Day 8, Saturday: Mud Wheeling on a Private Farm, near Idaho Falls
Our final day of wheeling was deep in the woods where sloppy mud holes would clamp tight to frames and tires halting forward motion quickly. Not even local trail leader Scott Johnson of the Snake River Offroaders was immune to the grip of the goo.
One of the goals of Ultimate Adventure is to get as much diversity in trails as possible, so with a few days of rocks, a day of sand, and many miles of asphalt under our treads, it was time to find some mud. Every year we hunt for mud, but since the trip is held in high summer, many of the holes we cross are shallow or dry. Not this year. After we spent a night in boring old civilization at a hotel in Idaho Falls, we returned to the Cox Family Farm again under the direction of the Snake River Offroaders and proceeded to paint our rigs brown.
Now we're not sure what they mix in the mud, and there were quite a few cows in the general proximity, but it sure was stinky, sticky, and slick. In fact, we spent the entire day clawing through only two major holes with a mile or so of thick wooded trail in between and again we were giving our Warn winches a major workout. In the end our seventh annual Ultimate Adventure ended with a thick layer of crusty brown mud drying on almost every rig as we headed back to town. Another great trip for the record books.
The first mud hole we attempted was deep and smelly and followed by a steep uphill climb. Scott Frary of Eaton/Detroit Locker had the Hemi in his aluminum flatfender CJ-7 wound up to make it through. | 
The Fab Fours Bumpers' long wheelbase Suzuki Sumo runs a Dodge truck Hemi engine and transmission and made an abusive attack on the first hole. Unfortunately this type of approach can send water and slop up into sensitive computer parts and intakes. When the Hemi shut down everyone crossed their fingers that internal damage hadn't occurred. Before long Greg Higgs and RJ Lynn had this unique righthand driver back up and running. | 
Fred Perry is one of those southern gentlemen type of guys who you would never expect to have a bootlegger driving style. His yellow mellow-looking Jeep hides V-8 power under the hood, and he wasn't afraid to use it in the brown stuff. |
When all else fails, it's time for some winch cable, and offering advertising sales reps like Dan Finder (he's the clown in the pink hat) a ride in your Jeep is the perfect way to not have to get in the mud yourself. | 
As we left the mud hole, the trail was so overgrown that as each vehicle went through the brush, branches would bounce back into place, hiding the way from the next vehicle. You really needed to stay up with the next truck in line to not get lost. Even though it looks like Tim Hardy's Samurai is bushwacking, he was still on the thickly overgrown trail. | 
Folks started joking that the trail was created by following one of the resident bovine through the brush since it was hardly a clear track. Nonetheless it was fun to squeeze and creep in amongst the tight trees and undergrowth as if we were jungle explorers. Ultimate Adventure is not for the wheeler trying to protect a fancy paint job. |
And when the brush wasn't thick there were big logs to traverse, flexing suspension and sending rigs slipping sideways. | 
Amazingly some members of our group found a bypass at the mud holes, which earned them the show-and-shine award since they didn't have to go hose their rigs off once we got back to town. | 
After the bush-hogging session we found another hole full of slop, and Pw headed straight into it with the Ultimate FJ. Tech Editor Fred Williams earned his $2 a year raise by pulling cable for Rick when progress ended. |
The pink, soon to be brown, Poison Spyder Customs Jeep has a supercharger, but it also only has 35-inch tires, and it was trying to follow through holes made by a big Toyota on 39-inch tires. Again winch cable saved the day | 
We finally resolved to call it quits and head back to town for a celebratory steak and beer dinner, when Stephen Watson decided to give the second hole a shot in his buggy. With the most power of the group and the biggest tires, he was the only one who had a chance. In the end, the Idaho mud outdid Stephen's big-block, but that just gives us all a reason to return some day and try it again. | |