Autumn Thump III trail report

[dontoe]

Part one........

We had a pretty good turnout despite the forecast of rain and falling temperatures.
I had to do some of my loading in heavy rain Friday morning and afternoon. It actually let up as Lynda and I drove down to the Uwharrie OHV area and the ground was fairly dry under the trees near the Group Camp. But the clouds were low and threatening.
Dwayne “CLRracer” and his Dad, Mike had their trailers and motor home parked there and they were out on the trails already. Tony “T-bone71”and his friend Danny had arrived and were starting to set up camp. I unloaded my truck and unhitched the trailer as a light rain began to fall.
We needed a few supplies so I drove to the Eldorado Outpost and met Dwayne and Mike on the road as they were heading back to camp. There were four muddy, wet people at the store front as we pulled up and a steering box lying at their feet which I found out later was from an early Bronco. Dwayne and Mike had just dropped after them off after rescuing them as they were stranded on the trails since they were out wheeling alone.

Swindell "Pointman" and Travis "tjt75" were camping at the main campground and stopped in to let us know they'd be ready to roll in the morning.

Matt “Nikon” and Amanda “MeanLilThing” arrived from Washington a bit later and Randy “rran64“ rolled in soon after. With a cold rain coming, everyone quickly set up camp. Tony and Danny had a big bucket of some great chili heating up on a cooker and we had a bite to eat and some first-class company.


Tony and Danny (riding along) went out for a night run in the rain and man they said it was sloppy and nasty.

[T-bone71]

I'm not much on big deep mud, electrical gremlins have a tendency to pop-up after or during a water/mud run. But wet, sloppy, slick, mud is alot of fun and challenging, especially on hill and rock climbs. It was a good thing we went out friday nite, we pulled a guy in a stock 4-runner ( he had no bussiness out in on the trail w/ no help in the rain ) out of the mud pit that you got the pics of everybody running thru. Other than not being able to find Dickey Bell trail ure is an easy nite ride.

[dontoe]

I'm in the process of writing up Saturday's ride, PM'ing me your experiences would be a big help. ;)

[dontoe]

Part II..........

Heavy rain fell on and off during the night, mostly on. A couple of the guys sleeping in tents were pretty much washed away. Mike “runnamuck” Chris “snowplow” and Nick and their girlfriends had arrived late in the night. Pretty tough on them having to set up their tents in the dark and rain.
Dawn arrived with a broken cloud cover and promise of a nice day.

We prepped the trucks and headed toward Eldorado Outpost, Chris having to swap his tires before pulling out. We gathered up in the parking lot and got a few photos as some had breakfast and others arrived. Rod2 “Rod Skaggs” joined us and we pulled out heading for some muddy trails.

Our first choice of the day “Daniel” was reportedly blocked by broken vehicles we were told as we arrived at that trail head. Regroup and we head over to try “Dickey Bell”. The leaves were just starting to turn in the woods, water still dripping from their tips and a wonderful smell in the air as we hit our first trail, a nice easy creek crossing and a normally two wheel drive climb up a hill. The slickness of the rocks and red clay made it a bit more interesting than normal but still relatively easy. I took my truck's top off there the weather was turning so nice. After riding through some gorgeous scenery we were heading up on up Dickey Bell and as we start up the hill there we find that trail blocked by a stock Mazda with a broken tierod. We go up to assist in the repair and speed the trail opening if we can and the guys there weren’t very helpful in helping us help the Mazda guy. Mike, Dwayne’s dad and Matt ended up doing most of the work, so we packed up the welder and headed back to the waiting trucks in our group.
Turning the group around at the foot of the hill brought our first carnage. Randy “rran64” tapped a dead tree as he was attempting to turn around. It came crashing down onto of Tony “T-bone71” taking out one of his driving lights and a little body damage. A few minutes and feet later another Kamikaze tree came down on Randy’s truck busting his windshield and damaging his roof. A few more minutes of turning the group around on a tight trail and we were again rolling looking for an open trail…………

[Snoplow]

i need to give a long overdue THANK YOU to Dontoe and T-Bone 71 for the aid and assist on not only getting my rig off of Kodiak and back to camp but a friend of mine Nick's cherokee out of the same place. Nick had developed some t-case problems while playing around on Kodiak and i pulled him out of the thick of things just in time for my drive clutches to burn out of my tranny. oh well thats the name of the game i had a blast and cant wait to do it again but i just wanted to say thank you and that i appreciate all of the help!!!:chevee:

[rran64]

hay got my windshield fixed i'm not gona fix the roof just buff it out 1300 dollars damage it only cost me 200 to get the glass fix my buddy that was there. is a windshild man that helps so i bought new back rims for my prosteet 15/14 centerlines that will spred them back tires..

[dontoe]

Part III
We had wasted a lot of time trying to find an open trail to ride and a place for us to have the “Crawl Competition” so we headed up Falls Dam and a couple of the guys made passes through the big mudhole as we took a lunch break and waited for some of the broken trucks to get clear of the trails.
After a short lunch we formed up to run Dutch John. On a steep muddy hill climb I had to make about four runs till I made it………….I'll have to engage the front airlocker next time. Rod in the ’73 Jeep P/U broke a hub after several tries next. Tony made it look fairly easy is his KS-30 and Dwayne made it but his Dad Mike broke both front and rear driveshafts, while several vehicles attempted to winch his big Dodge up the hill, I got a call that Chris in the orange K-10 and Nick in a Cherokee were both broken down at Kodak and as I was the nearest truck I rode over with Mike “runnamuck” to see if we could help out. We got there rather quickly and found Chris with no forward gears and Nick with a broken transfer case. Tony pulled up soon after and I took Chris in tow and Tony towing Nick’s Jeep, we headed back toward the campground.

A bit of carnage was still going on at Dutch John but those guys actually beat us back to the campground………….

[rran64]

it took us for ever to get every one up that muddy hill the holes an the big rock in the curve didnt help matters it was breakin axils and drive shafts mikes winch was barroed out i bet he gets it back..:laughin: