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First report of the 17 Feb 2009 US Forestry Service and Lowcountry Land Cruisers Outdoor Adventure and Volunteer Day!!!
The day started cold and sunny. Did I say cold...I mean freaking FREEZING. Down in teens last night which might not be much for you guys above the Mason Dixon but down here we only get that cold if we fall asleep in the meat locker at the Piggly Wiggly thinking it is beer cooler...but I digress. At 8:30am it was a balmy 24*F......but sun was shining and birds were singing.
Nobody showed up for the first meeting spot by my house so figured either the Beaufort guys already went past or decided not to get out of their warm beds and I headed north on US 17 towards Myrtle and Georgetown from south of Charleston.
One hour later I am going by the Suwee Outpost and think I caught a glimpse of a tan colored FJ60/62 and wonder if it was Doc...but figured he was getting smokes and coffee for the days activities and continue on as it is another 10 miles past there to our meeting spot.
I pull in and GreenSeaMan is there and mentions that Steed Creek Road is blocked. I call Willie, our POC with Forestry Service, and he says the parking area for trail head (Swamp Fox) is actually another 200yds north on 17 and we will make UTurn and then pull into parking area and dont need to go down Steed Creek Road.
About 3 minutes later I get a call from MAGLIGHT...he asked me where I was so I told him. Asked him where he was and he said at intersection of Steed Creek and Willow Hall and he was stuck and needed recovery.
So GreenSeaMan and I get in my FJ and head out to find a go-around point as the bridge was out and he was only 2 miles away from us if that was not the case. I feared we would need to go down to Hwy41 and come up the back side.....as GPS would not recalculate no matter how far south we went to cut over. THen I remembered I had topo maps of the forest under my back seat for hunting...and yanked them out. We saw a road a few miles past that should intersect where he was...so we make a U turn and head his way.
We arrive at Steed Creek Road and Willow Hall and nobody is there...so I give him a cal land he says...well maybe there is another Willow Hall...sure enough there are two so I get his GeoCords this time and plug them into GPS. He is about 3 miles away...so off we go again.
We pull up to him off the side of road and see him high centered and unable to get himself off (no pun intended) and muddy. Yes he has a winch but the closest trees were ACROSS the road on opposite side and none were over 4 inches in diameter. His Hi-Lift was helping some...but mostly to verify his suspension travel as they went to full extension and he was still stuck trying to get a log under back tires.
Come to find out he was looking for bypass...or so I remember him saying...and his GPS had him take a fire service road and it was fine until the end...where it came back to Steed Creek Road. There was a silt fence up the embankment where roads intersect and someone had gone to the right and up...so he followed...but as soon as he came out of ruts and went sideways across road he was high centered good. NO MORE GO GO FORWARD DADDY!!!!!
So this is what we found....in subsequent pics we were asking guess who got stuck by our clothing at work day....
Hooked a bow shackle to his frame mounted recovery points (yes he has AllPro bumper but with all the talk about reinforcement brackets needed and stuff on BLUE FORUM we decided not to tempt fate any further today). Hooked other end of the jerk strap to my hitch mounted recover hook...the Double Trouble Hook recovery tool.
Just had GreenSeaMan slip the entire loop over both hooks....and then took out the slack. Put her in 4HI...as I was on asphalt road but wanted straight line traction. Pulled once....nothing. Pulled again...but only succeeded in stretching the new strap some. So let off slightly and gave it some skinny pedal to help strap reach its elastic rebound point and next thing I knew he was up on the road which is a good 3 feet higher than the highest point of rut where he was stuck.
So all was well....and he followed me out to the work area.
OCDBeetle played photographer(when not hauling brush) all day and has those pics which will be posted soon....we cleaned up both sides of parking area at the Swamp Fox Trail Head....openeing up entrance and visibility for those exiting parking and also those looking for the signs to enter trail parking area. We worked from 10am to about 1pm non stop other than short water breaks...and were successful in helping the USForestry Service open up the area and dispose of the debris. Hero shots were taken at the Trail Head and I think it was a very positive and rewarding experience for both ourselves and the Forestry peronnel that were in attendance. We hope they think we helped to make a difference and ask us to do more work with them as partners in the future.
Please post any other pics of the days events here and I will collect them for future web page event galleries. Thanks again for everyone that came out and participated in this first but very important Volunteer Day of the Lowcountry Land Cruisers:
DBENKE
DOC
OCDBEETLE
GREENSEAMAN
MAGLIGHT
BROCK
Hats off to you gentlemen for braving the freezing temps and hard work.....and all then wanting to close it off with a great meal and good conversation at Seewee Restaurant before each headed back home. Well except GreenSeaMan...he had to make a special run to visit the CUPCAKE LADIES. WE DONT WANT TO KNOW WHY???? 
