Pennsylvania Rausch Creek Rides

Westtown Willy

TJ dummy
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I’m tentatively planning on an 8am start this Saturday (May 19) but it doesn’t look like this monsoon will relent by then, either way I’m also planning on kicking Memorial Day weekend off a day early with a Friday May 25 run – anyone interested lemme know, Marc
 
Hey @Westtown Willy

Not sure if your familiar with the Jeep Badge of Honor program, but there are 3 Jeep BoH trails within Rausch Creek Off Road Park that you could potentially run and collect the badges! Just a heads up if you didn't know already, and could be some fun incentive for a small group meet-up. Make sure you have downloaded the "app" ahead of time and create your account before you head out if you want to be able to "check-in" at each trailhead.

I have been there before and run these 3 trails, they are all really fun and each with their own challenges. Curious to see how you make out and good luck out there!
 
Hey @Westtown Willy

Not sure if your familiar with the Jeep Badge of Honor program, but there are 3 Jeep BoH trails within Rausch Creek Off Road Park that you could potentially run and collect the badges! Just a heads up if you didn't know already, and could be some fun incentive for a small group meet-up. Make sure you have downloaded the "app" ahead of time and create your account before you head out if you want to be able to "check-in" at each trailhead.

I have been there before and run these 3 trails, they are all really fun and each with their own challenges. Curious to see how you make out and good luck out there!

EJD, I was aware of program, I do trail 11 all the time which is one of them, it's pretty easy but a lotta fun; crawl daddy on the other hand is way outa my league, pretty sure I'd need a heavy lift helicopter to drag my TJ through there & even then,,, :ambulance:. I'm not sure what the 3rd one is though? Someone once told me it was the Topples for Tatas trail which is a blue/moderate rated trail, if that is one it's not bad at all, did it maybe 10 or more times already, it's just really rocky but nothing really big. Tight too, that's the kind of trail that the JKU crowd really slows down on with all their 7 point turns to line up for squeezing through trees - God I love my TJ wheelbase :campeon2:
 
EJD, I was aware of program, I do trail 11 all the time which is one of them, it's pretty easy but a lotta fun; crawl daddy on the other hand is way outa my league, pretty sure I'd need a heavy lift helicopter to drag my TJ through there & even then,,, :ambulance:. I'm not sure what the 3rd one is though? Someone once told me it was the Topples for Tatas trail which is a blue/moderate rated trail, if that is one it's not bad at all, did it maybe 10 or more times already, it's just really rocky but nothing really big. Tight too, that's the kind of trail that the JKU crowd really slows down on with all their 7 point turns to line up for squeezing through trees - God I love my TJ wheelbase :campeon2:
Oh absolutely! The TJ wheelbase is just awesome.
The other trail is Crawler Ridge and also rated pretty high, i've done parts of it. Trail #11 is pretty good though, classic Rausch Creek.
 
Oh absolutely! The TJ wheelbase is just awesome.
The other trail is Crawler Ridge and also rated pretty high, i've done parts of it. Trail #11 is pretty good though, classic Rausch Creek.

ok that makes more sense & I've done parts of it too, usually skirt up the right side & around the perimeter like the guy in this video but I avoid the rest:


weather for tomorrow is looking more & more like steady rain but I'm thinking of heading up anyway, with the exception of the middle of the summer it's almost always soaked up there anyway even if it's not raining; I'll have to see if my two comrades are still on board...
 
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Had a blast yesterday, poured non-stop until around 1pm when it began tailing off which is around the time we wove our way over to Crawlers Ridge, picture is from up top of the center section, I skirted up & down two edges of it – I’m not about to mess with those big rocks. First video is going up 2 different sections, last part of it is some random blue trail. It was just me & a buddy in his JK, oddly enough we had good traction all day, no lockers or winches were used or harmed in the making of the event :aplastao:.

