4x4 Icon - Grandpa's Woodlot 9/28/02

Prologue

I sold some tires (my Pirellis) on the web when I bought my TrXuS. Bill Smith bought them. When he came down to get them we got to talking and he told me he was thinking about getting the new Rubicon.

We got into a discussion about it, and I started dreaming about selling my Jeep and doing the same. When reality came home to roost, I decided that I really needed to stick with my Jeep and let a few car payments get finished before I started thinking about getting a new one... Bill and I also talked about OCC and he joined not long after. Eventually Bill's Rubicon came, and not long after that, I invited him along on a trip. This would be one of his first outings, and my first time to see the Rubicon in action. Jim volunteered to come along and so it was that we found ourselves in the wood lot...

Muster

Sheetz has everything you could possibly want in a meeting point: gas, food, a flat parking lot, free air, and room for everyone. So we met there and engaged in our usual pre-run ritual of airing down and disconnecting.

We were treated to Bill's sparkling new Rubicon as well. I really like the choice he made of the Khaki metallic. This thing is schweet! With all the little details taken care of, we wasted no time heading for the trails. But not before I stocked the Jeep up with "CAANNDY" and drinks for the kids!

Trails

It doesn't take long to get to the trail. The woods was nice. We followed the upper logging road up the ridge. Where the old road becomes blocked, an ATV path continues. We followed this into the woods, along the old road. Eventually we came to the large fallen tree that I had moved on my first exploration. The group stopped and we did some further work to move the tree further out of the way, so that we would not get up against the tree when passing it.

Above this point, we came to a narrow section where a fallen tree is angled across the path. I managed to go right over it and thread my way further up the trail. Bill and Jim had a lot more trouble with it than I did. The front wheels of the Jeep were sucked into a standing tree that guards the edge of the path. We spent a fair amount of time here, trying to get past, only to reach the end of the trail a few feet ahead. We stopped for a quick break then doubled back the way we came in.

We made our way out the lower trail, crossing the creek and following the lower trail out to the far end of the loop. There we stopped to chat, and I recovered the "No Motorized Vehicles" sign that marks the portion of the trail system prohibited for our use. The sign had been removed from the tree at the entrance of the trail.

After our break, we followed the other side of the loop back to the main trail junction where the logging road goes off into the woods. We took a branch off this path and came to the hill I had attempted the first time I came out here with Jim and Carl. I decided I would attempt this hill since it was not raining, and since I figured I could make it if I "stormed" it. And sure enough, we all made it to the top of the hill, where the trail meets up with the upper end of the logging road.

The kids had a good time playing with Mitzi, and we had a good time getting back down to the old logging road from the top of the hill climb. From there we retraced our route back to the road and headed back to Sheetz to put our Jeeps back in road trim.

Epilogue

We had another great day in the woods. The Rubicon is an impressive machine. Right out of the box it took everything the trail dished out. I am sure that it can take a lot more and that Bill is angling to dish it out!

GPS Waypoint	Lat.	Long.	Description

Grandpa's Wood-lot

9/28/02