Ma Bell

 

 One of the optional rock walls on Ma Bell   This cruiser was sporting a 327 under the hood  Lower gears make the descents at Ma Bell less dramatic  Kevin heading down Zuki Hill  Heading back up Zuki Hill

August 2001

Kevin Speicher told me that a group from the New England Online Wheelers Forum was running Ma Bell, up in Massachusetts, and he was nice enough to give me a ride since he had an open seat. I needed to get my wheeling fix since my trip to Fordyce with my father fell through the previous week. I had to get up pretty early in order to make it to the meeting point at 9 AM, but it was worth it.

The day started off with introductions and airing down tires and I found everyone to be very friendly. This was primarily a Jeep thing, but I did an OK job of understanding. The action got started right off the bat too, as a CJ-5 broke a rear driveshaft on the first climb. After winching the injured vehicle off the trail we continued on.

Things went relatively easily until we got to the next obstacle. There was a group with three well setup flatfenders attempting a climb over a rock face. The climb is nearly impossible in a short wheelbase vehicle, and the first Jeep had to winch. The second flatfender tried to throttle his way up the face and ended up grenading a yoke on his rear pinion. The broken part went flying through the air, rocketed past Kevin's face, and hit the hand of a guy in our group. To make matters worse, it was Don's (the victim) first time out wheeling. He was a good sport about it all though and we got his hand patched up quickly before continuing on. The next obstacle is Two Face, and most of the group made it up without any problems. I was spotting for Dan and he got really tippy when his rear driver's side tire dropped into a hole. Unfortunately I was too busy trying to help to get any pictures.

The rest of the day went with relative ease and there was no more high drama. The Lockrite in the back of Dan's Cherokee was making a lot of noise, but it held together. The trail looked quite a bit different than when I had ran it back at the end of May. In addition to being much drier, it was obvious that the trail had seen a lot of use over the summer. I imagine that over the winter the area will renew itself, but it is a sad reminder that there are just not many legal places left to go four wheeling in New England. Overall I was impressed with the attitude of the group, as most of the Jeeps tried the hard obstacles. Many of them were successful too. Chris and his Grand Cherokee particularly earned my respect. Even on 31s he made it over most of the hard lines. Don't take my word for it though, check out the pictures…

 Not enough traction to make it up....  Dan climbing the right side of Two Faced  The whole gang parked just beyond Two Faced  The famous Kevin Speicher  Who says that spring under syspensions don't work?

 Zac heading down the trail  One of the flatfender guys we met on the trail  The flattys turned around at Zuki Hill  A TJ with the Skyjacker long arm kit and flex to spare  The Face at the beginning of Ma Bell

 

 What the Cruiser lacked in flex it made up for in power  Chu walking up Committed  Kevin giving Committed a try  Committed from the other side  Dan going over Committed  Zac taking his ZJ up Committed  Kevin was literally stand up here  Dan heading over a ledge



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