SCARR 2008 April 17th-20th
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| Every year, Texas Rovers puts on a helluva gathering in
good ol' Texas. Located at Barnwell Mountain Recreational Area,
the club takes over the whole park for the weekend. |
| Since I haven't been back to Texas since my Air Force
days, I thought it would be a great opportunity to fly down and have
some fun. My old friend and MuddyOval co-founder Don Collins
offered to take time from his busy schedule firing people so we now had
a plan! |
| Just to make it more fun, I brought with me the new
ProComp ES9000HD's that DAP had specially made to fit a Discovery II, so
we had to skip the sightseeing and skip the BBQ joints and head straight
to the shop to install the new shocks. If you want a Disco to
flex, you have to use extended shocks! Removing the front
crossmember proved to be a task and since it was getting late- things
were done that we're not proud of... but the truck was done! Then
it's off to Riscky's BBQ- om nom
nom... |
| Marcus (former Freelander wheeler) and Don set up camp at Barnwell
Mt. It's not so much a mountain as kind of a hill. This is
one point in time where things aren't always bigger in Texas.
Important little point about camping here- look out for ant hills.
Texas has mean little critters that will bite you. |
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| When you're the V.P. of a huge banking conglomerate's I.T.
Department, it's difficult to get away for a weekend. PUT THE CELL
PHONE DOWN. Luckily, cell phone coverage was not good throughout most
of the Barnwell area so we all got at least a little bit of a break from
work duties. My cell phone "accidentally" was left behind when we
hit the trails. |
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| The first event we happened upon was the "blind trail" time trial.
A scary thing, it is... where the driver is blindfolded and the
passenger navigates through a tight course with steep descents and
ascents, coupled with some tight turns with trees all around. At
that point we met up with Chris from the
D-90 Source and John from
Roverville Radio. The "blind trial" was more than just a little
interesting, as some drivers just weren't afraid to lay heavy on the
throttle! Some excellent driving by all participants. |
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| After getting camp set up, we're off to explore the Barnwell area.
Lots of trails, most of which serve as a reminder that all of Texas is
not flat and featureless.
Here's Darryl from Oliver's Auto making a run in his DII. |
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| Steep descents go with the territory here and this one was no
exception. A bit 'puckery' for the newbies, it's a great section of
trail for training. Some of the people we took on this section had
very little off-road time and weren't too happy about attempting this. |
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| Difficult climb combined with a rather large rock shelf and what
happens?
Front diff explosion. This type of trail damage would be less
likely with a Center Diff Lock enabled on a Discovery II.
Darryl takes it in stride, crawls under the truck and engages the
diff lock and keeps driving- although not up this hill. |
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| Now this is a descent that takes a little skill. Large rocks,
some loose- some not. At this point we're glad we aren't going the
other way. It was very difficult just to walk down this trail, but
still easier than trying to drive down.
Far too steep for hill descent, we leave HDC engaged in case things
get out of hand. Even when your intent is to go slowly, having HDC
there in case the truck starts to get away is a nice insurance policy.
If the truck starts to get out of control- let the Hill Descent Control
take over and concentrate on steering between the trees. It'll be
too fast to be comfortable but it WILL get you down. |
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| I had mercy on Don and didn't post a pic of the look on his face at
this point. STEEP climb, off camber and a tree just inches from his
headlamp. While he had probably a 50/50 chance he could have done it,
Don still doesn't want to risk scratching his purdy 04 Disco or leaving
a $400 headlamp assembly on the trail.
A light tug from the truck ahead just to make sure the Disco stayed
off the tree... |
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| Line up for lunch at the pavilion- In the foreground is the
D110 from amunches.com,
followed by Jim Edson's G4,
then the "Three Amigos" Discoverys which travel the planet, covered in
gear from DAP. |
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| Speaking of Jim Edson (check out his web site at
http://greenrovers.com ), here's
Jim in his trusty G4. Tastefully modified to be capable but without
compromising the long-term collectible nature of the G4 Edition
Discovery. |
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| Erosion makes for interesting ruts. This is where having the
taller tyres really pays off. |
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| All in all, we had a great time! The trails were lots of fun
and the people were great! No drama and none of that 'elitism' that
plagues some of the smaller clubs. The organizers did a fantastic job
and each year this event grows and grows. Based on our experience
this year, we'll be back!
Oh, and Darryl will bring his bottle. |
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