Second video is a washout on the base of the 101 trail that connects the east & west properties, just a fun little spot that's a good bit steeper than it appears on screen. Heading back on Friday provided I can talk at least one other living soul into playing hooky from work

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Man, looks like you guys had the place to yourselves!

Whats your camera situation, cell phone?
 
yup, crappy iphone suctioned to the windshield or hanging out the window in my hand. I have an old GoPro I used to use but that seemed even worse, not sure I ever really knew how to use it correctly. And yea, when I pulled into the parking lot at 7:30 there wasn't a soul to be seen other than a few people over in the camp area. We did run into a couple guys from Canada in a CJ & TJ during the day, weather didn't seem to be much of an issue for them :applaudit:
 
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great day yesterday, I managed to assemble a group of 7 experienced guys in very well built rigs, 3 JKUs on 37s, an LJ & an LJ Ruby on 35s, and 2 TJs, one on 35s & me as the runt of the litter on 33s – funny I still ended up leading the group all day. The consensus was black trails and connecting blues; we did the Lake Christy hill climbs (I ended up doing Roxy’s way alone which I ended up on at the top of one of the hill climbs & was through it before I realized where I was), Jotter’s Way climb, Trail 5 hill climbs, Trail 17 hill climbs & some others I can’t remember. Early on in the day we went to Yellow Jacket where I pulled off to watch, the first guy through was hung up for about 15 minutes in the same spot (JKU) but finally squeaked through however the next guy in (TJ) blew his front axle shaft when he got himself wedged in tight & started bouncing – Boom! I permanently skipped that obstacle :rolleyes:.

Our final stop was the Quarry, one of my favorite spots & I took my first shot at Shoot the Moon. Started at the base of the quarry & did all the blues then up through the moon, I've gotta say the TJ rolled through that obstacle with far, far less difficulty than the much larger U's which experienced a whole lot of banging & scraping, lots of hung up axle tubes.

It was a pretty intense day so I didn’t get many photos. The first one is the group at the base of the Christy hill climbs, the TJ brigade minus our fallen comrade, a couple from the back end of Shoot the Moon plus a video I found on Youtube so you can see the lay of the land. Also a couple shots of the TJ on Yellow Jacket & the carnage that resulted plus a video of Yellow Jacket:

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Shoot the moon


Yellow jacket:


Next trip: June 30!
 
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Next wheel this Saturday, June 30 @8am; if interested in joining lemme know or just show up, group name Yeti, so far it looks like there's 6 of us.
 
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another great day at Rausch & another casualty (YJ lost his fan & overheated, had to tow him out only two hours into the day, sucked for him as he traveled all the way from Long Island NY to join my group). Didn't get much in the way of photos but did get a few, plus this one video my buddy shot of me coming down one of the many climbs into lake Christy, I tried to get up this one a couple weeks ago without luck, got maybe 3/4 the way up before getting beached on my tc skid, just too rutted out:


Some other random scenery, first three from the middle of trail #5 where I stopped to figure out what happened to my group that disappeared behind me, the fan situation, next couple are from the top of trail #19, a horseshoe shaped trail with a great black hill climb, flat top then a great descending drop back to the main trail, encountered a pretty treacherous drop though to enter the downside, see the photo of the log straddling the turn, hard to tell in the photo but that was about a 3 foot 90 degree drop with very little room to square up & hit it an a proper angle:

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Wow I spent a lot of my life in that area (westtown pa specifically) and I wasn’t aware that sort of stuff was out there. Looks great!
 
Wow I spent a lot of my life in that area (westtown pa specifically) and I wasn’t aware that sort of stuff was out there. Looks great!

that's funny, I live in Westtown Township right in between what used to be Nussex Farms on the one side & Pete's Produce Farm on the other, remember them (all houses now)? And yea, we've got pretty much everything from basic fire roads to mountain trails of all skill levels, water crossings of all varieties, excellent hill climbing & boulder fields that only highly modified buggies can crawl into & it's all within a 90 minute drive (Rausch Creek) & another 30 to Anthracite-OAA & the group of Reading trails. There are more places in middle & western PA but with all this close by I see no point in traveling that far, particularly without a trailer...

