Razorback Offroad

A few months back, Kory and I started planning to take a trip to Barnwell Mountain Recreation Area for a weekend of wheeling. As usual, life has a way of becoming  busy and I had  forgotten  and basically let everything slide that I was needing to do to the Jeep for the trip. A week before the trip we talked again and started getting the Jeeps ready and gathering supplies. I worked night and day to get my Jeep ready. I had many things to do, put 35″ tires on, replace the track bar with a JKS one, almost completely over haul a winch, add synthetic winch line, take off fenders, fix the toe in with an alignment… the list goes on and on. I took that Friday off and finished up with everything around 4 pm.

Around 6 pm Kory and I headed towards Gilmer, Tx where we had booked a hotel. The drive was pretty uneventful and we arrived at the hotel in Gilmer a little later then expected due to some bad directions. We checked in and surprisingly the hotel rooms weren’t the worst I had ever stayed in. Saturday we woke up bright and early and realized we needed to make a run to Walmart to pick up a few things.

We then filled up with gas and proceeded to Barnwell, checked in and paid our fees to the nice lady that was working. We also bought Texas Offroad Stickers since it had been reported that the local Texas Parks and Wildlife officers had been checking and writing tickets. After that we took off the doors and tops off and disconnected and got everything else ready to hit the trails. We headed down the access road with Kory in the lead to find some of the easier trails.

The first trail we ran was Greenlane (3<>) it was pretty uneventful besides one little section with some roots and a dug out spot or two… this trail was nothing rough at all but a good warm up for our first trip. I think this trail is rated a little higher then it should be as the other 3′s we went on were a lot harder. Greenlane takes you around and connects to Linda Gail (2 <>) rated trail.

Driving Linda Gail is like driving down a bumpy dirt road… it’s a nice drive through the woods but thats about it. When you come out the end of Linda Gail we were right across from the entrance to Clydes Ravine (3<>)… so why not. It appears the first part of the trail was closed it had yellow caution tape and a sign on it so we took the bypass and headed into Clydes Ravine. This is a fun little trail with plenty of places to flex and a couple of spots that had mud/wet clay that made for some slick going. We both tried a little mud hole with plenty of ruts but gave up after little effort because we were trying to stay mud free for the most part.

After running Clydes Ravine we decided to take a little break in some shade, pop open some Gatorade and water and let the Jeeps cool off. I don’t recall how hot it was, but Kory checked on his phone at one time and I remember him saying the heat index was 110 degrees. Next we headed down the access road looking for another moderate leveled trail. What we found was Scorpion Overlook and Spiders Ravine. We decided to give Scorpion Pass (4 <>) a shot it started off easy enough but soon turned in to a steep hill climb and decided we better turn back before it got to rough for us. The whole point was to have fun with out breaking anything on this trip… we still had to drive them home. So I found a spot to turn around and then let Kory back down past me and we headed back.

We then tried Scorpion Overlook (3<>) (which we mistook for Spider Ravine (3<>))and this was a pretty fun trail… it was more difficult than the other trails we had been on so far. I do recall one of the more tricky sections being at the 90 degree turn. You had to make a 90 degree turn and climb a hill with some rocks in the way, it made for a very fun obstacle. There were two ways to go and I think Kory took one side and I took the other so both are passable with a little gas. There seem to be a few trails connected and shooting off here but we ended up coming out at a rocky washboard type of terrain and then back to the access road. Unfortunately before we hit these trails we had decided that stopping to get out and take pictures wasn’t working so well and we should concentrate more on having fun and wheeling and bring someone to take pictures next time, so I have no pictures of us on this trail.

From Scorpion Overlook we found a little play area and took a break, posing and taking pictures. We talked about the trails and looked at the map and ratings and I decided we should try to find Jerry Paul’s Expressway (3 <>). We found it and proceeded down it… this was a super fun trail and we both agreed at the time that it was the best and most fun trail we had ran, it also had really nice scenery. I remember at one point after Kory had made it down a tricky section of the trail him coming over the radio and saying, “hold on… I’m coming to get the camera to take pictures of you, if I had walked that before coming down it I would have turned around.”

After running Jerry Pauls Expressway we drove across the rode and entered Politician (3<>) this was a short, but fun trail… I don’t think we got any pictures on it, but it was scenic and winding loose rock trail that had a few good obstacles on it. After running Politician we talked for a bit and decided to go look for Jeepy Hollow (3<>) we drove down the access rode where I snapped a few pictures of the view from Barnwell Mountain.

We started down Jeepy Hollow and I could tell this was going to be a great trail, there was a little ledge drop off as you proceeded down the hill. A little further on the trail and we found some nice spots to flex out the Jeeps. There was one little section where you had to ride across the top of a gulch, then let your tires slide down in it.. it was pretty fun. I think there was a creek crossing and we came to a fork in the trail… we took the right and this put us on to CM Drive (2<>) we followed it and it turned out to be a pretty boring trail, we ended up at a pile of concrete blocks and a well with a sign saying poisonous h2s gas present, we didn’t see any other way out so we turned around and followed CM Drive back to the fork and this time we got back on Jeepy Hollow.

