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NCLR - Northern California Land Rover Club

November MORG!

DHappel

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Jethro Rising Star

Jethro

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Kids soccer is cancelled and the Granite Bay Beach is literally 5 minutes from my house. Only issue may be the rain we have had the past two days. Prairie city is close as well or we can hit up a brewery in the afternoon owned by a buddy of mine who has a d90 and lr4.

All of it sounds great!

 

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

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DHappel Mentor

DHappel

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The interweb is full of wondrous things.    I had no idea you could find images of armed gophers.  Now I do.

 

As for the rain, I was a little worried about that but I'll have to ask for input from those of you who've been there already - do you think this will be a problem?

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DHappel Mentor

DHappel

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Looks like the weather is cooperating for this weekend.  There will be some mud of course (it is a lake after all) but the rains have backed off and we should be good to go.  Of course, we'll still go rain or shine.

 

As a reminder, 10:00 at the boat ramp.  Use the Granite Bay entrance, Douglass Blvd, then take the first right after you enter the park.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/38.7436976,-121.147924/Prairie+City+OHV,+White+Rock+Rd,+Rancho+Cordova,+CA/@38.745181,-121.1494019,483m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m8!4m7!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x809ae5f764dde9cb:0x4c426968d48c1761!2m2!1d-121.1456758!2d38.6006849

 

We'll be on 146.460 as well.

 

See you there!

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Andrew Winding Newbie

Andrew Winding

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It was good to finally meet you guys! It was a fun time for sure. I was really surprised with what folsom lake had to offer, I wasn't expecting all that. I have pics I'll upload later and I'll definitely be seeing more of you guys, probably after December since I'll be working so much that month.

 

Ted - that was quite an adventure haha. Thanks for the spotting and lifting those branches lol.

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Timbo Newbie

Timbo

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Great meeting all. Had a fun morning. Was the first time I'd actually taken it off road, let alone put it in low range!

 

Fun to see the possibilities in my own back yard! Will have to head over there again soon.

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DHappel Mentor

DHappel

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I have to admit, I was a little skeptical about doing a MORG at Folsom.  I mean - driving around the dry lake shores doesn't sound like much, right?  

 

Wrong.  Turns out it's pretty darn good!

 

The location also turned up a lot of interest - this was probably the biggest MORG we've had this year.  I didn't get a final count but probably around a dozen trucks all together.  (we did have a couple Jeeps, but hey you need somebody to poke fun at right?   ;) )  

 

Since this was my first time going here I didn't pick the ideal meeting spot but with cell service throughout the park plus radios we all kept in touch.  After grouping up we headed north on pavement toward Oak Point where we dropped 'into' the lake.  It's...different.  There are no formal trails so you can more or less drive anywhere you want below the waterline.  You'll find dirt/sand/rocks and some small scrub that's grown over the last couple years of extremely low water.  You can drive right down to the water, though you should keep your eye out for mud if you want to play that close.  

 

There are plenty of rock formations to play on offering simple to crazy lines.  Of course you can just hang out and have lunch by the lake if you like as well.  Come summer, the kids can play in the water but this time of year it would be a bit on the chilly side even though we had a perfect sunny day around 70*.  After messing around in this area for a while some of us headed north, starting with a tricky rock climb (there is almost always a way around the tough spots while in the lake bed area).   Jason Fuller was leading us as this is almost literally his back yard.  Driving a D1 on 35s with dual lockers and an underdrive, he didn't even hesitate going up the obstacle.   I got out and walked it and decided on the line I wanted but slipped off and had to back out and do it a second time to get over.  Nick in his RRC came up next with little problem, and Lucas came up after in Graeme's D1.  This proved to be challenging since it's a manual transmission and does not have lockers.  With a little work, he too got through.  Then Tim Scully came up in his D90.  After a lot of tire spinning from Lucas it looked like Tim was going to just crawl up without ever slipping a tire then just before the top BANG - a front axle broke.  He tried it again w/o the front but decided it wasn't worth the effort and headed home as did some other members of the group while the rest of us started finding our way around the lake to catch up with Jason and Nick.  This was interesting since you're not so much on trails as bushwacking and trying to find existing tracks to drive on.  Eventually we all regrouped and had some lunch, then we left the lakebed and climbed into the trees.  This involved a pretty tricky rutted climb to get out of the lake.  Lucas was the first up and I was still sitting at the bottom of the hill when I heard the distinct sound of bodywork banging into rock.  At that point I decided maybe I should walk up and check out what I was getting into.  Again the lack of lockers combined with the manual transmission made it much more tricky for him and he had whacked the passenger rear quarter below the tail light.  But with a little work Lucas was able to get up and over.  Nick and Jason made it through without much drama, then I headed up in the LR3.  Over the first obstacle I was doing well and Jason commented 'you're making this look easy' - which of course cursed me.  As I approached the second part, toward the rock that had smacked Lucas, I was tip-toeing ever so carefully while trying to get past w/o body contact but just couldn't quite make it.  Graeme and Jason did some stacking and I eventually got through with only a small scratch about 2" long on the passenger door.

