[Jeffro06]

Jeeps Gone Wild Offroad Club held another open event at the Badlands on Saturday May 17th. The park was open until 7pm, instead of the normal 5pm, which meant more wheeling time!

If you don't much about where the Badlands is, or what it has to offer, just click on one of my other trail reports, they should bring you up to speed...

I decided on Friday I was going to make the 200 mile journey (one way) without the top. I had recently bought a new Safari Bikini top, and decided to give it a try...rain or shine, hot or cold, dag-nab-it it's supposed to be warm this time of year! (I hoped)

Late Friday afternoon my passenger backed out on me. Then my buddy Jay's son back out on him. Jay asked if I wanted to ride with him, or him with me. I told him I wasn't going to be a passenger unless my Jeep was broke.

Jay said he would ride with me, even with the top situation laid out for him to ponder.

Come Saturday at 6am, as we rolled out of town, the sun was out and the temp was around 55 degrees. Not bad at all. Okay, we had the heat on, just to keep our toes warm.

About an hour and half into the trip, which is also the half way point, some clouds started to form and the temp seemed to drop about 10 degrees. Still I believed the Jeep gods were on our side...despite Jay's doubts.

We pulled into the Badlands at 9:30am (10:30 IN time) with nothing but sunny skies over head!

We met up with our fellow Jeepers in the upper lot. We aired down, disconnected our swaybars, removed tops (well not me), and said our hellos. The we were off to the trails!


We started off doing a trail that had a mix of small sand hills and some rocky sections.

We had first timer with us (Hi Michelle: Sliver TJ) and wanted to let her try out her TJ and build a little confidence.....before scaring the crap out of her.

Remember when I said we aired down before hitting the trails? Well not everyone did.


Not even a fully locked Ruby can make it up a sand hill at 35psi.
Those are his ruts...we laughed a little...but in a loving sort of way. He made it on about the 4th try. Next time a little less air will make that hill a little less embarrasing.

Our next stop was the quarry. We usually do a little playing there before doing one of the bigger trails. It gives everyone a little time to test out any new mods, or learn a bit about their Jeep, if it's their first time out. Not to mention give anyone running late a chance to catch up.


I guess a Ruby can do some climbing....lol.


This was the first time I saw anyone go down this hill.

A few more of us did a little climbing.







I decided to try the down hill thingy too.


It looked scary from the top...just didn't feel natural.

[Jeffro06]

Chad was nice enough to take my camera and take some shots of me...thanks Chad.


Here I attempt to break my D35.

Actually I just wanted to see if I could make it, even though I didn't really think I could. Maybe if I wasn't so afraid of going home on a hook, I would have tried a little harder.


Mike, the club president, gets in on the climbing fun as well.


The "Pumpkinator" attacked the wall, but this time the wall won.

After about an hour in the quarry we decided to do the Creek Trail. We did it up stream. The water was a little higher, and flowing faster. The creek isn't all that hard, but it's really fun, always a favorite.


Not all Jeeps can go topless.



There was no damage from the creek run, and no body got stuck. ^Someone^ , I won't say who, couldn't make it up one of the hills and took the drive of shame....up the easy route.

After the creek we headed over to "Kevin's Trail", which is a simple littel loop out of and back to the quarry, it takes just a few minutes.


Michelle's stock TJ sat just a bit too low and got high centered. A quick tug solved that.

We stopped at the quarry, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and even played just a bit more.


This was a tough climb, but he did it!


Another successful climb here too.


Here are three "chimpers"

We decided to run the Green Trail, which would be a first for most of us. I was under the impression it was one of the easier trails....doesn't appear that's the case.


Mike cresting the peak.

There were many steep, long climbs,followed by steep long decents. Kind of fun, but kind of scary when you can't see what's coming as your Jeep breaks over the top.

[Jeffro06]

Turns out that wasn't Mike...it's Ashley, his daughter.

We all made it over, or thought we had. Michelle was still on the other side. We reassured her she would have no problem making it up and over, so she gave it a go. We were wrong.




A few shoves later and she was free, and on her way, no worse for wear.

We decided we didn't want to risk any breakage on any of the nearly stock or stock Jeeps that were with us, which could surely sour their taste for wheeling, or our group, so we opted to leave the Green Trail. We will be going back, with a lifted Jeep requirement, until we're sure it's safe for non-lifted ones. It may not be.

We decided to do the Creek down stream. Same obstacles, but different challenges.


The "Pumpkinator" gives those Land Terrains some juice.


Some just crawled up the hill.


Some tried it, but decided the alternate route was best.


Some did it sparkling clean.

