Great Time!
Good lookin’ pics, guys! Thanks for posting them.
I had a blast. Thanks to SteveVB for getting this together. Unless I forgot someone, I believe we had 12 (?) members show up for the run, some with passengers:
Paul J. Sabin
NoBoundaries
donkey boy
SteveVB and son
Bionc Marsh. and wife
Paul N. and daughter
Jason_25
Jot017 and friend Jamie
yob_yeknom and Desiree
NC-X
sc4wda XLT
and me
Have I forgotten anyone? This was a lot of fun and it was great to put names on faces once again; Paul Sabin was the only one on the run that I had met before so this was a chance to make a lot of new friends.
Paul and I arrived a day early to prerun a trail or two for Sunday. Paul copied off the linked article from the original thread, I bought a map, and away we went, leaving McDorman's a little after 10am. We quickly realized that the trails were fairly easy Forest Service roads so we took our time and enjoyed the scenery. A couple of miles into the trail was a rocky-walled hill to go play on. I played on it awhile while Paul was figuring out that his 4wd wasn't working
With only 2wd, he decided to hit the wall with some momentum to try to climb it. I was lucky enough to time the photo when he hit the wall.
Dead Link Removed
That’s a nice enough photo to make into his Elite avatar! We made it maybe another mile up but hit ice on a switchback and Paul, in 2wd, couldn’t go any further. I think it was a smart move to turn around anyway. We returned to the head of the trail and wasted another couple of hours trying to find other potential Sunday trails to no avail. Almost all entrances in the southern GWNF were bermed off. At least we knew where not to go on Sunday. Returning to Harrisonburg we met up with some of the Friday arrivers and ate some pretty decent Mexican food at a local joint.
FYI, Paul and I had a discussion Friday night concerning the fact that most of the Explorers coming would be new models, and we had gotten in some tight places a time or two that day offering trail pinstriping. Would anyone complain? I have to say that I was a little surprised that during the entire weekend absolutely no one at all made a single comment about trail pinstriping. These guys are willing to use their vehicles!
The next morning Paul worked on getting his 4wd working while I crawled under it in the snow and started to remove his shift motor to attempt manually engaging his 4wd. Luckily his theory proved correct and his electric 4x4 plug behind the dash had been left unplugged by the morons that installed his radio the week before, so he fixed it right and I got to rebolt his shift motor to his transfer case.
Saturday morning the whole crew (minus late-arriving Tim [NoBoundaries] who missed the morning run) met at McDormans for introductions and a look-see at everyone’s vehicles. The snow had started falling that morning and by run time was getting fairly deep. Jason_25 nearly screwed up bigtime proving that yes indeed there really
is a reason all those items in the “Trail Equipment” article’s "Required" list are required. I’ll let him fess up on his own if he wants to. He did get a run nickname of “Keyless” though
SteveVB did an excellent job leading the trails. We stopped short of finishing the morning trail since Steve had experience on it and knew it would be trouble further on under the slick snowy conditions. We stopped for lunch, tried out a few of Paul’s MREs, and posed for a group shot before turning back down.
Dead Link Removed
I thoroughly enjoyed the weather for the entire trip. The snow added a great dimension to what otherwise would have been ordinary Forest Service trails. All the vehicles did great and a few of us also played in streambed rockgardens during the run. Here’s Paul behind donkey boy in his J**p.
Dead Link Removed
And another good one of Paul in the rockgarden (since I was in the back and following Paul, most of my photos ended up being of him).
Dead Link Removed
Back to the highway for the second run, NoBoundaries lucked into seeing us and joined up with the rest of the group for the afternoon run. After a full day’s adventure we finished with a nightrun and returned to Harrisonburg and ate pizza at a local college-atmosphere hole in the wall joint before calling it a day.
Sunday, all but SteveVB and donkey boy were still around for another day of wheeling. The sky had cleared but the ground was still full of snow. NoBoundaries was once again late
but managed to slide in to McDorman’s parking lot in the nick of time this time around. We retraced the trail Paul and I had prerun Friday
Dead Link Removed
and once again played on the rocky hill. This time, covered in snow, it proved much more challenging. Neither myself, Paul, or Rick (Bionc Marsh) were able to climb the steep section that I had done Friday. Several of us took an easier line and played there for awhile and I managed to get fairly offcamber sideways on the hill. Here’s Jason (sc4wda XLT) attempting the difficult second obstacle at the top.
Dead Link Removed
Further up the trail, the previous icy section had been covered in snow and was now passable. We made it all the way to Flagpole Knob to witness a gorgeous overlook of the area and continue on to exit another way and complete the entire trail without having to double back; 21 miles in the GWNF and a great day of wheeling.
Dead Link Removed
I managed to catch few good shots at another stream crossing of John (yob_yeknom), Josh (Jot017), one of me, and a couple of Rick (Bionc Marsh), though his white Explorer almost seemed camo in the snow.
Dead Link Removed
Dead Link Removed
Dead Link Removed
Dead Link Removed
Dead Link Removed
Ending on Hwy 33, we all said our goodbyes and promised to plan for a future meet.
The end of the Trail:
Dead Link Removed
Closing thoughts include a suspicion that Jason will be fully equipped next time around (including a spare key
), John might try airing down next time for better traction, and a mental note to always tell Tim that a run starts one hour before it really does, so he’ll have a chance at showing up on time
C'ya on the trails next time! Thanks again to all!