Fall crawl 2011

Fall crawl 2011

The XJ List returns to Harlan County’s Black Mountain Adventure park

My GMC Suburban was just not running right. It was down on power and had a severe stumble puling from stops and up the long hills on I 75 north of Knoxville. I had changed the distributor cap and rotor before leaving, but clearly there was still something amiss in the ignition system.

I arrived at the Harlan County campground about 30 minutes later that I had expected. However a quick text message to the group found them still having lunch at the top of the hill in the campground.

I got my park pass and checked into the campground. The drive up the hill to the campground was still a challenge towing the Jeep; but this time I made it without any assistance.

After, I unloaded and set up the tent, Wayne arrived and then we hit the trails. We were hoping to beat the rain. We managed to make it to the helipad and onto White Tail trail before the rain came.

We dropped down in to the ravine. Neal, Mitch and Adam took the rockier track While Wayne Jenny, Evan and I took the gravel track parallel to the boulder strewn path.

Soon the tricky downhill rock garden had Neal’s Cherokee lying on his side against the bank. A couple of guys pushed him back onto his wheels. Just a few moments later, Mitch laid his Wrangler on its side a little further down the trail. He was able to drive out of the flop with some encouragement from his spotters. No damage was evident on either rig.

The rest of us made a scary off camber scurry to join them at the bottom of the hill. The top of the hill had gotten slippery by this time due to the rain. At the end of the trail we found it blocked by banner tape. Apparently this trail was closed but we had seen no markings on the other end. We untied the tape and drove out onto 10 and put the banner back behind us.

We then did a little exploring on trail 11 and made our way over to Rail Bed. Jenny took the lead as this has now become her trail after the scary incident a few years ago. She made it look easy going over the slippery rocks all the way to the exit before getting stuck in the mud near the top of the exit. She got a quick tug and was out.

I tried to follow her line at the exit but I got mostly no where before burying my tires in mud. She tossed me a strap and pulled me to the top. Adam made it up behind me with lots of wheel spinning action. Mitch took what used to be the hard way out, but now that the rocks have moved around a bit, I wonder if I would not have been better off going the way he went.

We then made our way across the park back to our camp. By then the rain was hard and steady. Trail 45 was a slippery muddy mess but a fun way to end the day going back down to camp.

On the way down I kept hearing a dragging sound for the rear of my Jeep. It would go away when I accelerated but on the long downhill sections, it would just continue to get worse. I finally saw a place to stop and noticed that my left rear wheel was no longer centered in the wheel well. The noise was the tire dragging the rear fender opening.

I limped it on to camp. When I jacked it up and took of the wheel, I saw that the center pin of the leaf spring was sheared off. The main axle was free to slide back and forth along the main leaf. Using a couple a jacks and a large block of wood for a stand, I was able to get the spring pack apart and drive out the broke part of the pin.

We made a trip into town and luckily found a center pin. I also picked up an extra C clamp to help press the spring pack together. The next morning, I used a tapered pin to align the spring pack. I put in the new center pin and used the two C clamps to press the pack together while I tightened the new pin. I then used a ratchet strap to pull the axle back into place and align the pin with a hole in the perch. I then tightened the U bolts and was ready to wheel again. I did all this while most folks were still sleeping.

The other Kentucky folks showed up soon afterwards and we hit the trails again. We decided to do some exploring in the western part of the park where we really have never been. After the long climb up a very muddy trail 45 we regrouped at the Middle Fork Playground.

There were two high powered big tired buggies getting spanked by the slip and slide of trail 15. Adam could not wait to show them how it’s done in his XJ. He made it easily to the top and came back down one of the play hills.

We all made it up the slippery hill and regrouped in the small perch at the top of the first hill. Neal got hung up on about the third hill and those of us remaining at the bottom decide to take the bypass to speed things up some.

The two groups met back up at the end of trial 15. We then made our way out trial 12 to a wide spot for lunch. It had snowed on us here the last time I was there. This year is was just windy and cold.

We then paused at the Tough Truck challenge area. Josh made a run at the huge rock pile there. He made it across but somehow in the process of having all four wheels in the air at once got air in his power steering. We jacked up his rig and did a quick system bleed to get him going again.

We decided to head on west and see the sights. The leaves were beautiful as the sun broke through the fog. We stopped at 4 poles over look for a group photo. We also did a quick clean up of the area collecting a 30 gallon trash bag of bottles and cans.

We continued on west to the end of the park. Some how Neal spit out an axle shaft U joint so we paused for a quick trail repair. Unfortunately we had the trail completely blocked by out large group. He was nearly done with the trail fix when a group of ATV riders showed up. They were at first concerned over how long we would have the trial blocked but they were soon amazed at how fast we can swap an axle shaft as a group in the woods.

We then made our way up what looks like Kentucky’s version of Moab’s Lions Back. This trail is called Cliffhanger. It begins as a long gravely climb. Then it levels out and becomes a very narrow and steep rock ledge. There is an electrical tower right in the way so you have along the cliff to exit hence the name.

I was a little spooked as I drove to the top because I had not walked the trail like those in the front of the line had done. But I made it up with just a slight new pucker in the seat cushion.

After cliffhanger, we made our way across the park back to camp. It got dark on us along the way. The darkness added a little to challenge for us except for Evan who had no head lights. The darkness added a lot of challenge for him

The next morning we headed out to Lion’s Den. We had lunch and walked the trail. However rains had made entrance a mucky mess and Josh decided not to run. We then headed back across the park to Crawford’s cry. We had planned to run Your Turn but we got lost at a confusing intersection.

We headed out and got to watch so people on the new zip line fly across our heads. We eventually made it around to Crawford’s cry.

Neal headed up fist and Josh, Mitch and Adam followed. The climb was slipped in places and had large dry rocks in others. It was much harder than when I ran it a few years ago. Neal made it to the top but had trouble on the exit. There was no place to hook a winch line either. I walked back down and was driving Jenny’s Jeep up to use as an anchor when Josh found another way out.

Somehow in the maneuvering, Neal broke the main leaf in his right rear spring. As darkness approached we began to engineer a trail fix to get him out.

About the same time Adam popped a front axle U joint and had to back down. He also found he was out of fuel when he got back to the bottom. We had two trail fixes going at once.

I took my tool bag up to Neal and we decided to try using C clamps to hold the spring pack together long enough to get the XJ off the trail and down to the Evart parking area. With the springs clamped together, I left them to lead the rest of the group back to camp and get Neal’s tow rig.

Back at camp part of the group began dinner prep while Jenny and I took the long highway around the mountain to take Neal’s truck and trailer to him. It was well after dark when we got around, meeting Neal. But his rig had made it to the parking lot and he was able to drive it onto the trailer with the C clamps holding things in place. Our trail engineering fix had worked.

Once we were all back at camp, we dined on delicious fire cooked steaks and potato boats. We enjoyed the stars and conversation well into the night. Another excellent trip with the XJ list.