Saturday morning after the group picture we joined one of the two moderate groups to try out even more of the trails.  We had about 6 vehicles in our group, as did the other group.  We rode around until about 1 and broke for lunch.  After lunch a small group of us went back out for more trail riding until about 4.  At this point we started loading up our gear in preparation for the night’s events.  Saturday night the SOA provided a BBQ dinner from Bobby Q’s Restaurant and live entertainment from Iron Horse Bluegrass Band, both the food and entertainment were excellent.

Every night door prizes were given out, with the most highly sought after prizes being reserved for Saturday night’s drawing.  After everyone had a chance to eat and visit, the big door prizes were given out, as well as the overall awards for the weekend.  These awards were a huge hit and themed such as “Worst Break”, “Worst Paint Job”, “Longest Road Trip without a Trailer”, and “People’s Choice”.

Door Prize Winner

The winner of Extreme Roc Rigs door prize was Tim Shepard of Baltimore, OH.

Extreme Roc Rigs would like to thank the Scrambler Owners Associations for allowing us to join them during this event.  This group of individuals are a unique and friendly group just like the Jeep Scrambler.

Last weekend, November 6^th-8^th, Extreme Roc Rigs and members of the Rocket City Rock Crawlers met in Hot Springs, Arkansas at the Superlift ORV to see what the park had to offer.  There were 5 rigs in our group all being locked front and rear with winches up front.  The rigs included XJ Cherokees, 1 YJ Wrangler, 1 LJ Wrangler, a Toyota.  The park was laid out nicely and had a wide range of trails to choose from.  Each trail was labeled with the type of approved vehicle and the trail rating.  The 4X4 trails on the map ranged from 0 to 5 with 0 meaning 4X4 were not allowed to 5 indicating most difficult.  The provided map had some discrepancy on the ratings but nothing that was far off.  Most of the trails had an entrance and exit so you don’t have to worry about a fellow wheeler coming from the opposite direction.

Once everyone arrived at the park we decided to warm up and hit trails rated 2 and 3.  After lunch we started hitting the 3 and 4’s, leaving the 5’s for Sunday.  Before lunch we ran Patriot Pass and Box Canyon.  While on Box Canyon one member of our group got into a delicate situation which called for a slight recovery.  Once the recovery was completed the group finished Box Canyon and met back at the pond for lunch.  After lunch ended we made our way to Slammer and Can Opener both with a rating of 4.  Both of these trails were rocky creek bed types of trails leading to the base of the mountain.  At the base of the mountain we were greeted with a very slick and damp quartz slap of rock.  Slammer did pose any sort of problems for our group however Can Opener was a different story.  At the top of Can Opener was a large ledge. This ledge had to be overcome to proceed on with the trail.   If you went toward the left of the ledge you were tossed off cambered back down the mountain, if you went to the right you were slammed up against a rock face on the passenger side.  We all made it up the trail unassisted using both routes or by a more creative route.  Can Opener was the last trail completed on Saturday and definitely left its mark on some of our rigs.

Sunday we started the day running Buckhorn North, rated 3, over to Concrete Hill and Sardine Ravine.  Buckhorn consisted of a trail at the bottom of two hills that weaved back and forth, up and over the terrain.  At the end of Buckhorn

Gumby on Concrete Hill

North are two trails rated five on the map however the trail marker rated Concrete Hill a 6.  Concrete Hill was made up of several slaps of Arkansas rock that were literally a vertical climb.  Project Gumby and the Toyota truck were both able to make it up without assistance.  The LJ in our group ended up breaking an upgraded Dana 44 driver side rear axle shaft at the base of the trail and winched up the rest.  In addition to the LJ breaking one of the Cherokees in our group developed an electrical problem which caused a 30 amp mini fuse to blowi repeatedly.

After lunch on Sunday one of the Cherokees and the Unlimited loaded up and headed back to town.  The remaining 3 rigs proceeded to Ultimate Adventure, Four Fingers, Greg’s Rock and One Rock at a Time.  Ultimate Adventure is a rated 4 trail that leads to Four Fingers and One Rock at a time. Four Fingers required one rig to winch at the first section of stair steps.  We probably could have been able to negotiate this obstacle however the driver gave it three good attempts and decide it was time to move on up the trail.  At the end of Four Fingers the trail was split between a 3 and 5 rated trail.  Both of these trails did exterior damage to rigs.  Project Gumby suffered from dent where the top of the fender and A pillar meet while the YJ in our group, which was on the 3 rated trail tore the roll cage padding, luckily the soft top was not on the YJ or it would have been completely destroyed.  The next trail on our agenda was One Rock at a Time.  As with most trails in the park the end of the particular trail was a steep hill climb.  Drivers of Gumby and the Toyota decided to try their hand at One Rock at a Time, while the owners of the YJ sat out the last couple of trails.  The hill climb at the end of One Rock at a Time caused us to  pull cable for Gumby to make it up.  The climb was steep and the rocks were covered with rich Arkansas soil which wasn’t giving in to Gumby’s attacks.  After pulling cable to complete  the obstacle the owner of the Toyota decide to take the by pass.   The final trail was Greg’s Rock.  The owners of the YJ decided it was time to go and start cooking some food, so they headed back to camp.  On Greg’s Rock winch cable had to be pulled for our lone Toyota.  Gumby, for some unknown reason, would not start before proceeding to Greg’s Rock so it was left at the base of the trail.  After our Toyota owner was able to finish Greg’s Rock everyone made their way back to Gumby.  By this time Gumby had sat for a while and fired back up and was driven back to camp.

If you haven’t been to the Superlift ORV, 501-625-3600, you need to go.  It’s open Thursday thru Monday from 9-til sunset.  The park is located close to town and the Hot Springs folk are friendly.