Noob Run with the Maryland Creepers
at Rausch Creek Offroad Park
August 5, 2006

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Uh, this was a noob run, even though the pics don't really show it.

I volunteered to lead the group since I was expecting one of my co-workers to join us. However, he never made it. The same could be said for Poopy as I woke him up calling him to see why he was late.

So, anyway, for the benefit of those attending, this is what we did and what it was...

We started off on greens and access roads by running the "shortcut to A", to A, to F, to B.

Starting off on trail 1, we ran the blue hillclimbs and off camber section. Following the green loop around we split up so that the smaller Jeeps could stick to greens while the bigger ones could quickly hit the black loop. As it turns out, it wasn't all that quick since a loud bang caused by Frank busting a front Alloy shaft held us up. He winched himself off the rock that he was stuck on and they headed back to camp after driving off the trail.

Following the Pole Line to G, we stayed on the access roads to B, to F, and finally to C. After playing on the Log Bridge for a while, we headed further down C to Yellow Jacket Ridge.

The plan was for a couple of us to hit Yellow Jacket then stick in that corner of the park to run some blues and see what we could see of the new property. Instead, there was already a group on the obstacle. So, we headed up C, to B, to E where we stopped for lunch in a shady spot.

It was still early, so I made plans for us to run trail 2. I was thinking that a couple of us could try and go up Crawler Ridge, which I assumed would only take a few minutes since I didn't think we'd make it far, then just run the bypass and start the trail from there. However, it didn't work like that.

I tried for a couple minutes and got stuck bad, but was able to be recovered with some Hi-Lifting and rock stacking. The guy from the Rock Raiders (notice that I almost never include names in this because I can never remember them) climbed up it easily. So, JT gave it a try and got stuck bad. After a long, but unsuccessfull recovery, it was suggested that I take the noobs on a quick run.

I thought it was a great idea because, at that point, this noob run was giving them almost no seat time. Honestly, the way I had it planned would have had them covering a ton of ground with a couple quick play spots for us "bigger" guys. The problem was that shit kept happening on the "quick" spots and kept us away from what this run was all about. I'm going to chock that up to poor planning on my part and give my apologies to those attending. As it happened, I had a plan for a day of green trails, but all the vehicles showing up could handle low blues and, in adapting my plan to the different group, I feel that I didn't plan it well.

Anyway, I took the group down D to Pole Line and caught trail 1B off of there. This was a green trail and I think the group felt a little more comfortable running this level. We followed it across 2 and caught the exit to D.

We caught up with the group again after they got JT free from the hill. As a whole group, we took D to E. We ended up running the 101 trail, including the part labeled as "Hills" which was fun. It's not a hard, techincal trail and is rated as a green but it does have a big rock in the trail to climb over and I really like the off camber section.

We went back down to catch B so we could run trail 1B from the other end. We followed it up to where it intersected trail 2 and I think the group was happy to finally get some trail time in.

That's where things went bad...

I stopped the group to talk to a couple of them about trail 2. I knew they could handle it, but I wanted to make sure they understood that it was a blue and knew what they were getting into. I talked to them about the obstacles, the hill climb and the bypasses. I even talked to them about Frog Hole and gave a warning about it, but I wish I had made myself clearer.

Somehow there was some misunderstanding about where Frog Hole was and the line to take to go around it. In the confusion, the CJ went straight for it and got swamped because of it.

We pulled him out and the Jeep made it out pretty well, with one exception. He had lost his fuel cap earlier in the day and managed to put the fuel filler under the water line. That resulted in a tank full of watered down fuel. Even though it wanted to run, it was no match for the water in the fuel and I ended up pulling him back to camp.

Back at camp, it was decided to let the CJ sit for a while to let the water settle to the bottom of the tank. So, in the meantime, a few of us decided to go hit a quick blue and run upper 3.

We all made it home, with the exception of the CJ. Mike was then kind enough to give him a ride home so he could come back the next day and retrieve it with a trailer. Sucks to be him, be he handled it like a man and just shrugged it off. Actually, I think the best part of it was hearing "why couldn't it have been an axle? I could upgrade then."