CORE New Years 2025 Flagpole Run

CORE has a recurring tradition of going on a New Years trail ride to set the tone for the year. The premise being that if you start the year doing something you enjoy, you’ll spend more of the year doing that thing. So for CORE, that means going off-road!

Attendees:

  • Jendra – Wrangler
  • Ben – 4Runner
  • Brian – Wrangler 4xE
  • Alex – Wrangler
  • Kathy – FJ Cruiser
  • Robert – 4Runner
  • Jeff – Defender
  • Chase – Rivian R1S
  • Bill – Gladiator
  • Kirk – FJ Cruiser
  • Jaymes – Wrangler 4xE
  • Steve – Frontier
  • Michael – Bronco

We decided this year to go up to Flagpole Knob from Skidmore Fork Lake via Dunkle Hollow, and then split into two groups, one taking the quicker and easier route out via Briery Branch Rd, and the other group going down Union Springs. 

With a plan in hand, we put the trip together! A couple of brave souls (Ben and Brian) decided to brave the single digit overnight temperatures and camp from Friday to Saturday in their off-road trailer setups. Brian and Ben met Friday afternoon at Skidmore Fork Lake to test their new trailer camping setups.  They found a beautiful spot along a creek and settled in for a cold night of camp!  A roaring campfire was only able to hold off the cold for so long before they retreated to their tents.  A windy cold night later they emerged and began breaking camp to meet up with the rest of the group.  Their vehicles brought some welcome heat and shelter from the wind!  Overall both were pleased with how their new setups handled the cold.

The arctic campers met the day trippers at Skidmore Fork Lake, where we aired our tires down, had our drivers meeting, and then hit the trail. We were closely monitoring the weather, as the area had gotten a couple of inches of snow a couple of days prior to the trip. There was no freeze thaw cycle in that time, as temperatures stayed well below freezing, so we expected that while there may be snow on the trail, we shouldn’t have too many issues with ice (this turned out to be mostly true!). 

True to expectation, we were greeted with lovely snowy trails, but nothing deep or difficult to traverse. We did have to be mindful of conditions, however, because most of the Dunkle Hollow route was a shelf road, next to a steep dropoff, as we made our way up the mountain. We did end up coming across some icing on the trail, primarily due to the small stream trickles that run down the mountain in various places. What happens, is that these trickles run along the trail in the vehicle wheel ruts, and due to the freezing temperatures, turns into sheets of ice in just one of the wheel ruts. With open differentials, this can be a challenge as one entire side of the vehicle loses traction, forward progress stops entirely. Luckily, a good traction control system or lockers easily resolve this. All of our vehicles were equipped with that equipment, and we continued forward. We did get to one dicy spot where Ben started to slide, towards a dropoff on his passenger side. The cause was that he was too close to that size, and after carefully backing up, and taking a higher line out of the ice patch, he easily moved past that spot.

Things got a little more snow covered as we got higher in elevation, but still fairly easily traversable. We finally made it to the peak of Flagpole Knob, and settled in for a lunch where we could stretch out, chat off-road stuff with like minded friends, and relax a bit. After lunch, we separated into the two groups, and departed. 

For the Briery Branch crew, the ride was a tad slippery but largely uneventful.  Once the group reached pavement, Ben, Kathy, and Steve headed up to take in the views from Reddish Knob.  The road up was mostly covered with snow and a little slick but the views from the top were spectacular!  It was a beautiful clear day and the surrounding landscape was dotted with snow.  After snapping a few pics the group headed down below the snow line to air up and head home.

The Union Springs crew headed down the more challenging route, which is a fun trek down the mountain through some more rutted out and rocky sections. Luckily, the descent is easier because gravity was on our side, especially in potentially slippery conditions. 

Fortunately, the Union Springs route is mostly inset from the ridgeline, so we are not driving along shelf roads, minimizing that risk. The group was experienced on this trail, so we made great time going down, with the occasional spot to clear a particularly steep rock ledge, but everyone made it down no problem at all. 

We did come across an unexpected challenge, which came in the form of the numerous large deep water/mud crossings. Most of them were about 2 or 3 vehicle lengths long. But the challenge was that they were all coated in about 1-2 inch ice sheets. At this point, temperatures were in the teens as we were making our way down. The jeep and it’s heavy duty steel bumper broke through the ice easily, but you could certainly hear the clanging of the large pieces of rock hard ice banging against the underside of the vehicle! The other fascinating result of going through those water crossings, was that because of the ambient air temperature, the water was freezing instantly to the vehicles as we made our way through. This caused quite a bit of icing on our vehicle brakes, dramatically reducing their effectiveness. So something we had to be very mindful of. 

We continued along, enjoying the trail, and eventually made it to the air up spot at the end of the trail near the reservoir. Here the ice left it’s last gift to us, with heavy ice coating our valve stems, making it difficult to air our tires back up to road pressure! After some careful chipping away and pouring water on them to melt it off, we finally were able to get the tires aired up. I also got to battle my JKS quick swaybar disconnects one last time as I had to take a knife and chip ice off of the pins to reinstall the links, and have a friend step on my rock slider to level the jeep, to get the pins to align. It’s a battle I frequently have to fight with the links, and right after this trip, I installed a set of Apex Autolynx to make life a little easier disconnecting and reconnecting my swaybars. Time will tell if they hold up to CORE style off-roading!

Those minor inconveniences aside, we had a great time as a big group getting up to Flagpole, and in our smaller subgroups taking the easy and hard mode off the mountain. We hope this effectively sets the tone for 2025, and look forward to a fun filled year for CORE!

Photo Album: 01/04/25 New Years Flagpole

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Briery Branch Exit 
 

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Union Springs Exit 
 

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Trail Report written by Jendra Rambharos & Ben Dunkerton. Pictures contributed by Jendra Rambharos, Ben Dunkerton, Chase G, Kathy King, KM, Jaymes, Bill, Brian Souhan, and Alex Hinson. GPS Tracks provided by Jendra Rambharos.

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