I'll have to get pics from my mom who came in from Omaha to join us, but it was a blast. We got a fair amount of rain on Saturday but not enough to make things miserable. The weather yesterday was perfect and the storm didn't hit until after we were almost to Lyons on the way home. It ended by the time we got home to unload everything. So all in all good weather.
Jim and I tried taking the dirt bikes up Iron Clads (we borrowed my friend's 88 XR200R) and that was a major mistake. I totally forgot how much loose rock covered that trail, and just how steep it was in places. Needless to say we struggled a lot, this was both of our first times taking dirt bikes up a trail and it was a serious learning curve. I think I dropped my poor TTR about 10 times and then we got to a point where we couldn't even push them along up the hill and turned back to get Jim's jeep.
Once we caught back up to the others we made it to the clearing just before the private property starts and shot some clays and pistol targets, I got my mom shooting for the first time ever. She shot my 12ga, my AR, my .45 XDM-C, and Jim's .45 1911. She wasn't so good at hitting clays with the shotgun but she actually took to the pistols quick and was pegging the target very well. I also got my son (who just turned 6 on the 8th) behind the AR, I had to help him hold it of course but with the buttstock fully collapsed he could easily reach the pistol grip and magazine well. He had a blast shooting it and almost hit the target, then Jim let him shoot his .22 1911 and with my help he was able to shoot off a magazine of rounds with that as well. I don't think he hit much but he really enjoyed himself.
After Iron Clads we cooked up some dinner and then Jim and I went round 2 on the dirt bikes. We ran back down to the beginning of Bunce (we were camping just a bit up Iron Clads) and then ran it all the way to the closed off "playground" over by Plane Crash. That was fun as hell and what I had in mind. Only a few little rocky areas here and there to make you pucker but they were over quickly and you were back to mobbing it down the road, splashing through puddles, and catching a little air here and there over rises or coming out of dips. It was a blast.
-side bar: In our defense regarding to Iron Clads kicking our arse, while we were coming back down on the bikes to retrieve Jim's jeep we came across 2 others that were riding pretty nice KTM's and were fully decked out in gear that were taking a break before turning around themselves. They made it up maybe 2/3 the distance we had, so that made us feel better about ourselves. Now they were either fairly experienced riders or they were noobs like us that spent a ton of money on bikes/gear but either way it made us feel a lot better about ourselves for getting our butts kicked by what is an "easy" trail when your on a Jeep.
After breakfast on Sunday we loaded up into the Jeeps and took Bunce over to Camp Dick's. After using an almost real toilet we then ran MSV/Coney. There was a little bit of traffic but things moved along pretty steadily. It one point I managed to turtle the JK on the driver side frame rail. After spitting mud at my own face and having the Jeep just pivot there we hooked a strap to it. Steve (Jim's Brother in law) stalled his TJ putting pressure on the strap (JKU's are heavy tanks) but that still gave me enough aid to drive over the obstacle. For reference with a 2" lift and metric "35's" I've got just over 11" under my belly pan with a 117" wheel base. Its long and low, but this is the first time its turtled. Normally it just drags the TNT Aluminum Belly skids over the rocks and keeps going.
Other than little issue we ran both trails fairly quickly and made it back to camp to make lunch. We then tore down camp and staged everything to get loaded up. Steve took off and the rest of us ran up to Plane Crash. The trail had a few more obstacles than I remembered, nothing overly hard for 2 fully locked rigs on 35's, but enough to make it fun. We then hiked all the way to the engine so my mom and Colin could see everything.
After Plane Crash we loaded up and headed home. It was a great trip and we had a blast.
