UNF Opening Day 2005

[Joel]

We all met at the Outpost at 9am where we proceeded to air down, disconnect and buy our passes. Once everyone was ready to go we set out to run Daniel.

 

[Joel]

When we got to Daniel there was four Jeeps sitting in the parking lot. I asked them if they had just come down from Daniel. They told me they never had made it up and had to turn around and come back down at the S turn right before the rock shelf about 2/3 of the way up. We weren't sure what to expect at that point but decided to give it a try ourselves. As we wound our way up the first thing I noticed is that they didn't bulldoze anything during the off season. It seems like the only maintenance that was done were some tree removals and fixing up the berms for water run off.

Once we got up to the rock shelf it was pretty obvious the folks we saw back in the parking lot had spent some time there as the ground right before the shelf was churned up, muddy, and thick. I gave it a little gas and popped right over it without any effort. A few of the guys struggled with it but for them I think it was more of a matter of momentum and not having enough of it. The ground was a little slippery and crawling up the shelf just wasn't gonna work.

Once we were all passed the shelf we got to the top of Daniel. I took the middle line and was doing pretty good until I unknowingly tested the strength of a rock with my front diff. Greg and Dave spotted me around it and I made it the rest of the way uneventfully. Dave also took the middle line and made it look effortless. Everyone else did the same except for Greg. Greg did his patented up-the-right-down-the-bypass-and-back-up-the-middle line. At one point I looked down and he had lifted his driver's side front tire about 3 feet into the air. It didn't look like a comfortable position to be in.

 

[Joel]

 

[Joel]

After clearing Daniel we continued on until we got to the rocky area on the way to the double parking lots. They had cut down a number of trees there including a big one that they let drop onto the rocks themselves. Since this happens to be one of my favorite places to play we broke out my winch and dragged the tree off of the rocks. That would be the only use my winch would get that day. After watching a couple of YJ's struggle to come up we went down. Once we got to the double parking lots we turned left on the gravel road and went over to Falls Dam. Daniel was not as muddy as I had expected but the rest of the trails would prove to be plenty muddy.

Falls Dam is a pretty easy trail. The only truly difficult obstacle is the rock outcropping with a pit in it about the length of a Jeep. I made it over with little trouble and we continued on until we ran into a Ford F150 sitting in the middle of the trail. He broke a bolt on his transfer case lever and the truck was stuck in neutral in the middle of the trail. His buddies in the meantime were stuffing their faces while this guy struggled to fix his ride. Nobody in our group had a bolt that would fit but Greg went down and helped him find one he could cannibalize off of his own truck. Once they moved past us we continued on. We then attempted to pose on the rock that seems to be a tradition on Falls Dam. Unfortunately it was too slippery and the only one who made it up was Greg. We then stopped at the parking lot and ate lunch. While we were eating lunch a kid on an ATV decided to show us how well he could do donuts in the parking lot. At one point he just about went over.

After lunch we set out for Dutch John. The journey there was uneventful aside from the 12 Jeeps we ran into coming down. They told us that of there entire group only a few made it up so they had turned around and were backtracking out. We decided to forge on anyway. Once we got up there we could see just how muddy the hill climb was. Those who had been there before us must have really torn it up because the mud was more than a few inches deep and was pretty thick. Being the trail leader I got first shot at it. So I put the Heep in 2nd gear 4LO and hammered it all the way up the hill. About 20ft. from the top I got thrown to the left and all forward progress halted in amazing quickness. I backed up about 10 ft. and gave it another shot and had the same thing happen. After 2 more tries I was able to hug closer to the right bank and I was up and over. Chris was up next and he struggled at about the halfway point but after a few more tries he made it up and over as well. And then it was Dave's turn. Dave also got about halfway up when his progress was halted. As he was backing up his son Campbell said to me "Do you know why he is going in reverse?" I did but I said "No, why?" Campbell told me "Because he's crazy!" and without missing a beat he said "I'm crazy too!" It took every ounce of strength I had not to roll down the hill laughing uncontrollably. Dave gave it everything he could; 4HI, 4LO, locked rear, locked front 1st gear, 2nd gear, 3rd gear. But in the end his MTR's just weren't getting any traction. Chris backed up his red Rubi and winched Dave to the top. The rest of our group then made it up with little problem.

 

[Joel]

After regrouping at the top it was almost 3:30pm and everyone was ready to call it a day. So we headed down Slabpile to Rocky Mount Loop. Aside from some thick mud where the big rut had been last year there were no complications. Once back to the double parking lot we lined up, took some pics, shook hands and parted ways.

