- Joined
- Mar 10, 2005
4x4Everyone is a group for those new to the experience and those interested in getting back to the basics of wheeling in the great outdoors. All are welcome, including stock to slightly modified rigs. One locker is recommended due to the nature of the trails. Under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
This is a guest post from Len Williams, co-founder of the 4x4Everyone club.
I pulled in Friday night to find only one other person in our site at Arrowhead and was a little bummed. I began to get set up and a few more people arrived. By the end of the night we had a camp site full of people and rigs.
Saturday, we got an early start on cooking breakfast and everyone started waking up and getting ready for the trails. Regrettably, we had one XJ with some mechanical issues before we even left camp. Unfortunately it could not be fixed at camp so the owner decided to go look for a shop.
We headed up to the out post and met up with the rest of the group. We started off the day with seven Wranglers, two Grand Cherokees, and one family buggy and a couple folks who came just to ride along with someone. We started off the ride with a easy trip down Wolf Den trail and on to Falls Dam trail. Stewart, with his buggy, decided to play in the mud a little at the soup bowl and mud pits.
We headed on down Falls Dam and navigated the rest of the trail and it's obstacles without incident. Upon reaching the parking lot between Falls Dam and Dicky Bell, Ricky needed to let his “Rubincon” cool down so we took a break for about an hour during which time another Grand Cherokee joined up. Turns out he had been looking for us at the outpost and even parked beside some of us there but didn't realize it was our group. Some of us ran up to see Terry “Your Hot Dog Guy” for some needed refreshment and food while Ricky's engine cooled.
When they returned from “Your Hot Dog Guy” we headed back to the trail and tackled Dicky Bell next. We hit the stream crossing followed by the tight switchbacks, sorry Stewart but hey, you had rear steer.
No one had any issues until we got to the “Little Daniel” part of the trail. It has become quite a challenging obstacle for stock vehicles.
With driver skill and good spotting only one rig needed a little tug to get up. Shortly after getting past “ Little Daniel” Stewart's buggy had a fuel pump that was over heating and he had to be helped up to the flat top and subsequently down to the double parking lot.
After heading on past the flat top the trail was blocked by an XJ that had lost part of it's rear spring pack. We of course stopped and helped get them in a position to get off the trail safely by tightening down what was left of the spring pack and sealing up the transfer case so it wouldn't dump fluid on the trail, he had pulled his rear drive shaft. The disabled XJ was ultimately pulled to the double parking lot by the side by side's he was with.
After finishing Dicky Bell we headed up to try and catch Terry before he left since it had gone late into the day. We hung out with Terry for a few minutes while he was packing up and then decided to head up Rocky Mountain Loop to “Kodak”. Ricky R., Stewart and Boots decided to head back to camp and take it easy for the rest of the day.
On the trail leading up to “Kodak” some took the bypass on the left and others took the harder side on the right. Biggoofy, Zack, got his transmission cross member hung up on the rock on the right side while trying to get around it and had to be winched back.
He was hung good enough that the rock broke when he finally came off it. I then decided I was taking my ZJ over the rock and with the spotting of Reid, Stephen and Zack and ultimately too much throttle I launched over it and managed to put a 1/4” or better dent in my transfer case skid and bent my rocker guards up.
By the time the three of us got to “Kodak” we were way behind the rest of the group so we took the bypass and headed on around the trail to catch up. We followed the loop on around to Dutch John Road and then headed back to camp.
Stephen, Zack, Damian, Reid and Brian all decided to head on home for the night and the rest of us, save Stewart and Boots and their families, headed into Troy to go to Zeno's for dinner. We got back to camp and hung out discussing the day, amongst other things, for a while before we turned in for the night.
Sunday morning we got started about 7:30 cooking breakfast. I had a little work to do on my Jeep and everyone was ready to head out to the outpost around 9:30. Zack had brought a few more ZJ's with him to ride with us and we had a couple of the Trail Jammers ride with us too. We headed out from the outpost around 10:30 with about seven Wranglers and four Grand Cherokees. We ran Wolf Den again to access the Dutch John trail head.
We headed down Dutch John and enjoyed a leisurely ride with no real hang ups or problems. After exiting Dutch John and making our way to the double parking lot we took a short break and then headed on down to Cotton place to head up Daniel. The first ledge at Daniel was easily traversed by everyone in our group, even the stock height guys, with no pulls, winches or rock stacking.
