GonZookin 2019: 02 & 03 August

[Rabid Rhino]

Anyone visiting New York over the first weekend in August & wants to get away from the family spending on your credit cards will be more that welcome in Pennsylvania.
Location: Rausch Creek, Tremont, PA
Its about a 2.5 hour drive from mid town Manhattan
The site is over 6,000 acres of varied terrain with some really technical rock crawling and I'm sure there will be plenty of offers of spare seats possibly even drivers seats.

[Rabid Rhino]

We only just made it due to my magpie attraction for shiney new stuff over dull old things.

Thankfully the LJ's builder and fellow Brit, Leigh Catherick came over for the event and finished off the repairs.

When we got to Rausch Creek on Friday morning everyone was split into smaller groups and despite my protestations I was put in the hardcore group with a bunch of old stalwarts of the event.

We mainly ran the difficult black trails and the hardest red trails like Yellow Jacket, Trail 5 Hill Climb, Shoot The Moon, Devil's Den and my favorite 2, the whole length of Death Trap (red) not Tombstone as I've always called it, leading into the whole length of Rock Creek (black) which seemed like a walk in the park.

Us 2 Brits stuck together but Leigh had plenty of offers for rides in the way more extreme crawler rigs, which he took and they did their best to scare him.

Both of us Southerners couldn't think of anywhere in the South of England that comes close to the terrain.

We were wondering if there's anything like it up North. Any suggestions from the Northerners here ?

[Rabid Rhino]

[Rabid Rhino]

These are Rausch Creek and not British green lanes

Trail fix. Repairing Polaris t-case mounts which break alot but are cheap.

An early flop. It's not as if its a really rare Rally Top. (yes it is)

Aftermarket 4X4 also brought this tube bodied, sheet steel skinned leaf sprung genuine old, "old skool buggy".

Aftermarket 4X4's Stealth Samurai on 31s, Wrangler leaves & 6:1 t-case

[Rabid Rhino]

Onto some tougher trails.....

Death Trap not Tombstone as I thought. A red trail. The toughest there are on the 6,000 acre site. (Two 3,000 acre sites)

[Rabid Rhino]

Death Trap, not Tombstone, continued....
I always thought it was Tombstone because the flat slab rocks that stick up out of the ground like.... Tombstones

Bump, Bang, Scrape, repeat for about 1/3 mile

Just try to avoid the pointy rocks taking out the sump, which some do.


After years of abuse from the skinny pedal the 39" Boggers finally proved too much for the stock Toy CV.

We met another group coming the other way that had already done Rock Creek. They bailed out shortly into the trail.

Does this give any scale to the size of the rocks ? They may not be sharp nor jagged but some could do damage and had oil stains to prove it.

Hardly a challenge on Competition BFGs (cheater tyres) and built Toy Axles with Full Hydraulic Steering.

So glad a had a Front Diff Protector.

Not the place for alternator problems and a flat battery as you do stall so much.

[Rabid Rhino]

The end of Death Trap... thankfully.
I came here to rock crawl but this trail is insane. Thankfully it was dry but in the rain it would be impossible. Luckily the rain held off.


35s on locked HD axles & Wrangler springs. It was moving in 2nd low thanks to a 6:1 t-case. This isn't a photo, it's actually video. Its just that slow it looks like its not moving

This is an old glacial river bed, now a "Stone River" which is in a valley so when it rains the water runoff turns it back momentarily into a shadow of the river it once was & carries trees along until they get snagged up.

The run-off flood waters also deposit mud in places which the Yanks found for us Brits to make us feel at home.... no thank you. I HATE MUD !!!!

Broken CV ? This Toy axled Samurai just keep going.

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Some guys in this group coming towards us turned around and followed us out to Rock Creek as they thought repeating the 2/3 mile red trail would be easier than the 1/3 mile black rated Death Trap after just experiencing 50 feet of it.

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You can't blame some of these guys for turning around and coming back out into the light.

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More scraping than crawling on 31s

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[Rabid Rhino]

With Tombstone out of the way it was just onto Rock Creek.

Pics to follow.

Is there anything like this in the North of England ?
If so I'd like to know so I can drive it before bringing my Vitara on 35s out here in the next year or so.

[Rabid Rhino]

Rock Creek... a rock or stone river of glacial screed from the bottom of a glacier about 3/4 of a mile long which narrows about 1/2 way through for an escape route.

We decided to take a rest shortly into the trail for a photo opportunity

The "pebbles" are at least engine size.

No route is ever the same

The secret is tyre placement to avoid hitting the diff.

I was told the spaces under the rocks are great for rattle snakes

[Rabid Rhino]

After being told about all the rattle snakes...I didnt get out again so no more photos


Leigh posing. He didn't know about the rattle snakes

This is the half way mark where the trail narrows and another trail cuts across it

We were told later it's not the scaredy cat noisy rattle snakes you need to worry about... it's the Copper Heads, which are more poisonous, aggressive/territorial and quicker.
I'm never going again.