Eglin Reservation May31-Jun01! This time it won't be FREEZING!

[Apexbasher]

Nah, it's not lower, really. This creek is spring fed from a steephead a quarter mile up stream, the level only fluctuates an inch or so, even for heavy rain. And they are taking the same line as before. I believe the pictures will not appear as dramatic this time because most of these folks went a great deal slower through the water than in January.
Notice the large crew of local folks hanging around for the show? We made believers out of them, for sure.

[Apexbasher]

We had a GREAT weekend of wheeling, once again! And, once again, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all the good folks who came for allowing me the privilege of leading this large group through 7+ hours of changing terrain. I can also appreciate, and am humbled by, the trust shown by the people attending (many of whom were from out of state) in my ability to get them, their passengers, and their rigs through that terrain and back on the road again safe and sound.

Photos:
None from me, sorry. I was too busy running up and down hills and spotting. (Gee, I hope somebody got a picture of me and Bessie in action and not just my back side.)

Highlights: (Part 1)
Started off around 10:45am with 13 vehicles. Group consisted of 9 FJs, 2 Jeeps, 1 Taco, and 1 4Runner. Because the focus of wheeling Eglin is sand washouts, and this being an area used to torrential downpours, the nature of the wheeling changes week to week. I chose our route based on giving everybody a good warmup and build the difficulty level from there.

We did our first bit of real wheeling on the back approach to Atwell Pond. It was here that the Taco (bone stock) and it's driver had their very first of road driving experience. He had one of those "I cannot believe I am actually DOING this" looks on his face as he worked his way up the hill with some spotting. But at the top he was going. He's hooked. I don't see him leaving that truck stock for much longer.

Then we circled back around to the Weaver Camp road. Here we discovered the first of three locals out where their vehicles did NOT belong... stuck. Got her pulled out of the way and headed straight for the up hill frame twister where Duc Hunter (Chris) very skillfully spotted folks on the left line that makes for those great shots of the front driver's side wheels WAY off the ground. SWEET! Birdman got himself worked in there kinda weird and ended up slamming his passenger rock rail down hard on one of the humps as the tire came WAY up! That was one heck of a shot it took and reinforces my belief that Toyota really got it right with the factory rails. (Skids are a different matter, but we'll go into that later.) No damage.

Next came The Shoot which we did uphill this time. Then some pit fun at the top with a steep heavily rutted hill climb. It eventually claimed the first recovery victim of our group. Duc Hunter got his 4Runner up top through the bypass and got to play with his winch again. Easy recovery and we got everybody headed toward the creek at Matt's Crossing by way of the big valley and small ford at Jeep Creek and another uphill off-camber bit. No damage.

The one steep downhill section was the last deal before lunch and a dip in the creek at Matt's Crossing. We crowed all the vehicles into the clearing and everybody got their grub on. (Me, I just went for a swim and felt like a million bucks again.) When it looked like everyone was done eating we went down to the water ford and I described in detail the line to take to do this crossing without drama. I also described in great great detail the line NOT to take by standing where the Discovery 2 plowed in last week and needed recovery with water over the rear seats. Yikes.

Before crossing the ford we left Matt's Crossing and headed for the wash outs on the far side of Star Wars Canyon. This comes in two sections with the first being a strange frame twister that favours vehicles with the wheel base of a Suzuki Samurai. The second section combines two frame twisters separated by a longish 30+ degree right hand camber with a slight left turn. Wild stuff, especially at the end. Brush guards and skid plates took a bruising exiting this. ESPECIALLY bling plates. The TRD in the group (Ryan) took a nice shot to his.

The trip back down to the ford at Matt's Crossing went smooth and we saddled up for the wet part.

THAT story, and more, later in the show. Meanwhile, lets see some more pics!

...to be continued

[shfd739]

We had a blast. My wife took about 200 pics Ill weed through tommorow and post the good ones. Josh (Tacoma) enjoyed every bit of it, and no Matt that truck wont be stock for too much longer, he is already looking at sliders and maybe suspension or a front bumper. I put a big dent in my front bling plate on the same one that the TRD did. I put it back on cause it looks good....but I think it is coming back off. Besides on some spots it was catching and hanging up.

I heard about the excitement at the beach, hate that we missed it.

Ill find out this week from the body shop how much to fix my truck. After the water crossing I took the far right wash. I had ATRAC on instead of the locker and lost traction and slid against the wash into a root sticking out. It hit the black trim on the driver side door uprights, scraped off some of the black and left a nice dent. Had I used the locker I would have made it with no problems, but I thought I would give the ATRAC one last chance as it wasnt very impressive the rest of the trip. Oh well I bought the truck with every intent of using it to the fullest, just figured it would be more than a month old before I damaged it.

So can we go back soon? My wife loved it and even got her topic for an english paper out of it.

Matt I appreciate all your work organizing this and look forward to more trips.

[BirdMan]

WOW, what an adventure. Hats off to Matt for stepping up and being the LEAD dog. My first time weeling in the FJ, I was needless to say a bit reserved but that is why I transformed it from a street queen into the truck it is now. Not impressed with the KM2's in that type of terrain, but they look cool. I admit I have a lot to learn and when I am about to fall from the drivers seat into the passenger window, that is only inches from the ground, and our infamous spotter yells turn right????? JUST DO IT!
Sorry I had to bail Sunday morning, my arms were wasted and I needed a break. If anyone figures out how to put A-TRAC on a manual wheelchair, I am all ears. It was really nice meeting you all and I hope we see each other again. here are the only shots I got that are worth posting. Oh and don't forget..... THE TOP 10 things "TO DO WITH YOUR TRUCK" .

[stringmachine]

Apexbasher previously said:

How do you like that shirt, String?
It was appropriate for the day, Saturday, as you will see when detailed trail reports start showing up here.

What shirt? lol

[coastiebilly]

A few more I got off the camera:





This is me giving a thumbs up . It's kinda hard to tell.





Sunfusion Superfool


And of course my dirty pic:

[coastiebilly]

BirdMan previously said:

Oh and don't forget..... THE TOP 10 things "TO DO WITH YOUR TRUCK" .

I think we could of went with at least 15. It was great laughs.

[coastiebilly]

Apexbasher previously said:

Nah, it's not lower, really. This creek is spring fed from a steephead a quarter mile up stream, the level only fluctuates an inch or so, even for heavy rain. And they are taking the same line as before. I believe the pictures will not appear as dramatic this time because most of these folks went a great deal slower through the water than in January.
Notice the large crew of local folks hanging around for the show? We made believers out of them, for sure.

We did draw quite the audience going through that creek. I was a bit worried thinking about the Sun Fusion in January that had went through and buried the hood. But in this case "Slow is Pro".

[BirdMan]

OK, for those of you who were interested on how my powdercoated OEM wheels would hold up to some wheeling, here are the before and after pics. And just to show off that I had my rail rubbed on this weekend.

BirdMan

[BirdMan]

Well sorry, upon further inspection the powder DID NOT hold up. I took a pic of the passenger side rail and being it was the closest, pass front wheel. Then later was looking at the other side and there are places where the scrub is to the alloy.

BirdMan