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Clayton July 28th-29th

2K views 18 replies 8 participants last post by  Bruiser 
#1 ·
Clayton RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


The place was just Awesome!!! The trails, Slims Offroad, Rudy and the town itself. Will definitely being going back again!smokin

OldGoat has pics and mudgod has some video, I'm sure they will post later on. I will give a play by play later tonight if mudgod or OldGoat doesn't by the time I get back online.
 
#2 ·
Told you!

My favorite place to wheel. smokin Glad you enjoyed it.
 
#3 ·
I have not heard of anyone that has been there that does not have the same response. It has been my favorite since we went there. Awaiting the play by play!
 
#5 ·
Guess mudgod and OldGoat are Asleep! lol

Left Gilmer at 5:30 AM, arrive at Clayton Lake State Park about 8:30/9 AM. Mudgod and I go into town to fuel up the D350 and get ICE. Also had to get some 12M bolts to get mudgod's roller fairlead onto my winch. Got lucky at the local Coast True Value! While in the True Value mudgod ask a local if he know's where the "Offroad Park" is, he says it's easier to show us than trying to tell ya! So the kind soul leads up to the dirt/gravel road to where the entrance is for the park. See what I mean about Clayton and the people being really cool! Anyway we drive up to the entrance pull in and see where you pay, an old transmission with a lid on it! Turn around and head back to the cabin.

After a quick lunch OldGoat, mudgod and I head out towards Flagpole Mountain for some wheeling. The trip into town on the hwy was a slow one. With my front tires aired up to 15 psi and rear still down in the single digits I think top speed was about 25mph. OldGoat was behind us doing about 15mph due to no feel in the full hydro steering!

We make it to the entrance and pay are fee (20 bucks) for the day. Head down into the base of the mtn. and first trail we see is Wet-N-Wild. Course it's dry as a bone with the no rain they have been having like everyone else. It's a pretty simple trail (due to it being so dry) until you get to the exit. I take out two wheel studs on a small boulder with my extra long lug nuts getting in the way. Then I take the line to the right to get out, no prolbem. Then OldGoat comes up in Rusty just coasting along. OldGoat takes the line to the left which is a pretty good size boulder. Gets his front tires up with no problem, but gets hung up on one of his link arms brackets. He backs up then goes for it again and POW!!!!! right rear axle shaft snaps by the hub.

So after winch OldGoat out we drive up to the house on the hill to meet Rudy, the guy that owns the land. While there we ask if he might have and Axle shaft for a rear Ford Dana 60. He does so OldGoat makes a smoking deal, actually the guy was going to give it to him, then head back to fix Rusty.

We drive around on the top of the mtn. next to where the airstrip is for about 2 hours, I don't think that road was going anywhere so we turned around. We head down another trail that looks like we lead us back down to the base fo the mtn. where all the marked trails are. On the way down we come across "Cake Walk" (the upper half) and decide to take it. I'm up first and do fine until about half way up. I'm trying to ease over this small two ledges and the rear driveshaft decides it wants to become a pretzel. So we take it off and head back to Rudy's house to see if he had a piece of pipe to make a patch. No luck there after to looking for awhile so he suggested we go see Slim. Walk up to Slim and ask if he could make a good driveshaft out of these two pieces. He says I think I can come up with something. Well after about an hour I have a complete new driveshaft made out of sch. 40 pipe (1/4" wall) painted up and ready to go. This guy (Slim) is amazing, he can run a lathe like nobody's business. What I had to pay for the driveshaft was unbeilevable, I wish I would have known about him the first time around.

That's the end of the first day. I will continue with day two (Sat.) tomorrow. It gets better!
 
#6 ·
LOL. Yup! The first trip into town we went to the Dollar General. We asked if the sold firewood, that we were camping. They said " Hold on and we will call slim to see if he has any" Get off the phone and they said " Slim did not have any ready but he was going out back to cut some for us. Just go up and meet him." It is an amazing place. On another trip Slim actually removed a broken shaft off one of Benji air shocks, welded up the broken shaft, turned out down in the lathe and then made a new hiem assembly out of a couple different things.
 
#7 ·
Eric has a very good story going on here, so I will let him finish it. (I hate to give away the ending). Eric did forget to say that I made some Jambalaya for supper that night. It's funny how people think that the food they are eating is better than it really is after they go all day without eating.
Clayton is a very nice place to wheel. The place we where wheeling at was called "Flagpole Mountain" (I think). One thing I will say about the trails (we did) is that they are hard and fun from the get go. Wet-N-Wild is part of a mtn stream that flows at the base of the mtn. It has nothing but Basket Ball to Couch size rocks. For our trip it was dry, but still a blast to drive (and ride) in. So Wet-N-Wild is more of a flat trail on a level part of the land with 1.5- 2ft water fall at the end (dry for our trip).
"Cake Walk" was another trail we did. To me it was alot like Wet-N-Wild but it went up the side of the mtn. Nice ledges and lots of rock in the ground. Close to the top, there was a 12"-15" log laying across the trail. Something you can eather cross or drive around. Past that, there is a large slab of rock that most have been 10ft wide and 2+ft tall. I have some video of Rusty trying it.
The place reminds me of Glimer, because thier are trails that wind through the trees, but the trails are longer, also they a hard and challenge the drive from the start. A spotter could walk the whole trail and be needed there.
Eric touched on it, if you go to Clayton, and you break, there is a guy at the base of the mtn that will work on your stuff. He told us to Knock on his door 24hrs a day if we needed him. He also has a lot of part trucks laying around, so parts can be had (maybe), if not he might be able to make it for you. Slim even came to the park to make sure we where OK.
 
