After finishing the rollover recovery portion of the course and trying out some new recovery techniques, we thought we were through the toughest part of the day…
Scott and the rest of the UORTC staff had us air down and load up the trucks in preparation for a ride around the property. After weaving through the hills and seeing some gnarly man made obstacles, we ended up at a steep gravelly hill climb.
One by one, drivers were expertly guided up the hill, with the majority of vehicles making it up on their first attempt. At this point you could definitely feel the confidence among the drivers in the group, but we could tell the terrain was slowly getting more difficult, and the ground was getting substantially softer.
Since we were so successful in the last segment, Scott and Mike decided to take us on another “quick” trail ride on the property before lunch. Things were going well until we started hitting obstacles that even an M1 Abrams would probably want to bypass.
It really only takes two words to describe the trail we were on, “Tank Trap.” The man made obstacles (big holes in the ground) were positioned just well enough that as you started to get through one you were already in the next one. Throw in the slick as snot Carolina clay and you can imagine the great time we had.
This portion of trail really wore us down, and due to the lack of trees we had to utilize sand/traction mats. I’m just glad the traction aids managed to get everyone unstuck because I’m sure Mike was pretty close to making us start to dig a hole to bury a spare tire.
Finally we were all out, and in a little over 150 feet I witnessed some of the most difficult driving I’d ever seen. It really did amaze me how quickly some minor well placed obstacles could quickly turn an easy drive into a traffic jam. We walked away with a better understanding of maintaining traction, and facilitating a recovery without a winch.
You must be logged in to post a comment.