Well Choccollocco turned out to be an interesting but great trip. The Avenza map that they have is probably one of the best maps I have ever used, however, some of the trail ratings may need to be updated because some of the trails are a little more difficult than what they are rated.
Here is the rating system from the map:
We were in a;
Jeep TJ on 35's, locked front and rear.
Samurai on 37's, locked front and rear
We normally do Level 4 and Level 5 trails at other parks. At Chocco, we only did two Level 4 trails, the rest were all Level 2 and 3 and it was a workout!!
I have some pics and vids from the go pro that I need to sort through, but here is the list of trails that we did. I am listing trails in basic order that we did them, but I am not listing all the connector trails. You use Tombstone (L3), Hangman (L2), Roll Tide (L3), Arsenal (L2), and Broadway (L1) and Forney (L1) throughout the day to make a lot of connections.
Fri, July 23:
Arsenal (L2)
Revenge Trail (L2)
Roll Tide (L3)
Hangman (L2)
Cherry Bomb (L3) - fun trail
Terminator (L3) - fun trail
Terminator escape - (L2)
Tombstone (L3)
Rubicon (L3) - fun trail
M-M (L2)
Tin Can (L2)
Spectator 2 (went down) (L3)
Broadway (L1) and (L3)
Tombstone (L4) - fun trail
Falcon (L3)
Clutch (L3)
Navigator (L3) - Samurai ran out of gas on this trail, so back to parking lot to get gas.
Chicken Trail (L3)
Torque (L2) - beginning was all rutted out and probably a L4
back to Navigator to fill up Samurai with fuel.
Finished Navigator (L3)
Rebel Ridge (L3)
Tombstone (L3)
Scenic View (L3)
Hangman (L2)
Iroc (L3) - This is where it went BAD!! This was a very bad decision on my part, details below.
After 3 hours of dealing with my bad decision, we continued on and did:
Arsenal (L3)
Bullet (L2)
Fizzle (L2)
Scenic View (L3)
Buzzard's Loop (L3)
Carnage Canyon (L3)
Gauntlet (L3)
Hell's Revenge (L4) - very fun trail
Sat, July 24:
We mountain biked at Coldwater mountain all morning and got in the Jeep around 3pm.
Cherry bomb (L3) and Terminator (L3) again - fun trails
Peewee bypass (L2) - this is not a L2 trail, the top was probably L4
Rubicon backwards (L3) - fun trail in both directions.
We heard some buggies playing, so we followed the sound to Playground where they just finished getting to the top, I honestly don't know how they did it, those steps are huge and either straight up and down or undercut.
We followed buggies to Hell's Revenge and did Hell's Revenge with them. One Truggie tried violator and rolled (basically bounced and landed 10 feet below on it's roof), then they flipped it back over and he tried it again!! Never made it, but it was something to see. Truggie was well built, cage was awesome, it had fluid containment, they were harnessed, and they put on helmets, so this wasn't there first go round. I may or may not have some video of him rolling, I had the go pro on my jeep running, but not sure if it captured it.
It was now dark, and the buggies were done for the day, so we just rode around some of the easier trails in the dark (carnage canyon, buzzard's loop, Tombstone, Rubicon) and then called it a night.
Bad Decision:
IRoc was rated as a L3, it however, is not a L3. Going up it is at least a L4, possibly a L5. Going down is just stupid and a Lesson Learned. When we told the guys back in the parking lot what had happened, they said "boy that is an up trail and it will put you on your lid".
Anyway, I started down Iroc, and I got to a moderate step down, did it, felt OK to keep going. Got to a big step down and debated whether or not to try to go down and made a poor decision and went down. The hill is very steep and stepping off a step onto a steep downill is not good. Landed on it's nose and then the Jeep pivoted to the side on it's nose, luckily the trail was deep and basically not wide enough for the jeep to fit in that direction so it got caught between the two banks of the trail which kept me from rolling sideways all the way to the bottom. Got out of that situation and decided to continue down. About halfway down the trail I ended up flipping onto the driver's side in a v-notch (I should have waited to the Samurai circled around so he could spot me through, but I did not). 3 Lessons Learned; don't rely on map, if trail looks sketchy back out, wait for spotter.
On a very steep hill in a V, it took us 2-3 hours to get the jeep flipped back on it's wheels and then running. When I pulled the plugs originally, they were dry, I turned the jeep over quickly twice and no oil pumped out of cylinders so I put plugs back in and tried to start. This is when it sucked all the oil out of the intake and into the cylinders. Lesson Learned - if oil on it's side, pull plugs and let turnover for longer time to get oil to suck in from intake?? Need to look that one up. Pulled the plugs again and turned over, a LOT of oil pumped out, I mean quarts of oil!! I did not completely remove the coil rail and it got covered in oil. When I reinstalled plugs and the coil rail, there was an arc between the coil rail and one of the plugs. Lesson Learned - remove coil rail completely, keep it facing down so oil doesn't go in boots, or cover!! Went back to parking lot, grabbed a few quarts of oil and a can of brake cleaner. Luckily I was able to get the coil rail cleaned up enough with the brake cleaner that it fired up and ran great!! Lesson Learned, throw can of brake cleaner and rags into the jeep trail bag.
All and all, it was a very bad decision that could have been worse (especially if I would have tumbled from the top); however, it turned out to be just a few minor dents on the driver's side. I couldn't get the door to reinstall afterward, but no big deal; no one was hurt, the jeep was still drivable, and we wheeled the rest of the day and hit some great trails. Just need to quit learning hard lessons.
