The Virgin Run of Blake's CJ at Rausch Creek
with the Maryland Jeep Club
July 15, 2006

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This started as a black/red group, however it was quickly taken over by those of us wanting to run something lighter.

We were getting a good group together, but I think the whole thing changed for me when I found out that Blake was planning on going. I've wheeled with Blake a bunch of times before, but he has pretty much been MIA since he traded his old YJ. He replaced it with a CJ-5, but had been keeping it off the trails as not to destroy it. This was his first run with it, so it kind of became my focal point for the day as none of us had any idea as to it capability.

It turned out to be an awesome day. I really needed this.

We ran blues all day and covered a lot of ground. Even with two "little Jeeps" in the group, we had no problems. In fact, I think there were only even three stucks all day, with the worst one being mine. Carnage was light at the park with only a semi-blown bead from me and some sort of valve stem issue from Greg. We ran a good selection of trails, yet still managed to finish up a little early.

One of the reasons my Jeep is still small for the amount of wheeling I do is because I prefer to keep my familiarity with it. To me, being comfortable with what it will do does more for me than any mod ever could. I had just thrown on some new parts last month and was hating how it was different than I was used to. This is the first trip I have felt comfortable in it again, and it was great.

Here's the list...

Started off by running "shortcut to A" and following the access roads A, to F, to B, to G and to the Pole Line. We followed that up to Tower Road to run J and get over to the west side.

Ran trail 15, then followed 11 so that we could run 10A. Then we followed H and cut over to the Power Line so we could get back to Tower Road and the east side.

Once on the east side, we followed Pole Line back down to catch D. We ran trail 2 backwards from what everyone usually does, making the hill climb different than normal by running it from the opposite side.

From there, we ran half of trail 4 where a few of us did Yellow Jacket Ridge. From there, we regrouped and ran the other half of four. Looking for something easier, we followed C to B, where it meets E. Finding the entrance to the 101 trail, we gave that a try.

Deciding to head back closer to the office, we backtracked down E, to B, to C. Along the way we found Log Bridge and had to give that a try because it was something cool to do.

Catching F, to A, to K, we were able to run upper 3. From there we decided to run lower 3 and some of us also decided to take a run through the drain plug.

We headed home after that and all of us split up to go our seperate ways. On the highway, I once again ran into Blake and Mindy, so I decided to follow them home. As it turns out, it was a good thing that I did. Blake lost his rear driveshaft on I-83 and ended up driving home in front wheel drive. He had no issues (other than some idiot almost running into his Jeep), but it's always a good idea to have someone with you when limping your ride home.