AOAA July 4th weekend

[Wingman]

This was a fun trip.  I picked up Troy and truggy Thursday afternoon and hauled to central PA.

The Earthday Campground was a little difficult to find if coming from the west on "Upper Rd" but after some communication with the owner/manager, we arrived at the "Lower Rd" entrance and found Erik and Cora already there chillin' out between the rain drops.  The campground seems to be a new venture with lots of freshly moved earth and stone and trees.  It is located on a hill (like everything in PA).  It had been raining prior to our arrival.  These three ingredients make for a very slickery situation.  2WD haulers were challenged to make it to the sites.  Even 4WD was a little tricky with a heavy tag trailer behind.  We loaded each site with two or three units and set up camp.  This is still a primitive place so there is no water or electric but they do have a couple of porta-potties on site (not enough).  Cell service is non-existent for Verizon and sketchy at best for AT&T.  Staff of one or two (no office yet) very accommodating.

The AOAA Welcome Center is very, well, welcoming.  Beautiful entrance and parking, brand new office with (non-potable) running water and flushing toilets.  Staff was very helpful at getting everyone checked in.  Cora has been involved since news of this place came out and had a great relationship with Barry, one of the founders.  He was able to point us to the rocks we were seeking.  I also believe they will regard our feedback highly too because of this.  Thanks Cora!

The AOAA trail system was quite significant and could keep you busy or lost for most of the day.  Really, the labels were way-points or markers, not trails.  So, with a compass and map, you could navigate fairly well.  Most of what is on the map are "green" trails or access roads and the harder trails and obstacles were off-shoots.  We covered some virgin territory and had a great time.  The park is still in its infancy but should become a great place to wheel on a consistent basis.

The biggest complaint was that the campground and AOAA are not connected yet.  While AOAA owns another vast section that is across the road from the campground, it is not open yet due to current mining operations.  That means if you are not road-legal, you must load up and tow to the park.  I understand this issue to be temporary due to the mining company's lease expiring this year and access to be negotiated for the new lease, likely next year.

[luvmyxj]

i would add that thanks to ujoint caps vacating me and mark rolled around in 2wd for a bit so id say even stock jeeps could easily get around this place and still drive home
only gripe i had is some of us only paid for a 1 day pass not knowing if we were going to rausch sat or not, but we were told we could upgrade later, but not told it had to be by the end of day fri, so we ended up having to pay for another full day, but oh well lesson learned, Great trip nonetheless

[smichaelR22]

a bunch of us also got season passes- out of state it was 140$, and i guess that is for 2014, not for 1 year like rauch also. 

i wore through a hydro line saturday, and then sunday matt and I got tied up in a dead end ATV trail- which a sapling caught my heater core outlets and cracked the water pump casting in two places on the buggy. 

great trip, would love to go back again.  loading was annyoing, bugs were pretty bad at camping!  i think a AOAA / RC trip would still be fun!

[MrMindless]

No issues getting there, even with the big trailer, which was a very good thing. The direct route from there to Rausch is the torturous part of 125, what's between the park and camping is nothing any worse than Red Ridge from the old days or the road to Big Dogs.

I had a long week ahead of this trip of swapping the trans in 571 and making several other changes to the car (most notably putting some good gauges in it, and adding a second trans cooler), along with picking up a popup camper and making this my first ever camping trip with the dog.

Smike and I wrapped up the heavy lifting portion of the trans install Weds night, and I was back in the shop on Thursday taking care of plumbing, electrical, detail stuff. After I got that wrapped up, and took a test spin around the lot to bring the car back home, it was still running like crap. I was pretty sure there was a gross vacuum leak from a bad gasket when I flipped the intake before the last race when the issue started.

I spent an hour or two searching for a vac leak and then changing intake gaskets and fine-cleaning both sealing surfaces to no avail. I went through disconnecting injectors again, and noticed the least change with #8, so I decided to pull plugs. To my wonder, shock, and pleasure, #8 was cracked! I put 8 fresh plugs in, and it ran like a top! I loaded up, packed up, brought the dog with for a test run, and sacrificed an hour of sleep to setting up "camp" in the M4 parking lot on Friday night while I put tins back on, installed the skid plate, and cleaned up my mess.

There were no puppy-related disasters overnight, so we headed south after tearing down camp and refilling the water (where did it go? I don't know...).

I got to the AOAA lot just before 2p and set up the trailer for Titan to stay in - he's not good in cars when he doesn't have a nice big flat place to sit, so I don't think the buggy will ever be for him - and gave my now Honda 2k its acid test: running the trailer AC. It is a small enough unit that even on high, the little Honda will hold it up!

I caught up with the group after signing in and getting a season pass, soon to find Troy with a broken front U-joint. We ran back out to the lot for some spare parts, assaged my concerns about the dog, and carried on exploring. I did a lot of haul road, some high-speed, and joined in running one decent "black" level trail. So far so good on the buggy, RV, and dog shakedown!

Tearing down the popup and heading down to the campground was good, getting the popup off the goose so I could leave it set up until I left was annoying at best. I probably spent 2-2.5hr setting up my camp while everyone else ate and drank, but at least both of us slept well and Titan stayed cool calm and comfortable. Those of you who've heard the stories know how notable this is!

Day 2 saw further exploring, but a little while before Matt and Smike got stuck down their ATV trail and broke the WP housing, I led us down one that petered out into nothing. While trying to back up the hill I was facing down to turn around, something in reverse snapped. No idea yet what the failure is, snapped band perhaps? but no more "back". All three "go"s are still just fine, so with some serious tugging and some gravity assist we got me spun around, and then I managed to get hooked to the popup and winched the whole thing on to my trailer backwards. Very, very easy way to do it with the wireless winch remote.

Oh - I found this weekend that the semi-trusty Recon 10.5 is dead as well.

It was still worth it!

[jeepin11]

After a frantic Thursday getting stuff in order inset out for my first club event. The drive down was not that bad, even with the constant down pours. After the later than planned start we got close around dusk. We found out the Google maps and apple maps like to fight a lot on which route to take and what not. Thanks to Mark and his spotty AT&T service we got word of how to find the camp site which was a blessing because I would have never found it. We got there a little after 8pm and set up the tent in the rain. That's always fun especially given all the fresh red earth and clay all over the place. The owners daughter met us their and was very friendly and accommodating.

After breakfast we lined up and left for AOAA. Like said before the welcome center and staff were amazing. Jeep Jamboree was there and they showed us around a bit. Unfortunately my eyes are bigger then my tires and I got stuck 30 ft into the first trail. I unded up struggling to get back down the trail where I blew the seals on my rack and pinion. I also ripped off my running boards, dented the passenger rocker panel up and bottom of both doors, gouged up my nice new black wheels, dented a skid or two, dented other various underbody panels, and ripped off something from the bottom of the rear differential. I limped my way out of the trail, my trip over with the lack of steering. I got back home to NY safe albiet a bit arm tired lol. Also started to misfire on #4 really bad on the way home. I already had new plugs so something else is wrong with that. Have yet to have the time to get her to a shop but eventually.

I learned  lesson. If the modded CJ in front of you with 35+ tires is getting hung up, I may want to take the bypass with the Libby.

But with all of that I had a good time and can't wait to do it again. Great times + great people = time well spent.

[MrMindless]

I'm glad to hear you made it home smoothly(ish), and that it didn't dampen your spirits!