My wife and the wife of a childhood friend of mine went on a Disney Cruise together this week, so as good husbands what did we do? Well we dropped them off at the airport and then headed to Windrock to do some wheeling. My childhood friend (Mark) has never really been rock crawling so it was going to be his first time riding shotgun in the rocks so I called out to some fellow wheelers to meet us there to show him a good time and they came through! This initial post is only going to contain some photos, once I go through the videos that were taken I may add some video later.
Mon Oct 9-
Me and Mark in my TJ
Scott in his Jeep on 42s.
Plan was to do an intermediate ride on the west side of the park which I've never been to before.
Met around 1pm, probably hit trails around 2pm and wheeled to about 8-8:30ish.
Route/Trails taken:
Trail 22, G5, G6, 26, G16, 44 (Trail 44 was a rocky ravine trail and we stayed in the ravine but got to a point where the trail ended so we had to back track and get back on the trail which shot up a rutted out muddy hill, the rock section was really fun, I am not a big fan of straight up rutted hills), headed over to do the 43 loop, 42, G6, 87, (at end of 87 we made a rt on G35 because we wanted to go down and hit 81a, however there was a big tree down and it was not passable so we turned around on G35). G35 to G5 to P1 back to parking lot.
Pic on Trail 44 ravine section:
Monday evening Jeff (NashvilleTJ) met us at the AirBnB. We all stayed up way too late enjoying craft brews, cheap whiskey, and good bourbon and got to bed around 2:30am.
Tues Oct 10-
Me and Mark in my TJ
Scott in his TJ on 42s
Jeff in his LJ on 40s
Plan was to make our way out to the Caryville Flats, hitting a few hard trails on the way but mostly intermediate trails.
Started around 10am
Route/Trails taken:
Trail 2, 16 (16 was dry and was super easy, even the hill climb at the end), G1 (crossed 116 and picked up G50), 50, 53 (at end of 53 we looked at the beginning of 54a which is Devil’s elbow and there was none of us willing to try it, it was straight up with consequence of going over a drop off if you flopped), 61, 63, 54, 71, 71B (very fun trail with fun rocky section at bottom, two very steep straight up rutted out climbs in midde, I had to winch one steep climb due to deep ruts causing my diffs to dig in, and a very fun rocky section at the top),
Pic on Trail 16:
Not sure which trail this was taken on:
Couple cool Pics taken of Scott's rig by Jeff on Trail 71:
At the top of 71B is the Caryville Flats.
At this point we debated heading straight back to Parking lot or doing a few more trails, Scott checked his fuel cell and he said he had ¼ tank left so I decided to make our way to Trail 7. I will note that my buddy Mark asked me if 1/4 tank was good enough and he also asked me if I had enough fuel and I told him not to worry about it because both Scott and Jeff have Rotopax on their rigs.
From Caryville flats we took 62, 61, G55 (G55 was pretty grown in with vegetation, would not do it again), 72, G52, G50 to Hwy 116 and took left on Hwy 116 to G31. Somewhere along the way I asked both Scott and Jeff if they had fuel in their rotopax and they both said NO. But me being me and wanting to get in that one last trail we continued on. It was also dark by this point and there is never good decisions made after dark.
G31 to 7 (we did 7 in clockwise direction which I believe is the correct way because opposite would be very, very difficult due to rutted out trail at the beginning).While on Trail 7 Scott ran out of Fuel, basically halfway through trail at the low point of the trail right before the climb back out. Scott jumped in with Jeff and we completed trail. I had to winch on the very first big climb due to the deep ruts and my diffs dragging. I banged it off the rev limiter on the next few hills to make it and apparently while I was out front dealing with the deep ruts with small tires Jeff almost rolled his jeep on a deep v-notch. It must have been very close because both Jeff and Scott were pretty excitable when telling the story at the top of hill!
