The weekend of June 19 and 20 was dedicated as the Willie Vasquez Memorial trail ride and took place at Rausch Creek off road park in Pennsylvania. Everyone who headed out on Friday night met up at Echo Valley Campground for some beers and laughter for those who attempted to set up their tents. Others decided to really rough it and either just slept in their vehicles or a queen size bed in a brand new camper.
After a good night’s sleep the whole crew gassed up and met for an exquisite breakfast at the premier dinning section of the local truck stop. After eating and people watching we fired up the trucks and headed out to Rausch Creek. After paying and airing down John Acconi stepped up as leader. He rode with Rob in his Cherokee as we set off to do some mild trails.
After a couple of average size rock gardens the group decided to progress up to some black trails. This is where the wheeling became exciting and noteworthy. Strategically placed between the rock gardens were huge depressions in the ground that were just about the right size to swallow most 4x4s whole. These hungry holes were filled with loose and jutting rocks that just waited to puncture a sidewall or grab an axle or skid plate. Rob did a great job navigating the group through the first of the holes, but we managed to find deeper and more challenging vortexes that were made either by coal mining or glaciation.
As the trails became more difficult the whole group slowed down. Spotting became very important and John did a great job of guiding the group through when he was not getting in the way of expert photographers. It was nice to see that that most of the deepest obstacles did have go-arounds. After one large depression swallowed Rob’s Cherokee and required him to pull cable myself, Tim and Bill Lang decided the go-around would be a wise choice in this situation. The go around was hairy enough because if a tire slipped or a rock moved you would end up in the depression “roof” first. Mark in Snow White and Bob in Howler decided they wanted to test out their winches and ventured into the largest of the abysses. The group as a whole escaped with only minor damage to Mark’s tire carrier.
After another large obstacle that required more winching and a long steep descent that contributed to some decent pucker factor. We stopped for lunch in between the rain showers. As we continued on after our lunch break we ran into an impressive rocky descent that was strewn with diff catching boulders. After some great spotting, occasional pushing and rocking all of us completed this technical section of the trail. This section was victorious in that it took out one of Bill Lang’s Fog light lens and cleanly snapped my Master lock trailer hitch pin in two. Once we got to the bottom of this section Tim informed this that was probably the toughest section he had ever attempted with his TJ. He did great and I am sure he now has some battle scars on his wheels to show that he wheels his Jeep.
At the end of this long obstacle we had to wait for a traffic jam to clear out. Another club was repairing a problem that we thought was going to require Scoutmaster’s on-board-welder. While we waited for them to clear out we watched one of the group’s rock buggies get in over his head. After descending into a hole that was about the size of a short bus he could not get out. Even though he as riding on some ridiculous size tires with four wheel steering he was stuck. His extraction required 2 winches and a decent amount of cursing.
After completing this section we headed back to the staging area taking time out to splash in a couple of choice mud puddles on the way out. While everyone else was airing up Mark loaded up his trailer and headed back to LI. Back at the campsite everyone performed some basic maintenance and Bsed. Tim soon loaded up and headed home. While some braved a quick shower in the shady bathhouse (trailer) the rest of us started up the fire and the grill. After a great meal (thanks Chef John) we pulled the chairs up around the fire and drank beer while we amused ourselves with the burning of bottles and marshmallows. When we could not take the cold any longer we went to bed.
Day 2.
The second day started out much the same. Most of us woke up to go wheeling. Bill and Jane never did make it before the rest of us left for a second day of wheeling. After another breakfast at the dining section of the truck stop we said good-bye to John and Angela who were heading back. This left myself, Amanda, Rob and Scoutmaster for another day of Father's Day wheeling.
After arriving at the park we scouted out one trail that we determined to be out of our league. Then just after we finished plotting our route through an off camber rock ledge we were interrupted by some Virginia Jeepers who assured us they knew the trail. We watched for a moment as the lead guy in a shiny Rubicon on 35s blasted up the trail and promptly pickled himself against a tree. After this episode we moved on.
The next trail we attempted involved some narrow spots and some spotting at times. One tight section left me high centered on my “shovel” and required a quick tug from Scoutmaster to set me free. After one slow section through a rock garden Rob got excited and once again buried his Jeep in another large hole. He was able to power through it once, but after he backed down into the hole again for a picture he broke a pin on his winch fairlead on the way out.
After this section we decided to head over to the other side of the park where they have a lot of glacial deposits. Well, we never made it. After making it through one very impressive rock garden that severely tested out the stock rock rails on my Rubicon we heard a call on the cb from Scoutmaster saying he had just broken his axle on the final section of the rock garden.
After about 2.5 hours of banging, prying, cutting, sweating, and getting dirty it was determined that although the spare parts were available the repairs could not be done trailside. After we slowly completed the rest of the trail with Howler limping along in 3 wheel drive we made it back to the trail head where we aired up and parted.
