2007 Baltimore 4 Wheelers OHV Extravaganza
May 25-28, 2007
Rausch Creek, PA
Write-up by Ken, Scott, and Craig:
Participants:
Ken Carter
Dave Henson
Brad Henson
John Herr
Doug Johnson
Scott Roberts
Craig Scibetta
Craig’s Dad
We left at 8am Thursday morning and made it to the campground at 4:30pm. It would have been faster but Ken’s dodge did not want to start once he shut it down at a gas stop- thank goodness it is a stick. We just rolled it and popped the clutch. (We found out later the ground on battery was bad).
That night we went to check-in for the event. The funny thing is that Craig and Dave got Blue stickers- Here is what that means. Green is dirt trails, blue is dirt trails with a few rocks, black is all rock trails, red is extreme trails with probability of trail damage. Of course they both wanted black stickers but they got blue. The reason they got blue was they were on 33’s and not 35’s. Scott got a black sticker and I got a red sticker.
We decided to go pick our trails and the 1st day we got put on a blue/black trail since we all wanted to stay together.
Friday- Day 1: Black Trail #8, Blue/Black Trail #4 (also ran the optional Black obstacle called Yellow Jacket Ridge), Multi level (Blue/Black/Red) CV Trail where we ran the Black lines all the way and did an optional Red Hill Climb, un-numbered Blue Trail leading to a Red obstacle called Stair Step
Needless to say we all walked the blue stuff with ease. We even walked pretty much all the black stuff also. Then came the trails that had red lines. Well this is where the CNC boys showed we were here to WHEEL and Wheel hard. Needless to say all 4 of us took all the red lines we came across and all 4 of us made the lines. The trail guides were a little surprised when we all did them 🙂 Of course Ken had to go 1st, but once he went the line everyone else was easily talked into attempting the obstacle. (Thanks to John H. and his sh*t talking) The trails were fun, difficult and yes some of us did get trail damage. 🙂
Saturday- Day 2: Black Trail called Snakebite, Black Trail called Camel Back (very unique trail consisting of 6-7 very large rocky mounds), Black Trail called Tombstone (rock garden play area where you could spend a few hours), Black trail called Boot Hill with optional “Balls Out” loop
On Saturday night there was a raffle- John won a CB antennae and flagpole, Craig’s dad won a charcoal Jeep grill, and the big winner of the night was Doug. He won a Warn 9.5Ti winch with synthetic rope and aluminum fairlead!!
Sunday- Day 3: Black Trail #5 with optional Red and Black Hill climbs (nobody made the red this day), Multi Level CV Trail where we ran Black again same as Day 1, Green trail L3 leading to Red Obstacle Jotters Way. Funny thing about this last obstacle was our very competent trail guide couldn’t make the line and opted for the bypass, then Ken went next and made the climb, so Scott had to attempt it and also made it so I caved to the peer pressure and gave it a shot and also made it!! After seeing us all do it our trail guide circled back around and had to give it another go following our line and made it up.
Rausch Creek was dirty! It is an old coal mine so instead of brown dust like Uwharrie it was black dust. A lot of the rocks were from blown-up mines so they were very coarse- tires stuck to them like glue. This place had a good mix of trails from mild to wild.
Traveling and camping in style in Doug’s RV was a nice change- thanks Mr. Johnson, as there is nothing like chilling in an AC cooled RV, watching old WWII movies as you fall asleep after a hard day of wheeling.
The Baltimore 4 Wheelers were a great bunch of guys. They had plenty of members to help out on the event and everyone was very knowledgeable. One of our guides went so far as asking what gears we had in the diffs and t-case before recommending what gear to start in and how much gas to give it before attempting an obstacle. On the last day we wanted to try some trails that were not on the regular sign-up. So two B4W members volunteered to take us out. It was great only having 6 rigs in a group. We covered a lot of ground. The two previous days we had around 12 vehicles, which wasn’t bad either.
It was a great weekend of wheeling, camping, eating, and just enjoying being outdoors while leaving everyday life in the dust.
Rausch Creek is definitely a location that CNC needs to visit again.
BTW: Craig had no idea that somebody had attached the Truck Nutz to his Jeep until he was speeding down the highway.
PS. John H was laying it down thick this weekend as usual so IF he every gets his Toy out on the trail there’s some payback fun to be had 😉
PSS. One last thank you to the guys who were on the trip for making it as enjoyable as it was and for putting up with not one but two Scibetta’s for the whole weekend, I’m sure my dad has a few good stories to tell his golfing buddies back home.