Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Dave's Jeep Jamboree Pics
I have posted Dave's Jeep Jamboree Pictures to kodakgallery. He and my nephew got a few that were much better than mine. It's hard to shoot pictures while driving.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Jeep Jamboree Pics
I have posted my Jeep Jamboree Pics to kodakgallery. I will try to get my brother's up if he doesn't mind my posting them.
Jeep Jamboree Killington, July 2008
This past weekend my brother David, my nephew William and I attended the Jeep Jamboree in Killington, VT. This was our first Jeep Jamboree (especially where I had not owned a Jeep until January of 2008). It was a 3 day event with a breakfast on Sunday that we skipped out on because we found out it was a continental breakfast and we figured we could grab a real breakfast on the way home.
The event was 2 days of Jeeps wheeling. We picked a trail for each day and then rode through them for the duration of the day. There appeared to be about 6 or 7 total trails available and there was also a concept called Pirate where a bunch of modded up Jeeps went through a tasting of all the trails that were officially being run. They were selected by the guides that were running Pirate pretty much walking through all the other lines and asking people to join up based on their rigs. It seemed like the people that did that had a lot of fun but I'll get back to them later.
We arrived on Thursday night and went through tech inspection where they made sure your Jeep was up to spec for the event. When we got there at about 5pm there was a big line already set up but it moved fairly quickly and we were able to get through registration without much ado. They gave a t-shirt and a few other knick knacks as swag for signing up. When we signed up I was trying to be on the rather wimpy side and talked my brother into signing up for Vertigo, a rating 3-4 trail for Friday and said I would be willing to step up to No Name, which was 5-6 on Saturday. The guide running No Name basically tried to scare me when I told her I had a stock 2008 Rubicon asking me if I minded being strapped (towed) or if I was worried about body damage. She did have me second guessing but we decided to try it anyway. After registration we drove a bit down the mountain and had dinner at Moguls, which appeared to be more a bar than a restaurant but served pretty decent burgers anyway.
Friday's trail was called Vertigo mainly because it would bring us up to to the top of Piko peak (I hope I have the spelling right). It honestly started out very simply by climbing up access roads used by the ski resort maintenance most likely and I know in the early going that David was very bored with the trail. After a bit we entered into some wooded areas and that's when things changed up a bit. There was 3 major wooded sections we drove through and it felt like it got tighter each one we tried. The JK is a wider Jeep than earlier models and I am not graced with a visual mind or good spacial perception so during the various parts I scraped up my fender flares a few times. Nothing serious and the parts are plastic so it wasn't too painful but all the same the more squishy the trail got the more tense I got. I am not normally a nervous person but I was wheeling with my daily driver and this was my first time trying anything off road that was like this. With the help of the guides, Steve, Scott and George I did manage to get through all of the obstacles of the day without having to be strapped through and pretty much on the second or third try for anything I had difficulty for. I know I held up the line at one point because Scott (who was by far my favorite guide when it came to knowledge and helpfulness overall) kept leaving the post when he saw Josh in front of me hit the obstacle. Josh had 2003 TJ with a 3 inch lift and 33 boggers that looked very capable but he also is fairly new to wheeling and kind of wanted the help as well. All the same he would get through the obstacles and there would be no guide for me. Two times I tried on my own at obstacles like that and both times got stuck and Scott came back and got me through. Overall I became more and more tense as the day went on. There were a lot of berms where the top had you turning hard to avoid roots or rocks or trees right at the crest. I was not able to determine when to turn correctly. I also got stuck on one obstacle because would keep catching a root and sliding along it. I managed to ding my front bumper a bit there, but not horribly. I didn't air down my tires because they said we didn't need to and David believed that caused me a lot of the trouble I had. It may be so but I am sure a lot of it was my inexperience. At one point there was a tight climb through a rock and tree that when we got through it turned into a long muddy drop. I watched the jeeps going through before and after me and anyone, in 4 lo and first gear, pretty much just slid down the hill. It had gotten torn up because Pirate had come through in the other direction not too long before we got there. All the same the drop was scary but fun. There was a landing shelf that saved us from crashing into anything at the bottom before we regained control. The tension of the day had me completely second guessing the decision to move up to No Name on Saturday. We ended up having to cut the trail a teeny bit short because a thunderstorm threatened not too far away and we raced off the mountain and got back to the base before anything bad happened. When we got back I spoke to David and decided I wanted to switch off to the other 3-4 trail called 5 corners because I was sure that with the rain and the Friday run it would be harder than it was scheduled to be and I would only end up with a damaged Jeep. I know he was disappointed but he decided to follow me to 5 Corners and at breakfast on Saturday we made the switch.
