Dave's Life

Last night we returned from our weekend wheeling trip to Barnwell Mountain Recreation Area in Gilmer, TX. This was my first trip out in my new Jeep, and things couldn't have worked out any better. I originally planned on sticking to 2-diamond trails and babying it since I had never wheeled an XJ before, but within an hour or two I realized how dang capable that vehicle really is. I took almost every line that I would have in the CJ and with front and rear locker, doing 4-diamond trails was a very doable task.

In addition to my being in a new rig, my brother was making a shake-down run on his new setup with a rear Dana 44 axle and new 6" Rusty leaf springs in the rear. Considering the unknowns, both rigs held up well. My only damage was small cosmetic stuff losing the drivers front amber light, slightly pushing in the front of the fender (easy fix) and a slight tag on the rear body in front of the tail light and cracking that red lense open. Harold ended up with a little knock into his rear passenger door but there was huge evidence that his rocker gaurds saved him from a *bunch* of body damage on that side.

We started our morning Saturday with a trail that was not too much more than a dirt road. Towards the end it got into some modest climbs and I was surprised at how well the XJ grabbed and clawed to the top. I was crawling up some fairly steep stuff at about 1500 RPM, and the Jeep was just purring. This was the first run for either of us having both front and rear lockers and we both marvelled at how much it felt like cheating.

After this brief little warm-up we headed over to Twister and I took the lead position. I was expecting to have to take the bypass up the first ledge but I decided to take a shot at it. I found a sweet line and walked right up without any issue. The crew in Harold's Jeep said they got a pretty nice view of the top of my Jeep on the climb as we were staring at the sky. This was the first real obstacle my dad had ever been on and it was fun watching him tighten up a bit in the passenger seat!

Once we got to the top of that first ledge and got to enjoy that first little adrenalin rush, we got out and watched my brother make the climb. This was the first test of his new setup and he walked up without much of an issue.

After Twister we decided to head to the south end of the park to Old Camp to show the crew. Harold had some previous hairy experiences with a 4-diamond trail called Jeep Eater which heads up out of Old Camp. He decided to give it a shot. I was still a little apprehensive about taking my little rig up there, but after he made it up, I decided to give it a shot. Jeep Eater is pretty uneventful until you get to the very top where there is a notable ledge which, depending on the line, can be pretty offcamber and a little disconcerting. I didn't like my first line on it so I backed down a bit, pointed to the left and we walked right up.

I don't remember the exact order of the other trails we took, but here are some highlights.

We took Scorpion Overlook which winds down the spine of a hill. Off to the right you see these bottomless dropoffs with "exit only" signs. At the time I didn't realize that was where I would be coming out in a few minutes. It was along here that we saw the only other Jeep that we ever saw on the trails all weekend. As we passed the little boy in the back of that XJ exchanged waves with my little boys. We dropped down the left side of the hill and wrapped around the end back to those climbs. They were marked with 4 diamonds and we were trying to figure out why considering they were mostly straight albeit loose climbs. About 1/3 of the way up Harold found out part of the reason. With his bigger tires and lift, he cleared it without much effort. When I got up to it, I ended up high centering and couldn't move forward or back. He backed down the hill and I had to grudgingly take a strap and we eventually got it over the log. The top of the trail got a little interesting as well. It ends with a 100 foot climb on lose rocks and dirt. I ended up digging in at one point with all 4 wheels spinning. I backed up and hit it countless times, and eventually fell into the right line and made it up. It was a fun trail and I want revenge next time.

We headed up the lower part of Clyde's Ravine from the exit of Scorpion Overlook. You can pretty much put it in cruise control up Clyde's. There are some fun axle-twisting spots, but nothing terribly difficult. There are actually two sectons of Clyde's Ravine like that and I was commenting on the way up that it wasn't nearly as interesting as it used to be. I learned the next day that there is still fun to be had there.

After lunch I lead us down Binders Blvd. I don't think I had ever done that trail before but it is one of my new favorites. We dropped in and stared down a nice washed ravine with our noses pointed down pretty well. There were a couple of 2' ledges on the way down and I was a little concerned about having a longer tail than I was used to but it wasn't an issue. I was super impressed with the way my suspension worked as we snaked down. We climbed up the first hill and waited for the rest of the crew. Harold almost got himself in trouble coming down behind us. When they came to the top, he mentioned that he got a little distracted and came pretty close to a roll and had to gun it out. We think this is when he picked up the only body damage he got from the weekend. There is a new scar down the top of his right rocker gaurd and a ping in the rear passenger door.

Before dinner we hit one of my other favorites, Spider Ravine and Venom Loop. I had only done this trail from the bottom to the top, but Harold suggested we go down in instead and he lead us down. After a descent, we took off to the right around Venom Loop. I got to relay across the CB the tale of Aaron's CJ catching on fire on this trail and subsequently me almost letting mine roll down without me in the driver's seat, which was by far the most stressful 2 minutes of wheeling I have ever had, and I am sure Aaron would concur. We went around the loop clockwise as opposed to the normal direction. Coming down the end of the loop Harold got his left tires several feet in the air and it looked like he might head on over. He brought it down and we moved on. After winding our way through the root and tree filled end of Spider Ravine, we stopped to gather wood from a fallen tree for the night's fire.

We got our fire going and cooked hobo dinners which came out awesome. Afterwards, we got the fire burned down to coals and around 8:30 we went out for a short night run. BMRA rules specify you can't be on the trails past 10pm so we knew it had to be pretty short.

