After many emails back and forth, only 2 of the Southern High Rollers decided to make the drive, but it was well worth it.

Todd DeSchepper trailered his well used CJ-7 along with my never been scratched LJ, on Friday out to Mountain Home Texas, in a typical Texas blinding rainstorm. Even with all the bad weather, we made great time and talked Jeeps for 5 ½ hrs. Both tents were set up by dark on the trailer, and a feast of Brats and adult beverages were enjoyed by all. The weather was nice and cool at night thanks to the rain we drove through on the way there, but it was beautiful weather for camping.

When we woke up and walked around the tents, we noticed there were close to 50 other wheelers who were there to enjoy the weekend. The usual cast of characters were there from stock rigs to full blown competition machines, as well as a host of tow vehicles. The style prize went to Earl and Chuy from Laredo who had their rigs in the back of an 18 wheeler and slept in the sleeping cabin of the truck. Nice way to drive and camp if you can do it!!

We heard at the drivers meeting a couple from the “banged up bunch” out of San Antonio had flipped their Jeep on the widow maker run around 4:30am the night before. TJ was fine, but the passenger’s seat belt had broken and the passenger was thrown out. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital and diagnosed with a broken collar bone and rib. It was decided there will be no more night wheeling at Tree’s Ranch for awhile.

We wheeled from 10am to 7:30pm on Saturday, and assisted many of the other clubs from Laredo, A&M, and Fredricksburg with trail repairs. This trip was a real eye opener for myself as this was only my 4^th wheeling trip, and wasn’t really prepared to be driving up & down dried up stone waterfalls. Once I got past the screeching and crunches of the trails, the rest was great.

One of the guys from Laredo flipped his Jeep on the side while doing a crazy move out of a dried up creek bed. Nobody was hurt other than a few scratches to his TJ and a bruised ego. We spent a lot of time with mechanical delays because of the other guys in our group, so our group leader told us on Sunday; we would be doing much more extreme wheeling. Todd was real excited and I was cautiously optimistic.

Sunday morning our group was down to Todd & I, 2 full size trucks from Laredo, and 2 college students from A&M in a TJ and a stripped down Taco. First run of the day up Hangover Hill, Todd got right up with no problems. The full size Chevy lost his front drive shaft and steering knuckle, and we left the Laredo boys there to do some welding.

Right after that is when the we started to have some real fun. My scratch free TJ now has a bent exhaust system, broken rear shock, broken light, and a boulder imprint under the passenger door. Todd’s CJ ended up high centered on a boulder which pushed up his transmission which made it inoperable. Good news is we used winches and recovery straps and got both vehicles back on the trailer by 1:30pm.

All in all, a fantastic wheeling weekend and a good time was had by all. The company was great, bugs were minimal, weather was rather cool at night, and Shrockworks and 249 Drivetrain Service now have me as a new customer. Tree’s Ranch seems to be a really good place to wheel. For those who like to see deer and exotic animals, as well as magnificent hill country vistas, there was plenty to see as there is a 30 minute drive into camp from the trails. There are plenty of intermediate to hard trails with no mud, pretty well organized, and hopefully next time we have a team run out there, we’ll get much more participation.

Mike