Adventure w/pics: tough terrain + stock JK + lost in the woods + close calls = fun!
04-28-2007, 05:53 AM
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Adventure w/pics: tough terrain + stock JK + lost in the woods + close calls = fun!
Went wheeling last night, and have a story to tell. Dedicated to the memory of OJMiles, who was on my mind yesterday at the time of the ride. RIP.
I've included some (pretty bad) pics... because I don't want to get banned by posting another adventure story and not showing any shots! :toung:
Another forum member turned me on to this series of connected trails in CT, known affectionately as Satan's Kingdom (really). I took the wife out for dinner and a trail ride - she (wisely) brought her Garmin GPS with us. So, to set the stage: stock Sahara, GPS, and a "my Jeep can do anything" attitude (maybe I should've left that last item at home, but it turned out OK). I should also mention that it had poured rain most of the day, and was beginning to rain hard again as we hit the trail.
At first, the trail seemed like some nice little dirt road, which is somewhat rare in CT (at least in my area). As we progressed down the road, it narrowed, and we had to pull off once for two oncoming vehicles (no room for 2 wide travel), and 2 BIG lifted trucks passed through - high school kids, judging by the ridiculous speed that they were doing.
We kept onward, and the nice dirt road turned into pretty heavily rutted dirt road. After awhile, the rutted dirt road turned into a muddy trail. Up until now, my wife's GPS knew where it was, but I must've made a wrong turn at a junction of trails, because after that, it only showed where we were in relation to the roads that it knew... which was fine by me, because we could always make our way back to those roads.
I encountered and conquered: washed out sections of trail, huge puddles (one was MUCH deeper than it appeared to be), "bad lines" where there wasn't any good line to take - proven by some heavy "thunk/scrape" noises where the undercarriage kissed some big rocks [prompting the wife to express her concern that I may have broken something], scrambled around sections of trail that had been (mostly) blocked off by large rocks (we went around), and had a few close calls - one where I had the Jeep up and angled side-to-side steeply enough that I was getting pretty concerned about a roll, one where I had the Jeep running up a VERY steep hill (and those YouTube videos of Jeeps going nose up, end-over-end flashed to mind), and several spots where, in the middle of nowhere, I was running through some nasty, sticky mud, and praying that my JK would keep its momentum steady and NOT get stuck - the prayers were answered.
Eventually, we ended up "lost" in the woods. We turned off at a trail fork onto what I thought was a pretty narrow trail. As we progressed down, it became more and more rocky, and we started taking a pretty bad pounding on New England boulders that the winter had pushed up through the mud... There was one section where the trail went down a step (straight down), and broke over some BIGGGG rocks. The wife was really concerned that I'd end up falling over the front, bumper-first into the mud - luckily, I took a good line and ended up safe (except for a nasty *thwunk* where something metal took a pounding). After I cleared those rocks, I realized that it wasn't actually a trail at this point, but was a small stream! (would've been able to tell under non-downpour conditions). We traveled down the steam bed until it intersected another trail.
At this point, the GPS had no idea where we were, and I made some questionable directional choices [keep in mind that I had never been here before, and it was night in the woods - not ideal conditions for orienting yourself (if you're like me, that is)], but we just kept picking the directional forks that looked like they would lead us nearer to roads that the GPS knew about. In the end, we got out safe, smiling, and with some great wheeling behind us.
A words about these pics: They're a little rough, because most were taken by my wife from the passenger seat, leaning out the window. Some are motion-blurry, due to some suspension travel at the time the photos were taken. Also, it was raining and foggy, so my headlights reflecting on the fog didn't make for very good photo conditions. Unfortunately, we didn't capture ANY of the "high points" of the trail - in most cases, the headlights were at an angle that didn't give enough light to the obstacles, and also in most cases, my wife was hanging on for dear life! So, while they're not photographic masterpieces by any stretch, I love 'em because it was a great time (and the wife had fun, too, which was important to my wheeling future).
Deeper than it looks... one of many puddle/ponds we rode through.
The "after" shots: Notice the mud inside the Jeep (had my window open most parts of the trip
)
The proof isn't in the pudding, it's in on the Jeep!
More pics can be found here, in slideshow form.
Hope you enjoyed!
I've included some (pretty bad) pics... because I don't want to get banned by posting another adventure story and not showing any shots! :toung:
Another forum member turned me on to this series of connected trails in CT, known affectionately as Satan's Kingdom (really). I took the wife out for dinner and a trail ride - she (wisely) brought her Garmin GPS with us. So, to set the stage: stock Sahara, GPS, and a "my Jeep can do anything" attitude (maybe I should've left that last item at home, but it turned out OK). I should also mention that it had poured rain most of the day, and was beginning to rain hard again as we hit the trail.
At first, the trail seemed like some nice little dirt road, which is somewhat rare in CT (at least in my area). As we progressed down the road, it narrowed, and we had to pull off once for two oncoming vehicles (no room for 2 wide travel), and 2 BIG lifted trucks passed through - high school kids, judging by the ridiculous speed that they were doing.
We kept onward, and the nice dirt road turned into pretty heavily rutted dirt road. After awhile, the rutted dirt road turned into a muddy trail. Up until now, my wife's GPS knew where it was, but I must've made a wrong turn at a junction of trails, because after that, it only showed where we were in relation to the roads that it knew... which was fine by me, because we could always make our way back to those roads.
I encountered and conquered: washed out sections of trail, huge puddles (one was MUCH deeper than it appeared to be), "bad lines" where there wasn't any good line to take - proven by some heavy "thunk/scrape" noises where the undercarriage kissed some big rocks [prompting the wife to express her concern that I may have broken something], scrambled around sections of trail that had been (mostly) blocked off by large rocks (we went around), and had a few close calls - one where I had the Jeep up and angled side-to-side steeply enough that I was getting pretty concerned about a roll, one where I had the Jeep running up a VERY steep hill (and those YouTube videos of Jeeps going nose up, end-over-end flashed to mind), and several spots where, in the middle of nowhere, I was running through some nasty, sticky mud, and praying that my JK would keep its momentum steady and NOT get stuck - the prayers were answered.