It was the best thing I could have done I think to switch over. Wendall the guide for 5 Corners who sorta looked like Neil Young said it wouldn't be a problem and that he only had 12 Jeeps scheduled. With us and a couple other trail jumpers we ended up with 16 in total. 5 corners was a lot more easy but it did have a bunch of fun obstacles in it. The first was a very sharp ledge climb. It was similar to some of what we had done on Friday but there was no need to turn sharp right at the top which made me more confident with it. I did make it on the first try but only because I gunned the engine and didn't let up until the top. After that were a few other water crossings and berms that had interesting challeges but the majority of it was class 4 public road with rocks and roots spaced so that it wasn't tense to get through. There was a long rocky stretch that was like a stream bed but that was fun. In all I managed to really enjoy myself on t5 corners and we got through the entire main run of the trail by 2:30pm. One of the guides monitoring the weather band found a severe thunderstorm warning was due for 3 and we took a vote and decided we would vacate the woods rather than attempt the extra hour and a half of trails and risk getting nailed by the storm. It turned out to be a decent decision as when we got to the highway the skies opened. I should mention David and I had windows out and doors off for this and the rain was fairly blinding as it was both inside and outside the windshield. We drove through the other side of it and got back to the cabin where we put windows and doors back in and got cleaned up. At dinner one of the guys who was on Vertigo the day before and did No Name on Saturday came over and sat with us and told us what kind of a disaster No Name turned out to be. He said he did learn a lot and he was very lucky as he got through the trails mainly unscathed but that more than half of the rigs had body damage by the end and a lot of it significant. Apparently their guides didn't know about the storm and they got trapped in it and everything turned to an oilslick for traction and pretty much all the Jeeps on the trail needed to be winched down to a safe point before they could get off the mountain. I am sure if I went through that I would not have been happy. I also wasn't really into the idea of paying a lot of money to repair significant damage to my Jeep if I didn't have to. The tradeoff of the day was that we had a fairly easy run that I found relaxing and fun instead of a nightmare that might have scared me out of wheeling forever.
All in all I had a great time doing it and would consider doing it again. There were a lot of really good people there and everyone was very friendly and easy to get along with overall. The food was good enough for the buffet fare that it was and the cabin we stayed in was good with reasonably clean public bathrooms and showers. We also ate breakfast on Sunday at a place called Blanch and Bill's Pancake House. They had good food and I would recommend them. There were a few miles out of town on route 4. With the one dinner and the breakfast the only other thing that wasn't paid in advance was gasoline and I used 4.1 and 7.3 gallons respectively Friday and Saturday. So all in all it wasn't too expensive.
My last observations for wheeling: I got to use both the front and back lockers and the swaybar disconnect, so I've used all the toys the Jeep comes with officially now. I spent 2 days where for several hours I didn't get over 10 miles an hour and somehow I wasn't pissed. That's kind of cool.
The event was 2 days of Jeeps wheeling. We picked a trail for each day and then rode through them for the duration of the day. There appeared to be about 6 or 7 total trails available and there was also a concept called Pirate where a bunch of modded up Jeeps went through a tasting of all the trails that were officially being run. They were selected by the guides that were running Pirate pretty much walking through all the other lines and asking people to join up based on their rigs. It seemed like the people that did that had a lot of fun but I'll get back to them later.
We arrived on Thursday night and went through tech inspection where they made sure your Jeep was up to spec for the event. When we got there at about 5pm there was a big line already set up but it moved fairly quickly and we were able to get through registration without much ado. They gave a t-shirt and a few other knick knacks as swag for signing up. When we signed up I was trying to be on the rather wimpy side and talked my brother into signing up for Vertigo, a rating 3-4 trail for Friday and said I would be willing to step up to No Name, which was 5-6 on Saturday. The guide running No Name basically tried to scare me when I told her I had a stock 2008 Rubicon asking me if I minded being strapped (towed) or if I was worried about body damage. She did have me second guessing but we decided to try it anyway. After registration we drove a bit down the mountain and had dinner at Moguls, which appeared to be more a bar than a restaurant but served pretty decent burgers anyway.