We were now on a mission to get back to the parking lot to get gas for Scott and come back to get his jeep. We started down G31 to 73 and once we started on 73 my Jeep ran out of Gas! I will probably hear that Mark was right and I was wrong for the rest of my life on this decision of whether or not I had enough fuel. So Mark and I jumped into Jeff’s LJ (luckily he had back seat) and now all four of us in Jeff’s LJ were headed back to the parking to get two cans of gas. We finished 73, G8, 33, G1, P1 to parking lot. It was going to be a very long ride back to the jeeps from the parking lot via the trails and I reviewed map and figured that we could take road back to G31 to save some time. (Note: Google Maps shows the road (Hoskins valley rd) that goes directly from Windrock to Hwy 330 to be a dead end, but the windrock map shows it as a through road, it is a through road and that is the way we took otherwise we would have had to have gone into town to catch Hwy 330 and that would have added about 8 miles). With two 6 gallon gas cans and 4 of us in Jeff’s LJ we headed down Hoskins Valley Rd to Hwy 330 to Hwy 116 (it was about 12 miles of road) to G31 to my jeep on 73. Filled my Jeep and then we headed back to Trail 7 where Mark and Scott carried the gas can down to Scott’s jeep and climbed out. We then took G31 back to the roads and drove the roads back to Parking Lot, I think we finished up around 12:30am. Jeff said that was the longest day of wheeling he ever done (14.5 hours, 10am Oct 10-12:30am Oct 11) and that he was the only one that actually wheeled the entire time because we didn't run the trails back to the parking lot
Back at Airbnb while rehashing days stories we again stayed up too late enjoying craft beers, cheap whiskey, and bourbon.
Wed Oct 11-
Me and Mark in my TJ
Scott in his TJ on 42s
Jeff in his LJ on 40s
Plan was to hit some technical trails closer to the parking lot.
Started around 10am
Route/Trails taken:
P1, G2, G39 (original plan was to drop into 39 on the North East side and run the whole trail from North to South; however, we dropped into 39 on the south end by mistake, but I think it may have turned out for the best). We dropped into 39 (cadillac hill) and did the rocky hill down, then we started North on 39 but about half way through we came to a very steep downhill and there was no way that I was going to try it, it was not only steep but it had a hole at the bottom and I would have had to have been tethered from behind to not go over end (I have since learned that this hill is called Airplane Hill and I have watched some videos of rigs hitting it in the up direction). So we turned around and headed back to the south end of 39. We then climbed the rocky up hill exit of 39, it was a lot of fun, very technical rock section, but all doable with good line choices, at the end of 39 we turned around and dropped back down the rocky hill and made left on Trail 40 (Rail Trail). Rail trail was very fun, very rocky, very technical, probably my favorite trail of the weekend.
Pics from Rail Trail:
At the top of 40, we made a left onto G3 to 3. 3 is a short trail, but it is pretty technical and turned out to be pretty fun. All three of us did the bottom of 3, then after we climbed a “slab” up to a big step up me and Jeff turned right to take the alternate line. Scott did the step up and made it.
Pics at lower section of Trail 3:
From here, Scott wanted to go look at Rattle Rock so we took G39, G2, G1 to top of 15 and then took 38 to start of Rattle Rock (47). Rattle Rock is very big boulders which are spaced apart in a way that would make it extremely difficult to make your way through, we looked at it for about 15 minutes and then decided that it was a no go (I don’t think I would ever try it in my current Jeep, it would just be too difficult and take way too long) and decided to just finish 38 (Little School Bus). 38 was a lot of fun and had a few pretty technical rocky challenges.
At top of 38 it was approx 5:30pm and Jeff being more responsible then the rest of us decided to pack it up and head home. Scott, Mark, and I decided we would hit Trail 15 and then call it quits for the day. We headed back down P1 to bottom of Trail 15. Trail 15 was dry and was not that much of a challenge, we quickly got through the bottom section and the v-notch/rut section, then when we came to the rocky top we had to wait for a few SxS to get through it, but then we walked right up. Both Scott and I were amazed at how much easier the trail was when it wasn’t muddy clay, especially the v-notch/rut section. After Trail 15 we headed back to the AirBnB and ordered Big Ed’s pizza, then after enjoying the pizza, sat around the propane fire pit enjoying craft beers and cheap whiskey until the propane ran out and hit the sack around 12:30.
