Rausch Creek Winter Trail Run with MD Xterras

Rausch Creek 1/19/13

 When I first got there, there were only one or two other rigs. This is once things got underway and folks from our group started lining up.

 Puke Green X is a guy on the forum I met out there. I rode third in  the convoy behind him.

 Just beyond the other trucks are some of the more built up rigs being trailered in.

 I represent the Fort Washington Branch. This Xterra is from the Allentown, PA division. Ok, I made that up. I didn't actually get to talk to this guy. I have no clue where he's from.

 This Subaru was right next to the X above. Rausch Creek is pretty safe with all of us in place patrolling the grounds.

 Lining up the convoys. We actually had enough trucks to run two groups of green and one blue. I was in the second green group.

 Maybe two minutes and not even 400 yards into the run, encountered the first of MANY water crossings. There was one portion where the trail literally is one of the creeks. We were driving upstream through a creek. I maintained very good traction throughout. The skids gave me better confidence and the snorkel gave me assurance that even if I dropped down low into a crossing, I wouldn't suck in a large gulp of water into the engine.

 Lots of water as the snow and ice were thawing and cascading down the various mountains.

 I've got video of some of these crossings. If I had someone to ride with me, I could get some footage of Veronica in action.

 On this one, I hit some submerged barrier that knocked me to a complete standstill. I pushed back and popped up over whatever it was. I get out to watch the rest of the trucks and a guy looks down at my rig and frowned. I think I have a shot further down of what he was frowning at.

So yeah, it sheared completely off. I disconnected the harness and pulled it free. It's laid up in the bed of the truck now. The other one got cracked 5 months ago. With this one sheared off today, I might as well replace the set. I'll mount them a bit higher to the trop of the fairlead as opposed to down below. I also made the mistake of having the winch clevis hook clipped into the front of the receiver. A few more of those submerged rocks knocked the spring-loaded retainer mechanism clear off of the hook. I took a bungee and linked it up to the top of the bull bar.

 

 Climbing our trucks up onto things.

 This is Veronica winking at everybody.

 I tried several vantage points to try to give a sense of how crazy of an angle this is that she was able to partially climb.

 Completely buried the hitch.

 Some of the scenery. It gets to be a bit tough to focus on the scenery when trying to keep the truck from rolling or careening into a tree. But it does end up being some really nice vantage points to take in nature.

 This climb was pretty fun. Nerve-wracking, but fun.

 Me and Veronica at the end of the day.

 

For the purpose of scale, my truck is 4 inches over stock. The X next to me is Infinity over stock. Much higher up than me.

 

I need to do a writeup for the tires. They performed VERY well today. I only got rejected at one obstacle, and it was probably a combination of a few factors: extent of prior drivers rutting out the climb, driver error (me), vehicle platform wheel base (long) and the fact that the Nittos, though rated for mud and snow, are, per the manufacturer, admittedly not a mud tire. Nitto makes a Mud Grappler, which I hope in my heart of hearts to be able to take back to Rausch Creek and show that one obstacle who's it's daddy and what he does. Anyway, look for the conclusion of the description in the narrative.