With snow on the ground and only time for a few hours of fun, we hit Red Cloud to fling some mud and put our recovery gear to the test.
We recently got a good 3-4 inches of snow in the DC area so we both knew that we had to make it out to the Red Cloud Off Road Park. Don’t get me wrong, Red Cloud is most challenging when you’ve just had a rain storm, but being able to hit it with fresh powder still on the ground is a whole new world.
The conditions at Red Cloud can vary from dry and mild to wet and wild. Anyone who’s spent any time there knows that I’m not kidding, and the addition of just a little rain can make the difference between smooth sailing and a winch fest. Luckily for us the snow and freezing temperatures made for solid ground, but there was still plenty of ice for us to get hung up on.
Early in the day Ben got stuck in a few places with the 4Runner but it was mostly due to a lack of momentum and front locker. With ice being so thick (it was thick enough to drive a truck over) in some spots, some trucks were able to make it over before the ice caved in on the other trucks behind them. So while some of us were able to get solid surface to drive over, others had to slosh through deep mud and solid ice that made for some Titanic references.
Yet like any other trip, when you think you’re finally in the clear, you get a call on the radio asking for help. I mean sometimes you have to go all in and bury your rig down to the frame, but in all fairness if there hadn’t been any ice, Tony and the FJ probably would have gotten through this hole with ease. That being said the Jeep tied to an Xterra made a great anchor for him to winch off us. We also got to see one of the best uses of a Hi-Lift yet – as a hammer for breaking ice.
As always we had a great trip out to Red Cloud, and if you haven’t made your way out there yet you should really put it on your list. It may not be a crazy rock garden but it’s less than 20 minutes from DC and there’s plenty of terrain to get stuck in have fun in.
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