I think we're overdue for some 'wheeling pictures

Took the truck back to Wellsville, OH this past weekend with the Glass City Crawlers. The weather was beautiful for four wheeling; mid 50s and mostly cloudy. They had gotten some rain the area the week before, so everything was pretty muddy, but thankfully the creeks weren't too swollen.  weather was beautiful for four wheeling; mid 50s and mostly cloudy. We had 15 rigs in total, so we split up into two trail groups. As usual, I didn't get many pictures (really need to work on that). And, unfortunately, the small trail groups made for a fast pace, so none of the jeepers took a ton of pictures either. There is some go-pro footage of the ranger somewhere that I will have to find though.

Anywho, here are the obligatory group photos.




This is pretty much the trail group I was in. A 2 door JK and a TJ were also with us.



Playing around while the others lined up


Playing around on a short trail just off the haul road








After playing around on the haul road and taking the group photos, we split up into our groups. Mine follow the powerlines for a bit, then dropped down into a creek bed to go check out some water falls.



We made it to within about 50yards of the end of the trail (damn/waterfall thingy) and disaster struck the ranger. Ok, maybe not diaster, but I did put a heck of a hole in the sidewall of my passenger front tire.



So, I crawled around in the mud for 30min changing a tire, and forgot to get pictures of the damn/waterfall thingy. The bottle jack that I carry was less than ideal for changing a completely flat tire in the woods. I think I'm going to have to reconsider my jack situation.






to be continued...


continued....

After that we back tracked down the creek bed and headed for a different waterfall. This one is more of an obstacle than a photo op. Its a pretty steep rock incline with a few large and undercut steps in it (one of which is like 4ft tall). A few guys in our group climbed it, but they were locked front and rear on 35"+ tires. The ranger did not attempt.





After eating lunch at the waterfall and watching the more capable rigs play, we headed up and out of the creek bed on an old township "road" and headed for the south-eastern corner of the park to find upper and lower twister. These are a pair of long winding washouts that really test a rigs articulation. I ran lower twister with the ranger back in June. I seriously contemplated running upper twister this trip, but there are a few large rocks that stick out and try to grab sheet metal if you slide to far to one side (something that happens a lot with an open diff rig). I think I'm gonna give it a try next time I'm at the 'ville.

Here's the exit of lower twister.



And here's upper twister. That large rock on the passenger side is what gave me heart burn


At this point is was getting late in the day, so we started making our way back to the forbidden zone (the campground where we entered the trails). The most direct route back was pretty sloppy, with quite a few rutted up hill climbs. Ruts are a major PITA for the IFS ranger. But, we all made it back and out of the trails without anyone getting stuck or breaking anything.



Once we left the woods, we took a wrong turn on our way back to town and ended up taking back roads that had some pretty tight curves and switch backs. I think I was more uncomfortable in the top heavy and aired down truck doing 45-50mph on those back roads than I was all day on the trails  haha

I skipped out on the second day of wheeling as I had a lot of driving to do. I'm kind of kicking myself over it now, as it looks like they had another great day on the trails. They found the giant PBR can again, and tagged it with a GCC banner.




To Be Continued (later this time)...

Last edited on Tue Oct 16th, 2018 02:21 pm by Jimmyspy