Astro wheeling report: Badlands ORP - Apr 14, 2012

ihatemybike

Explorer
My wife's Jeep group scheduled an outing at the Badlands Off Road Park and are always inclusive, so I showed up with Grumpy. Turns out that most of the people that said they were going didn't show. Rainy weather was forecasted for the weekend and most had planned on tent camping, so that might have had something to do with it. Group ended up being me and Nemo in Grumpy and our local Jeep friend Steve, his girlfriend and a couple of their friends in his Jeep Liberty.

Before starting on the trails, I took the time to deflate Grumpy's second hand Goodyear RT/S tires down to 20 psi.

Given the lead, as I supposedly had the least capable vehicle and more trail experience, I shifted Grumpy into first and climbed the first visible dirty, rocky hill out of the parking area. We wound through small wooded gullies occasionally crossing between them using over breakovers. Had to abort two breakover attempts due to lack of ground clearance as I learned what I had now had available with the 2" lift and 31" tires.


Played in some dunes next. Van didn't have any trouble going anywhere I asked it.


The quarry followed, basically a big semi-circular rocky ledge and wall playground with some dirt trails around the edges. Lots of Jeep Wranglers Unlimiteds were playing here today and we joined in the fun the best we could. Found Grumpy's breakover limit a couple more times and dragged the transmission cross-member, gas tank and hitch receiver numerous times successfully transversing obstacles. Several large logs were strewn about the quarry, I picked one that was about 18' long, maybe 10-12" in diameter, lined the van up and proceeded to drive onto it with both driver's side tires, crossing it's entire length and driving off the end. Later Steve was attempting one of the dirtier trails to the top edge of the quarry and thanks to suspension twist and open differentials was having a bit of trouble. Reversing a couple times, he was eventually able to get it. I quickly followed to see how Grumpy would do, van paused a little, but getting the limited slip to kick in allowed me to clear the spot on the first attempt. Limited slip for the win, followed by Steve showing me a featherless bird.


Muddy wooded trails were next, lots of big puddles, but not terribly rutted. Only felt belly dragging a couple times. Lots of winding trails that eventually brought us to a creek crossing to a long straight hill up to more dunes.


We usually use this hill to go down to the creek, but were going the opposite way. After checking the trail and getting the advice from a Wrangle driver to "just keep in it", I made my first attempt. Lined up perfect, I nailed the gas, up we went, momentum was good, AWD and LSD doing their jobs. Almost to the top momentum and traction was gone, the van stopped, I hit the brakes, then sliding. Uncontrolled backwards sliding. I tried modulating the brakes to gain some control, but it didn't help. I just held on for the ride as Grumpy remained in the existing ruts and we ended up roughly where we started. So close to making it and a bit determined, I decided that a longer run up would put me over the top. Go, up, up, up, looking good, foiled again, followed by a second long backwards slide, but I got further up than I did the second time. Third times a charm right? Well, maybe not. Longest run up, trying to stay out of others previously chewed up earth, sawing the wheel, so so close, almost there, no not again. This time while sliding backwards Grumpy's rear caught a different rut, the van turned sideways, I thought collisions with trees were emanate, but no. The rut was for one of the side trails at the bottom of the hill, we had simple turned a corner missing trees on either side by several feet. After getting my van out of the way Steve successfully drove up it first try, showing the advantage of more aggressive tires.


Nemo and I needed a bit of a break after the third attempt. Okay, I did, he was fine.


Giving up on the hill climb we followed the creek trail for a bit, then exit into more dunes. These are known to have some mud after the top of them so we drove up a slid around for a bit.

After breaking for a late lunch we played in the water near the parking lot. Mostly gravel bottomed, but there are a couple soft clay areas. Steve tried to pass through one, but quickly got stuck. I was all ready to pull him out, but he wanted to try his new winch instead.


Given the lead again, we past through more dunes and started on the Orange Trail. Lots of bermed turns that appear to be mostly used by quads and plenty of ups and downs too, actually just a good mix of every type of woodland trail. No hair raising stories, but all agreed that it was the best trail we ran that day.


After the park close we retired to the adjacent campground, cooked some dinner and passed some bottles around. I may have had a bit too much, but slept it off comfortably in the back of Grumpy.

On the way back home Grumpy hit 1/3rd Million Miles, but I forgot to pull over and take a picture of the 333333. Doh!

I want to thank Steve's girlfriend Ashley for taking all these great pictures.
Rest of the trip pics
 
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