The second ledge was a little harder, especially for Zack due to a lack of transfer case skid plate on the ZJ. With some good spotting by Josh and myself he was able to drive up with out being winched, pulled or rocks being stacked. Everyone else made it with minimal spotting. The peak climb was probably the most challenging part of Daniel this trip depending on which of the three possible routes one chose. Jason and I brought up the rear of the group and we crisscrossed the center and right sides going up. My ZJ decided to get too hot just short of the top and I shut it down to cool off and walked up to the top to hang out with everyone else in the shade. After an appropriate amount of time I started my ZJ back up and we headed on down the trail. Just down the trail from the peak we ran across a down TJ and Jimmy helped to extricate a piece of broken axle shaft from the carrier. They told us they had someone with new shafts on the way but we hung out anyway just to be sure they got the parts. While waiting on their friends to show, Jason showed everyone how well his lockers worked on a tree stump and some of us decided we wanted to do an evening run back to “Kodak”. Once their friends arrived with the parts and were good to go we headed on down the trail.
It had become late and we headed back to camp for dinner. For our grand Sunday night dinner we made grilled Spam and Cheese sandwiches, home made salsa, salsa con queso, tortilla chips and potato chips with French onion dip.
Jason, Josh and Zack said they would meet us at our camp around 7:30-8:00 to head out to Rocky Mountain Loop and “Kodak”. Jason and Josh showed up and we hung out till about 10 and we never heard from Zack but cell coverage is non-existent at URE. By then it had gotten too late and we all decided it had been good enough just hanging out and getting to know everyone better and we'd get more seat time on the next trip.
Monday morning we all packed it up and left URE as if we had never been there, tread lightly.
Thanks to everyone who showed up and supported our new group. If I forgot anyone I apologize in advance. In no particular order:
Len Williams Rox&Mud
Jimmy Jones ord.sgt.26NC
Joe Mudder
Sandy sandy w
Sherrr sher
Zack biggoofy
Jason 4bangertj
Tim 08_Sahara16
Stephen 95GranZJ
Damien omen0768
Reid BigRedB2
Richard bootsyj
Brian BrianM
Josh EdJones Jeeper
Michael HogeySpooner
Ricky RickyR
Stewart stewartgivens
and the guys in the ZJ's, sorry I can't remember your names.
More photos and stories from this trip can be found in the Past Events thread here.
4X4Everyone will be headed back to Uwharrie on September 24-26.
This is a guest post from Len Williams, co-founder of the 4x4Everyone club.
I pulled in Friday night to find only one other person in our site at Arrowhead and was a little bummed. I began to get set up and a few more people arrived. By the end of the night we had a camp site full of people and rigs.
Saturday, we got an early start on cooking breakfast and everyone started waking up and getting ready for the trails. Regrettably, we had one XJ with some mechanical issues before we even left camp. Unfortunately it could not be fixed at camp so the owner decided to go look for a shop.
We headed up to the out post and met up with the rest of the group. We started off the day with seven Wranglers, two Grand Cherokees, and one family buggy and a couple folks who came just to ride along with someone. We started off the ride with a easy trip down Wolf Den trail and on to Falls Dam trail. Stewart, with his buggy, decided to play in the mud a little at the soup bowl and mud pits.
We headed on down Falls Dam and navigated the rest of the trail and it's obstacles without incident. Upon reaching the parking lot between Falls Dam and Dicky Bell, Ricky needed to let his “Rubincon” cool down so we took a break for about an hour during which time another Grand Cherokee joined up. Turns out he had been looking for us at the outpost and even parked beside some of us there but didn't realize it was our group. Some of us ran up to see Terry “Your Hot Dog Guy” for some needed refreshment and food while Ricky's engine cooled.
When they returned from “Your Hot Dog Guy” we headed back to the trail and tackled Dicky Bell next. We hit the stream crossing followed by the tight switchbacks, sorry Stewart but hey, you had rear steer.
No one had any issues until we got to the “Little Daniel” part of the trail. It has become quite a challenging obstacle for stock vehicles.
With driver skill and good spotting only one rig needed a little tug to get up. Shortly after getting past “ Little Daniel” Stewart's buggy had a fuel pump that was over heating and he had to be helped up to the flat top and subsequently down to the double parking lot.
After heading on past the flat top the trail was blocked by an XJ that had lost part of it's rear spring pack. We of course stopped and helped get them in a position to get off the trail safely by tightening down what was left of the spring pack and sealing up the transfer case so it wouldn't dump fluid on the trail, he had pulled his rear drive shaft. The disabled XJ was ultimately pulled to the double parking lot by the side by side's he was with.
