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'22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread

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Well, it wasn't our intent, but basically all we could get done was the badges in the two days we were there (April, so we had less light), and it was wet.

We explored a little and got 16 done on Friday after a late start. Saturday the combination of taking the Gravel road all the way from the entrance to 51, and then having a traffic jam was a huge time suck. We had to bail to asphalt after 51 and go back in the entrance to make it through 26 by dark. We stayed in a cabin by the west 26 exit, so taking that was the best way out.

Your assessment of 16 sounds pretty accurate, the mud made the rutted section not fun simply because you think you'll tear your fenders off the whole ride. There's some pretty cool stuff, including a waterfall in it, so I'd definitely recommend it if it's dry. There was a pretty solid hill climb toward the end.
Cool, might just bring my plastic clip set and say fuck it and run 16 and reattach stuff if need be. Pretty sure I've even got one of those plastic rivet tools floating around. We're planning on running without front doors to avoid mirror smashing. The big rock section doesn't look any worse than Daniel fronstide, so not too worried there.

We're in a cabin as well, I think on the west side (as far as I can tell from the weird reservation map, hopefully left is west on that lol), but will be able to figure out better I think once I pick up their app with the week sub this weekend. Sounds like proximity may be a big factor in making decisions.

Thanks for the input though Matt, it's appreciated! BTW, we should get up at Uwharrie sometime. Not sure when it'll be on my side, I've got maybe one trip I can sneak in for Aug/Sept before the wife's too pregnant and I gotta be on a short leash, but should make it happen some time.
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Alright, back from Windrock. We (me in the JLR and my buddy in his JKU on a 4" lift and 35s) ended up running the following trails: 2, 16, 22, 26, 27, 83, and 19 - along with several of the G roads (which were surprisingly rutted out for being gravel connector roads). Jeep did fine, a few bumps and bruises, but nothing some rattle can won't fix. No winching for me (though my buddy was not so lucky, more on that below...), my Jeep did great and it went everywhere I asked it to. Don't have much in the way the of pictures aside from the carnage report stuff I usually grab. Some key takeaways for folks that aren't interested in the wall of text:

  • Mud. Windrock is mud. MTs recommended. Windrock would need to be dry for 2-3 weeks to dry out I think.
  • 35s are small for Windrock. Recommend someone in your group have 37s. If not, tread carefully.
  • Everything takes a long time to get from place to place, plan accordingly - bring lunch and drinks.
  • Take your doors off. There are so many ruts out there that are deep and off camber the odds of ramming your mirror into an embankment wall is almost a guarantee on several trails. Avoid the damage, deal with a muddy interior.
  • Not all trails allow Jeeps, several are SxS/ATV only. Pay attention to where you're at.

That being said, wall of text trail report below.

Day 1

Trail 2

Trail 2 was largely unremarkable. Very similar to the type of things we see at Uwharrie, just a bit steeper and wetter for sure.

Trail 16

Trail 16 was difficult - but not in the way I had hoped. I knew mud on 16 would be a thing, but I had hoped that since it had been dry for ~4 days prior that things would have dried out. They did not. In what would become a theme for the trip, it was extra slick out there with tons of standing water. I am not a fan of mud, and while I knew there would be some mud on 16, the overall volume was intense. Most of the rocky sections on this trail are on hill climbs, on muddy hills, that are quite steep. The few that are scattered throughout the rest of the trail are relatively tame - a stock Jeep could pick through the rocky sections with some good spotting, and being on 37s and a decent amount of lift I had no issues with these sections.

The mud and ruts on 16, however, are where the difficulty lies. The ruts have eaten far enough down into the trail that the embankments are 1.5-2 Jeeps high. YouTube videos do not them justice. The side angles are enough that my seatbelt was all that was holding me in the Jeep for several of them, and the water in some of the holes was 2.5-3 ft deep. 37s were just barely enough tire to keep my diffs out of the high spot in the middle of the ruts. My buddy on 35s was not so lucky. He was constantly dragging his diff skids. Multiple times he ended up just resting on both diffs with no traction for any wheels and needed to have his Jeep rocked off of the part of the rut he was stuck on, or tugged off of it.

