Easter Jeep Safari is in full swing, and today Area BFE was hopping with Jeeps, Toyotas, buggies and Ultra4 cars tackling the hard stuff and the moderate trails that Area BFE has to offer. If you have never been to Area BFE, it’s a private property park with a playground and plethora of trails from easy to extreme.
Our adventure took us to a trail named Britney Spears. No, this trail is not cute and adorable like Britney. It is big, evil, has nasty rocks, and is a lot of fun! The entire trail is maybe 300 yards long and it can take 15 minutes… or more than 3 hours. It’s a great trail to spectate on as well because it is short and there are multiple areas that are above the trail to watch.
The group on our trip consisted of all very capable vehicles that managed to get through the trail with only a couple vehicles needing winching, which is good for a trail that starts off with a 5-foot waterfall and continues to a set of boulders the sizes of minivans you have to maneuver around off camber to the passenger side, all while trying not to fall onto your side or lodge your passenger front tire in an undercut.
Rule #1: Make smart choices. Britney did bite one of the vehicles with us with a 5” slice in the sidewall… that would have been yours truly who was leading the trail. But not to worry! Incredibly enough, if you have a spare tire that’s not mounted and a trailer that has a crank-down foot you can break a bead fairly easy on a tire. Plus, if you have an impact wrench to pull the bead lock bolts off (yes, we had to hammer the socket onto a few of the bolts that had were used for traction at some point) you can actually swap a tire in about 30 minutes.
Regardless of a tire mishap, we had success on Britney and managed to get through in under two hours with five vehicles!
Next we continued on to Upper Helldorado and split into two groups for Upper Helldorado and Minor Threat. Upper Helldorado is the most famous trail in Area BFE, and it lived up to its reputation. Several made it through the trail, but several also broke. By 2 p.m. Upper Helldorado had claimed seven vehicles with various breakage, which were mainly axle shafts and hubs.
It was an amazing day at Area BFE for Easter Jeep Safari and we look forward to find what the rest of the week entails.
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