Anthracite Outdoor Adventure Area

Westtown Willy

TJ dummy
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May 10, 2018
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Great day yesterday with my buddy at AOAA. I've only been there a handful of times preferring the closer Rausch Creek but we had an absolute blast, just our two rigs & my girlfriend rode shotgun.

May 26, 2019 - beautiful morning:
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Kimberly striking a pose with the TJ, my buddy inside stealing something from my glove compartment no doubt :)
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entering the trails
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mid-morning yoga break
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something that's all too common these days, a large swath of land scalped for pipeline installation
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back into the forest that is Pennsylvania
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it was an overall very tame day but this spot was a bit sketchy, trying to hug the left to avoid body damage on a couple large rocks on the right but the slope of the trail + gravity had other ideas
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did our best all day to avoid rocks, just wanted some nice twisty trails & no hangups, we were pretty successful
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ended up stumbling into a small rock garden, went on for a couple hundred yards, really less & less a fan of rocks, too bouncy, too slow, too many loud bangs followed by too many 'what the F was that?'
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Driving home we got caught in 3 relatively furious downpours, half way through the first one I was forced to pull over & put my top up, still doorless & windowless however, made for an interesting ride home. Looking forward to our next outing there, man I'm loving the TJ!
 
Thanks for sharing the pics of AOAA. This was one of the few places I was able to wheel last year after relocating from out west .
 
I’m originally from PA and wheeled the AOAA before it was a park. It’s huge you can go close to 30miles or more without really running into other people. That’s great that they made it a park since paragon closed. At least you have two places to go now.
 
really less & less a fan of rocks, too bouncy, too slow, too many loud bangs followed by too many 'what the F was that?'
Great shots! If you keep playing in the rocks you’ll begin saying, diff, TCase Skid, gas tank skid, control arm, everything has a distinct sound and feel when you hit it. 🤣
 
Great shots! If you keep playing in the rocks you’ll begin saying, diff, TCase Skid, gas tank skid, control arm, everything has a distinct sound and feel when you hit it. 🤣

yup, truthfully my hat is off to Jeep for their stock gas tank skid, I've whacked that thing unmercifully over the past couple years & it's dented up pretty good but still solid as a rock. Smashed my tail pipe extension flat & had to remove it, & grinded my front diff housing down to where part of the lower bolt has been sanded off :oops::LOL:. I've also teetered on my UCF plenty of times, that thing is literally indestructible. But it's that kinda stuff that wore me down & contributed to my lack of desire to regularly go into the rock fields, these days I put them right up there with the mud pits in the to be avoided when possible category. Tomorrow I'll just run along the trails in search of every hill climb I can find & aim for them, that's always been my favorite thing anyway
 
yup, truthfully my hat is off to Jeep for their stock gas tank skid, I've whacked that thing unmercifully over the past couple years & it's dented up pretty good but still solid as a rock. Smashed my tail pipe extension flat & had to remove it, & grinded my front diff housing down to where part of the lower bolt has been sanded off :oops::LOL:. I've also teetered on my UCF plenty of times, that thing is literally indestructible. But it's that kinda stuff that wore me down & contributed to my lack of desire to regularly go into the rock fields, these days I put them right up there with the mud pits in the to be avoided when possible category. Tomorrow I'll just run along the trails in search of every hill climb I can find & aim for them, that's always been my favorite thing anyway
I aim for rocks then sander and spray paint when I get home. To each his own! Good stuff!
 
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June 15, 2019.

Every time I head to the mountains I have this thought that today will be the day I don’t do anything stupid, then the first chance I get I just can’t resist. Me & my buddy were just putzing around on some green trails enjoying the scenery when I came upon this series of small climbs up to a connecting trail, there were 4 climbs of varying difficulty, I shot up one of them then did a U-turn to head back down another. As usual the video does it no justice but what I can tell you is that it’s sloped to the passenger side just enough that the Jeep wants to slide right the entire way down, you’ve got a couple feet to play with before the slope gets much worse & rolling into the ravine becomes a possibility, the ground is very unstable so as you go forward it’s crumbling to the passenger side & those trees off to that side are just waiting to mangle things.

