SEQLD- Daytrip to City View 4WD Park - 18th Nov 2012

[Fabes Member Find all posts View Profile Close Fabes]

Great day out today, thanks to Gumboot for organising it was great to meet some fellow pp members.
Crazy weather nothing like being on one of the highest points of city view only to have to descend in heavy rain and hail.

Here is a group shot at the beginning of the day to start things off....

[Fabes Member Find all posts View Profile Close Fabes]

Another group shot...

[A10 Member Find all posts View Profile Close A10]

Certainly was an interesting day out with the rain and hail combined with steep slippery slopes. And of course the training and team bonding exercises.

Even with the mostly gloomy weather, there were some spectacular views.


The sun came out briefly at the end of the day just before another storm approached.


Thanks to Rob for organising the day and everyone else, especially Craig, for your help with our training.

Graham

[gumboot Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close gumboot]

Trip Summary
Well what a day, I am sure at the start no one expected some of the events that would
unfold later

So morning broke to some rather dark clouds and rain forecast, driving down past Beaudesert
it was obvious that a lot of water fell overnight. Arriving at the CitiVew 4WD entry you
are presented with the first 4wd challenge, the driveway to get in. A mission in itself
this morning, steep, wet and very slippery. At this stage no one had even aired down. This
was a taste of what was to come in the 1000 acre park…

Everyone turned up on time at the office and what a great turnout. We had 9 Prados for the
day , a bunch of family’s, heaps of kids and a nice mix of new and regular faces.
Steve the owner who I spoke to the day before, turned up to say they had a lot of rain
overnight and all the tracks were much increased in difficulty and some were down right
treacherous. He was very clear , BE CAREFULL. (Several trucks were stuck the day before
and the had major recovery’s in the morning as they could not get them out overnight)

He suggested we stay to the left side of the park as the right has very steep drop offs
and with surfaces like ice that were extremely slippery, a slip off the edge was very
possible if you were not very careful. So we decided on the left side, which does not have
really have many drop offs ( but we were to find a few later in the day but more on that
later) but the downslide the tracks were a lot more challenging ( they needed some
maintenance) , Steven mentioned on the map all the left hand side blue runs on the were
now black at this stage and black were red. But that was in the dry, with the amount of
rain, the difficulty increased considerably again. As there were several new people , we
decided to take it nice and slow and make sure everyone was OK. We put the experienced
people front and back especially with winches and the stock prados with highway tyres in
the middle. A wise decision as we were to find out later…..
A map of the tracks is here.





Well in any big group, the first trip is always to the toilet, a logistic exercise in
itself as there is only One on the entire property…..



We drove over to the left side via gate3. And lined up all the Prados down in the creek
camping ground for the ubiquitous group shot



Continued

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From the campground, you just cross the creek to start the climb . But there were also a
couple of little climbs up that were much more challenging, one steep one and one heavy
rutted one. I thought it was a good way to test out what the tracks were like, so I gave
both them a crack. Well mother nature soon should me who was boss... Decent tyres, locker
etc and there was no way I was getting up that hill. In the dry it would be different , but
with the very wet soft mud , it was just zero traction and with a limited run up due to a
dip at the start, you just could not get the momentum up. The Prado would just slide
backwards when you stopped, so we moved on and would come back to that.

A few short climbs and off the right there in a nice little play area with mud pits, and
places to test articulation. The group splintered and Shane took a more challenging track,
with his well set up Prado with Cooper St Maxx tyres and lift, he got through no worries,
but George behind him was on standard tyres and just could not get traction through the rutted
holes. We had our first recovery of the day. As George could not go forward, Shane hooked
up a snatch strap on his opposite recovery point and used the angle to help him over the
lip. It was just a nice gentle pull, no violent snatching, no damage and he had enough
momentum to get over the lip. Nicely done. It was also a very telling to see what the
difference a good set of tyres made in conditions like this. A good training exercise as
well



After this some of us had a play in the pits. Craig was first to blaze the trail with several following. Shane lining up the Prado





Shane, its time for some sliders mate. Crunch went the side steps



Continued

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After some fun it was back on the tracks for the climb to the top campground. We stopped in an open area for some photos.



Some great views mid way up the mountain.



A good shot of the Prados lined up. Some say in this photo Craig was taking a group photo,
but alas in reality he was calling out to the rain god…..Notice the darker cloud starting
to come across. Soon it would vent all its fury on us.



Some photos of everybody leaving this area.



Continued

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Continued

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Continued

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This is where the track started to get much steeper and rather slippery.
Video of Graham -> http://youtu.be/tX7bsWZCcYU
Video of Shane -> http://youtu.be/-avtC55w_uM

We stopped at the top for lunch., stretch the legs and have a chat. We could see the black clouds and lightning of the storm approaching. The radar showed us this was coming.



So we decided to make a move before the rain came. We didn’t get very far….
The heavens open up on us and it poured. The track becqme extremely slippery and then the
dreaded hail started. That feeling of helpless sets in. No cover for the car, nowhere to go
and you hear and watch it hit the car. It started off small but got bigger, Shane and I
were up the back and rather exposed by this stage and it hammered us. I took a photo at the
start but not of the bigger stuff as I had a macabre fascination of watching it hit my
bonnet….




