I've yearning for the pines lately since I haven't been there since the spring. And all the recent rain has been really giving me the urge to get down there for a ride.
I woke up yesterday around 5:30 in the morning to piss, and as I was standing there, python in hand, I decided to take a quick ride. I'd be solo, 'cause nobody would want to hear from me that early in the morning, and anyway, I figured I'd be back home by 1 or 2 pm. I told my wife I was going, she mumbled something incoherent, and I was out the door.
Lazy fuck that I am, I had not totally unpacked from MAR, so I just had to throw the high lift and my hip waders in the truck. Strong cup of coffee in hand, and a wonderful Fuente cuban belicoso in my mouth, I headed down to the pines while it was still dark.
There's a gas station that I like to stop in the pines because of the name..."Mighty Joe Young's" and because they have a huge statue of the gorilla...it always gives me a chuckle. Anyway, as I fill up, I notice a guy in his mid-50s, grey hair, shorts and T-shirt taking all sorts of crap out of his muddy, lifted jeep and re-arranging it. So I walked over to him and said "Hey man, you coming or going? He looked at me, then my truck, and said "both", then he explained that he had led a tour of the pines that evening, and he was ready to go back to lead an annual Pine Barrens clean-up where lots of clubs get together and spend a day picking up garbage. He told me there would be around 300 people participating in about 2 hours, and would I like to join in? I said, "shit yeah!"
So I drove down to the staging area, and saw a line of early birds, and went to say hello. It was a bunch of guys in Jeep Scramblers. Now I don't know much about jeeps, but these things were sweet. Scramblers are longer than an Unlimited. They were on 35's and a couple had Chevy 350's (LT-1, LS-1). And these guys seemed like a good bunch, they asked me to line up behind them if I wanted. Since I wasn't in the mood to sit around for 2 hours, I told them I was going to take a quick ride, and that I'd join them later.
So 2 hours later I come back to the staging area, and the place is crawling with jeeps, at least 200, I'd say. There was also a string of X-Terras, at least 20 pickup trucks, and a beautifully restored Unimog with trailer. I was a bit surprised (guess I should not have been) but I had the only Rover in the entire gathering.
Mike, (the guy I met at the gas station) was going at it with a bullhorn trying to get some semblance of order in place. So I lined up behind the Scramblers while everything was settling down. The Scrambler boys then came over to talk to me and asked if I would trail lead for them. This surprised me a bit because I thought I'd be feeling like I was horning in on their club, but instead these guys handed me cigar, and asked me to lead!
I went over to Mike, told them I'd be leading a group, and he asked me where I wanted to go. I have a favorite spot off of Hampton Furnace that I call the swap trail, and Mike gave me the go-ahead. I also found out that we'd be meeting at the Pic-A-Lilly for free chicken wings (the best in the state) and door prizes after the cleanup.
So we left the parking lot with the Scramblers and a pair of pickup trucks, and headed into the pines.
We filled a few garbage bags with beer and soda botles and cans, and other assorted garbage. We also picked up a load of discarded construction material (concrete chunks, scrap wood). As we started to get to the interesting part of the trails (a section with 3 deep mud puddles in a row), I noticed what looked like a quad tire sticking out of the center puddle. So I sent Bobby (kid in a beat-up chevy truck) to go get it. I told him I'd pull his ass out if he got stuck...just like the 2 previous times. Well, Bobby goes in, and of course, gets hung up on the quad....it wasn't a tire, but a whole fucking smashed up little kid's quad. So I had to winch him and the quad out..now we were having some fun!! This is way better than picking up cans!
I took them through the rest of the trail, and these guys were very impressed at what a "nearly stock" rover could do. The jeeps were really not set up for water, so they took a lot of by-passes, where I went through. The Chevy engines have the distributor behind (!!!) the water pump, so I don't know how they could get to it to water proof it. And the air intake had an open K&N filter facing front. In any case, they all told me they had a blast, and how much they appreciated that I guided them.
When all was said and done, the whole group collected over 2 30 yard dumpsters full of trash in addition to a couple of burned out cars, washing machines, bathtubs, construction debris, propane tanks, etc.
Afterwards, we all got together at the Pic-A-Lilly for wings, beer, and cigars. It was a great way to spend a day, make some new friends, and I got invited to some annual Oak Ridge jeepfest in VA (some of the Scramblers were from VA).
This was a great event that is critical to maintaining a good relationship between the NJ State Forest people and the wheeling community. I felt bad that there were no other Rover owners represented, so I'd really like to change that for next year.
