SirFuego, Schimiz3306, RockSvperstar, jdetar, Dave and I headed out to Rausch Creek for the weekend. The trip started off badly around 2PM at the GetGo in Greensburg, Nick and I were trying to cheat the fuelperks system by filling gas cans and then my Jeep on the trailer. GetGo got the better of us and I spent the next 20 minutes flushing gas out of my eyes, nose and mouth (probably about a gallon of it). After changing in the parking lot we started the caravan and arrived at Rausch Creek around 7PM. We set up camp Morning Wood (don't know why/how it was named that) at the entrance to Trail A, it's real nice to wake up and jump right onto the trails.
Dave's TJ broke the second he pulled it off the trailer. He lost the bolt for his passenger-side LCA and someone noticed it dragging through the staging area. A quick trip into town the next morning got him fixed up right. We tried to check out the trails on the East Side first but kept running into broken down vehicles, so we headed to the West Side and played on some of the trails surrounding Rock Creek. Despite a few attempts to stay upright, Jared fell pretty hard and busted his shin off a rock. We were surprising well prepared with 2 first aid kits and he was bandaged up in no time.
We ran most of the blue/black trails and hit a few black lines before a tie rod end on Jason's Sami gave out and a nasty grinding noise came from his tcase. The end result was some severe binding in the steering and no 4LO, so we limped back to camp and made lunch.
After lunch we stayed close to camp on the East Side and hit Trail 4, CV Trail, Yellowjacket Ridge and Trail 8. We also did some of the hills and bowls which were pretty fun. Jared's ZJ walked up most of the same lines that everyone else (with 33"+ tires) were running, I don't think he took a strap or winch once this weekend. Everyone was having a blast!
After exiting trail 8 we ran over to the Trail 5 Hillclimb and gave it a try. This is bar far the nastiest hill I've ever seen in person, so of course I convinced Nick into trying it first. He took a line far to the right and after 3 or 4 attempts his LTBs grabbed ahold of the rocks at the top and pulled him over.
Dave tried next on the same line and made it up with some hesitation. I was next and thought I would try the line to the left, it looked harder at the bottom but easier at the steepest part. I was wrong.
After flipping her back over we assessed the damage, I only bent the windshield frame and cracked the windshield so I'm considering myself lucky. We let the oil run out of the cylinders, topped off the antifreeze and checked the rest of the fluids and were on our way (nobody else cared to try after me ). We spent the rest of the evening playing around in the comp area, which is pretty damn fun.
After getting back to camp we grilled some food and drank some beer around the campfire. Jordan was the first to fall asleep in his chair so Nick stuck a weiner in his mouth.
The next morning we woke up and headed for the South Property. We ran down to Lake Christy and did some of the hill climbs. I went into the hole on Sunken Treasure in Dave's Jeep (always try deep mud holes with a friend's Jeep first ) but found no treasure, just deep mud. You can see how deep the water was by the water line on my pants. Now I have to clean Dave's rig, help him change the fluids and help him out with a new starter (If it was anyone else's rig I would've felt real bad).
Next we ran Camel's Back, which was probably my favorite trail of the weekend. It had a bunch of tall humps with really steep descents and rocks in the worst places. Everyone puckered up on this trail.
We finished out the day on Snakebite just before the rain hit. The trail is long and rocky, just how I like them. Nick spotted Dave right into a tree and busted up his fender (he swore he never saw it ). We headed back to camp via the Pole Line and hit some of the rocky ledges on the way out.
We packed up camp, loaded the trailers and headed home. I was quite impressed with Rausch Creek, there are atleast 5 black trails that I would love to try but didn't have time. Camping was fun, wheeling was awesome and our group of drivers/passengers couldn't have been better. All in all this was probably the most fun trip I have ever been on. I can't wait to go back!