I then went over to the Arrowhead campground to find my buddy Paul who was gonna be setting up his pop-up. After I hooked up with Paul he and I decided to go run Rocky Mount Loop and Kodak Rock. The muddy spot that I had just travelled through with the other group had gotten considerably deeper in the hour and a half that I was gone. If it isn't back to it's old vehicle swallowing depth by the end of the weekend I will be surprised. The hill climb right before Kodak Rock was very very slippery and it took me 3 attempts to finally get up and over with the help of lots of skinny pedal. Paul having watched the whole thing decided one try was enough and he floored it right up and over. Once we got to Kodak it was surprisingly deserted. I tried to go my usual way up the lower rocky part but it was just to slick. I could get my front tires up on the rocks but then my rears would fall into the hole and I would end up sliding right off the line I needed to get up. After trying for a solid 20 minutes I gave up and went up another way. Paul tried the same thing. But even with his ARBs engaged front and rear it was just too slick for him as well. He ended up taking the middle line by the tree. We then hung out at Kodak and talked to a guy in a 4Runner that had come just to watch the action. The same convoy of 12 Jeeps I had seen earlier coming down Dutch John was approaching Kodak. They tried the same line Paul and I tried and none of them were able to make it either. In fact they even had to do some winching on the bypass. Kodak was very slippery. After 2 hours of watching them attempt to scrape all the metal off of their chassis Paul and I decided to call it a day. We went back to his campsite and grilled some brats and ate em with cole slaw and chips.

All in all it was a fun day. It was great to meet the folks from Rubicon Owners Forum and I am always happy to wheel with Dave and Greg. There weren't as many people there for opening day as I had expected. I suspect all the rain we got was the deciding factor for many. I am sure this weekend was a mess. I have already seen reports on other boards that folks were getting stuck where the big rut was (and probably is again) and even that 2 ambulances were seen rushing to one of the trail heads. I don't know if they were going for injured wheelers or ATV'ers but that place was challenging to say the least and it would not have been the best time to go for someone who has never been before. I was also very happy to see that the trail system hadn't been bulldozed like the previous year. UNF should be real interesting this year.

Since I didn't take many pics all the pics in this writeup are Greg's and I am leeching his bandwidth. If you want to see all the pics, click the link to his post http://www.usjeeps.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2682

 

[Yay!Gurrr]

cool pics, thanks for posting them.... Looks like a lot of rubis on the trails....

 

[Tacoma747]

We went on Saturday, I met CasterTroy at the Outpost, then Nissanboy(now explorerpilot) on 553 after getting to the bottom of Daniel and hearing that it was blocked. We headed to Falls Dam because we figured RML would be very crowded. On Falls Dam, right before the rockpile, there was a Jeep XJ that had slid off the trail, so Troy first tried to pull him up the hill, couldn't, so he turned around to use the winch. We ended up snatchblocking him from a tree, and got him back up on the trail. Somewhere on Falls Dam Troy busted a hub on the right front, so after completing the trail he and Nissanboy headed home. I went down Slabpile to RML, the hillclimb was slick, but I got up it after a couple tries, a little momementum was definetly key here. Got to Kodak, couldnt make it up lower Kodak, or the line to the left of it, so I took the one to the right of the bypass. It was DEFINETLY a slick gooey mess, Reid said he couldn't make it up Lower Kodak with his buggy (which is VERY cool BTW, LOTS smaller than it looks in the pics).

The only pics I got were some pics from poser rock on Falls Dam, which are in the truck gallery, and these of the Jeep that had slid off the trail.

 

[stone]

yeah yesterday it was too wet to get up the right line on lower kodak. but today was dry and i walked right up it easy. upper kodak i gave three tries and quit becauce i am too low. i would rest right on my bellypan at the breakover point. good times. it was nice to be up there. the only thing i saw make upper kodak was that dodge on 49's. i was impressed with the buggy again today.

 

[CasterTroy]

The only pics I got were some pics from poser rock on Falls Dam, which are in the truck gallery, and these of the Jeep that had slid off the trail.

None of a filthy white bronco?

 

[kerryp]

great pics thanks for posting, wish i could have gone, but I wimped out due to the mud since I'm still stock hieght and since I am running all terrains right now....

 

[lomodyj]

Great write up's guys! Glad to see it wasn't just us sliding around in the mud. In all my years of going to URE I don't think I have ever seen that much mud...I've been down for 2 hurricanes and they didn't create as much goo as we saw this weekend.

Joel, saw all you Rubies sitting in the parking lot of the outpost...almost came over and said hello...but didn't...that's my tan hard top in the background of your lot pics...

