[Jeffro06]

On Saturday November 15th, 2008 the JeepsGoneWild Extreme Offroad Club held an open event at the Badlands in Attica Indiana.



At last count we had 25 jeeps signed up to attend. I didn't get an official count, but I'm sure we didn't have less than that.

I made my way down to the park solo. Nothing like a 3 1/2 hour jeep ride alone. I arrived just before 10am...Indiana time. I hate losing an hour on the way there.

Everybody met in the lower lot. Gribbles held a drivers meeting. Igotadisneyjeep (Club President) was there, which was a surprise to most of us, as he had stated he didn't think he could attend. It was nice seeing you Mike, even though it was brief.

Right away it was decided we would break up into three groups. Gribbles asked for volunteers to scout the Orange Trail. I jumped at the chance. Redsmoke lead the way. The other two groups would takle the Green Trail, play in the Quarry and wait to hear from on with a trail condition report.


Everyone arriving.


Everyone saying hello, and doing introductions.


The drivers meeting.


Starting to head out.


Some of the guys in Group A, on the way to the Orange Trail.


Redsmoke leads us onto the trail.

There was a lot of talk before this trip in reference to "THE HILL". Well the hill was nothing. The muck and yuck leading up to the hill was gone, filled in, so making it over was simple, not a problem.....kind of sad. The big up hill which followed "THE HILL" only caused a little grief.


I gave Strizzy123 a little crap for not making up on the first try.


Photos don't do this hill justice. This JK took it in stride.

We avoided the swamp section of the Orange Trail even though it didn't look to be as wet. Everytime I've been on the Orange Trail we climb out at what looks to be an old cement dumping spot. This time we climbed out there too...some a little more flashy than others....


aaronc88 two wheels it.

[Jeffro06]

mascun aka: shaggy gets some air time.

After climbing out we didn't head back down the fire road as I have in the past, we dropped back down onto the trail...into the unknown...well for me anyway.

There were a few mud holes along the way....






After the above mud holes there was this little hill.....uh-oh a new "THE HILL"! Anyway as you went up this little sucker there was a tree root on the passenger side which caused you to slide to the driver side, where a tree was waiting for you. Several bumped the tree, either will a bumber, fender or flare. A few of us...yes me included...opted not to test the tree.




Northsidejeepin sqeezed through, but kissed the tree with the front end...nothing major.

Of all the mud holes we saw, none was worse than this.....


Strizzy123 was the only one try it......and for good reason.


It would take a little more power than this to pull him out.


Time for a winch.


As he was winched out the mud just piled up in front.

Strizzy123 made it out...even though aaronc88 and I were a bit concerned about him having an automatic. If you read my report on my last trip to The Cliffs you know why. Turns out all was fine on this day, and we all moved on.

[Jeffro06]

We made our way back to the fire road, but some of the guys wanted to try a rock section....



Okay, that wasn't the rock section, it was aaronc88's parking brake.

This is the begining of the rock section.....












A couple of the guys had to take the by pass, some of decided to skip the entire section and take a lunch break, and meet back up at the quarry.

strizzy123 and I were the first two in the quarry so we played around a bit. There is a nice step up down by the pond.


strizzy123 steps up.


Hackshack didn't try real hard here....didn't want to risk an axle...don't blame him.


This wall was no problem though.

[Jeffro06]

Turns out one of the other group members experienced a little trail damage while in the dunes.


Everyone checks out RubiRed06's new beauty mark.


It's just a small dent and a missing mirror.

Turns out some sand gave way sending him into what would have been a rollover if not for the tree that caught him.

As others, from the other two groups started to meet up we decided who wanted to wheel where, split up again, and headed out. A few from group A decided to do Orange again. Four of us, myself, aaronc88, northsidejeepin decided to head out to the Blue Trail, which I had never been on befoe. Along the way we met up with strizzy123 and he joined in.

The first and worst obstacle on Blue made me think twice...well at least twice. As aaronc88 looked for the correct line....which he claimed was there, myself and northsidejeepin were convince aaronc88 was crazy.

You had to place the driver side tires on a rock face, which would cause the jeep to lean to the passenger side....quite a bit. This feeling was exagerated do to the fact you were right on the edge of a sharp drop off. The good news was there was a tree there waiting to catch you. From the scars on the tree it looked as if it had been happy to catch others before us.


aaronc88 looks for the line........this ain't it.


Here you can get a better feel for this.

Once aaronc88 made it up, it was northsidejeepin's turn.


No problem....thanks to aaronc88 giving him a hand...lol.

Turns out aaronc88 having open diffs made it look harder than it would be for the rest of us. Northsidejeepin made it with less effort...but it still looked scary. I made it too....kind of white knuckled though...lol. I don't have a pic of myself...so I'm hoping for one.

Strizzy123 showed up after the three of us completed this obstacle...I'll refer to it as "Cliff Hanger", so he didn't have the benefit of seeing the line first hand. Instead good spotting was used and he made it without a problem.

