South Carolina get together?

Like we said, as long as the park opens we're there.
According to Skip should be frozen in the morning and as it thaws and melts should make for slick conditions.
 
So? Where are the pics?! I wish I could have joined. I got some work done on the runner though, hopefully I can join ya'll on the next trip.
 
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attempt at one rock garden

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heartbreaker trail the last little stretch
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another fun rock garden had to run though this one twice it was a blast.


Superman, and Darklight got a majority of the photo's hopefully they'll have them posted up soon. Had a great time out there with everyone and no trail damage until PD decided we should take on some easier trails, I was watching a rock on my driver side and then pushed my front right bumper into a tree :-/
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i need to bring the Nikon for the next one. . . I took 1000+ photos the last time I went to gulches.

We should do a monthly or every other month "scheduled" get together. so that everyone knows already when we are planning to go each time.. . . just a thought. like every odd # month we go on the 3rd weekend or something. . . so whoever makes it makes it.
 
I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked to. That's how it always goes. And it looks like most are of Aha2988, since he's so fun to watch wheel... skinny pedal FTW!!

Anyway, I'll share what I have:

56 - J-Gee's Hill

Brian

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Some beastly Bronco that I snapped a shot of

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MadToy

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7 - TNT Rock Garden

Aha2988

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"spotting"

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28 - Bad Mamma Jamma

So at the base of this one, apparently "The Creature from the Black Lagoon" reached out and yanked Austin into one of Gulches' famous bottomless pits

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Pulling some line at an attempted rescue... Which was a fail. He started pulling my truck toward the muck, so we winched him with MadToy's Taco from the front, snatch-blocked from a tree up the hill

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Finally running Bad Mamma Jamma. The description says "Single Black" when dry that goes to "Triple Black" when she's wet. Well, she was definitely wet. As was pretty much the base of every obstacle in the park from the significant rainfall that we've received recently. Made things very interesting

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Darklight and I coming down 17 - Palmetto Krawler, which normally rides "Blue" but goes to "Double Black" when wet, to Palmetto Crossing.

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18 - Palmetto Crossing

Austin lining her up

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A little "parking lot pimping" with my 2 favorite white 4th Gens

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Bobby decided to join the party as we air up with Austin's ARB Compressor. That thing is awesome!

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Overall it was a fun run. We braved the morning ice to come in and the weather turned out gorgeous. And everyone was able to drive home, be it with a little "trail memento" or not. I finally managed to drag a slider across a rock right around J-Gee's Hill. First time since I've had these things, yay!

So my thoughts: managing a large group (even though this was only 6 vehicles), can be a little daunting in a small park. I prefer smaller rides, maybe 3-4 rigs. Especially when the vehicles aren't matched in capability, meaning lockers, tires, and driver ability. It became apparent to me, that there were two different groups among us with distinctly different capabilities and wheeling styles. So after spectating the locker guys bang around on triple blacks, a few vehicle recoveries, a lot of skinny pedal and a little landscaping, I realized that half of us were beginning to get complacent.

I made the suggestion that we split up so that the new guys could see the rest of the park (which, despite what some believed, they hadn't yet). I linked up with Hal, which is one of Skips park guides. He showed up in his SAS'd/Bobbed Taco. I met him last time I was there and he was in his Zip Locked 3rd Gen. His street truck, if you will. He is also a former Marine, so me and that guy get along extremely well.

So at this point, the guys must have misunderstood me by saying "some of us don't want to beat our trucks up on triple blacks all day" with, "I want to go ride easy trails".... Um no, not the case at all. So what they're busting my balls over, is the amount of difficulties that came up after PD said "let's go on the "easy trails". Let me clarify, I prefer trails that I can crawl and not bang around on. One that I'll leave the same way the last driver left it for me. I like to rely on more driver skill and less spotting, less skinny pedal, and definitely nothing that's gonna grind my wheels up like Palmetto crossing did to folks. My goal, as always, is to drive in, and drive home with the trails and my truck in the same condition as I came in with.

So we didn't end up splitting up after all. We stated with a little 29 - Boom Shaka Laka! and 26 (I think) en route to 25 - Lone Rock, which was closed. And in doing this bit we had two hit the same tree and one high center. Then on to a little 30 - Follow Papa. And then came my new favorite trail in the park, 23 - Renegade Alley AKA Rebel Blvd., we closed that off with the "Skirts" ending which was our first "Butt Pucker" hill descent of the day. I've ridden the "Studs" side in a buggy before (Right after Papa Gulch), I think it's passable. We also sustained our 3rd bumper casualty along the way on the Rebel. We concluded the day with the Stormtrooper showing everyone how to "Git sum" on the first 2/3's of Heartbreaker... Man it's tight. Our NCFJ guys chose to sit that one out, our 3rd Gen and black 4th Gen got a few feet in and ended up backing out... But I knew my boy Austin wasn't about to let me do and not do it himself :).... Good times.
 
i accomplished a snapped CV inside my front diff attempting that climb up there. that was a bad idea only being locked in the back.
 
I tried it out but there was zero traction to be had the entire bottom pit of rock garden was a bowl of soup
 
If you snapped a CV "open", wouldn't it have been worse "locked"?

no
it would have been slow and controlled. the reason most people break front CV's are because they cant help having all that wheelspin.

which is why i said momentum is dangerous. so is wheelspin. spin spin spin in air, then POP the second it hit something that wont move (a rock).
 
no
it would have been slow and controlled. the reason most people break front CV's are because they cant help having all that wheelspin.

which is why i said momentum is dangerous. so is wheelspin. spin spin spin in air, then POP the second it hit something that wont move (a rock).

Yeah, I got ya. I guess that's what I mean. Same approach "locked" = bad, but the locker affording you to crawl = good... We're tracking now
 
Overall it was a fun time and the trails out there are pretty gnarly. Made me wish I had an exo cage, SAS, front/rear armor bumpers and lockers but I think I faired pretty well with IFS and ATRAC. I enjoyed seeing everyone and had a lot of fun. A couple things I think could of been better there:
1) front/rear Armor bumpers for me,lol.
2) the mis-communication between us for the lunch break, still feel bad about that.
3) armor bumpers front/rear for me, lol. I kissed a tree out there with the front passenger side of my bumper. I guess it gives me some more character. Just a scratch really.

I was at the tail end of the group, I guess nice guys finish last,lol. I agree having a small group would of been better at this park. Maybe next time just groups of 3.

Most of the pictures were taken from Lisa my wife.

Here is a link to my pictures:

The Gulches-1-26-13 Photos by Darklight777 | Photobucket
 
Audiness William, This hill was allot steeper in person that's for sure.
He had a little spinning at the top but made it through.

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Darklight Bobby

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Austin Aha2988

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Nick MadToy

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a little flex
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Not sure the trail #'s or name.
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Austin, giving it hell, lol

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The rocks are really big out there.

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The 4X4Runner group,

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