I don't have many pics, I am really bad at getting pics, but I wanted to throw out my take on the jeep jamboree.
Jeep Jamboree Ouachita was held at Hot Springs Off Road Park in Hot Springs AR. It is a park that I am pretty familiar with and that I go to a few times a year. A few months ago the park contacted me asking if I would be a trail guide and that the Jeep Jamboree would cover the cost of my admission and my camping at the park and I said that I would. I was not familiar with the Jeep Jamboree organization or how they ran their events, but I was very happy to have attended and to have guided. The people who attend these events seem to have nice jeeps, but need help finding their way around, picking lines, need good spotters, need help if things break or if they need to winch, etc... Not my normal crowd, but great people and I was very happy to be able to help them on their adventure.
Ouachita Jeep Jamboree - as usual I didn't get any pics of the event but it was a good trip.
Headed over to Hot Springs on Thursday with the Jeep and Mt Bike on trailer.
Did a few hours of Mt Biking at Northwoods trails in Hot Springs which are some of my favorite, it was almost 80 deg and clear and sunny. Headed over to park to check in and then set up camp. I knew it was going to rain on Friday, so I put my tent on the trailer and then threw a 12x12 EZ up over the tent. I not only tied the tent and fly to the trailer but I also ratchet strapped the ez up to the trailer. This worked really good through the rains that came in on Friday.
Friday - I got put as lead on the Medium-Hard Group and our plan was to do the 3 BOH trails on Friday in the rain and then hit the harder stuff on Saturday when it was supposed to be nice. The first BOH trail that we hit was Rubicon Ridge and I wanted to get through it as fast as possible before the big rain moved in because the trail is more clay, less rock, with some steep hills and it can get slick. About half way through the trail the sky opened and the rain came down just as we were hitting a steep rutted out hill. I got stuck and lost a bead on the hill and had to get it reseated in the rain and got soaked through, after getting everyone else up and rolling again I noticed that my Transfer was making a clunking noise and it felt like there was a skip (which I don't think there was, I think it was just the clunk that I felt through the floor and tunnel). When I through it in 2wd the clunking went away, back in 4 hi, no clunking, 4 lo and it started clunking again? I thought the worse on my transfer and since I was soaked through, cold, and my jeep was acting up, I decided to go back to camp and change and then jump in shotgun with the now lead vehicle and just be dedicated spotter rest of the day. Good decision since I had to do a lot of spotting in the rain. There was severe weather with a chance of hail and tornadoes at 4:30pm so we got the entire crew back around 3:45ish. The storms blew through with no incident (unfortunately not so well further East in Mississippi where the tornadoes hit) and at about 5:30pm the skies cleared and the sun came out.
Saturday - I woke up at 5am and since it wasn't raining I decided to go ahead and look at my jeep to see if I could figure out where the clunking was coming from. I threw a tarp and a moving blanket down under the jeep and climbed under. I could see where the transfer was contacting the tub, but couldn't figure out why until I eventually pushed on the transfer and it easily rotated with just hand pressure. All 6 bolts that attach the transfer to the tranny were loose. I was able to get 3 out of the 6 bolts tightened laying on the ground without dropping the skid and couldn't get the transfer to rotate with a pry bar so I decided to give it a try. At 8am I went out by myself and hit a few medium trails and the clunking was gone!! I decided to go ahead and lead with my own jeep! With clear skies, it was time to show the med-hard group some good trails.
Really good day on the trails. I think there was 10 jeeps (plus three trail guides; lead, mid, and tail) and we ran the following trails:
Bilstein's Ravine (level 3)
Power Wagon (level 3)
Sesame Street (short level 4)
Paco's Taco (down) (level 4)
Patriot Pass (level 2)
Tex Winder (level 2)
Bubba's stump (level 3) (very tight trail and we had a big gladiator and a 4 dr JK but we got them through with no incident)
Top of Headbanger (level 4)
Shaffner's Hollow (level 5) this is a great level 5 trail and we got everyone through with only having to winch the gladiator once. There is one big step and we had them all take the bypass around the step but I showed them it could be done
Bumping it on Shaffner's step
We headed back to camp for lunch and I rechecked my transfer bolts. The 3 were again loose and I retightened them.
After lunch we hit:
Can Opener (Level 4) and had everyone make it through with only the gladiator taking the bypass.
Slammer (Level 5) Slammer proved to much and we only got a few Jeeps through the first obstacle, the remainder of the jeeps had to take the bypass and we had to winch a few of them up the bypass. Since it was getting late in the day the decision was made to skip the 2nd obstacle and to jump over onto another trail to head back for dinner.
Once we got the whole group back together, I realized that I had left my tree saver and soft shackle somewhere on the trail. I knew it could be in 1 of 2 places so I broke away from the group and "ultra4'd it" through it back down Shafner's Hollow and found my tree saver, I then turned around and booked it back up Shaffner's, down a few access trails and caught the group before they got back to camp. I was very happy with how my jeep handled with the new antirock in the rear while running these trails with some speed, I hadn't really noticed if the rear sway bar was helping that much until that point, and it was nice!!
My overall take on the Jeep Jamboree was a good one. They took care of the trail guides and the trail guides took care of the people on the trail. I don't know if I would actually participate as a participant but I would definitely be a trail guide again. If you are someone who doesn't have a good sense of direction and likes to just follow a lead and/or needs help with spotting, winching, trail repairs, then a Jeep Jamboree would be perfect for you.
Sunday - On the way home, I stopped at Pinnacle Mountain in Little Rock and rode some more great mountain bike trails. Jeeping bookended with mt biking is a great weekend!!
