A Day At PARAGON

WV(0)IIIIIII(0) · **Posted:** Mon Aug 08, 2005 8:56 am

I am going to keep this nice and short. The day started out meeting all my fellow KJers at the EXXON and installing the new (skid row) tranny skid with a lot of help from JeepinAl. We hit the trails and I tested the new skid row skid out on just about every rock in the park (at least that is how my bones feel today). Just a hint to all those with a stock KJ, when the trail guide says, "where going to try out something a little more interesting" he means kiss your undercarriage goodbye. I have tons of battle scars that I will post later due to dead batteries in the good ol work camera. Good hangin out with the new guy Chris and as always had fun with the regulars. Also big thanks for the pull off the rocks (Chris and Mike P) ya'll saved my butt.
Chris S.

Jeepin Al · **Posted:** Mon Aug 08, 2005 9:33 am

Hey,

Chris, as well as all the Liberties did an excellent job on Sunday. We had a great time, however, I felt a little rushed and didn't care driving 15- 20 mph down some of the major trails to get to the next trail head. I don't like beating my Liberty like that. My hat is off to Chris and his un-lifted Liberty. They went places must would not dare to try!

Me being brain dead at the end of the day did something I shouldn't have, twice! The first time I made it through about foot of mud and water, the second time I wasn't so lucky. I can't wait for the pictures of me stuck in about 2.5 feet of mud. Mud and water so high that when I openned my door the water came pouring in. I will repeat myself to all, do not drive through deep mud and water, it will eventually take out your starter, altenator and tension pully as well as your belts! Now do as I say, not as I do! Its going take me a mouth to clean all the mud out of my Jeep.

And Camp Jeep is only a couple of days away! I will be out tonight in the driveway starting on the cleaning process.

Again, it was a great time on the trail, and it was good to meet some new faces, and greet old friends.

Al

priell3 · **Posted:** Mon Aug 08, 2005 9:49 am

You mean this pic Al? :wink:

priell3 · **Posted:** Mon Aug 08, 2005 10:01 am

I had a great time also and gave everyone something to talk about. Thanks to Chris, I finally got to use a tow hook. :wink:

View more pics here: http://mysite.verizon.net/vze1oi9w/pap/pap.html

WV(0)IIIIIII(0) · **Posted:** Mon Aug 08, 2005 12:00 pm

Al, I agree with you on don't like to rush and really don't enjoy beating on my liberty like we did. but all in all it was a good day and we all drove home and in one peice.

ltwgs · **Posted:** Mon Aug 08, 2005 1:58 pm

priell3 wrote:

You mean this pic Al? :wink:

ROTFLMAO!!!

Al & Chris, I missed riding with y'all *sigh* but these 100K services are kicking my butt. I'm hoping to squeeze one more ride in, but either way, it's good to see everyone keeping up the fire!

Grant

WV(0)IIIIIII(0) · **Posted:** Mon Aug 08, 2005 2:08 pm

Grant it was not the same without seeing you out there with the gang. Hopefully we can do a Grants Last Ride event.

rakcmei · **Posted:** Mon Aug 08, 2005 3:25 pm

All - I had a great time yesterday. It had been awhile since I have been off-road. The Rubicon did well, although I was eating Liberty dust all day :lol:

As always, the company was great. Glad to see Cav on the trails.

Priell3 - probably a more damaging photo of Al would be the one showing what the tow strap was hooked up to... :lol:

I have a few photos of all the LOST folks yesterday. Let me know what your email addresses are and I will send them to you.

Rick

Talon 1 · **Posted:** Mon Aug 08, 2005 4:29 pm

It was a great day indeed. I agree with the above that the only part we didn`t like was rushing through the trails to get to the other side near the end of the day. But man, what a blast though!

I will tell everyone now: If you can ever afford a locker- GET IT! I crawled over every dang rock in the park and didn`t slip once. It made a world of difference. I love this sucka.

It was a day of many memories. From watching the face of a guy in a TJ, after taking 100 attempts to get up a small hill turn around and watch every Liberty behind him crawl up it, including Chris` stock Lib like it was nothing, to almost seeing Mike Priell almost (literally within a hairs width) tip onto his side, to doing Rock Swamp when we were on the Level 1 ride (well, they did say there were three Level 1 groups and we wanted the hardest), it was definately a ride to remember.

I`ll post a full report later along with the pics. It was great to ride with everyone again and also meet Chris (Cav) and his friend.

Mike

p.s. Oh yeah, Boy are we gonna ride this one to death Al... :twisted:

WV(0)IIIIIII(0) · **Posted:** Mon Aug 08, 2005 7:06 pm

How ya like the new skid plate Al!!!!!!!!!!! :lol:

Just a few shots of my new battle scars.

Dave O · **Joined:** Fri Jul 29, 2005 6:53 pm **Posts:** 4

Hey whats up guys. I was there on Sunday in the 2005 Black Renegade that just had its first oil change. I actually camped out the night before and was the only one who was camping there. My experience at Paragon was one of mixed feelings, although as i look back now i cant wait to go back. My group had like 18 cars in it and no one was prepared for what the guide brought us through. On a few occasions we were heading down some trails that one of the group members said that the level 2 guides brought them on. This caused a lot of slow downs and the guide kept getting ahead, not realizing that no one in the group had any experience. Also on the long boulder strewn trails the guide was flying forgetting he was on 33's with a 2 + inch lift, while most of us were back and forth along the trail dodging rocks. I got to use every inch of clearence i had, and a few inched that i didnt have.. oops.. I did learn a lot and came away with about as much damage as expected There was some carnage and not everyone made it off the mountain, which i will post later if anyone is interested. I also didnt get any photos because we were always in such a rush that the promised photo ops never happened. All in all it was a good time, but am i the only one that thinks 8 hours was to much? we didnt get back until after 5:30

Talon 1 · **Posted:** Mon Aug 08, 2005 7:29 pm

Our day started by getting up and ready, going downstairs of the FFI and grabbing an excellent breakfast, and packing up the KJ and heading over to meet the group at the Exxon. There we see Al and Chris under Chris` KJ (parked on the curb as a lift...) installing a skid. Chris (Cav), Mike (priell3), and Rick with his sweet Rubi were getting munchies and waiting.