As soon as the front end went over the crest of this hill, I immediately regretted this decision :rolleyes:


After driving by this giant scoop on display at Anthracite I finally took the obligatory tourist photos:

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What a great day, really enjoying this park a lot & there's so much more of it I haven't yet seen. Happy Father's Day to all
 
Great pics! Maybe it was better I didn’t go lol. Some hairy situations I probably shouldn’t do but I have issues saying no to😬
 
Great pics! Maybe it was better I didn’t go lol. Some hairy situations I probably shouldn’t do but I have issues saying no to😬

Yup, the temptation is irresistible. The Jeep is like a chronic stupidity inducing device, standing outside of it I’m a responsible grown up, behind the wheel I have all the rationality of a 4 year old boy that has to take a piss
 
I'm looking to get up there July 13th if weather permits if you guys are down for a trail ride.

the 13th works for me, are you coming from Connecticut or some other starting point? Would you consider Rausch Creek instead, I'm trying to get back there next rather than AOAA but either way it's all good.

I’m originally from PA and wheeled the AOAA before it was a park. It’s huge you can go close to 30miles or more without really running into other people. That’s great that they made it a park since paragon closed. At least you have two places to go now.

actually three, there's now what's called Famous Reading Outdoors, another 20,000 acres:

https://readingoutdoors.com/about-reading-outdoors-trails-park
From the website:

Famous Reading Outdoors officially opened in August of 2017. Famous Reading Outdoors owns and operates approximately 20,000 acres of coal lands located in Schuylkill and Northumberland counties in Central Eastern Pennsylvania. Famous Reading Outdoors is actively managing a family-friendly motorized, non-motorized and hunting recreation facility.
Previously, the 20,000 acres of riding lands were operated by Famous Reading Anthracite. In order to achieve a more enjoyable experience for permit holders, Famous Reading Outdoors was created as a separate entity from Famous Reading Anthracite.


It's only about 90 miles from me but I have yet to make it there, it's on the list though; will get there soon & start a separate thread with some photos.
 
the 13th works for me, are you coming from Connecticut or some other starting point? Would you consider Rausch Creek instead, I'm trying to get back there next rather than AOAA but either way it's all good.



actually three, there's now what's called Famous Reading Outdoors, another 20,000 acres:

https://readingoutdoors.com/about-reading-outdoors-trails-park
From the website:

Famous Reading Outdoors officially opened in August of 2017. Famous Reading Outdoors owns and operates approximately 20,000 acres of coal lands located in Schuylkill and Northumberland counties in Central Eastern Pennsylvania. Famous Reading Outdoors is actively managing a family-friendly motorized, non-motorized and hunting recreation facility.
Previously, the 20,000 acres of riding lands were operated by Famous Reading Anthracite. In order to achieve a more enjoyable experience for permit holders, Famous Reading Outdoors was created as a separate entity from Famous Reading Anthracite.


It's only about 90 miles from me but I have yet to make it there, it's on the list though; will get there soon & start a separate thread with some photos.
My neighbor has a FRO membership. I haven’t been yet either. But he does quads. I’ll try to see if I can swap weekends so I can make the 13th as well.
 
Yep coming from CT. I'm down for either, its been a few years since I've hit up any of them.

cool, the date is penciled in, only thing that'll stop me is weather. Seems we may be circling the end of days, it's no longer "will it rain today" so much as it's how many times will it rain today. It's unreal, last night they were calling for possible showers I think, yet I was awoken several times in the middle of the night to downpours, the kind that can rack up several inches in an hour, it's just unbelievable how much we've gotten in the past 2 years. I'm a stubborn prick too, once I take my doors & windows out in the spring I refuse to put them back in until fall so I rely on sunny days for wheeling, or at least what passes for a sunny day...