#8 ·
The last time we were there Wet n Wild was wet.

The name of the OHV Park is Green Acres. It is on Flagpole mountain.
Here is the ledge on the top of Cakewalk. That is what Benji was working on when the Rear top link mount wraped up and allowed the axle to point the yoke straight up breaking the rear air shocks in the before mentioned repairs.Benjis tires are 39.5 so I belive that ledge would be a 3+footer!

 
#9 ·
I didn't want my fish story growing, so I guessed a little lower. I watching the video of Rusty climbing black sheep now. Mark let me drive up it. When ya'll watch it you need to look for Mark at the bottom of the hill to get a feel of how high it is.
 
#10 ·
Black Sheep is a great trail. Slim is awesome! I am surprised he didn't wheel with you guys...
 
#11 ·
good time

Had a great time on this trip! I left Carthage at 3:45 AM and met with Bruiser and Mudgod in Gilmer at 5:20 AM. The drive to Clayton was nice and as we got closer to the park the scenery was great. The cabins at the state park are nice and the A/C will freeze you at night. I hope the heater works as well in the winter time. The lake looked nice even though we never had time to fish. Maybe next time. We had a great meal friday night. It was Eric's Birthday. Mudgod made some rice with chicken, shrimp and suasage in it mmmm good. The beverages were very cold all weekend long and tasted great with this meal and the pizza we had saturday night. There is just no way to really describe the people in this town. Everybody we had contact with was nice and helpfull. Slim at Slim's Off Road was an off road mechanic superman. This guy fixed a problem with my starter which had left me stranded at the bottom of Black Sheep X. I got lost on my way back from the cabin to Slim's to meet up with Mudgod and Bruiser and 3 local gals knew right how to get to Slim's. All the people in the town are fine folks. Did I already mention this? lol There are many more trails to explore and i am really looking forward to the anniversary run that will be held there this fall. It should hold somehting for every rig and wheeler.
Here are some pics, the rest are in my gallery, OldGoat's 81 Ramchop on the last page.









 
#14 ·
Looks like a good time.:toast:
 
#15 ·
Well, I have been waiting on Goggle all night on the Video. I think I'm going to put it on Put File and slit it in two.
 
#16 ·
Day Two!

Well after waking up from a good nites rest and great meal by chef mudgod we head into Clayton once again. We unload near the entrance to Wet-n-wild and head out in Rusty to go fix the M880 that we left overnight on Cake Walk. Get to Cake Walk and proceed to fix the M880. Get the new driveshaft installed and I drive to the top of the trail and wait on OldGoat to come up so he can take the 3+foot ledge at the end of the trail. He came close to making it but got hung up on his link mounts.

Next we take off towards the base of the mtn. to get back to OldGoat's tow rig/trailer to do some tightening up on the M880 and Rusty. While we were there we ate some lunch and B.S. some with Slim that stopped by. Started talking about Cummins engines and got talked into letting him tweak on my 92 D350. Seems there isn't anything this man can't do!! So mudgod and me head back in the M880 to get the D350 to take it to Slims' so he can work his magic on the pump.

We meet up with OldGoat and head out to run some more trails. We head up a trail that isn't marked (mudgod's idea) and it leads no where so we turn around and head to do Black Sheep.

I make an attempt to get up Black Sheep as far as I can and made it up to the small little oak tree on the right side of the trail. This was after the second line. I back down so Rusty can come up. Mudgod is driving Rusty, he is just idiling over every ledge and gets to the biggest one on the right and the front tire gets wedged between two rocks. Mudgod is trying to back out of it and it puts a hold on it and POW! the front axle stub/hud explodes. We use Rusty's rear winch attatched to the M880 to winch Rusty down the hill so we can start to Repair the front axle. This is when we find out that the axle stub twisted, cracked and busted all at the same time. Then OldGoat gets into Rusty to crack her up and Rusty won't start. So we try to let the starter cool off, but no dice. OldGoat and I head into town to get a new starter at the local Napa but they were already closed for the day. So we head over to Slims' to see if he might have one. He has one, but it's no good. So I go back to where mudgod and Rusty are and get the old one that mudgod had taken off while OldGoat and I were gone. Slim makes a good starter out of the two and we get Rusty back to OldGoat's traier. It still won't crack easily so we decided to call it a day.

By the time Slim has my D350 ready it's dark and we are all hungry. So we stop at Simple Sam's pizza (I think it was the only resturant open) and pick up 3 large pizza's. They were very tasty!!!!

Over all it was a GREAT weekend and meet alot of nice folks. If you get the chance you really need to go to Clayton you won't be disappointed! I know I wasn't in the least!!bigok
 
#18 ·
Yea Slim is very fond of those cummins. How did yours run after he tweaked it? I tried to buy the wheels off his truck that is sitting with the motor out of it. He said NO WAY will he ever sell anything off his pride and joy. JJ
 
#19 ·
Truck ran great!!! Has quit abit more power, both torque and HP. He took out my stock muffler and put in a piece of straight pipe, so now it sounds like a cummins!beer
 
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