Two Tracker's Off-Road Club St. Patty's Run

Photo Album Link

A few weeks ago we joined the Two Trackers Four Wheel Drive Club that is based out of the Grand Rapids area.  We thought it would be good to join a group of people that had the same thoughts and ideas on "Off-Roading" as we do that is family oriented, are active in the community, and are proactive with our state & federal agencies that allow us the opportunity's to wheel on State & Federal land.  We first participated with this group back in September 2014 at the "Wheeling for a Cure" event that they hosted which was great & successful event. The club members did an awesome job putting the event on that it sparked our interest.  A few weeks ago we payed our "yearly dues" and turned in our registration to join the club and thankfully we were accepted.  

 On March 21st was the Two Tracker's St. Patty's Run in the Baldwin area which we took both "Little Red" and "Big Blue".  The total rig count I believe was 33 which I believe 99% were made by Jeep and 1% was Toyota.  Doesn't matter the brand type just as long as it can successfully go off-road and it was a blast.  

 This was our first time traveling on "Two Tracks" on Federal land via the U.S. Forestry Service trails and thankfully our trail leader and others involved with planning the trip validated our route before heading out onto the trails.  It was a lot of fun following one rig after another on the trails not knowing what was coming next.  At first the trails had a low difficulty level but things started to change as we traveled further.  A week prior the group that performed a "pre-run" of the course and had a lot of issues with deep snow and didn't know how the St. Patty's Run would turn out.

Just after this stop shown above would be the first time that one of the rigs had to be pulled out of some deep snow.  Looked like the driver was having some fun trying to tackle the snow and ended up getting stuck.  Not too long after that on the trail itself the 2nd rig got stuck in a mud hole on the trail and was winched out.  Lucky for me I was able to be the 3rd rig stuck in a enormous hole that my passenger rear wheel got stuck in.  The 4th rig stuck was due to the same hole that I got stuck in and I heard over the CB that something broke on his vehicle (tie rode or axle?)

 The 5th rig that was stuck is one that our trail leader found which was a GMC Sierra Diesel Pick-Up left out on the trails by a "local".  Not too long after coming up to the truck the owner was coming back with his friend in another pick-up.  The decision was made to help them get unstuck which the owner of the truck was grateful.  The final solution to get the heavy diesel truck out of the hole  was to bring up our Rubicon with it's Warn 10K-S winch.  Members hooked up the rope through the winch block after attaching it to the truck and ran the rope back to the Rubicon which would be the end point (using the winch block doubled the pulling strength from 10,000 lbs to 20,000 lbs).  We had thrown large tire chocks under the Rubicon's wheels but the Diesel truck was too heavy and started pulling the Rubi towards it.  To stop that from happening the Rubicon needed an anchor to attach itself to so "Little Red" was brought up and attached to "Big Blue's" rear hooks via the 8,000lbs Mile Marker winch.

 The 6th rig stuck that I'm aware of was the Toyota FJ on the last part of the route.  The Toyota seemed to do fine through all of the other mud holes but this hole was a tad deep with snow for the Toyota.  Only rig that I saw lifted up and had all 4 wheels spinning at the same time.  The Jeep that was behind him winched him out and "Little Red" was used to create a new "route" to go around the hole.  The snow was warm enough to compact it down to create a snow rut which the  Toyota was able to get passed the hole like a train on train tracks!  Thankfully it was all within the original trail area as to preserve the Tread Lightly ideology.

On the end note... Thank you to everyone we met last weekend during the St. Paddy's Run.  My wife and I were amazed on how everyone were very helpful and passionate with the sport of "Off-Roading".  We look forward to the next trip.