The trail fleas on Saturday were a total main in the pass. You would be sitting at the bottom of a hill waiting for the rig in front of you to clear and they would start goofing off in the mud...almost ran over a couple of 4wheelers when they would just cut out in front of me while I was banging on the rev limiter to make a muddy hole or climb...

Nobody in our group broke anything on Friday...but Saturday was a nightmare. Had a BIG Surperduty with us, almost bald Trxuss tires D44/ttb front. Tried to bang it over "Caver Dave's hole" (the ledge just below Kodak [ask me about how this hole became "Caver Dave's hole" some time...it's a funny story]) and blew up his ujoints...had to winch him all the way up and past Kodak...25-40 feet at a time...He was a good sport of it and all in all it wasn't so hard on the rest of us...

I blew out a ujoint in the same spot, but it was my long side on the D30, and though it took out the ears on the outer shaft and obliterated the stub shaft...was able to push in the PosiLoc4x4 and run in 3WD...winched over the rocks at the botom of the right line of Kodak (to not stress anything else in the driveline...) and bullied myself out under power...

Wind and mud were the story this weekend...but I've said it before and will say it again -
"A bad weekend of wheelin' is still good wheelin'"

 

[krehel24]

Well the wife and I got there at about 7:30pm sat, and found no one!!, But Like every time we go out there i run in to john(green s10 with a 2' bed)It was him and to very well built jeeps and a blazer. road Daniel till about 11:00 and for anybody who knows john he always breaks somthing! and this time he got a tree!! stuck between his front axle and rear, pushed his front axle so far forward that it pulled his drive shaft apart!! after about 30min or so we got it out. Lots of fun!!!!

 

[choochoo]

Hey krehel24 I was the one in the black tj that winched the tree stump out of john's truck and yes it was very funny, it's always fun to ride with him, something like that always happens to him. It was good to meet you and hate you hade to leave last night after we did Danial . We all went up to RML and played around some more without John brakeing anything, very rare I know.

 

[Tacoma747]

John is definetly fun to ride with, and like krehel, I have NEVER rode with him where he didn't break something.

 

[Joel]

Great write up's guys! Glad to see it wasn't just us sliding around in the mud. In all my years of going to URE I don't think I have ever seen that much mud...I've been down for 2 hurricanes and they didn't create as much goo as we saw this weekend.

Joel, saw all you Rubies sitting in the parking lot of the outpost...almost came over and said hello...but didn't...that's my tan hard top in the background of your lot pics...

Hey now, Greg and I weren't driving Nubicons. We were in our lowly TJ's. We had a blast. Mike Belanger? came over and told us you guys were gonna stick together since we had a good number of vehicles between the 2 groups and didn't want to crowd the trails and he wanted to go to Falls Dam first since we were heading to Daniel. I was rather surprised that Daniel was relatively dry compared to everywhere else. I am glad you guys had a fun time!

 

[Joel]

For those of you there Saturday and Sunday, what was the part on Rocky Mount Loop before Slabpile looking like? I was betting on that it was gonna be nasty by the time the weekend was over.

This is what is was looking like Friday afternoon:

And this is what it looked like the last day of the season last year:

 

[krehel24]

Hey krehel24 I was the one in the black tj that winched the tree stump out of john's truck and yes it was very funny, it's always fun to ride with him, something like that always happens to him. It was good to meet you and hate you hade to leave last night after we did Danial . We all went up to RML and played around some more without John brakeing anything, very rare I know.

yea it was good to meet you, we had a blast. We will have to do it again. I hate we had to leave, but we have chruch in the morning and hate to miss it.
Maybe i am just bad luck for him

 

[cherokee91red]

And this is what it looked like the last day of the season last year:

That spot was fun last year

I'll be out next weekend with a Red XJ on 33" MTR's if anyone sees me.

 

[Elliott]

For those of you there Saturday and Sunday, what was the part on Rocky Mount Loop before Slabpile looking like? I was betting on that it was gonna be nasty by the time the weekend was over.

This is what is was looking like Friday afternoon:

And this is what it looked like the last day of the season last year:

that bank destroyed my side view mirror last year. looks like fun, i'll be making it out as soon as the crowd dies down a little.

 

[RenegadeT]

John is definetly fun to ride with, and like krehel, I have NEVER rode with him where he didn't break something.

I don't think he broke anything @ Forest Games when we were there last Feb, but that was a rare exception!

