We had a great turnout of SEVEN different rigs (and TWELVE people!) show up to ride at Pickett State Park yesterday - five Jeeps and two Toyotas who got to play "Jeep-herder" most of the day.  The day consisted of a whole lot of trail riding with many stops to play on various obstacles.  There were both rocks and mud puddles to wade through along the way, and for the first time ever I managed to keep my foot off the skinny pedal while axle deep in mud......

Nick broke an inner axle shaft trying to climb a 20' tall rock bluff just before lunch time, and after a quick trail replacement (he had to put his "big girl panties" on to get some of the bolts out) we made our way north through several more trails to the magic sandwich shop in Kentucky.  At around 3:00pm we split up - 3 Jeeps and Gabe's dad (in Gabe's Toyota) took the roadways back, and Nick, Gabe, James, and I went back south through the park and over the mountain again.  We rode several more trails until it started to get about dinner time, and then we made the all-too-common mistake of hitting that "one last trail" to find a few good rocks to play on.

The last trail ended up being more overgrown than Brimstone (now I know what Roger feels like - squeezing through tight places, knocking down trees, etc.!), and the deeper we got the more we knew the only way out was forward.  We finally got to put my ax to use to clear a couple small trees in the way, we burned up Nick's winch (smoke poured out the bottom!) moving a large fallen tree off the trail, and James poked a hole in his soft top trying to squeeze under one of many other fallen trees.  I ran out of gas about the time we got to the rocks we were looking for (thank God for the Jerry can!), and only Nick and Gabe tried the scary rock trail straight up the hill.  Nick said the "pucker factor" was pretty high, but they made it OK and we finally headed out.  My poor little Jeep almost slid back down on top of James trying to make it up a steep hill on the way out - I think only my hand throttle and V-8 horsepower saved my bacon.  When it started to get dark we stopped to air back up and get moving a little faster, but we found Nick's front tire was leaking pretty badly out the valve stem.  We used my Jeep and a hi-lift to break the bead and replace the valve stem, and then got on our way.  James and I found out that trying to drive in the heavy dust and the dark (following Nick and Gabe) is a lot like driving in VERY heavy fog - we couldn't even see the road in several cases!

Anyway - we had a great time, even if it did last a little longer than expected.  We all gave Nick a pretty hard time about his Toyota needing trail fixes all day, but he said that was only because none of the Jeeps "tried anything hard".... :-)   Three of the Jeeps came all the way from Athens and one was his first time off-road, so I think we helped to show some new people a good time too.

                                    - Matt Stennett

Yep, riding in the Pickett area, in my opinion, is better than Windrock. It takes quite a bit of easy riding to "find" some difficult rocks but its still makes for a fun day in the woods in something like the 4Runner. Especially since I like to do some hi-range baja on the smooth trails : )

                                                                                                                    - Nick Cooper