Time for another trip! Andy set up another run to Wolf Den Run, but this time the intent was to do some harder lines, and some freshly-cleared trails (and map them, sine they're not mapped yet). As it turned out, a couple days of rain would make for some interesting conditions. Also continuing my gearing up with the correct stuff for camping, as I learn more about what I need, what I can fit in the little truck, etc.
Headed up to western Maryland in the early morning to meet up - some of the guys camped the night before but I couldn't get up on Friday.
Upon arrival, it was clear this was a group of much better-equipped rigs than my previous rides with Andy - which were mostly near-stock 4x4s, while most of the attendees to this one were fairly heavily-built rigs with much more ground clearance, lots of lockers, more gear, and more weight than the little Raider, with several of them pretty heavily setup for long-duration overlanding type of stuff with full kitchens, RTTs. One of the TAco guys said his truck was around 6000 lbs....which is about what my Sequoia is! As it would turn out, the weight would hurt these guys in the slippery, steep trails we took.
RJ's triple-locked Gladiator was there, basically the guy who can get anywhere and get anyone else unstuck lol
A couple nice Tacos
Mike was there with his finally-working XJ, which proved to be pretty much unstoppable, and a big upgrade to his long-bed Tundra lol
Plus a few others, and Andy in the Monty Sport
All in all, Wolf Den Run has some rocky sections, but a lot of it is steep semi-rocky + clay-based dirt. WIth the rain, freshly-fallen leaves, and steep upgrades it was a challenge in some areas. Right at the start we decided to tackle a new trail marked green/blue, which was that way for a while, but then took a 90 degree turn up a very steep hill that was basically untracked. To make it more fun, directly below the hill was a long drop into a valley and teh main road below. Sketchy.
Andy gave it a shot first, and made it about 1/4 of the way up before losing all traction and slowly sliding backwards. We quickly hooked up a strap to a tree while he set up a winch spot. Then 15 minutes later he was winched up to the top.
I decided to give it a go, hoping my light weight and LSD would help me get up there. No such luck, didn't even make it as far as Andy. Initially started winching up with my little 5500lb guy, moving up slowly...
by then, RJ had found a way around and ended up at the top and we all figured it would go quicker to use his big-boy winch with a snatch block to drag me up there....you can kinda see how steep it is here, but it was a LOT steeper than it looks, especially with zero traction.
So if one were to slide back down, it would be to end up down in that road way down there, over a near-vertical drop....
The reast of the group didn't even bother, and took the bypass, and we continued on. About an hour later, we reached a trail previously used by UTVs only (mostly hunters) but now open for full-size vehicles. It was a long uphill (maybe 1/8 mile by my estimates, with a bunch of tight turns and a few narrow spots between trees and large rocks that the small rigs could threat through but the bigger guys would have crawl a bit. Everyone was a bit tentative about it. RJ headed up, triple-locked, and made it up a few minutes later. Andy went next and made it up too. I took off and carried good speed, acting more like the rally driver I am and apart from a few especially steep areas managed to keep traction and get to the top. Then the E36 M3show began. The white Taco did not hit it very hard and instead was double-locked and trying to take it slower (a bit scared to slide into trees). That wasn't the way.....about 10% of the way up he got stuck and then proceeded to mud-pit the entire area sliding back and forth going noplace. Traction boards didn't help...
(again, this was pretty steep, looks flat in photos lol)
Then RJ backed down a ways to a flat-ish area and we linked a bunch of tow straps together and RJ slowly dragged the Taco most of the way up the hill....this took about an hour...
Next up was the Tundra, who got stuck in the same place and spent a lot of time spinning tires to try to dig (and eventually found some rocks and tire smoke lol). He eventually made it past that spot and up to the top
The other Taco with M/Ts carried speed and made it up no problem, as did Mike's XJ, which made it look easy with its huge MTs and light weight.
From there we hit some scenic spots and ate some lunch
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After the day was over we headed 30 minutes up the road to the camping spots, started a fire, got a lot of shelters and awnings up, and had some dinner and hung out.
Set up my little camp
It rained overnight, but the tent (REI) was leak free and I more or less placed it well for the little awning to give me a good entryway. All in all, still need to refine my list of gear, especially for cooking, but I'm getting there. I know my parents got me something useful for Christmas already, and if you've followed my Sequoia thread, it's the 6-foot version of what I just put on that ;)
On the way home, checked out a very-low reservoir. Can't see it well here, but there was a big Chevy 4x4 stuck in the deep mud at the bottom (or at least it looked so). I didn't see anyone around and my little rig probably couldn't have helped anyhow, so didn't go too far down for fear of the same mud lol...
So, lessons from this trip:
- I definitely need a bit more suspension rate, and height. I was hitting things nobody else was (not a surprise with this group), though the little Raider is still able to go around obstacles if needed. In any case, as I put more stuff into this Raider, I plan to upgrade the torsion bars and springs over the winter to improve things and give me a bit of height. Nothing drastic though.
- Slowly accruing camp gear. I pay close attention to what the experienced guys pull out of their rigs for dinner, sleeping, comfort, etc and jot down notes on what things to look into, or how they arrange things, etc. I have some ideas for improving the Raider in terms of storing stuff rather than just having everything in huge bins in the back....
- For the types of trails we go to most often, M/Ts are probably preferable to A/Ts. Something to think about down the road whenever I replace tires.
- The Raider continues to be impressively capable, going places pretty easily that a lot of high-dollar rigs with us were struggling with. Part of that is because it's small and can pick better lines, of course. But all in all still pretty happy with its capabilities in regular trail stuff (though the lack of flex/clearance makes really large rocky areas much more difficult.