We continued onto the creek to the tubes. Aaronc88 went through the left tube, strizzy123 through the right. I have some video of it that I'll post later. Northsidejeepin and I passed on the tubes. I've seen too many vids of people driving through them and smashing the crap out of their rears as they fall out. Turns out the drop off wasn't that bad...but there was some banging and scraping.

We ran the creek until we ran out of trail markers, turned around and headed back to the tubes. Strizzy123 had found a coil spring in the quarry ealier and finally got word who it belonged to so he headed off to return it. Northsidejeepin decided to call it a day and headed home. Aaronc88 and I decided to go back up the creek and continue on to Kevin's trail. Along the way we passed a hunter carrying a rifle....we were like WTF! I mean really even if you were tracking a deer you would think you wouldn't walk into the park with a rifle on your shoulder.


We met another group on Kevin's Trail and let them through.

After Kevins Trail we met up with some others in the quarry.


Redsmoke decided this wall looked like a good challenge.


After a few attempts and a few wheelies, it was decided some help was needed.


A little exagerated angle here (by me)....for drama!

Everytime Redsmoke made it to the crest his jeep made some terrible sounds. Turns out the spider gears in the D35 were chewing themselves to pieces. I think he would have made this climb otherwise.

After this we did a little more playing around, but time was almost up, so we headed back to the upper lot to air up, hook up and load up...for the trip home.


I'm on my way home sweet home....behind aaronc88.

It was pretty good day. Not many other jeeps, not too many quads running around. No snow, no rain...despite the weathermans predictions.

I'm sure there are many more stories and pictures from the other two groups so post 'em if you got 'em.

If you want to view all 382 of my pics just click HERE, I left them clickable for you guys!

The next run is December 6rh, 2008. It's a Toy for Tot's run. I'm not sure if I'll make it or not, if I can, I'm hoping for some fresh snow.

[Jeffro06]

Some shots from the day, posted by other attendies, in other threads...

Originally Posted by Dillonzj

Hey man I am just sorry we couldnt get the thing in... But hey Heres a pic of our jeeps lol

Originally Posted by turpehar

I had a great time today. Here is the video of Jeffrey's close call.

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[Jeffro06]

And some more...

Originally Posted by turpehar

Here's a few pic's.

[Jeffro06]

and more...

Originally Posted by turpehar

And a few more.

[Jeffro06]

and more.........

Originally Posted by strizzy123

I had a great time and thanks to Jeremy, who winched me out of a big mess.
Here are a few pics:





Oops...



Jeremy winching me out

[Jeffro06]

and so on........

Originally Posted by mhardw3

Had a blast out there. It was every bit worth the drive even without sleep the night before. Although on the way home I was seeing double, had to stop and buy a bunch of mountain dew and candy.

I was real impressed with what near stock and stock jeeps can do. I expected to get stuck on a lot of obstacles and never did. The only damage I had was a result of too much tire(31's) for a 2" lift and a bent front diff that makes it hit even sooner. Its only a fender though, it just sucks that it was the nicest part of my jeep since it was brand new. Im adding more lift after christmas and maybe a locker. Till then, sawzall.

Heres some pics

[Jeffro06]

and on we go....

Originally Posted by mhardw3

[Jeffro06]

yes more.......

Originally Posted by Red_Smoke

Not sure, but I think this may be a problem... So why is it everybody says the axle shafts are the weak link? I think the JGW experiences this summer would suggest the spiders are the weak link!

[Jeffro06]

we'll keep going...

Originally Posted by aaronc88

kinda hard to see but when i got back into my neighborhood i started feeling some vibes and well ends up two caps of the ujoint got chipped ill get a better pic of the u-joint tomorrow

[Jeffro06]

And finally...

Originally Posted by Northsidejeepin

Here is what I have for pics. Just wanted to share.

[IGotADisneyJeep]

Very nice as always Jeff!

Well, I like to thank everyone who made it to our run & Special thanks to Mike "Gribbles" that organized this run. I was not going to make this run so, I asked "Gribbles" to take over this run for me. Excellent organization Mike! Mike will possibly become the "Regional Leader of Indiana" for our club. I am also looking for other Regional Leaders for others states to expand our jeep club.
Since I have seen the list of jeepers that were going to come to this run. I changed my mind and I decided that I have time to join in. I really wanted to come so, I can welcome the new jeepers that wanted to join in. All of them did awesome & glad you had an awesome time with our club. Everyone else did a great job & we had awesome team work.
For everyone who was new, I hope we added some excitement to your life and welcomed you to the jeep world and our club. Please, come out with us again & intime join our friendly club. We'll promise you that you will have a wonderful time as a member of our club though out the up coming years.
We have many exciting plans for the up coming years and our club is growing very rapidly. Everyone is welcome to join our runs and you'll have a Blast with our club.

Thanks again for joining along,
Michael
Club President

[Jeffro06]

Originally Posted by IGotADisneyJeep

Very nice as always Jeff!

Thanks Mike. Sorry I missed your call. The parents stopped by, then it was dinner time, then I had to upload pics, edit video, post a trail report and start video uploads to youtube.

I'll have some video later...may not be all excitement, or shot all that well, but I like watching it. Besides have you ever tried driving a jeep offroad, taking photos and shooting video...all at once...wow...