To make things more interesting, when we got to the first big (and optional) hill climb on 16 we ran smack into the back of a 10-15 strong Jeep club out of the Tampa, Florida area. They did not disappoint on the Florida Man front, which I'll get to later. They gave some friendly spotting as I went up the climb (my buddy chose to bypass as it was quite slick and he is on ATs - we had not yet run into the issues with the ruts, more to come on those...) and so we decided to just follow along at the back of their group. I kind of wish we would have asked to bypass - tagging along with them turned Trail 16 into an ELEVEN HOUR ordeal. It should have taken 5-6 or less.

After the first big hill climb you enter the mud section of the trail. I do not enjoy mud, and this was no exception. The embankments are very deep and the mud holes are as well. A 3 ft or more vertical drop is not uncommon. You have very little control of where the Jeep goes - just put it in the ruts, point, and shoot. It was at this stage of the trail my buddy - and many in the Florida crew - started running into issues with hanging up on their diffs. This slowed everything down dramatically. A few folks lost fender flares and mirrors. Tire poke is a serious benefit at Windrock. Even with -12mm offset, I scraped up my passenger fender decently.

Eventually, we made our way higher up the mountain and found some rockier climbs. Again, it was slow here as people got hung up (can't really blame them, very different from Florida wheeling I'm sure). Some of the rocky sections were OK fun, but with the trail as narrow as it is, very few line options so it's more about what equipment you're packing and how well you stack rocks if your Jeep's too low/long.

Eventually we made it to a serious hill climb at the end with 3 route options - far left was the "easier" line. It was slick and rocky and very steep. It was only the "easier" line because the middle route was impassible on 37s. The ruts on the middle route had been dug out so much that nobody could make it up without winching, except for a TJ buggy on 40s or 42s (more on him in a min). This route was a slick climb with a hard left halfway through, which is where the ruts were absolutely tore up. The right line was so tight and off camber that it was a no-go with how wet it was out there.

The first person to go up tried the middle route apparently, and had to winch, breaking their hard top as the hole where the left hand turn happens is so off camber and deep that it dropped their Jeep against the passenger side embankment while winching up.

At this point, everyone else decided the left line would be best. First lady to go up it, however, ran into an issue with the spotting from the leader of their group. The left line has a very large, sloping boulder at the beginning of it, right next to a large boulder sticking out of the embankment on the right. I didn't get video of the actual climb, but you can see the beginning of the climb in the shot below.

Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690814039294


Anyway, ol' boy ran the first Jeep - a 4 door JL - up the boulder at an awful angle and she slipped off and ran her door along the boulder, getting into it pretty good. This spawned a frenzy of rock stacking and further bad lines until she got up and over eventually.

Finally spotter bro ran up the middle line, in a nicely built, V8-swapped TJ/YJ/CJ (I think TJ, but it had a flip down tailgate, so not sure if a conversion or a really built older Jeep), and proceeded to get stuck and just wailed on the throttle for like 10-15 minutes, not long after lecturing people on just doing a few tries and winching to avoid breaking things. Not impressed.

People then began going up the left side on a better line that we helped them figure out and most began winching up - very slick out.

Then, his buddy in the TJ buggy ran up the middle line - they made it (with a V8, 60 front, 14 bolt rear, and 40s/42s they were built for it) by just staying wide open the whole climb - but they didn't get out of it when they should've and ended up rolling the Jeep at the top. Instead of attaching any of the 3 or 4 winches at the top of the hill to the Jeep to roll it over, they started shouting for everyone on the bottom to come up and push the Jeep over. We opted to wait for them to realize they got winches up there that could do the job in a safer fashion.

