Home
  Photo Album
  Tech Articles
  Readers Rigs
  4x4 Club Links
  Centralia PA
  Shop
  Contact

Offroaders Guide
to Gearing up
for Offroad

From Basic Equipment to Well Equipped.  An extensive list guide to help you prepare your vehicle for the offroad.

Mud Terrain and
All Terrain
Tire Reviews

Start Your Free Trial Now!


...huh?

RAIN EVENT
Wheeling with Tammy

 

With the remnants of tropical storm Tammy bearing down on eastern and central PA, we made or annual fall trek up and across PA to our favorite vacation spot, "the cabin".  "The cabin" is located up on top of the highest mountain range in Pennsylvania and overlooks a little known valley that's riddled with ancient  logging trails that are still in use today.  With recent trips up here we sort of determined ahead of time what trails we would follow and what our destinations would be for the weekend.  This trip we we had something new to check out.  A stretch of railroad tracks that cut through the valley following the creek had recently been stripped of its tracks, leaving behind great access up and down the 5 mile stretch of remote valley.  Looking at satellite imagery, we knew there were trails we had never seen.

But first.... we had to get there.   I-80.  On a nice, clear day, I-80 is a great way to travel.  Through torrential down-pours, I-80 becomes downright dangerous.  For that reason, I left the big yellow Jeep at home.  Trailering 5000 lbs of expensive toys on tropical storm slickened highway for 250 miles is not my idea of fun.  So I hitch a ride with Paul and Koichi in the rollback, hauling Paul's newly acquired YJ.  Along the way, our gang passed no less than 10 accidents, most of which were major, involving several tractor trailers.  One of them involved a DEMOLISHED 40 foot modular home stretched across both eastbound and west bound lanes.  A 4 1/2 hour trip turned into 7 1/2 - 8 hours of waiting in traffic.  We snapped a few pics of some the chaos as we passed by at 2 MPH.

100_5156b.jpg (147051 bytes)


Read more about the 
Big I-80 Wreck, click here

100_5234.jpg (50875 bytes)

100_5084.jpg (13880 bytes)

100_5078.jpg (14026 bytes)

100_5093.jpg (12959 bytes)
100_5079.jpg (25158 bytes)

100_5075.jpg (11378 bytes)

Koichi had every right to nap on the way up.  He's still on Tokyo time.  A resident of Tokyo, he spent a week in Honolulu Hawaii, then flew 18 hours from Hawaii to Philadelphia to visit friends, only to jump into the cab of a rollback and drive another 7 hours up into the middle of nowhere to romp in the woods with a bunch of rednecks.

100_5085.jpg (18770 bytes) 100_5095.jpg (11377 bytes) 100_5086.jpg (11309 bytes)
100_5087.jpg (10804 bytes)
Accident after accident, delays, delays delays.  We ever going to get up there?
100_5088.jpg (13182 bytes)
100_5089.jpg (10209 bytes) 100_5077.jpg (12410 bytes) 100_5090.jpg (12603 bytes)
100_5094.jpg (10456 bytes) 100_5085b.jpg (20429 bytes)

100_5093b.jpg (14499 bytes)


100_5097.jpg (16162 bytes) 100_5096.jpg (18499 bytes) 100_5099.jpg (22670 bytes)

  
Finally.  We left after breakfast and now its dinner time.  As we unpacked and called some of the other guys to check on their ETA, we filled a leaky radiator in Paul's old Kaiser and fired it up after a few good shots of starter fluid.  Paul and Koichi were together again in the old Jeep (they used to bash this same Jeep around in the woods back in the college days). Paul drove it over to the cabin to get it up on the rollback for a journey home.  Someday soon, possibly over the winter, this old Kaiser will get some much needed work to keep the Jeep's body from taking off in a different direction than the Jeep's frame.  We hope to give it a better body mount system, a full roll cage and a military theme.  Then not only with the old 4 popper sound like an old M.A.S.H. Jeep but it'll look like one too.

100_5102.jpg (31905 bytes)
100_5103.jpg (40189 bytes) 100_5104.jpg (43855 bytes)
100_5105.jpg (37390 bytes) 100_5106.jpg (39156 bytes) 100_5108.jpg (40852 bytes)
100_5107.jpg (28684 bytes) 100_5101.jpg (23650 bytes) 100_5100.jpg (22898 bytes)


As Paul loaded the old Kaiser CJ-5 onto the rollback, I drove Paul's new toy, the Silver YJ, over to the cabin and then proceeded to leave his driver-side window open ... all night ... in the rain.  Sorry about that Paul.  Hope that plastic bag kept your ass dry on Saturday.

100_5110.jpg (61636 bytes)

100_5109.jpg (32509 bytes)
...I left Honolulu for this?

100_5112.jpg (41719 bytes)
100_5113.jpg (35122 bytes) 100_5114.jpg (29380 bytes) 100_5119.jpg (37333 bytes)
100_5116.jpg (42996 bytes)

 

  If it wasn't for all the rain, mist and low clouds, we might have noticed that the fall trees were absolutely brilliant.  I noticed the color more afterwards in the picture than I did while were were getting muddy.

100_5117.jpg (48112 bytes)
100_5115.jpg (57757 bytes)
100_5119b.jpg (62466 bytes) 100_5123.jpg (24308 bytes) 100_5122.jpg (29905 bytes)

Meanwhile Paul was checking email and the weather report.

Stephen gave Jeff a call again to see where he was and about how long before they'd get here.  About an hour or so out.  And they'd like us to wait before heading down to town for a great steak dinner at the Central Hotel in Curwensville.  Don't they know Stephen's stomach sounds like that bear up there on the wall?  Or at least what it used to sound like.  I mean look at him over there.  He's fading fast.
  

100_5124.jpg (37136 bytes)

100_5125.jpg (42473 bytes)

Start Your Free Trial Now!
  

Dinner?  yeah, sure, I'd go for a ...zzzzzzzz....
  

100_5126.jpg (22907 bytes)
Finally!  Jeff, Chad and Andy arrived in a Toyota Fourrunner hauling a trailer loaded with their 3 quads.  Unhitch boys and lets get rolling!  Jeff cracked a smile.

100_5129.jpg (24358 bytes)

100_5127.jpg (25339 bytes) 100_5128.jpg (28457 bytes)

  

 

 

Home | Photo Album | Tech | Readers Rigs | Club Links | Links Directory | Shop Offroaders | Centralia PA | Contact