We started off by hitting Sierra's Skyview down near Old Camp. After a dramatic drop at the start, in which Dad gave an "Oh my goodness!", we wound around through the woods and came upon a trail crossing wthat wasn't labeled. I was leading and headed forward up a short hill. My lights began shining on a crazy ravine and we moved up to assess it. I came to the conclusion that I could likely make it up, but not without costing me most of the drivers side body of my Jeep. It might look different in the daylight but it was clearly not the right choice for a nice easy night run in a short time frame. Harold spotted me backwards down the hill and we took off to the right on the unmarked trail.

We determined that it was simply a dirt road that was crossing until about a half mile down we took a turn to the left and began a fairly steep climb that became pretty offcamber to the right about halfway up. After reaching the top we determined that we were at the top of a trail called X-Way, but we had no idea where we were!

After a bit of floundering we found ourselves back on one of the main roads and ventured back for a run on Jerry Paul's Expressway. We both remembered this as a nice easy trail with lots of ups and downs twisting through the trees. What we both had forgotten was the very loose rocky climb out. I was leading and began heading up. About half way up I got to a ledge that was right up against a tree and got hung up. I attempted almost every line imaginable, but just couldn't get up the ledge. After watching me work on it for a bit from far below, Harold and Sam treked up to give it a look. We were about to stack a rock when Harold pointed out that I could probably make a bypass around the tree. It looked like I wasn't the first to do this, but it wasn't an established part of the trail. I whipped around the left side of the tree, got beyond the ledge and headed up the rest of the way without issue. Harold didn't have nearly as much trouble with his larger tires and was able to bounce up and over the ledge on his way up. I am pretty sure that ledge has grown a bit since my last trip out there, and I would be surprised if that bypass isn't a little more well defined on the next trip.

After JP, we headed back to camp, arriving almost straight up at 10pm. We spent some time around the campfire watching my oldest Hudson poke at the fire with an ever shortening stick and headed to bed. Our second night at camp was a little warmer than the previous night. It had dipped into the low teens the night before and the heater in my camper had a hard time keeping up. This night the crew in the motorhome also fared better than they had the night before when they had accidentally slept with the door open. :)

Sunday morning we decided we would go do some nice easy trails to finish off the trip. Of course this would be the day I would end up with body damage and Harold would break something in his front axle!

We took off down Green Lane, and easy 3-diamond, to Linda Gail heading left back towards the front of the park. A ways down we hit the pipeline trail and turned back up the hill. We came across this 3.5 foot ledge with an easy bypass, which I opted for. Harold decided to at least get his front tires up on it, which he did with ease. After playing on it a bit he decided to spot his son Sam up the ledge. They worked at it for some time and then we heard a *POP* in the front. We assumed a broken u-joint, but both wheels continued to spin. Not sure what the breakage was he continued working at it letting Sam have a go as well. After eventually stacking a rock, he made it up.  As of this writing, we don't know exactly what that pop was, but shortly afterwards his right fron tire was leaning in on the top like you see with messed up kingpin bushings or with bad bearings.  Neither of those seemed to match the scenario of the pop though.

We took off to the east end of the park and saw some areas we had never seen before. There are very few Jeep trails down there with much more ATV-only terrain. We hit the few that were there including Soulhull Street and Angry Jeep, which were not much more than a drive throught he woods.

On the way back we went down Clyde's Ravine from the top. The upper axle-twisting section is a lot more interesting than the bottom. I took a line that I knew was going to be pretty risky to my body. By dropping my left tires off, I would slam it into the side and at that point the only option is to drag it out along the side. After talking about the line with Harold I had him spot me through it. When my left side began dropping slowly I was getting closer and closer to the wall. Eventually I felt that I had hit the bottom with the wall about 7-8 inches from and completely parallel to the body. Easing forward the Jeeps shifted again and my mirror was pressed into the wall. Knowing I had just sacrificed it, I moved forward and it popped off. As it did, the right side started settling down and I got out of the ravine. After getting out I found that the mirrors on the XJ are a great design! The have two pins that allow them to pop out forward, pop out backwards, or just pop out completely. I snapped it back in and we moved forward without incident.

We continued on to Spider Ravine/Venom Loop, this time hitting it from the bottom. After getting around the lower section with no damage, I lead us around the loop counter-clockwise... or at least I meant to. I accidentally took a split off to the right that was an extremely loose climb. I hit one point surrounded by trees and was trying to bump over an outcropping of roots. After a few minutes I found the line but not without breaking out the front drivers side amber light and pushing the fender back a bit. On backing up I pinged a tree and broke my passenger rear tail light and put a new touch of character in the body just in front of the lift gate. In the heat of battle I didn't recognize the damage, and only discovered it a bit later. I made it past that first obstacle and only got about 15 feet further before digging in to another spot. I worked on this one 5 or 10 minutes and then gave up only after Harold told me that he had never seen anyone make that climb (although I am quite certain many have). On backing up I saw that I was digging my differential into the dirt and there was just no way around that short of bigger tires. I backed myself down the hill and we proceded around the loop without issue. After reaching the top, we headed to the main rode and back to camp.

On our return to the campers, we spent a little time breaking camp and got on the road for the 3 hours back to town where my little boys slept like rocks the whole way. This weekend was really what wheeling is all about to me!