Anyway, finally my turn, and my little 2 door makes it up the left line with no winching and no drama, turbo screaming the whole way, just enough momentum to keep from bogging down and getting stuck. Of course, I had turned my GoPro off while waiting for someone to finish winching up and forgot to turn it back on, so y'all will just have to take my word that I didn't winch lol. I think the folks at the top were surprised that I made it, and so was I - I had already plugged in the winch controller and was ready for the pull when I lost momentum.

My buddy wasn't so lucky, unfortunately. The ruts were simply deep enough that he kept diffing out and losing grip, ending his climb. Since he has no winch, I spun around and winched him up with minimal drama. Factor 55 aluminum snatch ring worked great as I couldn't do a direct pull due to a turn in the hill.

The next obstacle was a very steep hill that's made of very soft dirt. Unfortunately my buddy ended up crossed up on this hill, with the back half of his Jeep off the side of the hill in a 3-4 ft deep gully. Backing up and tugging him up the hill was a challenge - I was low on gas and the hill was steep enough that either I was failing to draw gas up the pump or traction control was kicking in and preventing me from staying in 2nd gear for power. Was a big pain in the ass.

We were so tired from this all-day ordeal that we didn't even notice until the next day that the Florida crew skipped the ledges at the top of 16 - the one damn obstacle I wanted to try - and we had blindly followed them off the trail. I'm pretty pissed at myself for that. Not enough to re-run all of 16 out of my own choice (I'd tag along with someone if they wanted to though, but with a warning about the mud), but if we're back at Windrock at some point I may drop into 16 at the top and run the ledges just so I can say I've the whole thing without winching.

Day 2

Trail 22


Trail 22 is long and is suitably moderate. A few muddy climbs and some rocky sections, but nothing overly difficult. There's a good set of stair step ledges to play around on. It's a long trail, but it's mostly point and shoot.

Trail 26

Trail 26 is also suitably moderate, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. The waterfall drop at the beginning is fun and looks way steeper/sketchier than it is. 26 has a long rock garden as well that's mainly point and shoot, but fairly fun. With a Rubicon t-case and gearing you can pop the Jeep into 1st and basically idle through at a happy speed, worrying only about steering and wheel placement. Not a lot of line options - it's also point and shoot - but you do still need to put your wheels on the tall stuff to avoid whacking into axle and undercarriage stuff.

Trail 27

Trail 27 is meh to me. Not so different from like a Falls Dam at Uwharrie, but with more mud and ruts and not a ton of rocks. A blue/moderate trail, the ruts here were deep enough that my buddy needed a tug off the middle of the rut as his 35s just weren't touching the ground.

Trail 83

Trail 83 was OK, nothing special. I would've liked to have done Trail 82 on the other side of the hill from 83, but I had promised my buddy that we were doing blue/moderate trails on day 2. Some neat rock faces on the side of the mountain as you're bouncing along. More mud here too.

Trail 19

Trail 19 was nothing too special either, but did have more of a classic mountain Jeep trail vibe. Not so many rocks, but a little less mud and definitely less well traveled. Was a small fallen tree we had to winch out of the way. The gravel connector road at the top of the trail runs along a ridge and you can get some nice views over the brush at the top every once in a while.


Windrock Final Thoughts

In general, I was very excited for Windrock. Being in the mountains, I was hoping for rockier trails - something higher in difficulty than Uwharrie, but in a technical fashion like picking good lines, being able to figure out rock gardens and pathing for your Jeep, etc - but in that regard I was disappointed. Windrock, for the trails we ran, was mainly mud and ruts. Trail 26 was rockier, but not all that difficult, and there were still huge pools of standing water to navigate. So, all told, I'm less enthused about Windrock. I'll have to do more research on some of the less commonly run black/blue trails to see if there's anything that fits my desire for rocky trails that are harder than Uwharrie but also not buggy trails. All told, I didn't dislike my time there, but I had hoped for it to be different than it was.

