Uwharrie Safari 2005

[Stankoma]

OK just got the pictures in from this event. I met up with a couple of fellas from the Land Rover event that was going on last weekend. I drove down on Saturday the 16th and rode with them for the day. Most of the guys have never been to UNF and were all from out of town. So they asked me to lead. With me leading 5 LR's built to all ranges, I figured I’d start them out going up Daniel. We got to the first big ledge on Daniel and there was already a back up. A yellow Wrangler was being winched over the ledge obstacle. Then the big black truck seen in 2 of the three first pictures took his try at it. He was probably turning 6K RPM's when he hit the rock and tried to muscle his way up the ledge when he finally gave up. He pulls cable on his Warn 8274 but for some reason hooks the other end to a huge chain (yes we promptly scattered and ducked behind trees at this point). He then proceeds to try and winch his way up the ledge as we hear the motor in the winch winding its way down. When the winch came to a complete stop and they started opening the hood to the truck, we decided it was time to turn around and try another trail.

 

[Stankoma]

We then started back down the road heading toward the other side of 576 to start out on Wolf Den. About half way down the road, one of the guys starts hearing a funny clicking noise coming from the driver’s side front wheel. So we pulled off to take a look. After pulling the wheel, brakes, and rotors off we find that the inner wheel bearing had puked and seized to the axle shaft. We spent the next two hours scavenging for parts. After we pieced everything back together, 3 of the guys without sliders decided to leave the group.

 

[Stankoma]

So 2 LR’s and myself headed toward Wolf Den, road it out to Slab Pile, took a left onto Saw Mill, and finally made our way to Rocky Mtn. Loop. When we go to RML there was the usual crowd of watchers seeing who can make it up all the obstacles there. We were coming down at this point, but of course I wanted to try and make it up the obstacle. Several of the LR guys were telling me that they tried the middle line next to the tree the night before and had to winch up. So I made my way down the hill and started turning around, pointing myself toward the bigger rock face at the bottom of the hill. I guess they figured if they couldn’t make it up the middle line I sure as heck couldn’t make it up the ledge as they yelled “You’re going to climb THAT?†I crawled right up it with no problem and showed the guys how a Yota works in the rocks.  After playing around a little while there, the LR guys snapped a couple of pictures and we headed back down the trail towards Falls Dam.

 

[Stankoma]

Pic's Continued.

 

[Stankoma]

We road Falls Dam to and then back to Wolfs Den. The Safari group was having a BBQ dinner that evening so we road Wolf Den backwards and made our way back to group camp. All in all it was a fun day!

 

[rattlecanpaint]

Cool pics, what a motly (sp?) looking crew, especially the two guys on the left. Thanks for letting me ride along John!

 

[CasterTroy]

I take it the black truck had open diff's? Why in the world couldn't HE make it?

 

[Stankoma]

Funny thing about it, it looked like he was locked in the rear but I couldn't tell ya. Basically just a big truck with big tires. Probably lacked the driving skills. It was one of those line up and gun it type of attempts. No skill in the crawl.