Rausch Creek, 9/29 – 9/30
Attendees: Harry, Mark, Gary, Smike, Matt G, Matt (88GMC), Mike (Raddadd), Reid and Chris with Hannah, Leslie, Matt’s Dad, Mike and Mollie as passengers.
My previous Rausch trip in August with this Fingerlakes bunch was a great trip, but netted some decent carnage on my rig. Gas tank skid destroyed, driver’s side front shaft blown in the middle of Rock Creek, and the weekend ender for me was the second round of steering box bolt failures that ripped the threads out of the steering box. With all of those issues tended to and a few little extras accomplished, I was feeling ready to wheel. My girlfriend Hannah was also incredibly excited for the trip, which only multiplied my own excitement.
Spencer couldn’t make it due to work.
We got a late start Friday night as my roommate Reid and his girlfriend Mollie were arriving back from the airport after Reid spent two weeks in Florida for work. He had decided at 8am Friday morning he would join me as he hadn’t wheeled since June. Who could blame him? We departed CT around 8pm after a Uhaul trailer had been procured but pants forgotten, as we would all be made very aware of on a chilly Saturday night.
We arrived to a dark camp and quickly laid down for sleep.
Saturday morning was predictably chilly. Everyone was vertical between 8 and 9am. We ate breakfast, those of us with caffeine habits sucked down our coffee and grabbed stickers. We waited a few minutes for Mike’s (Raddadd) and Leslie’s arrival and we were on our way to wheel the new property.
Disclaimer: To this day, I still can barely navigate my way around Rausch, much less remember trail names. So bear with me here.
We ran a couple green/blue trails and eventually made our way onto a more difficult blue/black trail. Mike’s JK found itself tightly against a tree on the passenger’s side where he managed to squish his rocker guard a bit. Some careful reversing and redirecting got him on his way with no body damage. The next obstacle put me in quite a predicament. I chose a poor line (hard to believe right???) coming off a rock ledge I climbed and ended up with my Jeep on a 45 degree angle leaning to the passenger’s side. Gary and I wrapped a strap around my window opening and around a tree while I winched myself off.
Moments later… GARY BROKE A FRONT SHAFT!!! Driver’s side, broke the ears off the outer (?). We did the typical trail repair that was made slightly more difficult by a good amount of WP mud in the unit bearing area.
We proceeded to Devil’s Den where Mark, Smike, Matt G. and myself all took our lines through to the top. Mark and I took a line up a large ledge at the top and both conquered the obstacle with the assistance of Chris’ superb spotting. Smike drove up and down, left and right. He was employing his typical ‘mash the gas when something stops forward progress’ technique. He looked bored, we were all smiles watching. I took another lap and tried a pretty dumb line, ended up winching out. Matt got stuck as well (sorry… don’t really know what was going on since I was stuck myself hahaha.)
We ventured on, mostly uneventful until the legendary steep, muddy hill climb with the precarious sharp right at the top. We all made it up, everyone at least ¾ throttle by the peak. Always entertaining! Matt’s YJ was impressive with only 4 squirrels under the hood and a large plume of blue smoke. Matt’s friend Matt with the GMC pickup gave us a show with his 400hp full throttle assault that didn’t quite make the quick right at the top. I’m guessing the lack of traction on the front tires due to their ‘airborne-ness’ may have been a contributing factor.
Chris and I then headed back to camp to meet up with Mollie and Reid who had retrieved Reid’s new trailer. Our three rigs proceeded back to Devil’s Den where Hannah piloted my Jeep through the entire first section (huge smile every second!), Reid nearly rolled over backwards, I took a new line to the top, and we spent a solid 45 minutes trying to get Chris’ open-open, no-flex Bronco out of the Den on the far right line to no avail. A strap was used for extraction from my Jeep, but we all had a blast piling rocks and listening to the 302 open up spinning 2 out of the 4 tires. Almost made me miss the simple, open-open days… almost.
We arrived back to a buggy stacked with wood and proceeded to make a fire. We cooked our meals and enjoyed some brews until around 11pm where the last of us headed in for sleep.
We woke the next morning to some sun! A nice surprise on another chilly morning. It didn’t last, and the clouds were back, but we headed on our way after some vehicle inspection and breakfast. Matt G., Smike, and Raddadd had already started their trek home.
We took some black lines through O and CV (?) on our way to Rock Creek. All but the Bronco ventured in. Everyone was doing well until Reid snapped his D30 passenger side shaft within 3 feet of where I had broken on the previous trip. Typical trail replacement and a little strategic hi-lift and rock usage and we were on our way. At that point it was approaching 3pm and we headed back to camp.
Everyone loaded/aired up and packed away their stuff. We all said our goodbyes and started our way home.
No major carnage and smiles were seen on familiar and new faces alike. Great trip as always!!! Hannah took a ton of great pics I will upload to the gallery when they finish dumping into my dropbox.