Anyway, carnage post to follow. I hit pretty much everything underneath - lots of rocks under the water in the mud holes that you can't see, and since you don't really have much choice but to drive down the ruts, you just run over the shit under the water you can't see.
 
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Alright, random picture/"carnage"/"oh man look at how much mud" time. Drug pretty much everything under the Jeep this weekend - but steering stabilizer survived (somehow) and I even managed to de-mud most of the Jeep:

Trail 16, random photos:

Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690816633565


Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690816451626


Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690816655440


G1 leaving 16 towards the General Store:

Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690816590606


Oh man all the mud:

Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690816712576


Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690816728365


Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690816845588


Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690816870760


Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690816891160


Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690817003436


Felt so good to get it clean:

Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690817076912


Buddy playing on the stair steps on trail 22:

Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690816758621


Pavillion off of 27 where we had lunch has a nice creek overlook:

Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690816808958


"Carnage":

Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690816830273


Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690816903969


Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690816953436


Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690816977019


Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690817108909


Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690817130309


Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690817150209


Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690817169830


Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690817190219


First time I've hit the FAD skid:

Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690817288054


Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690817309392


Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690817327356


Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690817343557


Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690817369159


Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690817379799


Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690817393268


Even caught the rear axle tube on something:

Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690817411778


Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690817425311


Rear diff scrapeage is mostly from dragging in random spots in the ruts:

Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690817452328


MC bumper brackets helped, but didn't stop bumper flex on a hard hit on 16:

Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690817501142


Jeep Wrangler JL '22 JLR 2.0T build progress/wheeling thread 1690817512418
 
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One thing I guess I should add in addendum to the wall of text above is - for a stock Jeep at Windrock - most of the blue trails are out of reach without a lifted Jeep with you, hopefully on larger tires. Trail 26 may be doable, but will take time and good spotting to avoid undercarriage/axle damage. 22 is a little sketchier than 26 due to some steep, slick climbs. So, for the most part, not overly stock friendly, even stock Rubis.
 

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  • Mud. Windrock is mud. MTs recommended. Windrock would need to be dry for 2-3 weeks to dry out I think.
  • 35s are small for Windrock. Recommend someone in your group have 37s. If not, tread carefully.
  • Everything takes a long time to get from place to place, plan accordingly - bring lunch and drinks.
  • Take your doors off. There are so many ruts out there that are deep and off camber the odds of ramming your mirror into an embankment wall is almost a guarantee on several trails. Avoid the damage, deal with a muddy interior.
  • Not all trails allow Jeeps, several are SxS/ATV only. Pay attention to where you're at.
Thank you for this version…… I’m sorry but it’ll take me a couple days to read the rest of it….? …I hate to read, I like looking at the pictures…….?
 

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Alright, back from Windrock. We (me in the JLR and my buddy in his JKU on a 4" lift and 35s) ended up running the following trails: 2, 16, 22, 26, 27, 83, and 19 - along with several of the G roads (which were surprisingly rutted out for being gravel connector roads). Jeep did fine, a few bumps and bruises, but nothing some rattle can won't fix. No winching for me (though my buddy was not so lucky, more on that below...), my Jeep did great and it went everywhere I asked it to. Don't have much in the way the of pictures aside from the carnage report stuff I usually grab. Some key takeaways for folks that aren't interested in the wall of text:

  • Mud. Windrock is mud. MTs recommended. Windrock would need to be dry for 2-3 weeks to dry out I think.
  • 35s are small for Windrock. Recommend someone in your group have 37s. If not, tread carefully.
  • Everything takes a long time to get from place to place, plan accordingly - bring lunch and drinks.
  • Take your doors off. There are so many ruts out there that are deep and off camber the odds of ramming your mirror into an embankment wall is almost a guarantee on several trails. Avoid the damage, deal with a muddy interior.
  • Not all trails allow Jeeps, several are SxS/ATV only. Pay attention to where you're at.