Friday's trail was called Vertigo mainly because it would bring us up to to the top of Piko peak (I hope I have the spelling right). It honestly started out very simply by climbing up access roads used by the ski resort maintenance most likely and I know in the early going that David was very bored with the trail. After a bit we entered into some wooded areas and that's when things changed up a bit. There was 3 major wooded sections we drove through and it felt like it got tighter each one we tried. The JK is a wider Jeep than earlier models and I am not graced with a visual mind or good spacial perception so during the various parts I scraped up my fender flares a few times. Nothing serious and the parts are plastic so it wasn't too painful but all the same the more squishy the trail got the more tense I got. I am not normally a nervous person but I was wheeling with my daily driver and this was my first time trying anything off road that was like this. With the help of the guides, Steve, Scott and George I did manage to get through all of the obstacles of the day without having to be strapped through and pretty much on the second or third try for anything I had difficulty for. I know I held up the line at one point because Scott (who was by far my favorite guide when it came to knowledge and helpfulness overall) kept leaving the post when he saw Josh in front of me hit the obstacle. Josh had 2003 TJ with a 3 inch lift and 33 boggers that looked very capable but he also is fairly new to wheeling and kind of wanted the help as well. All the same he would get through the obstacles and there would be no guide for me. Two times I tried on my own at obstacles like that and both times got stuck and Scott came back and got me through. Overall I became more and more tense as the day went on. There were a lot of berms where the top had you turning hard to avoid roots or rocks or trees right at the crest. I was not able to determine when to turn correctly. I also got stuck on one obstacle because would keep catching a root and sliding along it. I managed to ding my front bumper a bit there, but not horribly. I didn't air down my tires because they said we didn't need to and David believed that caused me a lot of the trouble I had. It may be so but I am sure a lot of it was my inexperience. At one point there was a tight climb through a rock and tree that when we got through it turned into a long muddy drop. I watched the jeeps going through before and after me and anyone, in 4 lo and first gear, pretty much just slid down the hill. It had gotten torn up because Pirate had come through in the other direction not too long before we got there. All the same the drop was scary but fun. There was a landing shelf that saved us from crashing into anything at the bottom before we regained control. The tension of the day had me completely second guessing the decision to move up to No Name on Saturday. We ended up having to cut the trail a teeny bit short because a thunderstorm threatened not too far away and we raced off the mountain and got back to the base before anything bad happened. When we got back I spoke to David and decided I wanted to switch off to the other 3-4 trail called 5 corners because I was sure that with the rain and the Friday run it would be harder than it was scheduled to be and I would only end up with a damaged Jeep. I know he was disappointed but he decided to follow me to 5 Corners and at breakfast on Saturday we made the switch.
It was the best thing I could have done I think to switch over. Wendall the guide for 5 Corners who sorta looked like Neil Young said it wouldn't be a problem and that he only had 12 Jeeps scheduled. With us and a couple other trail jumpers we ended up with 16 in total. 5 corners was a lot more easy but it did have a bunch of fun obstacles in it. The first was a very sharp ledge climb. It was similar to some of what we had done on Friday but there was no need to turn sharp right at the top which made me more confident with it. I did make it on the first try but only because I gunned the engine and didn't let up until the top. After that were a few other water crossings and berms that had interesting challeges but the majority of it was class 4 public road with rocks and roots spaced so that it wasn't tense to get through. There was a long rocky stretch that was like a stream bed but that was fun. In all I managed to really enjoy myself on t5 corners and we got through the entire main run of the trail by 2:30pm. One of the guides monitoring the weather band found a severe thunderstorm warning was due for 3 and we took a vote and decided we would vacate the woods rather than attempt the extra hour and a half of trails and risk getting nailed by the storm. It turned out to be a decent decision as when we got to the highway the skies opened. I should mention David and I had windows out and doors off for this and the rain was fairly blinding as it was both inside and outside the windshield. We drove through the other side of it and got back to the cabin where we put windows and doors back in and got cleaned up. At dinner one of the guys who was on Vertigo the day before and did No Name on Saturday came over and sat with us and told us what kind of a disaster No Name turned out to be. He said he did learn a lot and he was very lucky as he got through the trails mainly unscathed but that more than half of the rigs had body damage by the end and a lot of it significant. Apparently their guides didn't know about the storm and they got trapped in it and everything turned to an oilslick for traction and pretty much all the Jeeps on the trail needed to be winched down to a safe point before they could get off the mountain. I am sure if I went through that I would not have been happy. I also wasn't really into the idea of paying a lot of money to repair significant damage to my Jeep if I didn't have to. The tradeoff of the day was that we had a fairly easy run that I found relaxing and fun instead of a nightmare that might have scared me out of wheeling forever.
All in all I had a great time doing it and would consider doing it again. There were a lot of really good people there and everyone was very friendly and easy to get along with overall. The food was good enough for the buffet fare that it was and the cabin we stayed in was good with reasonably clean public bathrooms and showers. We also ate breakfast on Sunday at a place called Blanch and Bill's Pancake House. They had good food and I would recommend them. There were a few miles out of town on route 4. With the one dinner and the breakfast the only other thing that wasn't paid in advance was gasoline and I used 4.1 and 7.3 gallons respectively Friday and Saturday. So all in all it wasn't too expensive.
My last observations for wheeling: I got to use both the front and back lockers and the swaybar disconnect, so I've used all the toys the Jeep comes with officially now. I spent 2 days where for several hours I didn't get over 10 miles an hour and somehow I wasn't pissed. That's kind of cool.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Jeep Jamboree - Killington, VT
I am heading up to Killington, VT tonight for the Jeep Jamboree being held there this weekend. I doubt I will have connection to the internet but will take pictures and eventually post them and will try to write up the events of the day to post after the fact. I supposed it is not as glamorous as international travel but it is travel nonetheless...
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