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Holopaw Trip (Day One)
By Roger
Plan was to meet at Suburban Estates Saturday
morning for a day of wheelin’ and camp out that night. CFDT members included, Smut Puppy and Red (Cherokee and motor home),
Fatboy (Ford diesel), Mr. Winter and wife Joan (S-10 Blazer), and myself (Bronco).
The day started out beautiful, very few clouds and bright sunshine. Camp was set up in no
time, the lawn chairs were brought out and we were having a good time talking
and grilling. It was then mentioned that maybe we better go on a ride and get
it “out of the way”. Loaded up and headed out to see what we could
find.
Fatboy
took us down a sandy road with a bunch of woop-de-doos, boy does he ever catch
some air under the rear tires of that diesel. A ¾ ton with NO shocks (notice
I didn’t say worn out shocks) sure makes for an interesting ride on a bumpy trail.
We came to a place called King of the Hill. It’s a large mud field
with a sandy hill over on the far side. Fatboy and Smut parked and Mr. Winter
and I headed out to play. A few feet out in the field and I realized that I didn’t
lock the hubs, “oh well, no big deal the BFG’s will get me through”.
Not!! Here’s a neat formula I developed this weekend to calculate
the depth of mud that you are stuck in:
Depth = your boot height + one inch
This will work every time
(at least for me). Needless to say as soon as my feet hit the ground I was over
my boot top. Got the hubs locked and continued to play. Eventually made it to the hill. Mr. Winter was also having a good time.
He made pretty quick work of the field and joined me on the hill. On the
way back he decided to take the “easy” way. I was back with the rest
of the group for awhile when the call for assistance came over the CB. We told
Mr. Winter that we weren’t going to pull him out until the rubber ducky was half way up the antenna (it’s a long
story and you’ll have to ask him). After a few minutes of rocking the Blazer
was again on it’s way, YEA! About
this time we were joined by a fellow named WW driving a Ranger. We discussed
some other areas to explore while watching the Blazer make about 3 feet of progress at a time.
Wayne
finally got back to us on his own power with a huge grin on his face.
WW took us to a place called catfish hole. I love the names that people come up with for these places. Catfish hole consisted of a huge mud field with about a 20x20 foot pond on the far side. The Cherokee was suffering from lack of four wheel drive at this point and required a small tug to get
to the “hole”. Once again Mr. Winter and I took off the have some
fun. Fatboy couldn’t resist any longer and fired up the diesel (which by
the way has no front drive shaft). He promptly buried the rear end up to the
pumpkin in some fairly hard mud (this will become more important later). A quick
tug from the Bronco and he was on his way. We had a good time playing around
throwing mud in the air and the strap only had to come out once for the Blazer.
We decided that we’d had enough fun for
awhile and headed back to camp. Mr. Winter took off around a small clump of trees
and fell right into the ruts made by Fatboy in the Ford (I told you this would come into play). 31 inch All Terrain’s are no match for ruts made by 38 inch RVT’s. Out came the strap and once again the Blazer was on it’s way.
Don’t worry Wayne I won’t mention when
you got stuck on the road going out. Your secret is safe with me buddy!
Got back to camp built a fire and sat around
telling lies while watching the weather come in. Looked like we were going to
get hit hard. Wind almost blew my tent away,
snapping a pole in the process. Repairs were made and the wind promptly
died down. Sky was black and you could see it pouring in the distance. We got a total of about 15 drops at camp.
About 10 o’clock we heard WW yelling on
the radio for anybody who wanted to go on a ride. We meet him over at his camp
where they were trying to get a buddies Ford F-250 started. A quick jump start
and we were once again underway. Also had a Suzuki ATV along with us. WW was leading, Cherokee,
Fatboy and I in the Bronco, the F-250 behind me. Cruised a few miles and I noticed the big Ford was no longer behind me,
went back to investigate and found him stuck in some good sized ruts. The
little ATV gave it it’s best shot, but couldn’t budge the Ford. I also got buried trying to get to him. WW
came along in the Ranger and pulled out the F-250, than gave me a yank. And guys, the tree really wasn’t all that close.
It may have seemed that way from your angle but I’d say we had a good ¾ of an inch to spare, right Jim?
After that we started to loose faith in weather
WW could get us home or not (he’s probably still looking for his friends camp) so we got directions from the ATV driver
and headed home.
I left Sun morning, but Ted and 2 other people
showed up. I’ll have to let someone else tell you about that day.
TRIP REPORT
by Roger
This was kind of a spur
of the moment run. Wanted to meet the Ocala bunch to discuss
the FL Club Round Up and went for a ride with them.
CFDT Members included:
Smut Puppy and Red, Fatboy, Electric Corn Cob, and Ram Jet. The Ocala
bunch had about 6 rigs.