That being said, wall of text trail report below.

Day 1

Trail 2

Trail 2 was largely unremarkable. Very similar to the type of things we see at Uwharrie, just a bit steeper and wetter for sure.

Trail 16

Trail 16 was difficult - but not in the way I had hoped. I knew mud on 16 would be a thing, but I had hoped that since it had been dry for ~4 days prior that things would have dried out. They did not. In what would become a theme for the trip, it was extra slick out there with tons of standing water. I am not a fan of mud, and while I knew there would be some mud on 16, the overall volume was intense. Most of the rocky sections on this trail are on hill climbs, on muddy hills, that are quite steep. The few that are scattered throughout the rest of the trail are relatively tame - a stock Jeep could pick through the rocky sections with some good spotting, and being on 37s and a decent amount of lift I had no issues with these sections.

The mud and ruts on 16, however, are where the difficulty lies. The ruts have eaten far enough down into the trail that the embankments are 1.5-2 Jeeps high. YouTube videos do not them justice. The side angles are enough that my seatbelt was all that was holding me in the Jeep for several of them, and the water in some of the holes was 2.5-3 ft deep. 37s were just barely enough tire to keep my diffs out of the high spot in the middle of the ruts. My buddy on 35s was not so lucky. He was constantly dragging his diff skids. Multiple times he ended up just resting on both diffs with no traction for any wheels and needed to have his Jeep rocked off of the part of the rut he was stuck on, or tugged off of it.

To make things more interesting, when we got to the first big (and optional) hill climb on 16 we ran smack into the back of a 10-15 strong Jeep club out of the Tampa, Florida area. They did not disappoint on the Florida Man front, which I'll get to later. They gave some friendly spotting as I went up the climb (my buddy chose to bypass as it was quite slick and he is on ATs - we had not yet run into the issues with the ruts, more to come on those...) and so we decided to just follow along at the back of their group. I kind of wish we would have asked to bypass - tagging along with them turned Trail 16 into an ELEVEN HOUR ordeal. It should have taken 5-6 or less.

After the first big hill climb you enter the mud section of the trail. I do not enjoy mud, and this was no exception. The embankments are very deep and the mud holes are as well. A 3 ft or more vertical drop is not uncommon. You have very little control of where the Jeep goes - just put it in the ruts, point, and shoot. It was at this stage of the trail my buddy - and many in the Florida crew - started running into issues with hanging up on their diffs. This slowed everything down dramatically. A few folks lost fender flares and mirrors. Tire poke is a serious benefit at Windrock. Even with -12mm offset, I scraped up my passenger fender decently.

Eventually, we made our way higher up the mountain and found some rockier climbs. Again, it was slow here as people got hung up (can't really blame them, very different from Florida wheeling I'm sure). Some of the rocky sections were OK fun, but with the trail as narrow as it is, very few line options so it's more about what equipment you're packing and how well you stack rocks if your Jeep's too low/long.

Eventually we made it to a serious hill climb at the end with 3 route options - far left was the "easier" line. It was slick and rocky and very steep. It was only the "easier" line because the middle route was impassible on 37s. The ruts on the middle route had been dug out so much that nobody could make it up without winching, except for a TJ buggy on 40s or 42s (more on him in a min). This route was a slick climb with a hard left halfway through, which is where the ruts were absolutely tore up. The right line was so tight and off camber that it was a no-go with how wet it was out there.

The first person to go up tried the middle route apparently, and had to winch, breaking their hard top as the hole where the left hand turn happens is so off camber and deep that it dropped their Jeep against the passenger side embankment while winching up.

At this point, everyone else decided the left line would be best. First lady to go up it, however, ran into an issue with the spotting from the leader of their group. The left line has a very large, sloping boulder at the beginning of it, right next to a large boulder sticking out of the embankment on the right. I didn't get video of the actual climb, but you can see the beginning of the climb in the shot below.