Kory was leading the way when we came up on a pretty good hill climb, he started up it and eventually got to a spot where a huge rock was in the middle of the trail, you had to put a tire on one of the rocks and squeeze between them with one tire having to climb a rock. He made it on past and it was my turn. I put my tire up against the rock, turned the steering wheel to get lined up and eased in to the gas… thats when I could tell something was wrong. I tried backing up to get a different angle on it, but could tell one of my tires wasn’t acting right. I radioed Kory that something was wrong and then got out to surveyed the damage. “Dang” Why was my wimpy stock tie-rod smiling at me? Then I got a little sinking feeling in my stomach, well… thats the end of the day for us.

At this point all picture taking went out the window, we went in to trail fix mode, the Jeep was on the side of the mountain at a pretty good angle. It was hot as could be and we had to some how get my tie-rod straight enough for me to limp out to the trail head. We climbed up the mountain to Korys Jeep to get the Hi-lift Jack and some tools. We jacked my jeep up and surveyed the damage, and decided we would have to take it off to straighten it, unspooling the winch down and letting it try and bend it back in to place wasn’t going to cut it. We took the tie-rod off and proceeded to try and bend it back… and unfortunately Kory and I couldn’t get it to budge. We took it back to his Jeep and slid it in his bumper and tried to bend it out… we succeeded a little but it had to be a lot straighter to make it work.

During all this we were taking some long long rest periods and water breaks, the sun was beating down and it was sapping our energy. More then once Kory had to go down and grab a part or tool we had left, I’m sure he was worn out. Sitting in an office every day in the air-conditioner just doesn’t cut it for times like this. We decided to find two trees and use the hi-lift handle to slip over the tie-rod for leverage, this required removing one of the ends. We zip tied the tie-rod between two trees using some industrial zip ties Kory had brought, and using the hi-lift handle for leverage was able to bend the tie-rod straight. We then came to the conclusion that we didn’t want to have to stop again on the trail to bend it back if I were to bend it once again trying to get back to the trail head, so we proceeded to hammer his hi-lift handle on to my tie-rod to sheath it. We got everything bolted back down and it was time for me to reverse down the hill (I wasn’t about to try the rock again on this tie-rod) and figure out how to get this Jeep home.

I backed down the hill and when I got to the bottom there was a place to turn around, the funny part was running Jeepy Hollow in reverse was a blast. I was worried like crazy I was going to mess the tie-rod back up… but dang it was fun running it in reverse. When you start Jeepy Hollow its all down hill to a certain point so I knew it was going to be all uphill on my way back. There were a few points I was worried about, but I eventually made it back to the hill climb coming out to the trail head. That’s when I saw the ledge we had dropped down from at the start… I knew I couldn’t stop now, so I just hammered down on it and popped up on the ledge and out to the trail head. I called Kory on the radio and asked where he was, he had told me he was going to finish Jeepy Hollow. He called and said he wanted me to come and put a winch line on him to keep him straight. I found him at the end of the trail and he was almost to the top but had gotten turned slightly side-ways and wanted a winch on him, so we unspooled and and hooked to his Jeep. Personally I don’t think he even needed it, but It’s better to be safe then sorry. He made it up with very little if any help from the winch line.

At this point in time a big storm was rolling in on the mountain and it was time for us to head home or back in to Gilmer. I didn’t know how the tie-rod would handle on the road, I knew my Jeep was no longer aligned since I had bent the tie-rod and we had taken a end off… but we had tried to get the tires straight when we reinstalled the the tie-rod. We drove to the sign in building and started putting the tops on and reconnecting the sway-bar links. It was pretty neat seeing the storm roll in from that vantage point. Lightening was popping all around us and eventually it started pouring down. We both got soaked getting everything back together.

We basically had 3 options, drive in to Gilmer and find a parts store and see if they had a factory tie-rod I could buy and install to drive back home, leave the Jeep at BMRA and come back with a truck and trailer or try and limp it home. I decided on limping it home, and I’m glad I did. After getting on the highway and driving slow for awhile I was surprised to find that it actually drove pretty good… don’t get me wrong it was no where near a great ride, but it wasn’t bad. So I took it slow for awhile then eventually stopped and made sure everything was tight uner the front end, then we started off again. We ended up getting in around 7pm Saturday evening. I was dog tired, it was defiantly an experience.

Writing this a week later and looking back, I had a blast and I’m ready to go again… with a new Currie tie-rod, of course and during a cooler month. A few things to mention, first, upgrade your tie-rod its cheap… really it is. You can get a ZJ tie-rod that is a solid piece thats better then the stock one. It still uses the stock ends, but at-least the bar will be solid. If your going to run stock, go and pick up a replacement tie-rod. Secondly, if your at BMRA during the summer months make absolutely sure you have a cooler full of water or Gatorade… you will need it, trust me. Lastly I want to thank Kory for coming through in the clutch on helping fix the tie-rod and having the right tools. I still owe him a hi-lift handle.

Tread Lightly

Trails Ran :
Green Lee
Linda Gail
Clydes Ravine
Spider Ravine
Jerry Pauls Expressway
Politician
CM Drive
Jeepy Hollow

Here is a good Google map of Barnwell.