The day started cold and sunny. Did I say cold...I mean freaking FREEZING. Down in teens last night which might not be much for you guys above the Mason Dixon but down here we only get that cold if we fall asleep in the meat locker at the Piggly Wiggly thinking it is beer cooler...but I digress. At 8:30am it was a balmy 24*F......but sun was shining and birds were singing.
Nobody showed up for the first meeting spot by my house so figured either the Beaufort guys already went past or decided not to get out of their warm beds and I headed north on US 17 towards Myrtle and Georgetown from south of Charleston.
One hour later I am going by the Suwee Outpost and think I caught a glimpse of a tan colored FJ60/62 and wonder if it was Doc...but figured he was getting smokes and coffee for the days activities and continue on as it is another 10 miles past there to our meeting spot.
I pull in and GreenSeaMan is there and mentions that Steed Creek Road is blocked. I call Willie, our POC with Forestry Service, and he says the parking area for trail head (Swamp Fox) is actually another 200yds north on 17 and we will make UTurn and then pull into parking area and dont need to go down Steed Creek Road.
About 3 minutes later I get a call from MAGLIGHT...he asked me where I was so I told him. Asked him where he was and he said at intersection of Steed Creek and Willow Hall and he was stuck and needed recovery.
So GreenSeaMan and I get in my FJ and head out to find a go-around point as the bridge was out and he was only 2 miles away from us if that was not the case. I feared we would need to go down to Hwy41 and come up the back side.....as GPS would not recalculate no matter how far south we went to cut over. THen I remembered I had topo maps of the forest under my back seat for hunting...and yanked them out. We saw a road a few miles past that should intersect where he was...so we make a U turn and head his way.
We arrive at Steed Creek Road and Willow Hall and nobody is there...so I give him a cal land he says...well maybe there is another Willow Hall...sure enough there are two so I get his GeoCords this time and plug them into GPS. He is about 3 miles away...so off we go again.
We pull up to him off the side of road and see him high centered and unable to get himself off (no pun intended) and muddy. Yes he has a winch but the closest trees were ACROSS the road on opposite side and none were over 4 inches in diameter. His Hi-Lift was helping some...but mostly to verify his suspension travel as they went to full extension and he was still stuck trying to get a log under back tires.
Come to find out he was looking for bypass...or so I remember him saying...and his GPS had him take a fire service road and it was fine until the end...where it came back to Steed Creek Road. There was a silt fence up the embankment where roads intersect and someone had gone to the right and up...so he followed...but as soon as he came out of ruts and went sideways across road he was high centered good. NO MORE GO GO FORWARD DADDY!!!!!
So this is what we found....in subsequent pics we were asking guess who got stuck by our clothing at work day....
Hooked a bow shackle to his frame mounted recovery points (yes he has AllPro bumper but with all the talk about reinforcement brackets needed and stuff on BLUE FORUM we decided not to tempt fate any further today). Hooked other end of the jerk strap to my hitch mounted recover hook...the Double Trouble Hook recovery tool.
Just had GreenSeaMan slip the entire loop over both hooks....and then took out the slack. Put her in 4HI...as I was on asphalt road but wanted straight line traction. Pulled once....nothing. Pulled again...but only succeeded in stretching the new strap some. So let off slightly and gave it some skinny pedal to help strap reach its elastic rebound point and next thing I knew he was up on the road which is a good 3 feet higher than the highest point of rut where he was stuck.
So all was well....and he followed me out to the work area.
OCDBeetle played photographer(when not hauling brush) all day and has those pics which will be posted soon....we cleaned up both sides of parking area at the Swamp Fox Trail Head....openeing up entrance and visibility for those exiting parking and also those looking for the signs to enter trail parking area. We worked from 10am to about 1pm non stop other than short water breaks...and were successful in helping the USForestry Service open up the area and dispose of the debris. Hero shots were taken at the Trail Head and I think it was a very positive and rewarding experience for both ourselves and the Forestry peronnel that were in attendance. We hope they think we helped to make a difference and ask us to do more work with them as partners in the future.
Please post any other pics of the days events here and I will collect them for future web page event galleries. Thanks again for everyone that came out and participated in this first but very important Volunteer Day of the Lowcountry Land Cruisers:
DBENKE
DOC
OCDBEETLE
GREENSEAMAN
MAGLIGHT
BROCK
Hats off to you gentlemen for braving the freezing temps and hard work.....and all then wanting to close it off with a great meal and good conversation at Seewee Restaurant before each headed back home. Well except GreenSeaMan...he had to make a special run to visit the CUPCAKE LADIES. WE DONT WANT TO KNOW WHY????
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Had a great time, thanks for the tent Brock!