1690814039294.png


Anyway, ol' boy ran the first Jeep - a 4 door JL - up the boulder at an awful angle and she slipped off and ran her door along the boulder, getting into it pretty good. This spawned a frenzy of rock stacking and further bad lines until she got up and over eventually.

Finally spotter bro ran up the middle line, in a nicely built, V8-swapped TJ/YJ/CJ (I think TJ, but it had a flip down tailgate, so not sure if a conversion or a really built older Jeep), and proceeded to get stuck and just wailed on the throttle for like 10-15 minutes, not long after lecturing people on just doing a few tries and winching to avoid breaking things. Not impressed.

People then began going up the left side on a better line that we helped them figure out and most began winching up - very slick out.

Then, his buddy in the TJ buggy ran up the middle line - they made it (with a V8, 60 front, 14 bolt rear, and 40s/42s they were built for it) by just staying wide open the whole climb - but they didn't get out of it when they should've and ended up rolling the Jeep at the top. Instead of attaching any of the 3 or 4 winches at the top of the hill to the Jeep to roll it over, they started shouting for everyone on the bottom to come up and push the Jeep over. We opted to wait for them to realize they got winches up there that could do the job in a safer fashion.

Anyway, finally my turn, and my little 2 door makes it up the left line with no winching and no drama, turbo screaming the whole way, just enough momentum to keep from bogging down and getting stuck. Of course, I had turned my GoPro off while waiting for someone to finish winching up and forgot to turn it back on, so y'all will just have to take my word that I didn't winch lol. I think the folks at the top were surprised that I made it, and so was I - I had already plugged in the winch controller and was ready for the pull when I lost momentum.

My buddy wasn't so lucky, unfortunately. The ruts were simply deep enough that he kept diffing out and losing grip, ending his climb. Since he has no winch, I spun around and winched him up with minimal drama. Factor 55 aluminum snatch ring worked great as I couldn't do a direct pull due to a turn in the hill.

The next obstacle was a very steep hill that's made of very soft dirt. Unfortunately my buddy ended up crossed up on this hill, with the back half of his Jeep off the side of the hill in a 3-4 ft deep gully. Backing up and tugging him up the hill was a challenge - I was low on gas and the hill was steep enough that either I was failing to draw gas up the pump or traction control was kicking in and preventing me from staying in 2nd gear for power. Was a big pain in the ass.

We were so tired from this all-day ordeal that we didn't even notice until the next day that the Florida crew skipped the ledges at the top of 16 - the one damn obstacle I wanted to try - and we had blindly followed them off the trail. I'm pretty pissed at myself for that. Not enough to re-run all of 16 out of my own choice (I'd tag along with someone if they wanted to though, but with a warning about the mud), but if we're back at Windrock at some point I may drop into 16 at the top and run the ledges just so I can say I've the whole thing without winching.

Day 2

Trail 22


Trail 22 is long and is suitably moderate. A few muddy climbs and some rocky sections, but nothing overly difficult. There's a good set of stair step ledges to play around on. It's a long trail, but it's mostly point and shoot.

Trail 26

Trail 26 is also suitably moderate, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. The waterfall drop at the beginning is fun and looks way steeper/sketchier than it is. 26 has a long rock garden as well that's mainly point and shoot, but fairly fun. With a Rubicon t-case and gearing you can pop the Jeep into 1st and basically idle through at a happy speed, worrying only about steering and wheel placement. Not a lot of line options - it's also point and shoot - but you do still need to put your wheels on the tall stuff to avoid whacking into axle and undercarriage stuff.

Trail 27

Trail 27 is meh to me. Not so different from like a Falls Dam at Uwharrie, but with more mud and ruts and not a ton of rocks. A blue/moderate trail, the ruts here were deep enough that my buddy needed a tug off the middle of the rut as his 35s just weren't touching the ground.

