A Jeepin Saturday

W-spouse went to Abilene to watch the Decatur Boys State weightlifting meet. I finally had a Saturday off with great weather. So what did I do? I got topless, loaded up Sophie, and her and I headed out to the Northwest OHV Park. I knew that the Lone Star Jeep Club was holding an event, and figured that there would be lots of Jeeps to look at and watch them rock climb. When I got there I immediately headed to the rougher trails to see if anyone was there.

This is the first thing that I saw. I grabbed the Canon and and started taking pics. There were 5 Jeeps making it up this trail.

After the first 4 had made their way up the trail, this guy starts up it, the hard way. the next few pictures shows him trying to maneuver the big rocks.

At this point, he started having trouble. There are three kids with him all about 12-15 years old and all buckled in with 5 point harnesses. He decides to unload the kids and get rough with it. The next pictures show the outcome.

He stood the Jeep up nearly straight up and down, and made a great save slamming it into reverse just in time to bring the front end back down. He then moved over to the easier trail and made his way up the rocks with the rest of the group.

Then along comes this Jeep. Not to be outdone by the guy in front of him, he decides to try a harder trail. the first few attempts are shown here. The outcome is shown in the last few pictures.

He completely destroyed the front short side axle, CV joint and yoke. After a trip to town for parts, repairs were made right there on the trail. I checked back later on them and it was nearly ready to hit the trail again. This next picture shows a guy and his wife in a Jeep that were very inexperienced and tried to go through water that was to deep. Not only was it to deep, but they attempted to go through it fast. Needless to say we had to rescue them.

That picture was taken after they had been winched nearly 100'. Just prior to this, water was up to the bottom of the wheel on the spare tire. I pulled them up to the front and they had some help on the way. They pulled the spark plugs out, and turned the engine over and blew all the water out. They went riding with some other folks and let it dry out for a while. When we returned later, it started right up and off they went!
I rode around some more and hit a few 3 Diamond trails and came across this buggy.

He had just spent the last 4 months building it. The buggy was on its maiden voyage. They stopped me and asked if I could take some pictures and   send them some. I agreed and we made our way over to the hard trails, and I took some good pictures of the buggy and the suspension travel.

While wheelin today I sustained a little damage to the right front (brand new) fender flare. This tree jumped out in front of me, and I couldn't avoid it. I've never had that happen before. I think it can be repaired with a few screws. If not, I may have to go with metal flares instead of the hard plastic. Sophie and I were wore out by this time and we headed home.
Of course when W-spouse got home, the damaged fender flare was the first thing she noticed.
All the pictures can be looked at here.
It was a good day!