First trip to South Dakota!

[rokrash]

The family and I headed to SD to meet some friends for an introduction to SD wheelin. We hit the trail on Sat. afternoon and ran a bunch of Hal John's trail with no batteries in the camera. Had a great day wheelin which ended in a hole in the CJ-2A's radiator. I drove to camp for a truck and trailer and recovered Cory and ended that day! SD is tough and fantastic to wheel. I need to trim my 14 bolt!

Day 2 we headed out at about 11am and walked a trail called Suprise Canyon, it is new and does not go completely through, but is nasty! We headed to more of Hal John and I was able to make it about 75 yds down that trail and SNAP!

I will post again to finish the saga!

 

[rokrash]

After that break we sent the jeep back to camp with my wife and daughter so we could continue wheelin. When we met back up with Brent, the other jeep with us, he had already begun Suprise Canyon. We met up with a local in a cheap bronco buggy thing that warned us not to enter the trail due to the difficulty and the lack of end (you have to turn and come back down). Cory, Brent and the local headed in. The trail was incredible. Huge rocks and it never let up!

Kyler was jacked to get a chance to ride with Brent!

We ran up to the top by about 3pm and turned to dash out. Local lost a bunch of air and needed more from Cory, and we headed down. Moving right along, Brent climbed over (literally) the huge rock up two pics! Then a few yards further, he came down a huge set of rocks and dug a sharpie into his LS2 oilpan!

It ended up cracking the tranny and blowing oil when it ran.

To be continued. . .

 

[rokrash]

Cory and I headed out in a hurry to get the trailer and more oil.

Meanwhile, the local cracked his t-case in half, but had rear wheel high range. He and Brent worked both their winches to get local down the trail. Every time he hit an obstacle with the front, he spit out his driveshaft.

Cory got back and also helped get them out. Once all were back to the main trail, Brent headed out in a hurry. He left behind a huge cloud of dust and smoke. I had the trailer set up and he hit my trailer runnin and was loaded up.

After Cory and local hit the road, local spit out half of his t-case. Cory had to pull him to my truck, while still having cooling issues. The local ended up hooked by a strap to my trailer for the final extraction!

So ended my indoctrination to SD wheelin. We are still in SD to site see now! Man it was fun!

 

[Meat_]

Looks like some cool wheelin

 

[Gravy]

wow sweet pictures!

that looks gnarly!

 

[chans]

Nice. Is it air shocks front and rear on the CJ2A?

 

[Bart]

Sounds like a fun trip, with plenty of carnage. I'll bet the local was happy that you guys showed up.

 

[Brett]

Holy huge TJ

Looks like it was a good trip up there!

 

[BroncoMama]

Looks like it was a great trip!

 

[Greg]

Nice! I've wanted to wheel SD ever since the mid-90's when Petersons did a trip report up there and showed how 90% of the rigs had no straight sheetmetal anywhere. Thanks for sharing!!

 

[rokrash]

The rocks were brutal, and there was no getting me to run Suprise Canyon!

The CJ-2A runs airbags rear and airshocks front. It works incredibly well!

I would definitely recommend wheeling there. I will return! The rearsteer was extremely helpful on both of the other two rigs, and without it, that led to my demise.

 

[yellowbronco]

Nice report, good to see you out wheelin'! Sorry about the break though.

 

[STPPINZ]

Looks like a fun trip. I went to a year of school in Chardon close to Rapid City. I never knew there was that kind of wheeling.

I feel for you being from Nebraska. I am in Holdridge right now on busness staying in Kearney. The highest elevation around is the freeway overpasses. Its a nice area...but no elevation. Looking foward to seeing the mountains again.

 

[ID Bronco]

Rokrash, do you have any maps of the area you could post up? It isn't any further than many other places and I would love to wheel that. Any info would be appreciated.

 

[rokrash]

I do not have any maps. This was part of the glory of meeting Brent and Cory there, they go a few times a year and know their way around. I ran the GPS while we wheeled, but have no idea how to transfer that to a map. The trails that we were on are all in the camp 5 area about halfway between Deadwood and Sturgis. I would bet that the trails are under 10 miles East of deadwood. In a google map search, I found Camp 5 Road!

 

[ID Bronco]

Thank you, I will check it out.

 

[smashmetal]

Hook up with these folks http://www.bh4wheelers.com/
Many moons ago when I use to live there I was part of the club, great group of folks. They like to keep an eye of the 4x4 sceen in there area, too keeps others out of trouble and to insure there trails don't get shut down either.