Started off on a confusing
note as nobody knew where they wanted to go. Finally a Wrangler took the lead and off we went to places undecided. Ended up
going through burned out bridge and back towards the pole line. Took a detour off of the pole line and came to the first obstacle.
Big nasty looking mud hole. A highly modified Scrambler gave it a try, valiant effort but came to an abrupt halt in the mud.
I went around the chicken route to hook up the strap. A quick tug and he was free. I smelled anti-freeze and heard the sound
of boiling water, sure enough the Bronco was overheating. Guess I need to do some trouble shooting on that one. A few other
rigs gave the hole a mighty try and promptly got buried. One YJ came flying at the hole with motor screamin’ and tires
spinin’, he flew through there like it was paved. He must have just missed the ruts as he didn’t even get the
tires dirty! A few more trucks got stuck and pulled free. Then it was a CJ’s turn. He gave it a bunch of gas and almost
made it before coming to a halt with the motor sputtering. He let it idle for a second to dry things out, backed up a few
feet and trounced the gas again. He was just able to crawl out on the other side, much to the amazement of the crowd. He was
covered in mud, but boy you should have seen the smile on his face!! Found a couple more small holes, got lost a few times
and all in all had a great time.
Osteen Trip
By Roger
Not sure why we said this was the Osteen trip,
I don’t think that we were anywhere near Osteen. But anyway we met at the
Sanford WalMart at 10AM. CFDT members included, me, Bill H., Wayne M.,
Chuck P., Jim D. (riding with me, Bronco still not done). We had a few different
people with us this time. Here I must apologize as I didn’t write these names down. It’s much easier to remember
what someone was driving than remembering their name. Randy in a Wrangler (co-worker
of mine), Nick in a Suzuki Sidekick, a full size Bronco, nice CJ5 with a glass body, CJ7, and a 2WD Amigo.
Left at 10AM (WOW, on-time for once!!!), got
to the trail head about 11. Saw a big gate across the trail, Jim, are you SURE
you’ve been here before? False alarm, the gate was not across the trail
after all, but at the entrance to a cement plant. Made a hard left and we’re WHEELIN’. Nice sandy trail with a
few woop-de-doos. Turned off the main trail and came to the first obstacle. Long
water hole with some green pond scum on top. A bypass route consisted of some
deep muddy ruts. I made it about 10 feet out into the bypass and could go no
further. Was able to back out after some rocking.
The glass bodied CJ decided to try the green water, hugged the edge and the water was about 6 in deep, no big deal. Cruised through a few more mud holes, no problems except had to give the CJ a tug
through one. Almost forgot, Wayne
tried the chicken route around one hole and got stuck. Kind of an off camber
hill. Out came the strap and he was moving again.
Did some easy trail riding for awhile and came
across a sort of mud “race track”. Real sharp turn and down a steep
hill brought you to the “track”. The longer rigs stayed up on the
main trail. Myself, Wayne, Randy, and the CJ7 played in the mud for awhile. The
CJ7 got brave and tried to go through some pretty deep ruts. Promptly hung it
up and I fired up to give a tug. Backed up to the CJ and my motor started rappin’. Sounded like a main bearing. Motor had
oil and good pressure. Fired it up to get back on the main trail and things quieted
down, very strange. Didn’t make a sound for the rest of the day. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Did some more trail riding when the full sized
Bronco started acting up. Pulled the air cleaner and it was BLACK. I think I heard him say that it was original after 100,000 miles!!!
Banged some dirt out and he was back on his way. Headed back toward the
Dairy Queen for some lunch. The full size Bronco got buried where Wayne had gotten stuck. Mr. Warn made short
work of the situation. On the last hole the little Suzuki (which hadn’t
been stuck up to this point) picked the wrong line and ended up stuck in the middle of a large water hole. Quiz time, what’s the first rule of being stuck in water over the door jams? Answer, don’t open the doors. Oops, too late. Honey, “Why are my feet getting wet”? Randy was
elected as the swimmer to hook up the strap. Little tug and the Suzuki was free. Back at the DQ Big Gulp cups were pressed into action to bail out the water. A small fish was rescued from the floor board (no kidding). Nobody had a fishing stamp so we threw him back.
Everybody headed home at this point except for
myself, Bill, and Chuck. Did a little more trail riding and hit the road also.
Once again we all had a great time and some good
trails were found. Look to see ya on a ride soon.
Richloam Trip
By Roger
Well the day started out very early and very cold. Jim and I left my house at 7AM (he rode with me as the Bronco is
still awaiting paint). The heater was on full blast and the gloves were out. Had to run by the body shop and drop off a manifold,
then off to the meeting place (Clocks Restaurant). Got there about 8:20 where we meet up with Mike (first time I’ve
seen him with out Jenny), Bill H, Mike P. (with son), Bruce (with his kids), Bill W, Rob, and Ray (never would have believed
that you could fit 6 people in a CJ !!).