By the way next date is July 14, if anyone is interested lemme know!
 
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that's funny, I live in Westtown Township right in between what used to be Nussex Farms on the one side & Pete's Produce Farm on the other, remember them (all houses now)? And yea, we've got pretty much everything from basic fire roads to mountain trails of all skill levels, water crossings of all varieties, excellent hill climbing & boulder fields that only highly modified buggies can crawl into & it's all within a 90 minute drive (Rausch Creek) & another 30 to Anthracite-OAA & the group of Reading trails. There are more places in middle & western PA but with all this close by I see no point in traveling that far, particularly without a trailer...

I think I know where you’re talking about there was a bunch of townhouses being built if I remember right. Not far at all I used to live the other side of 352 off 926 by the Stratton farm (not sure what most people call it but that’s the family that at least used to own it). I went to college out in western PA so did a fair bit of backpacking and stuff out there.
 
I think I know where you’re talking about there was a bunch of townhouses being built if I remember right. Not far at all I used to live the other side of 352 off 926 by the Stratton farm (not sure what most people call it but that’s the family that at least used to own it). I went to college out in western PA so did a fair bit of backpacking and stuff out there.

yea I'm off of 926 on the other side of 352, go about 2 miles & you're at one end of what used to be Pete's Produce Farm, a 180 acre plot that was sold maybe 10 or so years ago & they put the new West Chester Area School District High School there (Bayard Rustin High), and a small development of homes. No townhouses, all fairly large singles, same with Nussex Farms, maybe 100 large singe homes went in there.

Huge fan of western PA too (IUP grad), still have a lot of friends out that way & get to Pittsburgh every chance I get, love that city
 
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Hooked up with a group for this Sunday, July 15 @ 8:30am, looks to be a well experienced bunch led by a CJ7, if interested just show up around 8, group name "Big Red One"

This will be the first group I'm not leading this year, will be nice to just kick back & follow the herd :aplastao:
 
So the CJ broke down & bailed out, it ended up being me, my buddy in his XJ & a new guy with a JK buggy on 43 inch tires. The forecast called for a chance of rain around noon & on but at 8am when we arrived the clouds gathered & unleashed torrents of rain, biblical kinda rain for 3 hours :rolleyes:, kinda sucked as my doors & windows were in my garage but at least I was able to pull my top up, dude in the buggy had to suck it up.

Anyway as we meandered through the park we came upon the "milkshake", a truly innocent looking puddle. I learned the hard way to stay away from it (& anything with a name) unless you really know what's involved AND have the appropriate setup to get through it. Nevertheless I was feeling a little bad that this guy in the monster Jeep was stuck doing trails me & my buddy were doing given his setup so as we drove by I said why don't you give that a shot. He got into the middle of it, sunk, & proceeded to dig himself in for 20 minutes until we eventually pulled him out backwards. Undeterred, he did what a lot of us would do, he went in a second time :D, this video is that second shot. Fortunately we left the strap on to yank him out again


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d'ja ever get the feeling you're talking to yourself :p, anyway I'll keep posting rides here & maybe someone will eventually join me - next up is looking like July 28, there's an outside chance I'll also be heading up on Monday July 23 with a buddy, that would be really cool as we'd probably be the only ones there. It's open 7 days a week but Mon-Thursday you have to make reservations in advance so they can send someone there to let you in... I did it once & it was awesome.

As a followup to yesterday's post I learned that after I split, the dude that got caught in the Milkshake had some more difficulties, his rig is so wide he has to drive over the wheel wells of the trailer & in doing so he slipped off the side. Fortunately the staff at Rausch is equipped to handle these kinds of things, hopefully he didn't break anything:

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