Rausch Creek
April 22, 2012
by Ted the Fed
With a list of 15 rigs for the R.C. official LIOR April run of Sunday
22 April, it falls on me, the senior guy who actually went wheelin -
despite reports of impending rain-ma-geddon - to write the trail
report, so here it goes:
I guess a lot of people went Saturday to watch the comp and do some
wheelin on the side (I came Saturday night for the Sunday official
LIOR run, with 15 rigs signed up). I guess it rained and some people
got wet during the comp. Who'd think in an outdoor sport there'd be
occasional rain?
In any case, after a crowded dinner and equally crowded free lobby
breakfast (set up early since someone had anticipated a large crowd of
LIOR people wheelin Sunday and asked the hotel to get set up early) it
became apparent that most people were headed home due to reports of
impeding apocalyptic rain. Monsoons even. Typhoons perhaps, with
hail, the specter of hail was raised with some alarm. Radar images
were pulled up. Deluge arrival times were speculated to the minute.
The merits of weather.com on the internet vs the weather.com app were
hotly debated as the data points were scrutinized. This was, after
all, some serious, frightening rain that was headed right at us. Even
guys with, say, doors on their Jeeps were gravely concerned. The
actual absence of rain itself was of no importance - it was coming.
And thus headed back the bulk of LIOR - leaving only the hale and
hearty to wheel. Those willing to brave the oncoming storm of the
century. Those with jackets. And wipers.
Maqsood felt the rain would hold out until noon or even two - and
wheelin is what we labor over our trucks for and set these weekends
aside for, so wheelin it is. The group was myself with Rachel as co-pilot, Maqsood, Eddie Bad Hand,
and Jim and Bob sharing a jeep - four well set up trucks, but three of
them needed to keep driving during the week (I was towing, my rig is
basically trail only at this point). We agreed that given the
impending fusillade of rain, we'd wrap it up by noon, earlier if the
rain hit, and would not take any crazy chances. We hit the trails
with me in the lead and Jim and Bob tailgunning, we headed down the
green B trail, the idea being to take that easy access road around the
park, hitting the shorter, mode difficult trails that branch off and
loop back onto it so if anyone broke we'd be better positioned to get
them back to the access road and a tow out. I prepared for the coming
storm by tossing a raingear in the back of the jeep and finding my
windshield wipers. I put them on and everything. Made sure they
worked, since this was going to be some serious rain. It almost made
me wish for doors. That work.
We worked the 1a to 1c system of side trails at first. This consisted
of a small but technical hill climb, a little off camber to passenger
while turning uphill to driver side (which could be disconcerting
since a roll would roll you down into a deep ravine), with a steep
climb and an equally steep drop. A little spotting was needed. Eddie
Bad Hand tore up a couple of cotter pins holding his disconnects out
of the way, the front tires flexed into them. I considered using the
onboard welder, scrap metal I carry, and grinder to fabricate new
cotter pins by hand, but I was afraid of the coming rain. I've been
in weather that was like buckets of ice water getting tossed on you
over and over, and I knew that was coming. I would not want to weld
in those conditions. Of course that was the Shelikoff Straight off
the coast of Alaska in October rolling over 25 footers, but it could
happen in central Pennsylvania. It could! It was predicted! So off
we went - I was hearing that the trails were a little easy, and people
had done 8 and Yellow Jacket the day before, and with the clock
ticking to the imminent drenching, we made off to that area post
haste.
Eddie Bad Hand decided to sit out the 8 loop and spot and film us
through it. This a twisting highly technical rock garden loop with a
few short but steep bump up stair climbs. We ran into another group
looping through but made it around with no serious problems. A tough
stair presented the only real drama of the day - I used some wheel
spin to get up on it and ended up high centered, it must of been right
on the trans crossmember since I heard the disturbing melody of fan
tearing into radiator. I shut it down, gathered my wits, and figured
what the hell, I'm towing, fired her back up and backed down off it,
the fan whacking the rad all the way. I opened the hood to find only
minimal fin bending on the radiator, nothing was leaking, no real
damage.
We then shot over to the nearby 4/Yellowjacket system. While we
waited for another group to bash their way along Yellow Jacket Ridge,
we checked out the red O trail. Bob talked of going down the red
uphill section. Crazy talk, with all the rain coming who knew? What
if the monsoon hit mid trail? We stuck to the plan and worked our way
up Yellow Jacket, and I think 4, dumping us back out onto an access
road. These trails were smaller rock gardens with the occasional hole
to play in. It was then I felt a raindrop. Dread overtook me like a
prisoner awaiting execution. I knew we had to flee - flee for our
lives. I composed myself, checked my watch, and we had some time
until the Maqsood deadline, so one more trail on the way back. We
headed through blue 2, a series of rock gardens that branch off and
back, presenting lines of varying difficulty, ideal for our group. We
played there for another half hour or so before we came to our senses
and headed back to the lot.
While I was strapping the Jeep on the trailer and the other guys were
airing up, and playing on the comp course, it began to drizzle, I
knew this was the tease, any minute the heavens would just open, it
had been predicted. We rushed through our road prep to avoid the
drenching. Being noon (no real rain yet, how could that be?) we were
hungry, and took Bob and Jim's advice and headed to the Red Lion.
This is a diner type place (with a bar) between R.C. and I-78. The
food was really good, it came out fast, and it was cheap. I say we go
there again on an R.C. trip.
It took only a couple hours for me to get home to my N.J. residence -
it rained on the way back. Some rain. Not bad. When I got home at 4
or so it was raining pretty hard. I wondered how the hell I was going
to get the jeep in my garage. Rain. Jeep. Rain. Jeep. Then I
remembered - raincoat! A raincoat protects from rain! Problem
solved.
It was a good time, the small group moved well, listened to the
spotters, and used their heads. It was a lot of fun.