Had a great breakfast and headed out to where we were to meet with the other clubs (what time was that SUPPOSED to
be again Jim?). Anyway we ended up waiting around for them for about an hour and a half. A little mix-up with the time and
they had a breakage problem to fix before getting underway. I think there were about 20 vehicles in the convoy. A pathfinder,
Bronco, and more Jeeps than I could count.
After some discussion and a few wrong turns a trail was found. Started out innocently enough, but then it came over
the radio that the guys with the stock Jeeps might want to disconnect their air intakes. Why is that they asked? Well it seems
we had a small puddle to go through. It was about 50 yd. long with a 90 degree turn in the middle and the water was about
33 inches deep. The bottom seemed good with a few ruts at the end. The guys in stock rigs were having second thoughts, but
all gave it a try. One rocket scientist forgot to lock the hubs (not us), tore some good ruts and was pulled out. Some guys
got wet distributors, but no one locked up a motor. Mailman was doing good until the headlights went under and the motor stalled.
A quick yank and he was free. A little WD 40 on the dist. and the Wrangler fired right up. Ray pulled a guy in a bone stock
Grand Cheerokee (wish I had 25K to throw into a beater) through without difficulty.
Second hole was dry but had deep ruts. The stock tire rigs were getting hung up a little, but no big deal. One hole
was pretty wet (24") and had some pretty deep ruts. Once you got in a rut and lifted a tire it was all over unless you had
a locker. Bill H. came to an abrupt halt and seeing as Mike S. was riding shotgun he was elected to hook up the strap. You
would have been proud to see our illustrious club president crawl out onto the hood of a scrambler, hook up a strap, and not
get his feet wet (did I mention all this was done while holding a Pepsi and not spilling a drop !!!). Been doing this for
awhile Mike?
At this point the group got separated from each other (we’re over here does no good on the CB unless you can
see each other!!). We managed to get back together and the CFDT people headed out of the woods. What way did they say to go
again? Anyway we made it out ok and home with no problems.
All in all it was a great ride. Weather was perfect, got to meet a bunch of new wheelers’, and nobody broke anything.
If you haven’t been on a ride in awhile I highly encourage you to come on out and have some fun.
Legal disclaimer: I think most of the story is accurate, where I couldn’t remember exactly what happened I made
it up to the best of my ability. I swear however, the part about Mike on the hood is gospel.
Trip Report:
By Roger
At exactly 9:59 (a miracle
in itself) the Battle cry was heard throughout the parking lot of the Recipe House. HIT THE BEACHES! At that moment a precise
column of four-wheel drive vehicles left the parking lot for a day of exploring the vast backwoods of the Ocala National Forest. I'm sure that we were
an awesome sight for the common drivers of streetcars to behold as we drove down Hwy 441 in a tight, straight line of Jeeps
and other off road vehicles. Well, it was almost like that. OK, it wasn't anything like that...but it could have been. We
did have a great mix of new faces and old faces. No, I'm not going to expound on whom was which. After reorganizing, (see
details elsewhere in this issue) we proceeded north to find the perfect mud hole. Carl and Nancy joined us later after cruising
around the area of the mudhole looking for everyone else. Gee, we said turn left at the tree! After the usual stuck trucks
and broken parts, we continued on to search for refreshing cool waters. By the way, never drive over your tow strap after
being removed from a mudhole as it may damage your brake (spelled break) lines. Right Vince?
We spent the next few hours floating in the cool,
refreshing waters of the forest. And a few minutes dodging Bill Hagen's salad as it floated in the waters around us. After
swimming in our second lake, we journeyed on through the forest in search of new waters when we finally had the inevitable...a
Bronco moment! (See details elsewhere in this issue). After rebuilding the starting system on a brown CJ-8 (no finger pointing
or name-calling) we continued on to the final lake in our day of swimming and wheeling. Here we spent time floating in the
lake and washing mud off assorted vehicles.
For a hot and a little bit smoky day we had a great time and it wasn't as hot as we had feared. Nothing like driving
around wet to keep you cool. Make sure that you join us this month. We hope to repeat this day of swimming and four wheeling
in the Ocala Nationals
Forest. Don't forget your sunscreen. See you there!
Some food for thought.
Let's say that you're on a trail ride and you become ill and decide to head for home. You have two options.
1. Get on the radio and relay your intentions (naw, too easy).
2. Take a left at the next turn (when the rest of the group has taken a right) and bring everybody behind you along
for the ride.
For the new members: Don't
take anything that I write here personal. It's all in good fun.
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