Jeep Jamboree Ouachita was held at Hot Springs Off Road Park in Hot Springs AR. It is a park that I am pretty familiar with and that I go to a few times a year. A few months ago the park contacted me asking if I would be a trail guide and that the Jeep Jamboree would cover the cost of my admission and my camping at the park and I said that I would. I was not familiar with the Jeep Jamboree organization or how they ran their events, but I was very happy to have attended and to have guided. The people who attend these events seem to have nice jeeps, but need help finding their way around, picking lines, need good spotters, need help if things break or if they need to winch, etc... Not my normal crowd, but great people and I was very happy to be able to help them on their adventure.
Ouachita Jeep Jamboree - as usual I didn't get any pics of the event but it was a good trip.
Headed over to Hot Springs on Thursday with the Jeep and Mt Bike on trailer.
Did a few hours of Mt Biking at Northwoods trails in Hot Springs which are some of my favorite, it was almost 80 deg and clear and sunny. Headed over to park to check in and then set up camp. I knew it was going to rain on Friday, so I put my tent on the trailer and then threw a 12x12 EZ up over the tent. I not only tied the tent and fly to the trailer but I also ratchet strapped the ez up to the trailer. This worked really good through the rains that came in on Friday.
Friday - I got put as lead on the Medium-Hard Group and our plan was to do the 3 BOH trails on Friday in the rain and then hit the harder stuff on Saturday when it was supposed to be nice. The first BOH trail that we hit was Rubicon Ridge and I wanted to get through it as fast as possible before the big rain moved in because the trail is more clay, less rock, with some steep hills and it can get slick. About half way through the trail the sky opened and the rain came down just as we were hitting a steep rutted out hill. I got stuck and lost a bead on the hill and had to get it reseated in the rain and got soaked through, after getting everyone else up and rolling again I noticed that my Transfer was making a clunking noise and it felt like there was a skip (which I don't think there was, I think it was just the clunk that I felt through the floor and tunnel). When I through it in 2wd the clunking went away, back in 4 hi, no clunking, 4 lo and it started clunking again? I thought the worse on my transfer and since I was soaked through, cold, and my jeep was acting up, I decided to go back to camp and change and then jump in shotgun with the now lead vehicle and just be dedicated spotter rest of the day. Good decision since I had to do a lot of spotting in the rain. There was severe weather with a chance of hail and tornadoes at 4:30pm so we got the entire crew back around 3:45ish. The storms blew through with no incident (unfortunately not so well further East in Mississippi where the tornadoes hit) and at about 5:30pm the skies cleared and the sun came out.
Saturday - I woke up at 5am and since it wasn't raining I decided to go ahead and look at my jeep to see if I could figure out where the clunking was coming from. I threw a tarp and a moving blanket down under the jeep and climbed under. I could see where the transfer was contacting the tub, but couldn't figure out why until I eventually pushed on the transfer and it easily rotated with just hand pressure. All 6 bolts that attach the transfer to the tranny were loose. I was able to get 3 out of the 6 bolts tightened laying on the ground without dropping the skid and couldn't get the transfer to rotate with a pry bar so I decided to give it a try. At 8am I went out by myself and hit a few medium trails and the clunking was gone!! I decided to go ahead and lead with my own jeep! With clear skies, it was time to show the med-hard group some good trails.
Really good day on the trails. I think there was 10 jeeps (plus three trail guides; lead, mid, and tail) and we ran the following trails:
Bilstein's Ravine (level 3)
Power Wagon (level 3)
Sesame Street (short level 4)
Paco's Taco (down) (level 4)
Patriot Pass (level 2)
Tex Winder (level 2)
Bubba's stump (level 3) (very tight trail and we had a big gladiator and a 4 dr JK but we got them through with no incident)
Top of Headbanger (level 4)
Shaffner's Hollow (level 5) this is a great level 5 trail and we got everyone through with only having to winch the gladiator once. There is one big step and we had them all take the bypass around the step but I showed them it could be done
Bumping it on Shaffner's step
We headed back to camp for lunch and I rechecked my transfer bolts. The 3 were again loose and I retightened them.
After lunch we hit:
Can Opener (Level 4) and had everyone make it through with only the gladiator taking the bypass.
Slammer (Level 5) Slammer proved to much and we only got a few Jeeps through the first obstacle, the remainder of the jeeps had to take the bypass and we had to winch a few of them up the bypass. Since it was getting late in the day the decision was made to skip the 2nd obstacle and to jump over onto another trail to head back for dinner.
Once we got the whole group back together, I realized that I had left my tree saver and soft shackle somewhere on the trail. I knew it could be in 1 of 2 places so I broke away from the group and "ultra4'd it" through it back down Shafner's Hollow and found my tree saver, I then turned around and booked it back up Shaffner's, down a few access trails and caught the group before they got back to camp. I was very happy with how my jeep handled with the new antirock in the rear while running these trails with some speed, I hadn't really noticed if the rear sway bar was helping that much until that point, and it was nice!!
My overall take on the Jeep Jamboree was a good one. They took care of the trail guides and the trail guides took care of the people on the trail. I don't know if I would actually participate as a participant but I would definitely be a trail guide again. If you are someone who doesn't have a good sense of direction and likes to just follow a lead and/or needs help with spotting, winching, trail repairs, then a Jeep Jamboree would be perfect for you.
Sunday - On the way home, I stopped at Pinnacle Mountain in Little Rock and rode some more great mountain bike trails. Jeeping bookended with mt biking is a great weekend!!
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