Killington Vermont Trip Report

The trip started at Derek Marley's house in Killington Vt.
The rig on the left is Derek's 97' D90 Station wagon.

Derek riding the snowy trails of Killington Vermont. Who needs Ski's?

Ah, a beautiful day, wait! what is that?? Yes! a place to play! The twist off begins!

The trip started out on the rough side, but eventually it came together on a nice snowy Saturday morning. Derek, my host, and I met up at I89 and rt 107 for the begining of our trip.

We of course, immediately started checking out each others D90's to see the modifications we both have made to our rigs. For suspensions I had the Rock Ware drop kit with Old man Emu Heavy Duty front and rear springs, and rancho 9000's all around. Derek had the Desert Rover Drop kit with the new OME Heavy duty springs in the rear with a one inch spacer, and Range Rover pink and green springs in the front, with Rancho 9000's all around. We decided that both systems accomplished the same goal but in in a different way. We also compared our tires since he had the 265/85R16 Buck Shot Mudder Radials, and I the Super Swamper TSL radials in 33x10.50x16's. We went on to admire each others vehicles and choices of modifications for almost an hour before moving on with our trip.

First off, Derek wanted to take me on the scenic route through the mountains to his house, but after a long trip through the woods on snow covered trails we discovered a locked gate. This was a problem. Derek didn't understand it, as this gate is always open, but we had to turn around. Sorsha The Dog took this opportunity to make the aquantence of Derek's furry co-pilot Gretchen. They romped and wrestled in the snow while we talked and enjoyed the wonderful wooded area bordered on one sied by wide creek. Well, enough of that time to go! I was immediately showed what to expect on this trip when while turning around the front of the vehicle dropped into a drainage ditch that was filled with snow. OOPS! ok well this took a few minutes, but nothing to be paying too much attention too, except stay away from the edges!

Back on the pavement and after about 30 minutes we were at the trail head for the planned adventure. Derek had just had bran new ARB lockers installed front and rear and was excited about trying them out, I had open diffs, but I always did have open diffs. hehe. I stopped to air down, I wanted to play with the air presure of the Swamper Radals so I started at 18psi. On to our first obstacle a uphill section of snow covered trail that gave me no purchase. alright back all the way down, and use some momentum, that sis the trick. about 20 feet furthur the same thing with no chance of getting to the top. I tried every trick I knew, and always got to with in 20 yards of the right turn onto the trail. After about 15 minutes, I called for the strap. Derek asked why I did not use the winch, I explained that using a winch especially for a turn would take much longer so we set up for a pull. Hmm, wait a minute Derek, let me try airing down to 10 psi and see if that makes a difference. Ok, Derek said, and moved his truck out of my way. Sure enough the rig just calmly climbed the hill. Make a note, always air down!

This was a nice crisp day with layers of snow storms passing through, making it a wonderful winter wonderland feel to the whole trip. This was all lumber leased lands, and second growth forrest with very little vegetation. I am trying to say open forrest, not over grown, with young trees. The snow made this otherwise scenic and mild trail interesting, especially in tight spots with turns, where you didn't want to slide into the trees. Of course there are the occaisional surprise obstacles covered by snow that pop up and say; hello! The worst to me was a section that was a little off camber, that put you very close to an erroded edge of the trail, with a 25 foot drop into the stream bed! To make this worse it was on a turn, and the rig would slip towards the rather discouraging drop. I did not want to be one of those pictures of a D90 upside down in a stream! Alright so we made it, no big deal.

Well we twisted ourselves between the trees running through the carpeted forrest until we came to what basically, thanks to the lumber company, was a dead end. The Lumber Company had made a berm, which was not the problem for or courageous adventurers, but seemed to puposely pile all kinds of stumps and downed trees in our path. Well that is not very neighborly of them not to share the state forrest, what do you think Derek? We agreed we wished we had the time and equipment to fix the trail, but it was getting late and darkness was sneaking up on us, so we decided to go back the way we came and call it a day.

Wait Derek says, I want to play with my new DR suspension! So off Derek goes to play on the Berm trying to get twisted up, ofcourse off I go to guide him so he can get the most twist out of the obstacle! He finally succeeded with great effort to get the desired affect, so I could take his picture.

Well now it is getting dark we need to go home. Nope, I want to play now! Off I go to perform the same grueling effert to do what every wheeler tries to avoid, get cross axle'd! I could, off course, not get cross axle'd with the RW suspension but I wanted to get it as twisted as possible! Aren't we a sick bunck. After about 20 minutes I had reached the optimal position the berm allowed. I got out and pushed up on the rig explaining it isn't close yet, and settled for the photo op. Of course you can tell by the pictures, that I lightened with the computer, that it was getting pretty dark on the mountain, so after this exercize we did finally take the snowy slippery sliding trip off the mountain for some beer. another perfect day wheeling.

Brian Bonner
The Irish Rover

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