1st Annual Jeep Horizons South East Run
Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky March
25-26, 2005
Last year a group of the moderators at Jeep Horizons
(CoreyXJ, KeithTJ and myself) thought it would be a good idea for a bunch of us to get
together and go wheeling. We decided to do it at Land Between the
Lakes in western Kentucky. We choose late March because we wanted to go
wheeling together before Corey left for Wyotech in early April. So, after months of planning it was finally here...and it
turned out to be a blast. Despite the predictions of bad weather we had 2
absolutely gorgeous days...all the rain held off until Sunday. There's a lot
that happened and a lot of pics....so we'll get right into it - after Jen and I
made the 11.5 hour trek into western Kentucky I noticed this.
From what I can tell, the threads stripped out on one of the upper bolts and the
pressure left on the other caused it to drop out as well. It doesn't really
count as trail damage since it didn't happen on the trail. Anywoo....
Day One - Friday
After everyone showed up we hit the OHV trails. By the time we made it down
there it was already mid afternoon, but we still had a good day. The standard
lineup shot. From left to right: Ryan (ShawnWJ's brother), Jen(2Goofy), Corey(XJ),
me, Keith(TJ) and Matt (Kygreenyj). On the ATV's that's Greg (G. Shucks), Eric
and Issac.
Where that pic was taken is just a clearing with a whole bunch of mud puddles.
So Ryan took the oppurtunity to bust the cherry on his ZJ. He was doing like 40
and almost ended up rollling it...he was on 2 wheels at one point. We knew right
then it was gonna be a good weekend.
We spent the afternoon exploring the main trail. Our (myself, Corey and KTJ)
goal was to get some solid GPS track logs (park maps suck) and scout out some
good side trails for Saturday. Of couse, while doing that we made sure to have
some fun going up:
Ryan:
Keith:
Matt:
Corey
We then went looking for the Gator Pit, I'm not a big fan of mud but some of
these were actually kinda fun. First casuality was Jen - she got stuck and I
strapped her out:
After she was out we decided to press on and keep looking for the pit...of
course then I got stuck and Corey had to strap me out.
Did I mention that the guys on the ATV's were having a blast too?
Since it was getting late and we were supposed to be meeting Shawn, Megan and
John back at the cabins, we decided to give up looking for the pit and keep
going. On the way I eyeballed something I wanted to explore more on Sat (and
boy, did I), plus we had a little more fun:
Matt:
Jen:
This was funny...KTJ was having some problems taking the same little
climb/obstacle.
As we all began to detect the sweet smell of a burning clutch, he got out to
look at his line and Corey jumped in and took over.
Then, to add insult to injury...Corey backed down and did it again over the
harder line.
Anyway that was about it...for wheeling at least. We went back to the cabins and
met up with the rest of the group. There was much drinking, arguing over
basketball, a discussion over the intelligence of horses, at least one drunken
phone call (to Troy)...you get the idea.
Day Two - Saturday
Got out to the OHV trails around 10 or so. Went to the same spot for another
lineup pic, but never really got it...Ryan, Shawn(WJ), and John (Fruitstripe)
just went right at the mud puddles.
Yup, that's why it's called fruitstripe
There were 30 foot high mud splashes, ATV races...we completly forgot to take a
lineup shot. Anyway we headed up the opposite way than we did on Friday.
Remember that "something" I eyeballed that I wanted to explore more? Well, there
was a lot more to it than I could see from the main trail on Friday. After Corey
and I walked it through and picked out where the trouble/tricky spots would be,
I decided to go for it with Corey and Ryan spotting me:
The first third and the last third were not too difficult....it was the middle
third that was tough. It would have been easy for someone on 35's or 37's...but
on 30's it was a challenge. We ended up winching it forward 6-8 inches at a
time.
It almost went on it's side more than once. The scariest moment was a teeter/toter
with only 2 wheels in contact with the ground...we ended up tying a strap to the
passenger side leaf spring and having Eric, Issac and Greg keep me from rolling.
I don't have any pics of that one...but it is on Corey's vidcam. After that
save, we were in another jam. Two shots of it...
The front drivers wheel was wedged in good and the back wheel was barely hanging
on. If we tried to move the front end in the direction it needed to go the back
wheel was going to slip and put the Jeep on it's side. We got out of it because
of Carl. Carl was a guy on an ATV who wedged it against a tree and used his
winch on my rear axle to hold it in place while we used my winch to free the
front wheel.
After almost 3 hours and gathering a crowd of about 40 people, including 2 park
rangers...we pushed it through. The only damage being misaligned steering and a
dented rear bumper. I take no credit for getting the XJ through it....I might
have been in the Jeep, but it was Corey, Eric, Issac, Greg and Ryan that pushed
me through it...either with spotting or by sheer muscle.
Oh...and Carl? He burned up his winch keeping me from rolling. When I offered to
pay for it, he refused saying "Just glad I could help."
Once again...
Onto more wheeling...while we were playing in what we later found out was called
Buttpuckers Gulch, Shawn and John managed to find the Gator Pit. Turns out that
it had been filled in and wasn't that big of a deal anymore. Eric and Issac
started measuring some of the other puddles with a stick and told Matt that he
could make this one. hmmmm...I think they lied.
So Shawn got to bust his recovery cherry strapping him out.
Then Shawn managed to get stuck as well. I ended up having to winch him out
because there was no room to strap him without getting stuck myself. I don't
have any pics of that one.
By this time it was 4pm and none of us had really eaten since breakfast. So we
headed back down to the staging area, collected some firewood and headed back to
camp....after all that's where the beer was. We also realized that John should
not be allowed to have the lighter fluid.
Like I said at the top...it was a blast! The above only scratches the surface of
the fun we had. It was great to meet these folks and I, for one, am looking
forward to doing it again. We are already talking about having next years run
here in VA. I'll tell you right now that we'd (FM2CD) be more than happy to host
it.
Anywayz, that's about all. You can also read the list of
what we learned at
the '05 Jeep Horizons Run. Corey, good luck and have fun at Wyotech for the next
9 or so months.
I'll end in typical fashion...
J.Ho. has left the trail!
The next J.Ho. gathering will be at Paragon in July.
Rock On!
Steve