We were planning on hitting a few trails Thursday morning but we decided best to just pack up and head home.
I pick up the wife from the airport tomorrow, but I have to say this was the best cruise I have been on
Mon Oct 9-
Me and Mark in my TJ
Scott in his Jeep on 42s.
Plan was to do an intermediate ride on the west side of the park which I've never been to before.
Met around 1pm, probably hit trails around 2pm and wheeled to about 8-8:30ish.
Route/Trails taken:
Trail 22, G5, G6, 26, G16, 44 (Trail 44 was a rocky ravine trail and we stayed in the ravine but got to a point where the trail ended so we had to back track and get back on the trail which shot up a rutted out muddy hill, the rock section was really fun, I am not a big fan of straight up rutted hills), headed over to do the 43 loop, 42, G6, 87, (at end of 87 we made a rt on G35 because we wanted to go down and hit 81a, however there was a big tree down and it was not passable so we turned around on G35). G35 to G5 to P1 back to parking lot.
Pic on Trail 44 ravine section:
Monday evening Jeff (NashvilleTJ) met us at the AirBnB. We all stayed up way too late enjoying craft brews, cheap whiskey, and good bourbon and got to bed around 2:30am.
Tues Oct 10-
Me and Mark in my TJ
Scott in his TJ on 42s
Jeff in his LJ on 40s
Plan was to make our way out to the Caryville Flats, hitting a few hard trails on the way but mostly intermediate trails.
Started around 10am
Route/Trails taken:
Trail 2, 16 (16 was dry and was super easy, even the hill climb at the end), G1 (crossed 116 and picked up G50), 50, 53 (at end of 53 we looked at the beginning of 54a which is Devil’s elbow and there was none of us willing to try it, it was straight up with consequence of going over a drop off if you flopped), 61, 63, 54, 71, 71B (very fun trail with fun rocky section at bottom, two very steep straight up rutted out climbs in midde, I had to winch one steep climb due to deep ruts causing my diffs to dig in, and a very fun rocky section at the top),
Pic on Trail 16:
Not sure which trail this was taken on:
Couple cool Pics taken of Scott's rig by Jeff on Trail 71:
At the top of 71B is the Caryville Flats.
At this point we debated heading straight back to Parking lot or doing a few more trails, Scott checked his fuel cell and he said he had ¼ tank left so I decided to make our way to Trail 7. I will note that my buddy Mark asked me if 1/4 tank was good enough and he also asked me if I had enough fuel and I told him not to worry about it because both Scott and Jeff have Rotopax on their rigs.
From Caryville flats we took 62, 61, G55 (G55 was pretty grown in with vegetation, would not do it again), 72, G52, G50 to Hwy 116 and took left on Hwy 116 to G31. Somewhere along the way I asked both Scott and Jeff if they had fuel in their rotopax and they both said NO. But me being me and wanting to get in that one last trail we continued on. It was also dark by this point and there is never good decisions made after dark.
G31 to 7 (we did 7 in clockwise direction which I believe is the correct way because opposite would be very, very difficult due to rutted out trail at the beginning).While on Trail 7 Scott ran out of Fuel, basically halfway through trail at the low point of the trail right before the climb back out. Scott jumped in with Jeff and we completed trail. I had to winch on the very first big climb due to the deep ruts and my diffs dragging. I banged it off the rev limiter on the next few hills to make it and apparently while I was out front dealing with the deep ruts with small tires Jeff almost rolled his jeep on a deep v-notch. It must have been very close because both Jeff and Scott were pretty excitable when telling the story at the top of hill!