After finishing Dicky Bell we headed up to try and catch Terry before he left since it had gone late into the day. We hung out with Terry for a few minutes while he was packing up and then decided to head up Rocky Mountain Loop to “Kodak”. Ricky R., Stewart and Boots decided to head back to camp and take it easy for the rest of the day.
On the trail leading up to “Kodak” some took the bypass on the left and others took the harder side on the right. Biggoofy, Zack, got his transmission cross member hung up on the rock on the right side while trying to get around it and had to be winched back.
He was hung good enough that the rock broke when he finally came off it. I then decided I was taking my ZJ over the rock and with the spotting of Reid, Stephen and Zack and ultimately too much throttle I launched over it and managed to put a 1/4” or better dent in my transfer case skid and bent my rocker guards up.
By the time the three of us got to “Kodak” we were way behind the rest of the group so we took the bypass and headed on around the trail to catch up. We followed the loop on around to Dutch John Road and then headed back to camp.
Stephen, Zack, Damian, Reid and Brian all decided to head on home for the night and the rest of us, save Stewart and Boots and their families, headed into Troy to go to Zeno's for dinner. We got back to camp and hung out discussing the day, amongst other things, for a while before we turned in for the night.
Sunday morning we got started about 7:30 cooking breakfast. I had a little work to do on my Jeep and everyone was ready to head out to the outpost around 9:30. Zack had brought a few more ZJ's with him to ride with us and we had a couple of the Trail Jammers ride with us too. We headed out from the outpost around 10:30 with about seven Wranglers and four Grand Cherokees. We ran Wolf Den again to access the Dutch John trail head.
We headed down Dutch John and enjoyed a leisurely ride with no real hang ups or problems. After exiting Dutch John and making our way to the double parking lot we took a short break and then headed on down to Cotton place to head up Daniel. The first ledge at Daniel was easily traversed by everyone in our group, even the stock height guys, with no pulls, winches or rock stacking.
The second ledge was a little harder, especially for Zack due to a lack of transfer case skid plate on the ZJ. With some good spotting by Josh and myself he was able to drive up with out being winched, pulled or rocks being stacked. Everyone else made it with minimal spotting. The peak climb was probably the most challenging part of Daniel this trip depending on which of the three possible routes one chose. Jason and I brought up the rear of the group and we crisscrossed the center and right sides going up. My ZJ decided to get too hot just short of the top and I shut it down to cool off and walked up to the top to hang out with everyone else in the shade. After an appropriate amount of time I started my ZJ back up and we headed on down the trail. Just down the trail from the peak we ran across a down TJ and Jimmy helped to extricate a piece of broken axle shaft from the carrier. They told us they had someone with new shafts on the way but we hung out anyway just to be sure they got the parts. While waiting on their friends to show, Jason showed everyone how well his lockers worked on a tree stump and some of us decided we wanted to do an evening run back to “Kodak”. Once their friends arrived with the parts and were good to go we headed on down the trail.
It had become late and we headed back to camp for dinner. For our grand Sunday night dinner we made grilled Spam and Cheese sandwiches, home made salsa, salsa con queso, tortilla chips and potato chips with French onion dip.
Jason, Josh and Zack said they would meet us at our camp around 7:30-8:00 to head out to Rocky Mountain Loop and “Kodak”. Jason and Josh showed up and we hung out till about 10 and we never heard from Zack but cell coverage is non-existent at URE. By then it had gotten too late and we all decided it had been good enough just hanging out and getting to know everyone better and we'd get more seat time on the next trip.
Monday morning we all packed it up and left URE as if we had never been there, tread lightly.
Thanks to everyone who showed up and supported our new group. If I forgot anyone I apologize in advance. In no particular order:
Len Williams Rox&Mud
Jimmy Jones ord.sgt.26NC
Joe Mudder
Sandy sandy w
Sherrr sher
Zack biggoofy
Jason 4bangertj
Tim 08_Sahara16
Stephen 95GranZJ
Damien omen0768
Reid BigRedB2
Richard bootsyj
Brian BrianM
Josh EdJones Jeeper
Michael HogeySpooner
Ricky RickyR
Stewart stewartgivens
and the guys in the ZJ's, sorry I can't remember your names.
More photos and stories from this trip can be found in the Past Events thread here.
4X4Everyone will be headed back to Uwharrie on September 24-26.