Well, we were pulling cable, but not in the dark...……….
It was another great day of wheeling for the Keystone Cruisers. Although it had rained fairly heavily at my place Friday night Saturday's weather was perfect. The flip side of that is that the staging area at AAOA was damn near filled and there was a lot of traffic on the trails. I have to give the staff at AAOA credit- when I pulled in at 8:30 there was a line of about 50 people waiting to get registered and by the time we had aired Vince's Lexus down the line was gone. Not like the old days at Paragon when you stood in line for a half hour or more!
We had four trucks, Vince, Andy in the 4Runner fresh off some rear axle work, John (Stairgod) and his wife in their Taco and Greg (El dahs) in his Taco. I rode with Andy for awhile as tail gunner but soon gravitted uo to the front with Eldahs who was leading the pack.
Decided to do the western reserve and headed straight up the hill to the left to do the three blue trails up there. IT went well, and when we headed toward the blues at Fern Ridge we got behind a group of jeeps (!!**!*) who were crawling on the main trail. Follwed them down to intersection 217, when they turned left we went straight and got in front of them. Caused us to miss one blue trail at Fern Ridge but we were pretty much unmolested after that.
Those trails went well. We bypassed the red trail "got stones" and also got a good look at the stairway to hell trail. Decided to head downhill to access what we saw as a blue trail down off 102. Well, well, well.........…. I said to Greg this looks hauntingly familiar, next thing we knew we were at a dead end across from the whaleback and facing what they now call PC Hill. Yes the same damn almost impossible hill where we winched a dozen trucks up two years ago. Was harder yesterday than to years ago. Back then we had a crew of guys from the Capital City club with us and they are sure to remember the hill I know Chris sure does. At this point Andy was in the first truck as we had all had to turn around. Ended up winching Andy over the top and then everyone else. Sure was fortunate that everyone had a working winch!!!!
From there we decided to head back to the staging area and followed 101 all the way up to the main road. On our way we passed the Overlook where there were a few jeeps and rover parked. Back at the staging area we aired Vince up and he headed home. The buys wanted to wheel a bit more so we headed out of the lot and immediately took a left and Greg showed me a bunch of blue trails that I had either never been on or it had been lots of years since I'd done them. Was great to see some new stuff, nice trails not overly difficult but just fun stuff. Then we headed up to the main road and around to the entrance to Muddy Shackle. We were lucky enough that a group of jeeps right in front of us had turned into the bucket trail and so were out of our way. Ran into yet another group of jeeps right at the entrance the muddy shackle but they were not interested in doing it so we had it all to ourselves. It went well until toward the end where you climbed out of the trickle of water back up onto the forest floor Greg couldn't get out of the ruts. Out came the tree saver and winch operation. Pulled Greg out then let John try. If I remember correctly in spite of a crazy effort he needed a tug, too. He sure showed how that supercharged engine could spin tires I'll tell you that! He really rearranged the obstacle a bit,. Andy had a little trouble getting through because of how slippery the mud was but he got through without pulling cable. From there we headed back to the staging area to air up. Was a good day. Not too many trucks in our group and all four were willing and able participants.
Every time I go to AAOA I grab their current maps and there are always improvements on the maps from one trip to the next. Some people prefer the way they mark things- by numbering intersections- and some prefer the way that Rausch just names/numbers trails. I see AAOA is starting put signs up along the trials- trail 101 for example didn't just have its intersections marked and every additional sign is helpful to someone. And we only covered half the western reserve and still need as a club to get out on the far end of the WR to see what is out there. There was a bit of water yesterday especially on the main trail on our way out of the western reserve. A sheetload of ATV's, and a lot of obnoxiously loud motorcycles. And a lot of jeeps. As far as I could tell we were the only Toyotas in the compound yesterday. All in all a very enjoyable day no matter how you look at it. No breakdowns, plenty of action, and the ability to wheel without a jacket for the first time this year was awesome!
www.aoaatrails.com