We were now on a mission to get back to the parking lot to get gas for Scott and come back to get his jeep. We started down G31 to 73 and once we started on 73 my Jeep ran out of Gas! I will probably hear that Mark was right and I was wrong for the rest of my life on this decision of whether or not I had enough fuel. So Mark and I jumped into Jeff’s LJ (luckily he had back seat) and now all four of us in Jeff’s LJ were headed back to the parking to get two cans of gas. We finished 73, G8, 33, G1, P1 to parking lot. It was going to be a very long ride back to the jeeps from the parking lot via the trails and I reviewed map and figured that we could take road back to G31 to save some time. (Note: Google Maps shows the road (Hoskins valley rd) that goes directly from Windrock to Hwy 330 to be a dead end, but the windrock map shows it as a through road, it is a through road and that is the way we took otherwise we would have had to have gone into town to catch Hwy 330 and that would have added about 8 miles). With two 6 gallon gas cans and 4 of us in Jeff’s LJ we headed down Hoskins Valley Rd to Hwy 330 to Hwy 116 (it was about 12 miles of road) to G31 to my jeep on 73. Filled my Jeep and then we headed back to Trail 7 where Mark and Scott carried the gas can down to Scott’s jeep and climbed out. We then took G31 back to the roads and drove the roads back to Parking Lot, I think we finished up around 12:30am. Jeff said that was the longest day of wheeling he ever done (14.5 hours, 10am Oct 10-12:30am Oct 11) and that he was the only one that actually wheeled the entire time because we didn't run the trails back to the parking lot
Back at Airbnb while rehashing days stories we again stayed up too late enjoying craft beers, cheap whiskey, and bourbon.
Wed Oct 11-
Me and Mark in my TJ
Scott in his TJ on 42s
Jeff in his LJ on 40s
Plan was to hit some technical trails closer to the parking lot.
Started around 10am
Route/Trails taken:
P1, G2, G39 (original plan was to drop into 39 on the North East side and run the whole trail from North to South; however, we dropped into 39 on the south end by mistake, but I think it may have turned out for the best). We dropped into 39 (cadillac hill) and did the rocky hill down, then we started North on 39 but about half way through we came to a very steep downhill and there was no way that I was going to try it, it was not only steep but it had a hole at the bottom and I would have had to have been tethered from behind to not go over end (I have since learned that this hill is called Airplane Hill and I have watched some videos of rigs hitting it in the up direction). So we turned around and headed back to the south end of 39. We then climbed the rocky up hill exit of 39, it was a lot of fun, very technical rock section, but all doable with good line choices, at the end of 39 we turned around and dropped back down the rocky hill and made left on Trail 40 (Rail Trail). Rail trail was very fun, very rocky, very technical, probably my favorite trail of the weekend.
Pics from Rail Trail:
At the top of 40, we made a left onto G3 to 3. 3 is a short trail, but it is pretty technical and turned out to be pretty fun. All three of us did the bottom of 3, then after we climbed a “slab” up to a big step up me and Jeff turned right to take the alternate line. Scott did the step up and made it.
Pics at lower section of Trail 3:
From here, Scott wanted to go look at Rattle Rock so we took G39, G2, G1 to top of 15 and then took 38 to start of Rattle Rock (47). Rattle Rock is very big boulders which are spaced apart in a way that would make it extremely difficult to make your way through, we looked at it for about 15 minutes and then decided that it was a no go (I don’t think I would ever try it in my current Jeep, it would just be too difficult and take way too long) and decided to just finish 38 (Little School Bus). 38 was a lot of fun and had a few pretty technical rocky challenges.
At top of 38 it was approx 5:30pm and Jeff being more responsible then the rest of us decided to pack it up and head home. Scott, Mark, and I decided we would hit Trail 15 and then call it quits for the day. We headed back down P1 to bottom of Trail 15. Trail 15 was dry and was not that much of a challenge, we quickly got through the bottom section and the v-notch/rut section, then when we came to the rocky top we had to wait for a few SxS to get through it, but then we walked right up. Both Scott and I were amazed at how much easier the trail was when it wasn’t muddy clay, especially the v-notch/rut section. After Trail 15 we headed back to the AirBnB and ordered Big Ed’s pizza, then after enjoying the pizza, sat around the propane fire pit enjoying craft beers and cheap whiskey until the propane ran out and hit the sack around 12:30.
We were planning on hitting a few trails Thursday morning but we decided best to just pack up and head home.
I pick up the wife from the airport tomorrow, but I have to say this was the best cruise I have been on
