April Meeting Minutes

[WrenchMonkey]

In Attendance:
- Members -
- Jim Busch
- "Big" Jim Crawford
- "Lil" Jimmy Crawford
- Zach Ferriman
- Robert Hull
- Kevin O'Bryan
- Pat Patton
- Jeff Ratliff
- Jeff Smith
- Zach Smith
- Tim Taylor

...and a half dozen spouses and guests.


Treasury Report:
Yes, we have money. Detailed Treasurer Reports in the Members forum here.


Trail Report:
- Badlands Offroad, April 5-7
A great start to the Club's unofficial wheeling season. Good turnout, perfect weather, great wheeling all around.

Kevin, Eric and I got there Friday evening, and met Adam and Dave who had been there all day. We couldn't do any night wheeling, but we did enjoy the nice campground with drinks around a very respectable fire. Your humble Secretary celebrated his birthday. Hard.

Saturday morning, Jeff, Zach, and Craig joined us, and we headed out. We sat in line for twenty minutes to get into the park, while security physically checked every cooler for alcohol. Yes, really. Twenty minutes after that, Kevin's RZR ate its drive belt. Apparently, that's a common wear item, and he's pretty good at changing them, because another twenty minutes and we were on our way.

We played on the sand dunes for a bit, then headed to the rock quarry. Jeff and Zach each tested their new buggies, and Zach soon found his weak link: the 1310 rear driveshaft. Back to camp to replace it and grab some lunch, then back to the quarry. We all had a blast on the rocks, til Adam blew an axleshaft in his D35. He swapped it trailside to a chorus of Beavis-n-Butthead rearend and shaft jokes.

Once he was back together, Kevin lead us east down into the woods near the swamps. Cool, tight little trails. REALLY tight... We split up and limped a couple sick rigs back to camp, while the rest ran the Green Trail til curfew. (Which was, by the way, extended to seven.)

Saturday night was another good time, complete with roasted peeps and a disco bus full of Poles. You kinda had to be there. Sunday, with most rigs broken and the weather starting to turn, we decided to cut n run.

All told, I think it was a win. It's a longer drive than Rush, but it's a much easier haul, all straight and level highway. The facilities are great. Shower house, general store, Food Shack that grills a mean cheeseburger. And actually enforcing the "no alcohol on the trails" rule really did help with the drunk and stupid you see elsewhere.

Pics on the forum here.


Upcoming Events:

- Rush Trail Clearing, May 3-5th
A springtime tradition. We work a little, wheel a lot, and help build Rush into the park we want it to be. This year, in addition to the drawing for a year's pass, the Club has decided to buy all participants a Rush teeshirt from their souvenir shop. Should be great! Signup, details and links in the thread here.

-Southern Shine, Harlan KY, May 25-27th
The Memorial Day official start to summer, one for the bog dogs. Details and thread soon.

- Club Cookout at Rich's Farm, June 1st-2nd
A nice easy daytrip to Rich's private land up outside Hamilton. We're going to try to organize some trail work on the new property, details to follow


Other News and Happenings:

- Hollerwood Offroad Park, Stanton KY
Jeff had a good conversation with the guys running the new Hollerwood Park, down at Natural Bridge. It's a lot of the old terrain we all knew and loved, but now held and operated as private property to eliminate a lot of the drama (and licensing requirements). They are putting a lot of work and investment into the place, and made it clear that we would be very welcome to come and visit. It's definitely a place to watch.

- CORE Tour 2019
It's a ways off, but we're still/already trying to work out a location (or really, a pair) to hold our CORE Tour, since Mud Madness closed. Back-to-back daytrips are hard to coordinate. We had discussed some private land near Sparta, but that may not be working out. I'll start running some numbers and post a discussion thread soon...