| May One |
10-23-2011 01:52 PM |
Appleton Mudding
It was a terrific day. We started out on regular trails, but due to the lousy way they had them marked, they turned into the most difficult right off the bat. My friend (driving a 98 Jeep Grand Cheeriokee) was leading and went on a trail that was either ment to be a flooded marsh or was just flooded from earlier this year. He ended up goin into a fairly deep "pond", as soon as he got out of it he decided he was goin to try and turn around so we could back track and find some easier trails to start off the day. Thats when he almost got stuck the first time, he tried to turn around and drive over some grass with some water in it, turns out it was damn near 2 feet deep, so there he sat, all 4 wheels buried in water and he could bearly move. After a few attepts of gunning it back and forth he got out and we back tracked onto the main trail. We drove and drove and drove, up and down hills and trails (most of which were ATV and Motor bike trails) until we came into the entrance and went around a deep lake and through some other puddles that were connected to it. My friend circled around me and went through what he thought was a puddle that was as deep as the ones we just went through, nope. It was like he fell into a pool. So his front end was under water and he couldnt move and there wasnt a very good place for me to try and pull him out. Thankfully there was a party of Jeeps that was also driving the trails, so a Jeep that had a winch and swamper tires ended up pulling him out. We continued on after his pride had a little time to recover. We hit the trails again and just looking for trails we havent been on yet, about a half hour later I ran into the group of Jeeps that helped us out earlier near the lake that my friend got stuck in, the Jeep with the swampers was climbing a set of log stairs. I pulled off the trail and watched and visited with the rest of the guys. After he finished climbing and goin back down the stairs and then goin through the lake my friend got stuck in, he decided to go down the otherside of the hill we were on and go through some deep mud/slime pits. My friend followed them but on the right side where is was drier. He made it through and I was watching and debating whether to try it. The guy in the jeep circled around and did it again and as he drove by he said, "Come on", so after he went, I waited for the 2 other Jeeps that were following him again. I decided, what the heck and went for it, trying to follow the path my friend took on the side. Of coarse I didnt have any traction so I couldnt turn and went straight into a mud pit with giant ruts that I bottomed out in instantly. There I sat, bottomed totally out and couldnt do anything but make a muddy rooster tail by spinning my tires. My friend tried to pull me out but he almost got stuck himself, so he went to ask the guy who pulled him out if he would pull me out. We had to wait a bit as he was pulling one of his friends out about 60 yards in front of us. He got there, hooked to me and two big tugs and I was out. We continued on and decided to just drive around for another couple hours then take off. We kept going around the same trails trying to find new ones we havent been on. My friend and I split up and went searching for a while. I found a trail we havent been on so I went down it a little ways and went back to meet my friend near the lake he got stuck in. We went down the new trail and there were 2 ponds that we werent sure how deep they were but they were narrow enough that if someone were to get stuck itd be easy enough to pull them out. So since my friend was weary of puddles and their depth, I dove in with the Wild Thing. It was only about 8-11 inches deep. We went around them back and forth a while then continued on the trail. As is turns out, it was the trail we got on at the beginning of the day and we never realized it. So, we just went down some side trails we didnt try earlier because we didnt know how bad they would be. After we went through that we back tracked and went through the same ponds we went through on the way there. I just gunned it and went through it blindly as I didnt turn my wipers on right away. After we got off that trail we decided it was time to go so we headed home. We stopped at a car wash to spray the mud out of our wheels, they were affecting our balance and brakes. That was my mudding trip and I cant wait for next year, I hope to have others join us then. :icon_eddie:
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