Rausch Creek Off Road Park Experience

Est 3/1/2004

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Rausch Creek Off Road Park Experience

Left colum from August 7th and 8th. Center and Right colum from June 26th and 27th, 2004

June 26th and 27th,2004. That was GREAT! Attending this ride where; Rick, Mark, Clarke, Tim, Chris G, Jaime, Greg, Jay and I (Tico). Practically everyone brought a guess, except for me and they all equally enjoy the run. We began our adventure on Saturday evening about 7 PM. We all where running late by a half hour due to last minute delays and incidents. Tim had to disconnect his drive shaft, I had a customer that took a little more TLC on delivery, Jaime friend was running late due to traffic, and so our day got off to a late start. Remarkably we arrived on time, by 8:30 PM to our staging area #3 in PA. There we met Rich, refueled, made a last bathroom run and purchase some last minute snacks. We arrived to camp just shortly after 9 and began to air down and line up to go to our camp site. Camp site C has become our preference and have adopted it. We traveled through the woods at night and got a taste of what we where to face the next day. You've heard about things that go bumpity bump, that was us.

After arriving to our camp site we selected our individual sites and pitched our tents, this time was much easier, especially for Mark and Rich, they both practice several times at home to become more familiar with the "How to" put together their tents. We quickly fired up the camp fire and began to roast the hot dogs and marshmallows, this time we had dry wood scavenged up by Mark. Rich provided the starter logs and we had a beautiful fire under the full moon and clear skies. I had purchased a rubber mattress in a queen size, got it inflated outside the tent and everyone was watching me to see if I could put it in the tent, just waiting to have a chuckle or two. Well I did not have any problems. We turned in about midnight.

Sunday, 6 AM everyone began to wake up and try to begin breakfast. Rick brought with him a coffee percolator, however, the fire was not hot enough and we are the generation on today not tomorrow. I broke out my instant coffee and bang! Coffee was ready, when they all found out it was De-caf coffee all you heard was Urrrrggghhh! But hey, its made and its drinkable. Next time we assemble early and head to McDonald restaurant. I dont think so! Taking the tents down didnt take much efforts, in about 30 minutes they where down. We assembled and headed to the main office to register for the days run and meet up with the East Coast 4x4 Experience club. After talking to James, we decided to just drive the course on our own and off we went.

Rich became our tour guide at Rausch Creek, I must say he did an excellent job! Thanks Rich.
We ran in and out of trails all day, climbing rocks, driving through stumps, ditches, pits you name it we were in it. You saw the folks driving their YJs shifting from one side to the other, you would think they were being beat up, in fact they were. The TJ Jeeps handle it better and thank GOD for my tires, they maneuver through the mud beautifully. Unfortunately, every event someone will brake down or have some damages, thus was the case of Greg. He busted the pin that holds his leaf springs in place and hat to take his Jeep to the stagging area. But he still rode with Rich and his friend Jeff rode with me. The day couldnt have been better, it was made to order, sunny, dry and not to hot or to cold. Everyone who attended had a great time and want to return again soon. On our way back, we broke for dinner at the local McDonald on exit 100. They where not expecting such a hungry crowed, much less on that looked like they have been working in the mines. We had dirt even where dirt had no business. We air up, fueled up and headed home about 7:30PM. Route 81 was congested for several miles so, Rich took us to the next exit that would like us by passing the traffic. We arrived back to Maryland about 9:30 PM, then we broke formation to our own destinations. Thank you all for attending, sharing your family and friends in this trip, For myself and I am sure I speak for the group; Thank you Rick, you made the trip, the adventure and the way home a pleasure. I am glad you joined our club.

Awesome, driving right up the face of the mountain.

On the way there

This is Chris Fletcher and Jaime, chilling.

From left to right; Greg, Jeff, Tim, Josh, Clarke, Heidi, and DJ.

These guys are from Pa, but they don't belong to any club. I told them I would post their picture in the web. If you are looking at this picture and you see yourself, imagine the fun you would have had being in our club. You would not be the only one from PA to join a Maryland group! See our membership page.

Just as you see here, the day began in perfect harmony. Sunny, very few clouds and lots of trees. You felt like you where one with nature.

Poor Greg, broke his leafspring pin while drivng over a rock. Had to be strapped to the stagging area for the rest of the day.

From left to right upper road: Mike Slater, Yon Deaujon, Jordynn, Chris Wiesner. Bottom row; Tico Carreras and Rich Althouse.

August 7th and 8th, 2004 was a great day to run at Rausch Creek, it was all ours. We where the only one running that weekend. We arrived at 9PM on Saturday night and drove to, what has come be our traditional camping sight "Camp C". On the way there we took the long way up and hit a trail, its very exciting running at night. Our trail guide "Rich" once again expertly manuver us throught the trails and out to the camp sight. Joining the trail ride this month was Chris Wiesner, his lady Pat and his 5 month old son Hunter (they arrived on Sunday morning), also attending was Mike Slater and his pal Yon, who himself is a jeep owner and a soldier in the Army who is getting ready to pull his tour of duty in Iraq, Rich and his girlfriend Jess and daughter Jordynn and I. Together we all enjoy a chilling night at camp C. While we had a nice camp fire and boy was it ever so cold! The tempature must have dropped to less than 50 degrees, I sure of it.
Below you will see some photos of us just having a grand time. enjoy!