 

While this was going on, Lucas was in full road-building mode below me, filling holes with driftwood and rocks for our 2-door Jeep.  He had sliders, but stock bumpers and one drop in particular had all of us riding the rear bumper down a boulder which he wasn't too excited about.  With all the stacking done, the Jeep got through cleanly and we continued on up the trail

 

We did find some tight and overgrown spots along with some good size ruts to contend with but nothing too crazy.  Our next goal was 'the overlook'.  We were relying on Jason's memory to get us there and for the most part he seemed to have it down.  At one intersection we had to choose between uphill and easy or down hill and hard.  We tried up but quickly realized that was wrong so headed back down.  This meant dropping into a large rut then over about a 4' drop-off.   Get it right and you can push your driver's front wheel into the side of the berm and drop down without too much drama.  Get it wrong and that tire will fall into a big hole and risk flopping you.  Jason, Nick, and I made it through on the 'little drama' line.  Lucas and the Jeep both took the (unintentionally) more 'exciting' line and tipped in quite dramatically, though nobody took any damage other than perhaps wanting a change of pants.

 

After this it was a short run up to the overlook.  While here, we saw Andrew and Ted below in the lake looking for us.  Since cell phones work up here, we were able to give them some rough directions and they found their way up the same tough spot we had taken earlier to climb out of the lake and into the woods.  Meanwhile, Jason was regaling us with tales of 'Butt Pucker Rock' (do be careful how you pronounce that in mixed company) so off we went in search of it.  Once there, we got a look at what is a short but very steep granite slab, ranging from about 35-40* but with very good grip.  Lucas was the first down with no problems but when trying to climb out he couldn't make it up and kept spinning tires.  We quickly realized he was only spinning the fronts - seems the diff lock wasn't fully engaging and on such a steep climb there was no way he was going to get out without a locked center.  So for once the LR3's massive weight came in handy when I acted as an anchor point for him to winch himself out of the hole.  We each then took turns going down and back up with nobody having much trouble.  Then Jason decided to show off his underdrive by basically letting the truck walk down and back up at idle with no hands or throttle.  Watching that little demonstration was quite the sales pitch...wonder if Graeme could get us a group buy?   :D

 

About this time we made contact with Ted and Andrew and started looking for a way out.  We had come quite a way and didn't want to run all the way back out through the lake the way we had come in so some exploring was in order.  We eventually came out at Lake Forrest Drive basically in some guy's back yard (well, sort of)  We spoke to him a bit and he was nice about it, commenting on the trucks (I had conveniently gotten myself stuck on a rock by rushing and had to be yanked backward off it) and saying he doesn't usually see nice rigs but more beaters with beer-fueled yahoos driving.  Although he didn't give us any grief, it was clear he wasn't thrilled with us coming out over his property even if it was only about 100'.  The take-away being we probably won't be using that route again.

 

All in all we had a full day with a wide variety of terrain to play on.  I recorded just under 10 miles of trail and about 6 1/2 hrs including time stopped to BS and eat.  Far more than I had expected going in.  We'll definitely have to schedule more MORGs up here in the future!

 

Quite the varied turn out.

D90

D110

RRC

P38

LR3

LR4

D1

D2

Wrangler 2 door and 4 door

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DHappel Mentor

DHappel

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A couple pics from Ted

 

Andrew coming up Lucas's 'driftwood highway'

 

http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz85/zelatore/07%20Land%20Rover%20LR3/MORGs/Nov%2016%20Folsom%20MORG/20161105_155630_zpsqlrpiysg.jpg

 

 

And Andrew and Ted with the rest of us looking down on them from the overlook high above

 

http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz85/zelatore/07%20Land%20Rover%20LR3/MORGs/Nov%2016%20Folsom%20MORG/20161105_151257_zps6zws61lt.jpg

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Andrew Winding Newbie

Andrew Winding

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http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah25/fcdrifter87/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20161105_122038_zpsqsbifmkr.jpg

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah25/fcdrifter87/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20161105_114234_zpsrykmyudq.jpg

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah25/fcdrifter87/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20161105_121700_zpsdmqwt5pv.jpg

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah25/fcdrifter87/Mobile%20Uploads/20161105_205550-ANIMATION_zpsjfyfnhoo.gif

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah25/fcdrifter87/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20161105_151251_zpsq2axlx8w.jpg

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah25/fcdrifter87/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20161106_153700_zpsiwznfl0z.jpg

 

 

http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah25/fcdrifter87/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20161106_153613_zps8xkgotmp.jpg

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Jethro Rising Star

Jethro

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That mud action reminds me when Nick tried that one time and we had to winch him out too.

 

It is just amazing at how much there is too do in such a small place...

 

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

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