November wheeling (1 Viewer)

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This is next weekend 11/12, correct?
Yes, the 12th. Looks like it may be a wet one now. Tropical storm Nicole coming through maybe?
 
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Unfortunately it seems our crew is out as well, for different reasons. Pete's power steering project is delayed and other life stuff is taking priority for Ethan and I.

Hope to catch you all on a December run if its not too cold by then! Maybe we'll get lucky with a nice warm winter day.

@dr_dobro Wishing you and Dean a speedy recovery and hope you get well soon!
 
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Looks like Saturday will be sunny now but Nicole will drop 2-3" of rain on Friday. 👀
 
Interesting to see the eateries in the Shamok Anna and I hit the pierogi place a few times a year, they have a tremendous assortment of pierogies, and they are quite good. Big, too.
See, this is the kind of talk that peaks my interest.
 
So wet, with the chance of mud in the trucks for those that like to wheel with their windows open 😂

Or the people who insist on bringing their dogs. 😖
 
I’m down for December as long as it’s not in the way of family holiday activates…..
 
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And a very good day it was! Weather was picture perfect a light jacket was the best choice. Lotsa water everywhere and slippery wet leaves too. Will get some details out tomorrow am headed out tonight. Had an opportunity for some good photos at Muddy Shackle hope they come out OK!!!!! Looking forward to seeing what gets posted!
 
Yesterday's route travelled. We started off on the SE side of the park, then hit the blues on the N side. All trails I have done before, but we did then all in the opposite direction of how I have travelled them previously. We finished up by heading out via trails 9, 7 and 6. Cool green trails and so much better than taking the main trail road out.

It was my first time wheeling in the wet leaves and it definitely made things more challenging. I will save the proper writeup for Gary, but the first trail of the day seemed freshly cut in and ended up being fairly challenging and very slippery in spots (like slide down a hill on wet leaves with the brakes on and Pacer sliding sideways and bumping a tree).

Conquered my personal panic spot, Muddy Shackle, and got to watch the front end of a 4Runner go airborne doing the same obstacle. I'm really hoping someone has video of YotaFun's (aka Capt. Send It) exit. Overall an amazing day as usual with a great group of people.


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Kris thanks for all the pictures!!!! We had four trucks, Cass in his lifted 80, Stosh and wife in his ultra powered 80, Pacer in his old FJ62 (hadn't seen it in some time!), and Avi in his 4Runner. Andy M rode shotgun with Avi, I was with Cass, and Kriss and the dog contingent were with Pacer.
Echoing what Chris Cass said, yes, wet leaves made for some very slippery conditions on the steeper sections. The are got almost two inches of rain the previous day and it was a very wet park. The first trail we did was short, brand new, off camber, steep, and slippery. Made for some anxious moments. Had to winch twice in that short stretch due to total absence o traction. That trail was really tight for the trucks we had, it's very narrow (for now till it gets "broke in".
After that we just picked out all the blue trails we could find. Ended up down in the creek bed at the bottom of Barney Rubble and headed up Twister. Twister has a few new approaches now as the original right of way is slowly eroding. Up on the top we stopped for lunch on the pipeline and enjoyed the great weather. From there we headed out to and down trail 28 (Renee's Hill). It was easier going down than trying to make it up for sure. We did come across another club member (name escapes me) in a green 80 leading jeeps through the park!!!! We then went down and did the culvert trail, Excalibur and all the other blues we could find. Chris and Avi had a blast in Muddy Shackle. it's one challenging spot is quite interesting. I did get to see a section of Excalibur that I had never previously done- it was pretty neat.
When it was time to head back we took trail 9 out above route 61 then did trails 7 and 6. As Cass said those trails are a much better alternative to using the main road to get back toward the staging area. All in all it was a great day.
Stosh and his wife camped at AOAA and liked the camping area. Supposedly they are working on getting water and sewage to the camping area that will be awesome.
The parking lot was FULL. There was a big jeep event that day and there was one group with paid trail leaders that had more than twenty trucks. We saw a nice 80 drive by and older fellow from NY state, and I did see coming to the parking area while we were headed out a four truck Toyota group that had a white 70 leading it. No idea who they might be and didn't see any trace of them on the trails. Having said all that we didn't run into any traffic problems all day. AOAA is big enough that traffic snarls don't happen very often, and despite all the people the lines at the check in counter went very quickly. AOAA is quite the well run operation.
 
Kris thanks for all the pictures!!!! We had four trucks, Cass in his lifted 80, Stosh and wife in his ultra powered 80, Pacer in his old FJ62 (hadn't seen it in some time!), and Avi in his 4Runner. Andy M rode shotgun with Avi, I was with Cass, and Kriss and the dog contingent were with Pacer.
Echoing what Chris Cass said, yes, wet leaves made for some very slippery conditions on the steeper sections. The are got almost two inches of rain the previous day and it was a very wet park. The first trail we did was short, brand new, off camber, steep, and slippery. Made for some anxious moments. Had to winch twice in that short stretch due to total absence o traction. That trail was really tight for the trucks we had, it's very narrow (for now till it gets "broke in".
After that we just picked out all the blue trails we could find. Ended up down in the creek bed at the bottom of Barney Rubble and headed up Twister. Twister has a few new approaches now as the original right of way is slowly eroding. Up on the top we stopped for lunch on the pipeline and enjoyed the great weather. From there we headed out to and down trail 28 (Renee's Hill). It was easier going down than trying to make it up for sure. We did come across another club member (name escapes me) in a green 80 leading jeeps through the park!!!! We then went down and did the culvert trail, Excalibur and all the other blues we could find. Chris and Avi had a blast in Muddy Shackle. it's one challenging spot is quite interesting. I did get to see a section of Excalibur that I had never previously done- it was pretty neat.
When it was time to head back we took trail 9 out above route 61 then did trails 7 and 6. As Cass said those trails are a much better alternative to using the main road to get back toward the staging area. All in all it was a great day.
Stosh and his wife camped at AOAA and liked the camping area. Supposedly they are working on getting water and sewage to the camping area that will be awesome.
The parking lot was FULL. There was a big jeep event that day and there was one group with paid trail leaders that had more than twenty trucks. We saw a nice 80 drive by and older fellow from NY state, and I did see coming to the parking area while we were headed out a four truck Toyota group that had a white 70 leading it. No idea who they might be and didn't see any trace of them on the trails. Having said all that we didn't run into any traffic problems all day. AOAA is big enough that traffic snarls don't happen very often, and despite all the people the lines at the check in counter went very quickly. AOAA is quite the well run operation.
Great write up Gary!

We headed out of the parking lot, and hit the newly cut in trail called E3, from there we headed out trail 10, also avoiding the main road.

Definitely one of my favorite trips to Anthracite.

At $45 a night, the Trailhead Campground leaves a little bit to be desired, but nice to be located within the parks grounds. sort of like a more organized version of the Dust Bowl/parking lot at Raush Creek. There were porta johns, fire rings, and electric hookups at most of the sites.

If you look through some of the photos in Kris's album posted above, you can see their master plan for the campground, lots of expansion in the next few years.

They have some group camp spots which hold up to 15 people, and could make for a fun get together sometime in the future.

Definitely not as luxurious as Twin Grove.

Great seeing you guys, had a blast wheeling with y'all 👍
 

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