Continued

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The cloud started rolling in on us up the top.



Once the rain stopped and we finally took a breath , we carefully made our way down. It wasn’t
long before a call came over on the UHF that we had a problem.
Unfortunately one of the prados, caught a slippery patch in descent and it just slipped
away uncontrollably. It ended up with the left front wheel on the edge of a steep drop-off.
There was only 1-2 inchs left before the front wheel was off the edge and the surface was
like ice. The photos just doesn’t how slippery it was which everybody there will attest to.




The great thing about the group is everyone just pitched in and gave a hand. Out came the
Maxtraxx to get some traction under the wheels. We couldn’t winch him backward, so had to
winch him forward.



Next we turned his wheels to align with the track, it was a wise decision to have Craig up
front for the descent as he turned around and hooked up his winch to the front recovery
point.. We then secured Craigs Prado to Rods Prado behind him, so there was a good 5
tonne there. The next danger was if the back pulled around as we could not get a steep
winch angle to pull him to the left as there was a bank there. We put a tree trunk
protector around a tree up hill on the bank and hooked a drag chain up to it and swapped over
the towball to a recovery point to attach the chain. So with his rear chained to a tree
this would prevent the rear slipping around and down as Craig winched him around. Craig
did a top job on the winch and we slowly winched him around and he slotted perfectly back
into the track ruts. A big sigh of relief was heard. A couple of things to learn out of
this, a drag chain is very useful addition to the regular recovery gear as it is easy to tie off
to a specific length and perfect for anchoring and the Maxtraxx were great for getting
some traction on the slippery mud. We decided to call this Sphincter Corner from now on.
But the action wasn’t over

Just 5 metres up the road. There was a deep rut , that graham got stuck in , with the Prado
hard up against the bank , the wheels spinning with no traction in a couple of deep ruts.
The Maxtraxx were called into duty once again. Four of them positioned by Rod (hereby now
known as the Maxtraxx Mud Gopher) he did a great job. A bit of rocking and some traction and
Graham was out. We left them in the ruts and got everybody through.

Below is a video of Hazza coming down one of the slopes and into a corner of slippery mud.
A lot of the descent was like this.
Video of Hazza -> http://youtu.be/NlXh9pDtkhY


We eventually all made it back down to the camp ground about 4.30pm. Some had to go and we
said our muddy goodbyes. A few of us wanted to tackle the right hand side. Another storm was
approaching so we went to check with Steve at the office. Unfortunately we didn’t get up
there. The right side was absolutely treacherous that afternoon and the risk of a slip off
was very real. With only 90 minutes of light left, hail approaching and the rain starting
to bucket down again ,we thought discretion was the better part of valour . We will
organise to come back to tackle the right hand side another day.

I wanted to say thanks to everyone who turned up to make such a great day. We all met some
new friends and had a great time (it tuned out a lot more challenging than initially
anticipated but hey it was an adventure to say the least - Honestly I didn't know it would hail or you would do more sliding than at the snow....) And I think everybody had a good
time and learnt some tips and techniques. Until next time.

Cheers
Robert

[craigm Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigm]

Nice report Robert..
Here are a few pics that I would add to the mix....

Robert (Gumboot) performing a the trip briefing


Organized chaos for the pre-trip toilet stop...(One way in, one way out)


That's right Gumboot, I was seizing a photo opportunity and not praying to the rain gods...


And then the heavens opened up....
(Video Grab)


Contd next post....

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

Looks like fun guys...I was thinking about being a late starter, my son in law from the country was going to come with me.....he decided to go back home earlier, and the Minister of Finance had me doing other things...looks like my Maxtrax might have come in handy!!

[craigm Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigm]

After sitting out the Storm we gingerly continued on our way negotiating some slippery sections at which time our first major recovery...(Sorry about the pics quality but humidity was getting the better of my camera...)


Another view...


A10 (Graeme) suffering from a momentary lapse of momentum and deciding to "take the easy way out"


Contd next post...

[craigm Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigm]

So this was the section where we saw Hazza slide (I mean descend) which is directly before where the winch recovery and MAXTRAX recovery occurred. Half way down there was (some) traction with a sandstone on the high side of the track, and then further down that side was slippery and then the other side offered (some) traction which we were grateful for.


We decided for the remaining vehicles to get through this section safely without any carnage, to leave the MAXTRAX in place until the last vehicle was through...


More time was taken to get everyone down yet another slippery section. Here's Greigrob's descent (shaken, but not stirred... Well maybe a little following his near exit)

Gumboot exiting Track 3...


Contd next post...

[craigm Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigm]

By the time we got everyone back on the main(ish) track, it had dried out considerably. we were grate full that on this side of the park, a lot of the terrain was a well draining Sandy Loam. we steadily decended the mountain.


And heading back to a suitable rest area for a post trip debriefing before saying our goodbyes and heading home., with all vehicles leaving intact and no panel damage other than a few bent side steps (hey Shane )