Ok, here's some pics from the 10/22/2011 run to
Kansas Rocks Off-road Recreation Park (in Southeast Kansas near Fort Scott). Fortunately I had my father riding shotgun and often out of the KK on photo duty for the group.
Once they opened, the initial group at check-in (L-R: MP Jeeper Guest in Toyota truck, MP Jeeper guest in Wrangler, MP Jeeper's Renegade, kskj's brother's XJ, MtnLuvr's KK and kskj's Renegade)
kskj lead the trails that day, including leading through most every obstacle. Here he is going down the first, warm-up, obstacle, a little shelf and then....
...back up the waves on the others side.
The KK going down. It was so nice to wheel in the midwest when it was DRY
Navigating back up.
The Toy makes it down.
The XJ on its large tires and lift and with Dave driving always completes the obstacles in the fastest time (not that it is a race or anything).
Navigating the wrangler down (sorry, I'm not certain if a TJ or YJ).
MP Jeeper makes it down but decides he doesn't want to go the other way up but instead to turn around and go back up the obstacle...
MP Jeeper...almost always all smiles
Then, it was on to a rock field....
With excellent spotting and lacking driver fear, we got the Yota through.
(After this photo, we found out those side running boards flex a great deal without breaking
)
MP Jeeper and shotgun passenger navigating the rock field.
When I saw this photo, I started laughing since I'm powering up this dirt and rock hill, working on getting past some rocky obstacles yet in the photo am looking purely sideways to be sure I don't slide sideways into that tree.
From my experiences, that is the big difference wheeling in the midwest (e.g. Kansas and Missouri) versus Colorado or Utah, is that in the midwest, you are almost always navigating around and dodging trees while navigating obstacles usuallly composed of rocks and dirt, and often, greasy mud.
Then it was off to this major obstacle kskj bravely took us to:
kskj bravely tackles the obstacle first. Here he is starting down.
Mostly have 4 tires in contact at this point...
Navigating the turn to dodge the tree while switching from 3, to occassionally only 2, tires in contact with the ground. Certainly gets a little tippy for a little bit.
If the Rene can do it, then I've got to test my skills (or lack of) and take get the KK through this optional obstacle.
Don't mind the crashing sounds as I take the Tan
KK down the wash, I was just rearranging some of the rocks and logs for the next person behind me
The XJ takes a more straight-line approach to not have to mess with the 3-2 wheel tree-dodging turn at the bottom.
MP Jeeper showing confidence coming down.
...starting to get a little light in the rear driver's corner and front passenger corner...
He made it look easy (although it was pure focus and no camera-ready smile).
The Toyota wisely bypassed this obstacle but commented how impressed he was with the capabilities of the Libertys.
This is kinda same shot kskj took of MP Jeeper's Renegade fighting up the crest of the hill.
The Toyota fought to get up the hill, but just couldn't do it without winding up in these trees, so, it was time for some controlled recovery from above....
...time to fire up the KK's winch. Worked great pulling the Yota up and away from trees and over the rock obstacles. I love having a winch handy when needed.
It wasn't much later, on another uphill that we again fired up the KK's winch to help:
kskj leading us through the foliage on the beautiful midwestern fall day.
MP Jeeper climbing the hill with "step up".
Our late add claws his KJ on up, over rocks and dodges the trees.
Airin' back up.
Here's what the Jeep OEM GPS tracked, versus....
...here's the Garmin's with topo data. I'm really glad I bought this GPS as it was really helpful finding and navigating the trails when kskj and I went
wheeling in Colorado this past August.
Final line-up the 7 of us:
A good day of wheeling
.
Thanks kskj for organizing, and leading, this wheeling trip.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
