John Canfield
Site Team
Day one of the Palo Duro Jamboree has to be one of the worst trail experiences I have ever had anywhere since we have been wheeling Rubi.
We signed up with the Green group because a guy we have wheeled with off and on before over the last couple of years always goes in that group and apparently there was a good core group of the same guys there every year and a really good trail leader (Lawrence), so my expectation was a good group of wheelers (probably five or ten too many rigs, but that's the usual Jamboree schema.)
The first mild shock was seeing at final count 20 Jeeps lined up in Green. The second shock (and it was a biggie) was looking at a 4-door Sahara with STREET TIRES in the group
: .Oh my gosh. There are zillions of very acute breakovers on the trails and a stock 4-door will be a beached whale at every crest, I have watched stock and mostly stock 4-doors struggle at Palo Duro now for three years in a row.
So this begs the question of why this 4-door mall-crawler was in our group? It was because "he didn't want to be bored.." Well excuse me amigo, you should have been in the bunny group. My buddy Allen wound up strapping Mr. Thrill-Seeker maybe a dozen times that day.
And then there was a red 4-door Rubicon (aka "Big Red") in front of me for most of day one with thankfully off-road tires but he did the beached whale trick maybe four or five times. My friend Kevin had to strap him every time and Kevin told me that the driver didn't even bother to get out of the air conditioning to help - maybe he thought Kevin was a trail guide or a JJ employee. What a jerk.
But wait, there's more...
Enter Mr. Vapor Lock, a CJ7 with a new carb. Beginning about late morning when it was getting hot in the canyon, we would have to wait on Mr. Vapor Lock for maybe five-ten minutes at a time, repeat this about every half-hour until later in the afternoon when he took his hood off and his friend strapped it to his roof rack. Thankfully, that cured the problem. Suggestion Mr. Vapor Lock, test your stuff at home and not on the trail.
And then some bad news ..
There was a really nice guy (friend of Allen's) in a beautiful CJ5 that dropped a tire in a hole and rolled 180* and was upside down. Thankfully the driver and his wife were okay but had a few bruises. Allen pulled him upright, lost fluids were added (oil, coolant, brake fluid) and they finished the trail. This happened late afternoon.
The good news..
The trail ride from hell was over. We didn't make the steep climb out to the canyon rim until about 6 PM (when dinner is served) and we had to make the two or three mile run back to the coach to walk/feed the dog and feed the cat and then drive back to the canyon rim for dinner. At this point we are seriously considering not showing up for day two. We are tired, hot, and quite angry at how the day unfolded.
Day two...
Against all logic, we show up for day two. With great glee and delight we immediately notice Mr. Thrill-Seeker didn't line up with us for day two (maybe he took his wife shopping), and then as a further bonus Big Red was MIA.
And maybe as a "we love you, don't go away..." we won a $100 gift certificate to Rebel Off Road (I have some stuff picked out.) Amazingly we have been winners here for three out of three years completely contrary to our usual luck.
In conclusion...
We're done with the Palo Duro Jeep Jamboree. When a stock 4-door (open diffs and street tires) is assigned to an otherwise good group of rigs that won't get hung up on every obstacle, that tells me that JJ and/or the local guys are not in touch with reality and not considering the other capable wheelers in the group. We are looking at running the Palo Duro Challenge (held in the fall) - better obstacles at a fraction of the cost - not a JJ event.
Obviously not everything is under the direct control of JJ, but what Jeeps go on what trail absolutely is under their direct or indirect control. They failed miserably this time, day one was a complete waste of our time and money.
----------------
The two pictures were about the only fun moments of day one - we're running a very short optional wash
We signed up with the Green group because a guy we have wheeled with off and on before over the last couple of years always goes in that group and apparently there was a good core group of the same guys there every year and a really good trail leader (Lawrence), so my expectation was a good group of wheelers (probably five or ten too many rigs, but that's the usual Jamboree schema.)
The first mild shock was seeing at final count 20 Jeeps lined up in Green. The second shock (and it was a biggie) was looking at a 4-door Sahara with STREET TIRES in the group
: .Oh my gosh. There are zillions of very acute breakovers on the trails and a stock 4-door will be a beached whale at every crest, I have watched stock and mostly stock 4-doors struggle at Palo Duro now for three years in a row.So this begs the question of why this 4-door mall-crawler was in our group? It was because "he didn't want to be bored.." Well excuse me amigo, you should have been in the bunny group. My buddy Allen wound up strapping Mr. Thrill-Seeker maybe a dozen times that day.
And then there was a red 4-door Rubicon (aka "Big Red") in front of me for most of day one with thankfully off-road tires but he did the beached whale trick maybe four or five times. My friend Kevin had to strap him every time and Kevin told me that the driver didn't even bother to get out of the air conditioning to help - maybe he thought Kevin was a trail guide or a JJ employee. What a jerk.
But wait, there's more...
Enter Mr. Vapor Lock, a CJ7 with a new carb. Beginning about late morning when it was getting hot in the canyon, we would have to wait on Mr. Vapor Lock for maybe five-ten minutes at a time, repeat this about every half-hour until later in the afternoon when he took his hood off and his friend strapped it to his roof rack. Thankfully, that cured the problem. Suggestion Mr. Vapor Lock, test your stuff at home and not on the trail.
And then some bad news ..
There was a really nice guy (friend of Allen's) in a beautiful CJ5 that dropped a tire in a hole and rolled 180* and was upside down. Thankfully the driver and his wife were okay but had a few bruises. Allen pulled him upright, lost fluids were added (oil, coolant, brake fluid) and they finished the trail. This happened late afternoon.
The good news..
The trail ride from hell was over. We didn't make the steep climb out to the canyon rim until about 6 PM (when dinner is served) and we had to make the two or three mile run back to the coach to walk/feed the dog and feed the cat and then drive back to the canyon rim for dinner. At this point we are seriously considering not showing up for day two. We are tired, hot, and quite angry at how the day unfolded.
Day two...
Against all logic, we show up for day two. With great glee and delight we immediately notice Mr. Thrill-Seeker didn't line up with us for day two (maybe he took his wife shopping), and then as a further bonus Big Red was MIA.
And maybe as a "we love you, don't go away..." we won a $100 gift certificate to Rebel Off Road (I have some stuff picked out.) Amazingly we have been winners here for three out of three years completely contrary to our usual luck.
In conclusion...
We're done with the Palo Duro Jeep Jamboree. When a stock 4-door (open diffs and street tires) is assigned to an otherwise good group of rigs that won't get hung up on every obstacle, that tells me that JJ and/or the local guys are not in touch with reality and not considering the other capable wheelers in the group. We are looking at running the Palo Duro Challenge (held in the fall) - better obstacles at a fraction of the cost - not a JJ event.
Obviously not everything is under the direct control of JJ, but what Jeeps go on what trail absolutely is under their direct or indirect control. They failed miserably this time, day one was a complete waste of our time and money.
----------------
The two pictures were about the only fun moments of day one - we're running a very short optional wash