Trail 83

Trail 83 was OK, nothing special. I would've liked to have done Trail 82 on the other side of the hill from 83, but I had promised my buddy that we were doing blue/moderate trails on day 2. Some neat rock faces on the side of the mountain as you're bouncing along. More mud here too.

Trail 19

Trail 19 was nothing too special either, but did have more of a classic mountain Jeep trail vibe. Not so many rocks, but a little less mud and definitely less well traveled. Was a small fallen tree we had to winch out of the way. The gravel connector road at the top of the trail runs along a ridge and you can get some nice views over the brush at the top every once in a while.


Windrock Final Thoughts

In general, I was very excited for Windrock. Being in the mountains, I was hoping for rockier trails - something higher in difficulty than Uwharrie, but in a technical fashion like picking good lines, being able to figure out rock gardens and pathing for your Jeep, etc - but in that regard I was disappointed. Windrock, for the trails we ran, was mainly mud and ruts. Trail 26 was rockier, but not all that difficult, and there were still huge pools of standing water to navigate. So, all told, I'm less enthused about Windrock. I'll have to do more research on some of the less commonly run black/blue trails to see if there's anything that fits my desire for rocky trails that are harder than Uwharrie but also not buggy trails. All told, I didn't dislike my time there, but I had hoped for it to be different than it was.

Anyway, carnage post to follow. I hit pretty much everything underneath - lots of rocks under the water in the mud holes that you can't see, and since you don't really have much choice but to drive down the ruts, you just run over the shit under the water you can't see.
Great write up! I was wondering how it was this time of year, we went early spring and the mud sounds similiar.

That right run on the three way was our biggest carnage last year, the hard left took out our passenger tail light.
 
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Wow! Definitely a lot of mud! Good thing you already had a ton of undercarriage armor.

How are you feeling about the Metalcloak Overline Rock Rails? Sounds like you didn't get to put them through their paces as much as you would have liked.
I hit them only once on 16. Not sure how hard the hit was as the spot where they got tagged was also the spot where the bumper got beat on, so there was just a lot of crunching and banging going on in the back and it was hard to differentiate what was what. I will say the hit didn't get all the way through the powder coat to the metal, so I don't believe it was a super hard hit.

Loved how high and tight they were out there - was not worried about them hindering forward momentum. Did not love how hard it was to use them to get in and out of the Jeep with muddy shoes - it wasn't horrible, but required forethought. Couple that with the fact that I'm limby and gangly (6'3"ish, lots of limb slinging around) and I slipped a few times. Overall, still happy with them, need to work them more though to figure out how happy.
 
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Great write up! I was wondering how it was this time of year, we went early spring and the mud sounds similiar.

That right run on the three way was our biggest carnage last year, the hard left took out our passenger tail light.
I was too lazy to walk up it to look (past dinner by this point, and all I'd eaten that day was a PB&J sammich and a few chips, ready to be done sitting in line and just wanted to GO). Sounds like I didn't miss much that would've influenced my decision lol.

I think the group's overall biggest carnage was in the rut wall section. Pretty sure a JT that was with them took out a mirror and a fender or two. Since the dude leading the Florida crew had supposedly run this trail before we were pretty surprised that he hadn't told the JT guy that it would be a bitch to get that big girl through all the tight spots.
 
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Thank you for this version…… I’m sorry but it’ll take me a couple days to read the rest of it….? …I hate to read, I like looking at the pictures…….?
I'll give you another TLDR then - there's some folks from Tampa (think that's what they said anyway) who were there. They did you Floridians dirty on the representation front lol
 

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I'll give you another TLDR then - there's some folks from Tampa (think that's what they said anyway) who were there. They did you Floridians dirty on the representation front lol
In what way ? ….Probably not Floridians…. Lol…99% of people here are transplants….lol……
 
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In what way ? ….Probably not Floridians…. Lol…99% of people here are transplants….lol……
I'll let you read through to figure that out... lol
 

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