Had a good time Saturday, thanks guys.
We were running Old Long Run for warm-up. VBVASploder surprised me with his stock rig and fairly small and mild AT tires. I thought he at least had a LS in the rear - what he has not - so his performance just was proove of what an influance good driving skills and a disconnected rear sway bar can have. Isles4evr with his built rig and yob_yeknom with his tastefully modified rig obviously also did not encounter any problems.
We were planning on going down Dictum from Old Long, but were stopped by a note that Dictum trail is closed for maintenance between Second Mountain and the ridge. We decided to drive down the dirt road instead and to give Dictum a shot from Rt 33.
VBVASploder was first in giving the bypass a shot, but it became pretty clear that even with good driving, even the bypass of Dictum is one size too big for his Explorer. Next was Isles4evr, trying the real obstacle first. It was a no go, and we needed some muscle power to get him off these rocks keeping him captured. Thanks to two Land Rover Discos and a Yota which arrived when we were in full action, we had some more helping hands, but we soon would have the chance to return the favor. Chris tried the bypass and gave a perfect example of parallel parking
Just, if you are perfectly parallel parked within an inch of a several foot drop off followed by a steep hill
the situation was a kind of - hmm - "interesting". We got him out of there, but at times, half of his front wheel was actually over the drop-off. But he did good and did not even needed to change pants afterwards, but I think he lost about a gallon of sweat in these 30 minutes
Next was the modded Disco's turn (2" OME lift, 31" MT tires, well protected with skids, pumpkin savers and rockrails, but no lockers). With some serious pushing and some strategic rock placing, we got him up the bypass with just a couple of kissmarks from that tree (people knowing Dictum know which one
) Way down he chose to go over the obstacle, which then, whith enough rocks on the right place(which were removed after the operation) was pretty uneventfull. He showed us what a mildly modded Disco can do, but he also gave us a reminder how easy it is to loose concentration between the main obstacles, busting his taillight when turning around for coming down.
yob-yeknom wanted some river crossings, so we proceeded to Dry River (thanks to VBVASploder, because I missed the trail entrance again). Due to the rain of the previous days Dry River was not very dry this time, so we had fun. A little further down the trail, we encountered some mud, and John somehow forgot that previously he said that he does not like mud too much
Some tight twists between some puddles and trees later, we were back on Rt 33 punctually when daylight started fading fast, so no time for Kephart anymore. Which is a kind of good, so we have something to do next time ...
Thanks everyone, including John's friends. This was again good day, like at about all outings with people from this board.