So we had 5 KJ`s and a Rubi heading to Paragon. I was really looking forward to testing out the new Powertrax locker I just got installed. I couldn`t wait...Anyways, there was a long line but we got through it (and there was a long line when we went out) so it looked like we were gonna have a busy day. We aired down, went to the staging area, and shot the bull until we headed out.

Alot of the trails are a blur now but we did manage to get some pics. The group had a variety of Jeeps and there were a few Pick Ups (Dodge) and 2 H1`s. We had arrived later than the others in the group, so were in the back. The only real issues I saw was one of the TJ`s (had stock tires and no locker). I don`t know what issues were in the front of the group as we had 20 vehicles I believe.

There were plenty of memorable points as mentioned above. The stock TJ couldn`t get up the one hilltop until after many tries and then the look on his face when all the Liberties went up it like nothing (even Chris` stock Renny with the stock SR-A`s). Mike`s (priell3) almost tip over on Turtle (check the pic out). Man, if he would have stopped a hair later, he definately would have tipped over! (Don`t tell his wife!;))

We also got taken onto Rock Swamp which is a Blue trail. Now, most of us were lifted, so it was no big deal (I`ve done this one before as well), but there were a few stock vehicles including Chris (wv). I have to hand it to them, they did a superb job for having to crawl and skidsurf! Once again, Chris` stock KJ outshone that stock TJ...

Now, how can we forget about that "Al situation" at the playground? Just moments before, after crawling up the big hill in front of Al and then heading down another hill and passing by some mud, The CB starts yammering and it`s Al. "Hey talon, you don`t want to go in the mud?" OK, I`m like huh? Al has been there and done that and knows the effects of too much mud. Why is he chiding me?

Well, lo and behold a few minutes later, what does Al do? He goes into a part of the water and mud. I`m in shock...grab the camera! So, he promptly gets stuck in 2 1/2 feet of mud and water. We are laughing our a$$es of (sorry Al, you gotta admit it was funny). Everyone grabs the cameras and takes lots of pics. Who goes to pull him out? One of the H1`s...Ben was near him so he went on the other side and a tow strap was tossed. Al, Al, Al...tsk,tsk... :twisted:

If there were other things that happened that I forgot, please post them. We ended the day after that and headed to the car wash to get all that mud out. You should have seen the bay from Al... :lol:

Then we went to Turkey Hill and aired up and headed to Perkins to share in the revelries of the day. The stories were great and a good time was had by all. It was time to head back home and pine until the next adventure...

Mike

p.s. The Locker worked flawlessly. I crawled over everything I came across with nary a slip. I went up parts of side trails I couldn`t make it before without them. Well worth the cost. If you can get a Locker, by all means do so!

p.s.s. Pics!

Jeepin Al · **Posted:** Mon Aug 08, 2005 8:49 pm

See! How many times do I need to tell you all to stay out of the mud! Listen I am going to show you one more time, this is what happens when you go through mud!!!!

Now boys and girls... do as I say, not as I do!

Jim and I had a good time, and you didn't see me go through the first mud bog! I made it just to sink in glory in front of all of you, including the Hummers!

What's even worst, the as you can tell the apple (mud ball) doesn't fall far from the tree.

Al

PS, Chris, I guess you will be needing to take the plate off, and bang it straight with a lump hammer. Its a good thing we installed it before we started off to the trail. Oh the first battle scars, I remember my first scars, it hurt bad! What did the Mrs. say? Will you be able to come out and play with us again?

Steakgoddess · **Posted:** Mon Aug 08, 2005 8:59 pm

Great pictures!! (Even the 12 or so of the bug, LOL!!)
If only one of these rides were when I didn't have crap I had to do. I am having mud envy.

Talon 1 · **Posted:** Mon Aug 08, 2005 9:11 pm

Hey Chris, that front skid is a hell of a lot straighter than mine! As long as it`s on the skid plates, you don`t see it.

That Walking Stick was weird looking. Had to get some pics of it...

rakcmei · **Posted:** Tue Aug 09, 2005 10:40 am

Here are some pics.
PICS

Talon 1 · **Posted:** Tue Aug 09, 2005 4:18 pm

Nice pics Rick! Good to see we have another pic of Mike`s near tip over.

Oh, and can`t forget that Al episode... :lol:

Mike

Steakgoddess · **Posted:** Tue Aug 09, 2005 5:21 pm

Oh man! Look at all that glorious mud!

Cav · **Posted:** Tue Aug 09, 2005 9:16 pm

Hi all! I had a blast at Paragon. You were all very nice and helped me out as I had no experience doing this before. I can't honestly say that the wife was too thrilled when she looked at some of the pics :lol:

My freind Scott had fun too. It was really nice meeting all of you and I'm looking forward to meeting up with you guys again. I'm really swamped at work and have a ton going on right now but I should have my pics from paragon up soon. Wow! I was ahead of Mike when he almost tipped so this is the first time I got to see that. :shock:

Joe Jeeper · **Posted:** Tue Aug 09, 2005 9:31 pm

Great job with the photos, looks like I misseed a Great Trail Ride! Joe

A Day At PARAGON

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