So as opposed to a particularly shitty day I had recently, Sunday turned out to be way better than I expected!
I woke up yesterday around 5:30 in the morning to piss, and as I was standing there, python in hand, I decided to take a quick ride. I'd be solo, 'cause nobody would want to hear from me that early in the morning, and anyway, I figured I'd be back home by 1 or 2 pm. I told my wife I was going, she mumbled something incoherent, and I was out the door.
Lazy fuck that I am, I had not totally unpacked from MAR, so I just had to throw the high lift and my hip waders in the truck. Strong cup of coffee in hand, and a wonderful Fuente cuban belicoso in my mouth, I headed down to the pines while it was still dark.
There's a gas station that I like to stop in the pines because of the name..."Mighty Joe Young's" and because they have a huge statue of the gorilla...it always gives me a chuckle. Anyway, as I fill up, I notice a guy in his mid-50s, grey hair, shorts and T-shirt taking all sorts of crap out of his muddy, lifted jeep and re-arranging it. So I walked over to him and said "Hey man, you coming or going? He looked at me, then my truck, and said "both", then he explained that he had led a tour of the pines that evening, and he was ready to go back to lead an annual Pine Barrens clean-up where lots of clubs get together and spend a day picking up garbage. He told me there would be around 300 people participating in about 2 hours, and would I like to join in? I said, "shit yeah!"
So I drove down to the staging area, and saw a line of early birds, and went to say hello. It was a bunch of guys in Jeep Scramblers. Now I don't know much about jeeps, but these things were sweet. Scramblers are longer than an Unlimited. They were on 35's and a couple had Chevy 350's (LT-1, LS-1). And these guys seemed like a good bunch, they asked me to line up behind them if I wanted. Since I wasn't in the mood to sit around for 2 hours, I told them I was going to take a quick ride, and that I'd join them later.
So 2 hours later I come back to the staging area, and the place is crawling with jeeps, at least 200, I'd say. There was also a string of X-Terras, at least 20 pickup trucks, and a beautifully restored Unimog with trailer. I was a bit surprised (guess I should not have been) but I had the only Rover in the entire gathering.
Mike, (the guy I met at the gas station) was going at it with a bullhorn trying to get some semblance of order in place. So I lined up behind the Scramblers while everything was settling down. The Scrambler boys then came over to talk to me and asked if I would trail lead for them. This surprised me a bit because I thought I'd be feeling like I was horning in on their club, but instead these guys handed me cigar, and asked me to lead!
I went over to Mike, told them I'd be leading a group, and he asked me where I wanted to go. I have a favorite spot off of Hampton Furnace that I call the swap trail, and Mike gave me the go-ahead. I also found out that we'd be meeting at the Pic-A-Lilly for free chicken wings (the best in the state) and door prizes after the cleanup.
So we left the parking lot with the Scramblers and a pair of pickup trucks, and headed into the pines.
We filled a few garbage bags with beer and soda botles and cans, and other assorted garbage. We also picked up a load of discarded construction material (concrete chunks, scrap wood). As we started to get to the interesting part of the trails (a section with 3 deep mud puddles in a row), I noticed what looked like a quad tire sticking out of the center puddle. So I sent Bobby (kid in a beat-up chevy truck) to go get it. I told him I'd pull his ass out if he got stuck...just like the 2 previous times. Well, Bobby goes in, and of course, gets hung up on the quad....it wasn't a tire, but a whole fucking smashed up little kid's quad. So I had to winch him and the quad out..now we were having some fun!! This is way better than picking up cans!
I took them through the rest of the trail, and these guys were very impressed at what a "nearly stock" rover could do. The jeeps were really not set up for water, so they took a lot of by-passes, where I went through. The Chevy engines have the distributor behind (!!!) the water pump, so I don't know how they could get to it to water proof it. And the air intake had an open K&N filter facing front. In any case, they all told me they had a blast, and how much they appreciated that I guided them.
When all was said and done, the whole group collected over 2 30 yard dumpsters full of trash in addition to a couple of burned out cars, washing machines, bathtubs, construction debris, propane tanks, etc.
Afterwards, we all got together at the Pic-A-Lilly for wings, beer, and cigars. It was a great way to spend a day, make some new friends, and I got invited to some annual Oak Ridge jeepfest in VA (some of the Scramblers were from VA).
This was a great event that is critical to maintaining a good relationship between the NJ State Forest people and the wheeling community. I felt bad that there were no other Rover owners represented, so I'd really like to change that for next year.
So as opposed to a particularly shitty day I had recently, Sunday turned out to be way better than I expected!