I had parked my Jeep trail side, to get pictures of everyone as they came up the hill. And to thank me, I returned to my Jeep and found this:


My interior covered in mud.

It's worse than this photo shows. Both front seats were muddy...with the front passenger seat being soaked. Everything in the back seat was covered, our jackets, lunch boxes, tool bag, everything. Turns out Michlle got a little stuck right next to me, turned hard right and punched it, sending quite the wave of mud (didn't smell like mud) into and on my Jeep. It was funny, in fact it's still dirty..inside. It gives it character.

Several Jeeps sustained some damage on this run down the creek. That just goes to show you, doing something one way can be easy, but another way may not be.


Michelle poses with her damage.

A tree reached out and grabbed the mirror and dented the windshield frame on a down hill. Trees usually win this confrontations. We all know a liitle damage is a badge of honor...or so we told her..ssshhh.

[Jeffro06]

Group shot.

We always try to take a group shot. The quarry cleared out for a while, so we took the opportunity to show off our rigs.


Some feel a need to show off more than others.

The Orange Trail has a new entrance, but we didn't get a chance to try it. It'll give us something to do next time.

All in all the day was a great success. We all left under our own power. Maybe a little battered and bruised, but still willing and ready to come back another day.

My trip home was a bit more interesting than my drive down. The weather treated us well all day at the park...sunny and 80 degrees. On the way home the dark skies loomed ahead. I kept telling Jay the Jeep gods were on our side, and we would stay dry. I hoped.

I had the new Safari Bikini on, so when we got to El Paso Illinois we stopped for fuel (ouch) and reconfigured the top. We unhooked the rear straps and folded the top down behing us, giving us coverage to below our necks. This stopped the wind from pushing back in on us, and ultimately stopped the rain from getting us.

It rained off and on for the last 60 miles or so, but we stayed dry, not a drop. I owe that all to the great aero dynamics of the YJ, which kept us in that bubble of air.........

My damage for the day consisted of re-cracking a rear fender flare. I had repaired it with some JB weld, and it now needs to be done again. I don't know what I hit, but there are some new scars on the flare as well.

One of my windshield mounted lights is no longer mounted. It was cracked, and finally gave way. Luckily Jay looked at it while we were stopped in El Paso and found it was hanging by a sliver. We just took it off.

I'm not sure if I'll make the next club run or not, but I plan on taking the wife in kids down in June, while I'm on vacation.

Be sure and check out the new vids in my profile, and the photos on my webpage. I'll leave them clickable for awhile guys, so grab them while you can!

See you next time!

[IGotADisneyJeep]

Awesome job Jeff and love your reviews of our runs

Thanks as always,
Michael
Club President

[IGotADisneyJeep]

Thank You for everyone who made it! We had 10 in our group and everyone did awesome. The weather was great and all went well on our runs.
Here are some samples of our pictures that my daughter took.
Enjoy her pictures.

[IGotADisneyJeep]

[IGotADisneyJeep]

[Jeffro06]

Originally Posted by IGotADisneyJeep

Awesome job Jeff and love your reviews of our runs

Thanks as always,
Michael
Club President

Thanks Mike..no problem, I love doing it.

Here is a group shot, of our Jeeps, it's four images merged together.



The actuall file is huge!

[IGotADisneyJeep]

Very cool, I love how them new digital camera's can do that
My friends camera can do that but, ours can't

[RockRodHooligan]

I have a little better shot of the damage Michelle took in her battle with the tree....


Great pics Jeff and Ashley both! In the last two trips with JGW I've had some of the most fun wheelin' yet, and I don't have too much fear of breaking something with you guys, if I could quit trying to climb everything I see! I still need to squash a few bugs the Jeep still has, before I can buy the required equipment to join the club, but you guys have at least one future member here!

[CBlakeNS]

Looks fun!

[IU98]

Thanks Jeff again for the great review and the great photo's. Never a problem in gettin a few shots of you. The jeep is clean again for all you haters.
Chad

[RockRodHooligan]

Originally Posted by IU98

Thanks Jeff again for the great review and the great photo's. Never a problem in gettin a few shots of you. The jeep is clean again for all you haters.
Chad

Lol, I'm still waiting for the rain to stop doing it's thing before I wash it. Then it's getting a good buff job and wax. Hey, no one ever said it was a crime to have a shiny jeep!

[Jeffro06]

Here are some shots of my Jeep, taken the next day.









Well that's the outside, which was "rinsed off" during the ride home.

Now the indside.





And now for the damage.





It's all good!

I have the new light brackets on order, and another tube of JB weld will take care of that flare.