oops... I got out to
check, and it was an inch below my rocker panel. On my
Jeep, there's 23" of clearance between the rocker panel and
the ground, so the post was about 22" high. I backed around
it, and climbed it again, this time stopping in the right place. Big
grin :-) Unfortunately, I ran out of film at the point where I had
climbed the post the first time, so I didn't get a shot of my Jeep
parked on the post properly. Oh well, next time.
Seems kind of funny, the Hummer guys advertise that they can climb an 18" vertical wall like it's something only a Hummer can do...
After that, we headed out, aired up at the ranger station, and headed home, very satisfied with a fun day of four-wheeling.