the other guy sold his stuff...so if you still have yours i'm in!!!

 

WOW!! WHAT A GREAT RIDE.

Still cleaning up a bit (well actually, a lot), but wanted to say I had an absolute blast riding with you guys today.

Spent an hour at the Car Wash - and yup, there was some really thick sticky clay hanging on my wheels. The vibration is much better, but I haven't got up to 65 MPH yet to confirm definitively. Mud and clay was everywhere . . . and that's only the preliminary cleaning.

Thanks everyone for letting me hang with ya today - lots of fun, and an awesome time. You guys were great - everyone pitched in and sometimes we had three recoveries going on simultaneously. Magnificent day!!

Will post pics later when I recuperate. Feel like Randy Couture has been throwing me around the cage for the last 6 hours.

 

Simple enough!!

 

No Jeep left behind rule!!!! Let's try it again when it's a little dryer.

 

Agreed, it was a lot of fun! I enjoyed riding with everyone. My CB wasn't working on the ride back to Huntsville, so that's why I never replied to anything. I forgot to stick the antenna back on the hood. I took it off after it slid off twice in some nasty mud. I couldn't hardly see out my windshield on the way home.. I ran out of windshield fluid somehwere in the midst of being sideways in the one puddle and being burried in another. Boy, was that some crazy stuff. I'd say we did pretty good at getting everyone unstuck though. I do have to say, that I am very happy that I had a two door and not a four...

I would love to see some video and pics of my jeep on the ride (especially the one where I was almost on my side), so whoever has some shoot me an email.

dsricketts@gmail.com

My brother got some pretty good ones too. He has a good video of Jeff hitting one hole pretty hard and bouncing off the ground. There is also a good one of Jason Clark being REALLY STUCK once..and a few other random ones. I hope to meet up with all of you again pretty soon.

 

We were wondering where you went - CB wise. I've got some good shots of you and bama in that big mud hole. I'll post them up shortly.

 

Again, had a great time everyone!! Hope you guys feel the same.

We got into a lot more than I expected us to, but that was primarily due to all the rain and all those big mud holes. After this Saturday, I'm going to think long and hard before I run out to the trails again after a big rain. I think we impressed those quads that were running around out there. They kept telling me that they'd never seen any Jeeps heading down the trail we were riding . . . which made sense once we started hitting those mud holes. Sad thing is, I would have made it out the other side if those two huge trees hadn't been blocking the last few hundred yards of the trail.

I've got more pics, but I thought these told the story pretty well.

Here we are at the start airing down and disconnecting sway bar links.


Within a mile we were already starting to splash some puddles - if only we knew what was ahead.


Lining up on the first trail that was blocked by trees.


Regrouping after we ran into the first dead-end (downed tree).


Nice little waterfall along the trail.


Blissfully meandering down the trail.


In5ane wheeling around one of many fallen trees.


Jason C. cleaning some mud off his wheels.


Jeff's KM2s almost look like slicks.


bama getting sideways. Where'd you find that black clay bama?


By the way, for those who weren't there, these mud holes weren't some contrived ORV Park mud pits built for the amusement of their patrons. These puppies were the real thing, flat smack in the middle of the trail. Most didn't have by-passes . . . you either went through, or you turned around.

Big co-pilot error. bama's driver was almost through, but let the rear end slip back around into the hole. That was all she wrote by that point. In5ane had thought bama was through, and had started his run. Ooops - basically had to hit the brakes, and start sinking.


Jeff's recovery service preparing for business.


Denny decides to try the other big hole since bama and In5ane were hogging up the other one all for themselves (note bama's spare tire partially in view right side of the pic). Bad move (he later pokes a stick into the thing about 3-4 feet).


Earl squeezing past a couple trees. If you did it right, you had 3-4 inches on either side. That was one nice TJ he was driving, and like me, he was running Dick Cepeks.


Jeff's recovery vehicle.


In5ane takes a another run at the big mud hole, and doesn't quite make it through. After this, I got stuck in the trail ahead of these guys, and had to winch myself out. Everyone decided to beat a retreat after they said I was leaning 45 degrees when I flew through another bog up the trail. There may have been one or two of us that didn't need some sort of recovery help, but I'm not sure who (maybe Jeff and Earl). When are going to do it again?

 

looks like fun....

these pictures have made my winch purchase move up from 4 to 6 weeks, to 2 or 3 weeks.

 

Yup . . . every winch out there was tugging at one time or another.

 

I used my winch 4 times to help fellow Jeeps out there this weekend. If you get one, get the accessories too. As a minimum, I suggest a snatch block, a tree savor strap and some good load rated d-rings. In my recovery bag I have 4 ARB 3/4" d-rings, snatchblock, 2 tree savor straps (3"x6'), 2 recovery straps (3"x30'), and leather gloves.