Eventually, we ended up "lost" in the woods. We turned off at a trail fork onto what I thought was a pretty narrow trail. As we progressed down, it became more and more rocky, and we started taking a pretty bad pounding on New England boulders that the winter had pushed up through the mud... There was one section where the trail went down a step (straight down), and broke over some BIGGGG rocks. The wife was really concerned that I'd end up falling over the front, bumper-first into the mud - luckily, I took a good line and ended up safe (except for a nasty *thwunk* where something metal took a pounding). After I cleared those rocks, I realized that it wasn't actually a trail at this point, but was a small stream! (would've been able to tell under non-downpour conditions). We traveled down the steam bed until it intersected another trail.
At this point, the GPS had no idea where we were, and I made some questionable directional choices [keep in mind that I had never been here before, and it was night in the woods - not ideal conditions for orienting yourself (if you're like me, that is)], but we just kept picking the directional forks that looked like they would lead us nearer to roads that the GPS knew about. In the end, we got out safe, smiling, and with some great wheeling behind us.
A words about these pics: They're a little rough, because most were taken by my wife from the passenger seat, leaning out the window. Some are motion-blurry, due to some suspension travel at the time the photos were taken. Also, it was raining and foggy, so my headlights reflecting on the fog didn't make for very good photo conditions. Unfortunately, we didn't capture ANY of the "high points" of the trail - in most cases, the headlights were at an angle that didn't give enough light to the obstacles, and also in most cases, my wife was hanging on for dear life! So, while they're not photographic masterpieces by any stretch, I love 'em because it was a great time (and the wife had fun, too, which was important to my wheeling future).
Deeper than it looks... one of many puddle/ponds we rode through.
The "after" shots: Notice the mud inside the Jeep (had my window open most parts of the trip
)The proof isn't in the pudding, it's in on the Jeep!
More pics can be found here, in slideshow form.
Hope you enjoyed!
04-28-2007, 07:38 AM
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04-28-2007, 02:16 PM
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04-28-2007, 04:29 PM
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Sounds like a great adventure! The pics look like they're stills from a horror flick. 
Good to know you both came out smiling. 
And don't worry about those skids-- that's what they're there for! You should take a look at mine.
Good to know you both came out smiling. And don't worry about those skids-- that's what they're there for! You should take a look at mine.
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04-29-2007, 01:12 PM
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Oddly enough, this area is supposedly haunted - people have reported seeing red eyes peering out at them from behind the trees at night.I didn't encounter anything paranormal or supernatural out there, but I DID comment to my wife that, because of the darkness, rain, and dense fog (in spots), it looked kind of like the scene in a werewolf movie where the werewolf would leap out and attack the people.
What was funny was that she was thinking exactly the same thing when I said it...I can't wait to go back, and (hopefully) the skid plates' music over the rocks will help me convince the wife that a lift and some bigger tires a good idea sooner rather than later.
05-04-2007, 07:36 AM
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Follow-up: Sahara vs. Offroad: Winner -- Sahara (mostly)
So, here's the follow-up on the damages to my Sahara, for the record...
Went in for my first oil change yesterday, and asked the service manager if I could take a look while they had my JK up on the lift. I explained that I had heard some pretty nasty bangs and scrapes while offroading, and wanted to assess the damage to my stock skidplates. They were cool about it, and took me back there to look.
While I was back there, two other service techs saw me looking, and came over to inspect it, too. They both had big smiles on their faces, looking at all the mud my Jeep is still wearing, and said "not bad for a stock Jeep!"
The damage: my gas tank's skidplate has some new "character" marks - in particular, there's a nice dent toward the inside edge. You were right on about that, WayOfLife.
Additionally, (and bear with me, because I'm not a mechanic), there's a rear bar that runs behind the rear axle that appears to have rammed the exhaust HARD during heavy suspension travel, because it made a nice dent in the exhaust (they pointed it out to me, because I wouldn't have seen it from my angle). Finally, I noticed the exhaust tip: It's bent bad, and looks like a really big frown.
They suggested that I can just fix the exhaust tip by heating it with a propane torch and bending it out with pliers, but I think I may just replace my exhaust altogether (I'm eyeing a catback system).
In any case, I figured some of you may have been curious - I know I was!
Went in for my first oil change yesterday, and asked the service manager if I could take a look while they had my JK up on the lift. I explained that I had heard some pretty nasty bangs and scrapes while offroading, and wanted to assess the damage to my stock skidplates. They were cool about it, and took me back there to look.
While I was back there, two other service techs saw me looking, and came over to inspect it, too. They both had big smiles on their faces, looking at all the mud my Jeep is still wearing, and said "not bad for a stock Jeep!"
The damage: my gas tank's skidplate has some new "character" marks - in particular, there's a nice dent toward the inside edge. You were right on about that, WayOfLife.
Additionally, (and bear with me, because I'm not a mechanic), there's a rear bar that runs behind the rear axle that appears to have rammed the exhaust HARD during heavy suspension travel, because it made a nice dent in the exhaust (they pointed it out to me, because I wouldn't have seen it from my angle). Finally, I noticed the exhaust tip: It's bent bad, and looks like a really big frown.
They suggested that I can just fix the exhaust tip by heating it with a propane torch and bending it out with pliers, but I think I may just replace my exhaust altogether (I'm eyeing a catback system).
In any case, I figured some of you may have been curious - I know I was!