You think they'll do anywork at the beginning of RML by the double parking lot? Its fun, but if they don't that could be a huge bottleneck as people break their junk and get hung up. There's no go-around. Last year in Dec, there was a couple hour blockage when a Chevy busted there and I had the pleasure of being first-winch-vehicle on the scene

 

[Exploderpilot]

Saturday around noon the rut was back to being pesky. Doable but pesky cause all of the open diff trucks getting stuck in it take forever to get winched out.

They have made a second way around it now though. If you go to the passenger side of the jeep in his pictures you can go through a slightly shallower rut but have to make a turn through two trees at the end. It should be a lot of fun by the end of the season IMO.

 

[Beastforty]

Sweet write up and pics. Its nice to know they didn't touch the trails, if they are already pretty rutted they will be a blast in a few more months.

 

[jplive]

Well, I'll attempt a write-up for Saturday.

Sat 7 am, I woke up to what sounded like a monsoon, very hard rain and lots of wind. So I rolled back over thinking "no way in hell am I riding in this crap or leaving my warm dry camper "

Sat 8 am, I woke up to a beautiful sunny morning, weird huh. The entire day was like that=sunny>cloudy>windy>sprinkling>sunny..........

Anyway, Kevin stopped at my site to ask if I wanted to ride and off we go to Daniel. We had a mix of 1 or 2 CJ's, a couple YJ's, me and another TJ, a bronco, a K5 Blazer, and a long bed diesel F250. I think we were all locked except the F250 and the other TJ.

Daniel was muddy but we all made it without too much trouble. The unlocked TJ need to pull cable for a brief moment. I took the middle line and got about halfway up and started spinning tires, backed up, picked a better line and went right on up with the help of Kevin's spotting.

Coming down the backside was fun; the F250 was in front of me getting sideways on the down slopes. I was in 1st gear 4low and didn't slide too bad but did slide some. It was very slick. I bet trying to go up Daniel in the opposite direction that morning would have been interesting.

From there we made our way over to Rocky Mtn Loop, again very muddy. We had to wait for quite a few 4 wheelers to get through the slop before we had a go at it near the beginning of the trail. The ruts were not bad but the mud was fun.

The shelf at the top before you get to Kodak was worse than the night before when Joel and I went up. The F250 broke his front drive shaft and had to use his winch to get from there all the way to the top of the rock garden where Kodak is. This effort took quite a while due to electrical problems with his winch. After he was out of the way I took the shelf with a few tries as seeing him break made me a little more careful than I was the night before with Joel. Then on to the rock garden where I took the line in the middle next to the tree. With several attempts in 1st gear not getting the wheel spin I needed, 2nd gear made it right up only to get hung up on a small rock that I didn't see with my TC skid. With my locker's still on I nearly spun 90 degrees in the slick mud before working my way off that damn rock .

From there we went down to the double parking lot and some of us met up with Bill, Curtis, Darrin and some others and headed to the bottom of Dickey Bell. I don't think I have ever run this trail in this direction. Pretty fun trail with all the mud but no problems for anyone in the group.

After that we headed back to do Daniel again. When we arrived at the parking lot we were informed that a kid had flipped his 4 wheeler and was hurt. They were bringing him down the trail. We went to just before the switchbacks and pulled off the trail for the injured party to pass.

We then started up the switchback where we had to wait on a XJ to try and try the 1st right hand switchback only to give up and move out of the way along with another TJ that decided after a tug on the obstacle to exit the way he came in. One old Cherokee in our group was having some trouble with his rear locker I believe and also decided to turn back.

So there were only 4 of us now. My TJ, a CJ, and 2 YJ's. It was about 7:15 pm and dark out. We made our way up to the rock garden and we all just drove right on up. No spotters, no stopping, just go. To my surprise, I think that is the best line I have ever taken on Daniel. I had no problems at all.

At this point we called it a day and headed back to camp.

I'll have to say it was busy on Saturday but I think the rainy weather kept allot of people from coming out. I have seen it much worse as far as the crowds. This was the muddiest I have seen in my lowly 2 years of coming to UNF.



Ready to go again soon.

Later

Paul

 

[got4-lo]

great write up fellas. wish i could have made the trip.

 

[ProjekTJ]

Well, we came in Saturday afternoon in time for the rain. Camped Saturday night and drove most of the day Sunday. Kodak was littered with ATVs by the time we got there. A few guys were playing around...John was there seperating driveshaft's. He did it 2 times while we were there. Here are a few pics, nothing special. I need a trail photographer cause everyone else I go with is to lazy to take pics.
Me- lower right line of kodak. Yes, I made it.

Richard- 1st real outing.

Burris- cruising

Congestion @ Kodak